Employee Welfare = Employee Satisfaction

Before we learn about Employee Welfare is, let us understand who exactly is an employee:

Any individual working for an organization, either part time or full time under a contract which specifies his/her employment information is termed as an employee/worker. They are hired to do a particular job at an organization and are paid accordingly. He/she should be aware of their rights as an employee, so as to avoid being misused by their employers or co-workers.  There are different types of employees hired under different contracts. Such as:

• Permanent employee
• Fixed term employee
• Seasonal employee
• Casual employee
• Employee on probation
• Shift-workers

Employee Welfare: What is it and why is it required?

Providing employment and paying the salaries according to the work of the worker, is just not enough. If you are looking for business success, which is largely related to and dependent on the working quality of the employees, then it is your responsibility to give the employees, a satisfaction of working under them. Success of a company and job satisfaction of the employees is very closely related.    Therefore it is important for a company to understand what employee welfare is and must be provided to all of their workers

Employee welfare is a term which means providing benefits other than mandatory monetary payments. These non-cash benefits sets a sense of belongingness in the hearts of employees, they get emotionally inclined towards their organization, thus enhancing the spirits of job satisfaction.  It is an idea which the organization uses to motivate the workers to work hard to achieve the work goals. Anything that the company provides, apart from mandatory wages, ranging from recreational activities to emotional support comes under the measures of welfare.

Objectives of employee welfare:

• Better working conditions: Providing a secure and healthy working environment is the foremost duty of an HR manager. Especially in factories, where labours are working under lots of difficult conditions, like heat, chemicals and other toxins, which are hazardous for human health. Thus, measures like presence of first-aid kit, facilities of drinking and sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene surroundings must be taken care of.
• To retain employees: One of the biggest obstructions in the way of organization success is that the workers keep on changing with time. They are not able to withhold most employees for longer period of time due to lack of welfare facilities. Regular changing of employees means irregular business growth. That’s why it is so important to keep the employees happy and satisfied.
• Ease problems faced by workers: Apart from technical problems faced at work, workers also face the issues of not getting along with each other, or face harassment at work. Providing a good HR manager, gives a platform to the workers to share their difficulties without any fear of refusal or ignorance.
• Personal growth: A good leader is the one who recognizes the talent, strength and weaknesses of the people working under him/her. Identifying these points helps in selecting the area in which that particular employee will excel. Grooming their strengths and working on improving their weaknesses helps in their personal growth as well as the company’s
• Inducing a sense of responsibility: By providing benefits to workers like good infrastructure, full medical attention, bonuses, paid holidays and sick leaves, wins them over. This spurs an emotion of loyalty among the workers, further increasing the level of responsibility they take for the company. They feel accountable for the success as well as the failures.

Benefits provided to the workers:

• Health benefits: These are the most common and essential benefits that the companies can offer to their employees. These include: a) Medical insurance which cover their hospital visits, general check-up. b) Dental insurance covering annual check-ups, cleaning treatments for their employees.

For the labour working in factory and construction sites, many crucial measures should be taken to prevent possible fatal diseases. Instruments like helmets and face masks are must for their healthy future. Diseases like lung cancer and mesothelioma are very common in the workers who are working at construction sites or with chemicals. Companies can be legally proven guilty if they do not take preventive measures. To know about these fatal diseases and the legal action to be taken if measures not taken, please visit https://www.napolilaw.com/.

• Flexibility: Flexibility in terms of time and days are required in today’s working conditions. Bigger companies usually have an option of the time slot from which their employees can choose with their convenience. Flexibility can be on bases of the following:

1. Time. For instance- In a BPO, the worker can choose to work either in the morning shift 7am-3pm, or the afternoon shift 9am-5pm, or during night shifts starting from 5pm.
2. Compressed work week: This means working extra hours and finishing the task early and taking the rest of the week/month off.

• Telecommuting: This is the most advance benefit that companies offer. Basically telecommuting offers the employees to work from their home, rather than the office premises. The choice to work from home delivers the option of working to many men and women, who find it very convenient and profitable at the same time.
• Stress-Management: It is the responsibility of the HR manager to keep regular communication with his/her employee. Communication on a professional or personal level is rather important in today’s complicated world. It keeps you informed about the working environment, whether it is healthy or not. If the worker is suffering from some personal issue, the HR should talk to him/her and give regular counselling sessions and help the worker to solve out their issues. Because, as we all know, no matter how much we try and keep personal and professional lives separate; they do get interlinked somehow and starts affecting the output.
• Paid leaves: Assigning paid leaves indicates that you care enough for your employees to grant these leaves. This little step ensures that the employee trusts you in return, and can rely on you at the time of need, hoping that his/her boss will surely understand. These paid leaves include:
• Paid public holidays
• Sick leaves and Casual leaves

[These leaves are assigned to you for a particular number of days, for instance 14 sick leaves and 7 casual leaves per year]

• Privilege leave: These are the ones which are carried forward from previous year
• Maternity leave (for 3 months)
• Miscellaneous: These are the benefits which include provision for loan, housing benefits, daycare and tuition for kids, transportation facilities, disability income protection and retirement benefits.

Absence of Employee welfare:

Employee welfare is such thing which, in its presence boosts the confidence of the employee as well as of employer. They rely on each other, face the challenges together and most of all, feel immense job satisfaction.

BUT

In the absence of these welfare benefits, there come tremendous challenges that the organization has to face. Starting with the lack of job satisfaction, the employee tends to be very restless, and questions every decision and every task that is being assigned to him/her.

Employees never give their 100% into their work which, thus lower the quality of work that the organization aims to do. This fickle-mindedness and confused scenario also leads to increase in absenteeism, which is actually every manager’s nightmare. Absenteeism is the start of downfall of any business. Whole management system gets upside down.

Lack of welfare benefits also leads to the start of gossip sessions among the employees, which creates a very negative aura in the workplace, which is supposed to be equivalent to the place of worship.

Guide created by Mowery & Schoenfeld