Pluxee blogs

Quality of Life at work: measuring the ROI for SMEs

For employees and Chief Financial Officers alike, technology is changing the face of how we work. And it’s not just a case of replacing paper with a digital equivalent. Technology is opening up new opportunities to improve efficiency and productivity at a time when travel and expenses are becoming harder to manage for many companies. The mix of different procedures, regulations and partners is adding more complexity than simplicity to the task of business mobility.
Thanks to high tech, expense management processes are increasingly being rolled out to employees in the form of mobile and web apps. Not long ago, a mobile device would have been a gateway to a standard website. Today, those websites are designed for mobile access right from the start, making them far easier to navigate. Better still, the leading platforms now offer seamless access to their different benefits and rewards partners. For employees, it means the hassle of creating passwords for a host of microsites is a thing of the past.

As experiential rewards become more popular, how has this benefit changed? Traditionally, they have been a luxurious, long-haul, five-day trip for top performers. Today, they have become more tactical – as a way of rewarding individual or groups of employees for demonstrating certain behaviors or achieving certain targets.

In the modern competitive environment, employees are constantly being evaluated on their knowledge and skills. And, unlike studying for a degree, the goals at the workplace keep moving. Therefore, employees need to regularly replenish their knowledge and acquire new skills related to their field. They can leverage professional journals, books, research papers, articles, etc. in order to make sure that they are flexible, agile and ready to bring continuous improvement ethos to their workplace.

The shift to work-from-home has brought a lot of challenges for employees – be it tighter finance management, lack of socialization with colleagues, less travel due to restrictions, and much more. As a result, organizations must focus more on the holistic wellness of employees and to help maintain the balance between professional and personal lives. Furthermore, as offices are steadily opening and employees are getting back, they expect their employers to be more focused on their health to get access to the best care. They also want access to information and resources that help them manage and improve their health and well-being on a regular basis.
Taking note of that, various organizations are charting out key strategies for the year ahead. In the wake of the current needs and demands, Sodexo BRS India, hosted a webinar on “How to Improve Employees’ Quality of Life through Smart Wellness Programs'' with Ms. Simran Oberoi, HR Advisor on Diversity & Inclusion and TEDx speaker on holistic wellness. Let us decode some important insights from the webinar on How Agile, Tech-First and Inclusive Wellness Programs can help improve the Quality of Life of Employees.

Many businesses in the service industry thrive to improve the quality of customer service by facilitating multi-channel communication and proactive interaction with the customers, and in an organization this is mainly done by frontline employees. However, if these frontline employees are not provided with sufficient incentives to improve their morale, they will not be able to satisfy employees to the best of their ability. In order to ensure satisfaction for the frontline employees, it is essential for corporations to provide them with various incentives that will ideally improve their satisfaction levels.

Regardless of whether you’re just at the beginning your career, considering your options mid-career, or starting to plan for retirement, you should nevertheless have a good career management plan set in place. By this, we mean that you should form a plan that lets others know about your persona. A good career plan does not need to be complicated; it can be short, yet effective. Generally, there are 4 ways that you can go around in your career – up, down, laterally and circuitously.

It may seem counterintuitive for today’s pressurized employees, but one of the best ways to be happier and more productive in the office is to escape from it. Vacation, with all the benefits it brings staff and employers alike, is finally being recognized as a valuable asset for any company. Whether it’s a week on the beach in Mexico, hiking in the Alps or a trip to Las Vegas, research shows that getting away from it all is good for business.

Big companies and government departments may provide the lion's share of national economies, but there is no denying the importance of an estimated 10 million non- governmental organizations (NGOs) around the world. In the U.S., 11.4 million people were working for more than 1.4 million NGOs in 201 21, while Europe has 148,000 public benefit foundations, spending some €60 billion a year2. The UK is home to some 168,000 charities, employing 1.1 million people3. NGO classifications certainly differ from one area to another, but the overall picture is clear - the sector is now a major player in the job market.

Competing against products and services from much larger companies comes with the territory for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. But should they also try to match big firms when it comes to parental policies? All the evidence suggests that SMEs can gain tangible benefits from supporting employees who have to juggle a career with raising a family.

Click here to download this article. It may be a century or more since women won the right to vote, but there is still no victory in sight when it comes to equal pay in the workplace. While few doubt the fairness of equal pay, the figures point to a salary gap between men and women doing the same job. In Europe, the pay difference is 16.40/01, rising to 18.20/02 in the United States and a remarkable 27% in Japan3. What's more, that gap acts as a brake on business growth. A study by the McKinsey Global Institute4 predicted that bridging the gender gap in the UK, for example, could potentially create an extra El 50 billion of GDP in 2025. Today, the nudge theory takes center stage. While motherhood is seen as the root cause of this inequality, companies can take action to improve matters in the workplace - with benefits and rewards policies able to play an important role. Here are three ways that firms can redress the balance:

In an increasingly knowledge-based world, improving people's skills is becoming a major issue.

To reflect the needs of a diverse global market, companies need to encourage diversity and inclusion within their own organizations. Along with creating a more representative workforce, diversity also helps to build a more successful company. A two-year research study by Deloitte shows that companies who embrace diversity and inclusion in all aspects of their business statistically outperform their peers. Deloitte’s findings are in line with research carried out by Sodexo that highlighted the business benefits of gender equality. Workplaces that are gender-balanced show a higher employee engagement (+4 points), a stronger brand image (+5 points), increased gross profit (23%) and consistently higher organic growth (13%).

In our increasingly globalized job market, companies from around the world compete to attract and retain top talent, but like the international population, they are a part of, these employees don’t fit one single description. The best candidate for your company could be male or female, single or a parent, heterosexual or part of the LGBT community…
So how can companies create Benefits and Rewards Services that effectively attract this talent pool and reward, recognize and inspire diversity among all employees? We scoured the marketplace and found trailblazing companies that are leading the way.

This year, it will most probably be impossible to have a Christmas party or celebration event to thank employees for their hard work and dedication throughout 2020. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing you can do to reward your teams! Here are three celebration ideas to close the year with a bang, recognize the efforts of your staff and keep spirits up in these difficult times.