New employee benefits in Egypt: Non-cash benefits for employees.
The escalating inflation worldwide has resulted in a decrease in the purchasing power of employees’ salaries. This alarming trend has become a leading cause of competent employees leaving their companies, particularly as net profits dwindle due to declining demand for goods and services.
Governments and central banks have been striving to curb this decline in demand as part of their broader strategy to lower price levels. Consequently, many companies operating in Egypt have taken a proactive approach by implementing employee benefits to address the pressing need for salary increments. These benefits are designed to offer straightforward financial assistance while also alleviating the burdens faced by employees.
According to Hadeer Mohamed, the Benefits & Compensation Manager at Target HR Services, these initiatives aim to provide employees in Egypt with much-needed support and relief in their financial matters.
Some of the employee benefits are medical and even lunches
Medical Insurance Coverage:
Companies adopt insurance coverage, which is regular in normal times, but with the rise in the prices of medical services, employees incur heavy costs. Therefore, the largest companies operating in Egypt added medical insurance benefits that include family coverage.
Employees’ Mental health:
With the increase in the number of working hours and the huge stresses of living in the current time, employees suffer from distress on a daily basis, which impacts their performance in their companies. A number of companies in Egypt have become aware of this and started to provide psychological counseling services through psychiatrists and sometimes on mobile applications.
Ongoing Training:
Hadeer says that training sessions for employees are a time to break the daily routine and interact in an effective manner. Hence, training means a lot to employees, and companies have recently started to use it in different aspects because it shapes the overall performance of their employees and accordingly the companies.
Weekend Lunch and Team Trips:
Hadeer believes that improving employee relations would greatly enhance the productivity of companies. Therefore, large companies are organizing frequent gatherings of employees outside working hours, in order to strengthen ties among them and with different departments.
Gym Subscription:
Employees can’t work all the time and on a daily basis without physical activity that provides them with more motivation at their work, and several studies confirm this fact. Therefore, few companies in Egypt provide gyms in their headquarters, while some of them tend to cover gym subscriptions.
Contribution to school fees of employees’ children:
Many companies in Egypt see children’s school fees as a heavy annual burden on employees, thus, they contribute to the payment of these fees, which ultimately leads to more employee engagement with the company and building their loyalty towards it.
Discount Cards:
One of the ways companies started to relieve employees is by providing discount cards at major stores to buy their needs. Annual inflation in Egypt rose in December only by 21.5%.
Shares in the company:
It is a common method that companies in Egypt often adopt to increase the loyalty of employees and make them feel that they work on their own property.
