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Title image credit: The Blue Diamond Gallery
In the UK, there isn’t really the expectation that your employer will offer you essential benefits, such as medical insurance.
However, there are still several types of employee benefit that make excellent extras. They can attract you to a job or be a good reason to stay with your current employer.
Sometimes they might be practical things, like life insurance, or they might be something a bit more fun like gym memberships.
If your employer offers any benefits, taking advantage of them can help you to save money in several areas of your life. Here’s how you can make the most of them.
Check What’s On Offer
Firstly, if you’re considering accepting a job offer or you’ve just never looked at your available benefits before, you should take a look at what’s available. What do they have to offer you that makes the job not just tolerable, but something that you’re happy to do?
Insurance policies like those from MyKeyManInsurance.com can be great benefits. Life insurance or disability insurance can protect you and your family if anything happens to you. Of course, you might want something a little less serious, like free meals or a company car.
Take Up What’s Available
If you’re not taking advantage of the useful benefits that your employer has on offer, you’re missing out. You might decide that some of them aren’t really of any use to you, but there’s sure to be one or two that take your fancy.
Maybe your employer has lunchtime yoga classes, which means you don’t have to go to the gym after work. Perhaps the cafeteria is subsidised or you get free meals, so you can save on bringing in your own lunch. Private dental insurance could help you avoid paying NHS fees and waiting for appointments too.
Get Advice
If you’re not sure how to make the most of your employee benefits, asking for advice can help you guide you. You might ask someone at work, such as someone in HR. However, you could also seek outside advice about some issues.
For example, you might be wondering about flexible working. Some employers openly encourage flexible working, while others could be open to it but might rely on their employees asking. You can get advice from organisations like Citizens Advice Bureau about your rights when it comes to flexible working. You could also get independent advice about financial products that your employer offers you.
Suggest Benefits to Your Employer
Not everyone has an employer who is open to suggestions from their employees, but some welcome any feedback. If you can think of an employee benefit that would help you and your colleagues, you might want to put it forward as something your employer could start offering.
They could welcome your suggestion and ask other employees what they think about it. If you feel like current benefits aren’t much use to you, maybe there could be some in the future.
Don’t let your employee benefits go to waste. Make the most of them so you can get more from your job.