Greener engagement strategies that boost wellbeing & your social value credentials

Why is green so engaging?

In the current climate, there’s a strong focus on helping employees to stretch their wages further. It’s not just an engagement booster. Some households rely on the employee discounts and savings they can make from the financial benefits offered by their employer.

With rising bills, financial wellbeing benefits make a substantial difference.

However, financial measures shouldn’t be the only focus of your employee engagement and wellbeing benefits. The strength of your future talent acquisition strategy also depends on being green. 

By 2025, Millennials will make up 75% of the global workforce, and they’re looking for socially responsible employers.

They're sending a clear message.

Climate anxiety is real, especially among the younger generations, and these are the people who will make up the future workforce. Research from 2003 suggested that graduates would be willing to forgo up to 20% of their salary if it meant working for a socially responsible organisation. 

Furthermore, 93% of employees believe companies must lead with purpose, and 90% of employees who work at companies with a strong sense of purpose say they’re more inspired, motivated, and loyal. 

64% of young people don’t think the government is doing enough to avoid a climate crisis, and they will expect their employers to act responsibly. 

Boosting engagement through paid volunteering

Last year, we shared a round-up and guide on the benefits of offering paid volunteering days to your employees, incorporating research from PilotLight. 

Our guide highlights that 77% of employees think their employers should incorporate paid volunteering days as an employee benefit. 

Those who participate in paid volunteering believe that the business and employees benefit from the experiences they take from volunteering activities. This includes the opportunity to learn new skills and the morale boost that follows when you’ve given your time to helping others. Organised volunteering is also a great team-building activity, enhancing relationships and camaraderie within your workforce.

Better still, paid volunteering counts towards your social value credentials. 

Flexibility & hybrid working

Flexible contracts are becoming the norm, which is excellent because they’re in demand. There are also measurable business benefits, such as an 83% increase in productivity. Offering flexible, hybrid, and remote contracts also support talent acquisition and retention, with 65% of job seekers claiming that they’d reject a role that didn’t offer flexibility. 

The more flexible you are as an employer, the more you’re supporting your employees to find a healthy work-life balance, and that will always increase employee engagement levels.

From a green perspective, there are additional benefits to having a hybrid workforce. 

These include:

• Lower fuel and energy usage within the office

• Moving to smaller premises to accommodate hot-desking

• Fewer employees driving to the office means lower emissions that you can chart against your climate or social value pledge

• These are all cost-saving activities, which is another way your business will benefit from focusing on green strategies.

Salary sacrifice schemes... the all-round booster

Paid volunteering is a morale, social value, and engagement booster, and whilst there are clear benefits to the business, such as being more attractive to potential partners and customers – it isn’t without cost.

Whenever you pay for a person to be out of the business, you’re paying for time that’s essentially non-productive. Salary sacrifice schemes, however, are an all-round booster and one of the best ways to incorporate green engagement strategies into your business. 

Cycle-to-Work is probably the most well-known salary sacrifice scheme. It makes purchasing a new bike affordable, but there is an environmental drive behind it: to get commuters out of their cars and on their bikes.

The more employees that take up a salary sacrifice scheme within your business, the more you’ll save on National Insurance Contributions. Cycling promotes physical wellbeing, and healthy people have less sickness absence: that’s another saving to your outgoings. Your employees’ finances also benefit from a reduction in the taxable element of their payslips.

Cycling may not be feasible for those travelling long distances, but with your support, they can still make their commute greener. Offer a salary sacrifice car scheme to your employees, and you’re set to create tax savings and make low-emission travel more affordable.

Environmentally-friendly employee rewards

HR professionals know that a robust reward and recognition strategy is one of the best ways to boost employee wellbeing, engagement, and productivity.

Offer rewards that your people will love and enhance your green credentials.

As part of Pluxee UK's carbon-neutral ambitions, our prepaid recognition and cashback card is made from recycled PVC (R-PVC) - manufactured from 75-80% recycled plastic. When you implement our prepaid Spree card into your recognition strategy, you can continue to digitally upload a cash reward to the same card throughout an employee’s time with you.

If you want to ditch plastic and paper altogether, then digital eVouchers are a popular choice. Delivered directly to your employees’ inboxes, they can redeem them online or in-store with over 100 retailers.

Greener financial wellbeing benefits

Financial rewards are always well received, but when you incorporate an employee discount platform into your employee benefits offering, it gives your people the opportunity to save on everyday essentials and treats continuously.

With discount vouchers purchased digitally, there’s no need to send anything to print. They're environmentally friendly and help spread your employees’ wages further, making a meaningful difference to their lives.

Boost employee engagement with Pluxee UK

Having been in the employee experience industry for over 60 years, we know two things will always be true:

Creating highly engaged employees boosts performance

Take care of your employees’ wellbeing, and you’ll reap the business benefits.

We’ve given many examples of why green strategies and a robust social value pledge are becoming more integral to employee engagement and wellbeing. Not to mention talent retention and acquisition and new business opportunities.

Our friendly team of experts are ready to help you embed green credentials into your business and build an employee wellbeing strategy that’s sustainable in the long term. Request a call today, and boost your employee value proposition in 2023 and beyond.