There's a reason business owners opt to hire hourly workers -- that way, they get the help they need without having to foot the bill for as many full-time salaries. But losing hourly employees can, in many cases, be just as challenging as losing those who are salaried, and in today's competitive job market, that's a possibility business owners can't rule out.
If you're keen on retaining your hourly staff, you should figure out what it might take to keep them on board. And to this end, hourly work platform Snagajob has some insight. According to a new survey, here are the top five benefits that would convince hourly workers to stay where they are.
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1. Paid vacation and sick time
The challenge of being hourly is not getting paid to take time away from the office. But just as salaried employees need time off to recharge or recover from illnesses, so too do hourly workers, so if you want to retain yours, consider offering some type of paid time off benefit. This is especially important going into flu season, because the last thing you want is for your employees to come to work ill and infect others to avoid losing out on pay.
2. Career growth
It's natural for full-time employees to be invested in their career growth. But the same holds true for hourly workers. If you want to keep yours, help them develop skills that will allow them to grow professionally and improve their earnings. At the same time, attempt to carve out opportunities for advancement within your company -- don't just reserve those for your full-timers.
3. Flexible hours and scheduling
A more flexible schedule could be just the thing that motivates hourly workers to stay where they are. That could mean letting employees with school-aged children leave at an hour that helps them save money on child care, or granting similar leeway to hourly employees who care for elderly family members, are in school part-time, or have other commitments in their personal lives.
4. Health insurance
Healthcare is expensive for salaried and hourly workers alike, but whereas you probably offer health insurance for the former group, it may not be your policy to grant that benefit to the latter group. If that's the case, consider offering hourly workers a health plan, as well as any peripheral wellness perks that are made available to salaried folks, like subsidized gym memberships or exercise equipment allowances.
5. Transportation reimbursement
Many hourly workers spend a large chunk of their income commuting. If that's the case at your company, consider offering some type of transit reimbursement to ease that burden. It'll no doubt give your hourly employees one less financial matter to worry about.
Chances are, your hourly workers are vital to your business's success, and losing them would mean having to sink time and money into recruiting new hires. If you'd rather avoid that scenario, make an effort to keep your hourly employees happy, whether by incorporating the aforementioned benefits or coming up with your own creative ways to achieve that goal.
