Some employers make new hire gifts of SWAG like corporate apparel or a coffee mug. Employees appreciate this gesture, but there are other benefits they’re more interested in. Recently, hiring managers have been promoting benefits like unlimited vacation time and work-​life balance.

Are Some Benefits Too Good to be True?

As Mandy Gilbert points out, these benefits sound great. But employees are realizing that benefits which sound too good usually come with strings attached.

PTO Policy

Yes, unlimited vacation time sounds great, but is the business culture set up to support the concept? Too often, employees feel the pressure to keep working if the boss, or nobody else on the team, takes days off.

An employee-​friendly PTO system must be actively supported by management. The real incentive to use the PTO benefit is to see the boss taking time off.  To ease stress, team leaders should work with employees to plan for covering urgent tasks in their absence.

Is There Really a Work-​Life Balance?

Gallup and AudienceSCAN data show the same thing. Employees will take a new job if there is a significant improvement in their work-​life balance. As a new hire gift, the promise of less stress makes a huge difference.

 It’s challenging enough to start a new position. Your new hire must learn the details of their job. They must also connect with their co-​workers. If they have a family, they may have had to adjust their commuting routes and child care arrangement.

Additional stress around the need to put in face time to please their manager shouldn’t be on their to-​do list.

Commitment to Mental Health

Your new hire gifts might include mention of mental health benefits. Younger employees, especially, are open about their mental health needs. They may have chosen to work for your company because they want access to this type of benefit.

Last year, a study found that only 29% of executives are fully supporting “messaging to promote the use of mental health resources.” And the number of leaders who say these benefits are “very important” in terms of recruiting has been falling. If your organization has been touting these benefits as a way to attract younger employees, they must stand behind them.

Leaders and managers must encourage employees to access mental health benefits. Employees don’t want to feel stigmatized if they need to talk with a mental health professional. Mentioning these benefits on group chat channels and in company meetings, can be a great reminder about their availability.

The Top New Hire Gift – Manager Support

After you have spent significant amounts of time and money helping your new hire settle it, you don’t want to see them leave. But Gallup research shows that up to 51% of employees are open to the idea of changing jobs this year. A good percentage of those people are already looking. That figure hasn’t been this high since 2014. Chances are some of these job seekers are new hires.

The Gallup research also indicates that managers can prevent some of this turnover. But they can’t wait for an employee to come to them. They must be far more proactive.

Effective Communication

Regular meetings are important. But it’s what happens in these meetings that really matters. Managers should regularly review the results of the psychometric assessments taken by new hires before they started work. The results reveal the most effective way to communicate with each employee.

Match Job Duties with Employee Interest

More importantly, psychometric assessments reveal how well the employee is suited to the position they are in. If they have a high need to be creative, give them more opportunity in that area. Assigning them to a special project is a good start.

Paying attention to their top motivational traits and giving them opportunities in areas that matter to them will allow you to retain your employees. Not only that, they are likely to be highly engaged in projects and tasks that appeal to their motivational drivers.

Many new hire gifts like company SWAG make employees feel welcome. But to retain these team members and encourage them to be highly engaged, managers must customize their work experience.

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