Non-traditional perks entrepreneurs should offer workers

Grabbing great remote workers for your startup will take more than competitive pay. You will need to offer tempting perks and bonuses to get them to take a look at your business. Unfortunately your resources are limited as an entrepreneur. The good news is there are plenty of non-traditional offerings you can use in place of standard perks. Here are 7 of them:

Flexible Hours

One of the simplest yet still non-traditional perks you can offer as an entrepreneur is flexible hours whenever available. Giving your team the power to control their time gives them incredible freedom, allowing them to more easily achieve an acceptable work-life balance. Having flexible hours also allows you to hire from a deeper pool of candidates, which increases the odds of finding the right people for your small business.

Mental Health Breaks

Standard vacation days are one thing, but if you want to go the extra mile, consider offering extra days off in the form of mental health breaks. Since the pandemic of 2020, more and more people have suffered from depression and a sense of general unease. That kind of stress can grind down even the strongest wills. Giving them mental health breaks is not only humane, but can keep burnout at bay, allowing your employees to stay productive for longer.

In-Person Team Vacations

Team outings are a great way to create lasting bonds within your startup, bonds that will help them withstand the inevitable problems that come with trying to make a small business work. Whenever possible, invite remote workers to company outings. That will not only give them what is likely a well-deserved break, it will give remote workers a chance to meet and bond with the other members of your company.

Provide Equipment

For the most part, you will hire remote workers who already have the equipment needed to complete their responsibilities. Doing that alleviates much of the pressure off your budget and ensures that whoever you hire is likely experienced with what you need them to do with the equipment they have. However, if you have room in the budget, consider providing the necessary equipment to skilled workers, or give them a budget to use as they see fit to improve their remote work setup. The more efficient your remote workers are, the better off your startup will be.

Family Assistance

One of the biggest concerns employees have involves how to manage their family while working. Even with flexible hours, they may find it difficult to watch over children or their loved ones. Providing them with assistance their can tempt many talents into working for your startup. There is much you can offer, even from afar, such as online tutoring programs, linking them with parent support groups, or even creating deals with other companies so your employees have discounts. Every little bit helps.

Skill Improvement Opportunities

One of the best things you can offer potential employees is the ability to advance their skills. Training someone for a specific task or output is only the beginning. You can help them become certified in their fields by hooking them up with the right courses, which provides them with benefits that will last them long into the future.

Food Gift Cards

If there is any singular, off-beat benefit that could tempt talent into working for you, it is food. Offering gift cards remote workers can use to treat themselves is more compelling than you think. You can also take it to another level. For example, you can give your remote workers a gift card to the same place so if they have an online meeting, they can all eat food from the same place during that meeting. While they may not all enjoy the food, eating from the same restaurant allows for a sense of togetherness that would otherwise not be there.

While those are far from the only non-traditional perks you can offer, they should get you and your startup off to a good start. It may seem like a pain to set-up, but that's what you need to do as an entrepreneur to get talent to not just join your startup, but to stay for the long haul.