These companies are renowned for taking care of their employees by prioritizing their development. Let’s take a look at what sets them apart.
The last year may not have been the time to fulfill world travel dreams or launch a wedding-planning business, but it has definitely brought health and well-being into focus — and this is especially true in a business context. With countries across Europe going in and out of lockdown, employers have been forced to approach well-being and development from a different perspective. Team leads and management have been driven to learn how to supervise their employees remotely, making sure they’re managing their workload, staying motivated, and perhaps most importantly, taking good care of themselves.
Especially in time of crisis, employers should continue to encourage and implement career development and learning opportunities. Not only will this make employees feel valued, it will signal there is light at the end of the tunnel and a bright future awaits. Without access to personal and career development, employees may feel unable to cope with the present day stress which might lead to physical illness. Needless to say, this is detrimental both for the employer and the employee.
So how can you make sure your employees feel valued, empowered, and motivated during the most challenging winter of our lifetime? Take a look at these company case studies for inspiration.
Google champions wellness
The wellness program at Google is designed to help employees perform at their best while simultaneously promoting a healthy work-life balance. In the DACH region, Google has offices or campuses in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, and Zurich. Every Google employee is entitled to free food, cooking classes, on-site gym access, massage, and extensive parental leave.
According to a study by Investopedia, Google hopes employees will spend 20% of their work time pursuing innovative ideas or projects they are passionate about. Google also offers a Global Education Leave program which enables employees to take a leave of absence in order to pursue further education. Google covers all costs, of course. According to Payscale, 86% of Google employees say they are either extremely satisfied or fairly satisfied with their job.
Google treats their employees like human beings, and understands the wants, needs, and desires of the individual. They give them room to grow, to learn, to change roles, to feel challenged, which leaves employees feeling empowered and fulfilled. Have a look at this article for inspiration on implementing corporate benefits when working remotely.
Intuit promote fitness forever
At Intuit, employee well-being comes in the form of further development and physical wellness. Often, one follows the other, as a healthy body equals a healthy mindset. Intuit is an American financial company that provides accounting software for small businesses and individuals, and their well-being and development program is second to none. Each year, for every employee, they cover $1000 of physiotherapy and emotional and financial well-being costs. They have onsite fitness centers, a life-skill training program, and discounts on wellness activities. At the forefront of Intuit’s corporate benefit offering is progress, learning, and health. Especially in times of COVID-19, a company that promotes these values will ensure and maintain the physical and mental well-being of its workforce.
Did you know that offering language learning as a corporate benefit is hugely advantageous to your company? Click here to find out why.
Healthy company culture with Evermood
Evermood is a Berlin-based mental well-being platform that provides companies with the tools to integrate happy and healthy habits into their work culture, such as meditation and breathing exercises to reduce stress. Companies can also integrate their own development and learning services, linking the app to their own digital offerings such as language learning or productivity platforms. It creates one single centralized space for employees to learn, develop, and grow, with the goal to minimize stress and empower employees to live up to their potential. The company lives by the values of their product, with each employee encouraged to take control of their own projects, learning development, and collaborate and grow as a team. Evermood understands that a happy and healthy workforce starts with empowerment and space for professional growth.
Read all about how you can promote employee motivation through incentives.
Germany loves SAP
Glassdoor voted SAP the best company to work for in Germany in 2019. The reason for its success is its diverse workforce, with around 100k employees, and their extensive corporate benefits. SAP stands for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing (“Anwendungen und Produkte in der Datenverarbeitung” in German) and has offices all around the world. Their aim is to keep their employees as relevant and agile as their service, and develop their team so they can speed ahead in their career. This ethos keeps employees loyal and at the top of their game. SAP says learning is part of their culture, and they financially cover all career development opportunities for every employee. In 2019, 96% of their employees took them up on this offer, and collectively attended nearly 2 million courses. The result? A happy, motivated, loyal, and fulfilled team.
If you’d like to see the cost of notinvesting in the future of your employees, then read The Top Reasons Employees Leave a Company.
Babbel takes learning seriously, too. We don’t just offer our employees free Babbel classes across all languages — we invest (insert statistic) into career development and make it accessible to everyone. If you’d like to find out how learning new skills empowers and motivates your team, click here. (Insert our “Employee Empowerment” article when published).
If you’re interested in introducing language learning to your team, request a Babbel for Business demo.
