Employee Wellness Tip: You can help employees survive inflation. Here’s how.

Economic inflation is a difficult market situation that affects almost everyone. It has an extensive impact on businesses, especially the workforce. Are your employees among those struggling to accommodate rising prices of daily necessities like food, housing, and gasoline?

In what way are your employees being affected by this global phenomenon?

Inflation:

• Dries up the purchasing power of the employees’ salaries, making workers feel unhappy with their pay as it seems they aren’t earning enough.
• Weakens the capacity of employees to save for long-term goals like investing and retirement.
• Motivates employees to have side hustles to boost their income and household budget.
• Increases stress and anxiety in employees, which can lead to distraction, poor job performance, fatigue, burnout, and low productivity.

Companies are not obligated to discuss and address such topics. However, employees appreciate employers who acknowledge both personal and professional issues that affect their lives. Maintain strong employee relationships by caring for and supporting them.

Wondering how to help employees with inflation? Here are some tips:

1. Give salary increases and other merit-based rewards. Providing a pay raise may be the best, immediate solution to alleviate the impact of inflation on employees. But experts say that it can cause inflationary wage/price spiral pushing businesses to charge more for their products and services. Offering special bonuses or stipends appear to be a better solution because it can be suspended when inflation slacks off.
2. Strengthen employee assistance programs. Employee benefit programs are relationship builders. Expand and make it diverse by including access to financial services and professionals that can help improve your employees’ financial security. Always remind them to take advantage of these programs.
3. Implement wellness and mental health initiatives. Compensation is important. But on top of the standard benefits package, a healthy employee experience is also driven by comprehensive wellness programs and mental health resources. Ensure that every team member works in a psychologically safe environment.
4. Explore other financial incentives. Attract and retain talents by exploring alternatives that boost the potential of employees to earn more money and lighten the weight of their financial stress. Let your employees gain new learnings through employee training and recognition programs as well as career development opportunities.

Inflation is a global issue that can’t be fixed overnight. Employees can feel a significant amount of stress and anxiety affecting their behavior at work. May the strategies we lined up help you care, support, and re-engage your employees because they deserve the best. SAVii is always right behind you! If you want to learn about how our products and services can help your employees, email us at [email protected] to schedule a meeting.