28 Dec The New Attractive Incentives for Assignees Today Are All About Values, Lifestyle

Lifestyle: that’s the main buzzword that can draw in your younger assignees today, especially millennials and GenZers.

While the security of a competitive paycheck will always be looked on with favor, they would opt more for workplace benefits that can allow them more work-life integration. The assignees of today (and their homegrown counterparts) live and breathe their professional identities, merging them seamlessly with their personal ones.

Thanks to smart devices, the boundaries that used to make distinctions between their office and home lives are disappearing. They can attend to a client call while talking to Siri in their living room at night.

The next day, while meeting another client, they can show them videos of stunning landscapes where they spent their last vacation. That’s why to draw them into signing the dotted line, the incentives you offer must allow them to bridge those two worlds, relaxing while performing optimally at all times.

This approach is possible especially if the assignee maintains a practical and enjoyable health and wellness program. As advised by The American Psychological Association, stress management should be on the top of the list of any organization.

Assignees in particular are subject to stress that comes from adjustment to a new environment, homesickness, loneliness due to the inability to connect with new friends, and pressure to perform in a foreign location.

Granted that most companies offer foreign nationals a health insurance policy, what is needed is something more immediate, easily accessible — and fun. Benjamin Snyder recommends the following out-of-the-box examples: in-premise classes In yoga, aerobics, and fitness training; an in-house mini-massage center open during office hours, and a health and wellness counsellor easily reached 24/7.

This kind of health and wellness program will also provide a balance to the next preferred lifestyle incentive: free food and drinks in the office. Anyone who is yearning for a coffee with their favorite doughnut can just walk to the cafeteria around the corner and get a snack courtesy of the office.

But a better way would be to improve the menu and include a lot of fruits, veggies, salads, and lean meat during lunch.

That strategy will not only align with the objectives of all your yoga classes, but it will also stop your assignees from indulging in emotional food-binging during moments of great stress.

There are advantages to offering free food, which pioneers of the movement in Silicon Valley have long realized: the assignees definitely feel happy about it as a perk; they stay in the office for more hours instead of going out to grab a sandwich; and those hours in the office cafeteria are spent collaborating and socializing with each other. Done correctly, nutritious free food can be a morale builder as well.

Finally, volunteering can be incentivized. Assignees can be paid for the hours they devote to the company’s corporate social responsibility programs.

According to one study, millennials in particular will work in a firm with values that are aligned to theirs. Fighting for the rights of minorities, programs that reduce social inequality, “green” programs that take care of the environment, education for marginalized youth — these are some examples of causes that younger assignees will want to make a difference in.

The more they immerse themselves in these activities, the more they feel they are creating an impact, the more their self-worth rises, and the more their performance in the office improves.

Paying them to volunteer during certain office hours is a smart move because it will give them that window of opportunity without making them feel guilty.

The company’s native employees can easily find a philanthropic group to help during the weekends. However, the assignees who are still feeling their way in their new country may not have the same confidence.

Incentivizing this benefit will slowly help them maneuver these activities into their regular schedule. It is also an investment in connecting them in a deeper way with the communities and the culture around them.