While most jobs offer opportunities for learning and development, the key way to stay ahead of the competition is to offer good benefits to your craftsmen.

It may seem overwhelming to consider what advantages you can offer employees, especially when you’re not a large firm and can’t stretch to expensive perks for everyone or if you have a multigenerational workforce and want to offer rewards that suit everyone.

Even though the world of benefits can seem daunting, it’s easy to get started. In our experience, these top tips are great starting points to help you easily create actionable extras for your company, which will attract more employees to you.

Make sure the benefits you offer are ones craftsmen need to know about

Although the purpose of benefits are to help employees, it’s not actually helpful to offer them without consulting employees to check if they're good value for them - for example, there’s little point in offering bike schemes if your employees already own bikes, or childcare vouchers if they don’t have young children.

Asking your employees about which perks would be helpful to them is the first (and most important) step in starting a benefits scheme. Find out what matters to your employees, whether it’s a better work life balance with flexible days off or bonus financial incentives to encourage them. The extra value you offer should be in line with what motivates employees, otherwise there is little point. Start with the team you already had and find out why they chose your company and what they think the main pros are of working there.

It’s also important that you have open conversations that make employees aware of these benefits - there’s no point having added rewards if you don’t discuss them and encourage employees to take them. Sadly, employees often lose out on the extras which they are entitled to, because they just don’t know that they are entitled to them. Whether you regularly provide them with information about updated or new resources, or just make it obvious where they can find them, be sure that your employees are aware of the company benefits they can access.

3 easy benefits every construction company can offer

If you’re struggling to get started with offering benefits, or you’re simply unaware of what can be helpful for employees and inexpensive for your construction firm, here’s the easiest rewards to implement that will make a real difference to the lives of your craftsmen.

1. Tax help for craftsmen

Craftsmen work hard, they work long hours, and often lack the specific knowledge needed to understand and prepare taxes on their own. Providing tax cuts is a low cost effort for companies, as they will already have someone managing their finances, so it will come at no extra cost - and it will support the craftsmen a huge amount. Taxe cuts being managed by someone else means less work and effort needed by the craftsman, and often more money, which is an advantage that’s always appreciated!

2. Having a say in choosing new tools

The tools that are used by a construction company are a vital part of the job. That’s why it’s a great benefit to let employees have a say in the tools that you use. Not only will this help employees feel like their opinion is valuable and important to the company, but it also allows them to use top of the range tools and learn new skills through them. This helps their career development, strengthens their resume, and results in better work being done. As your construction company will need to use tools and choose new tools from time to time due to new projects, it’s very easy to provide this benefit and your craftsmen will really appreciate it.

3. Community and celebrations

While there are benefits that you can provide in terms of work, tools, and pay, one of the biggest benefits and main reasons that craftsmen are loyal to the companies they work with are the community which it offers them. When colleagues work well together and enjoy each other’s company, they see this as a huge added positive But it doesn’t happen from nowhere - companies have to make the effort to create a community, and a great way to do this is with parties, social events, and taking the time to celebrate together. These don’t have to be huge, they can be as simple as just taking the time to have some beers together. It’s important that management is involved in these events too, to promote an inter-generational workforce and a really special community feeling, which is a huge benefit for craftsmen.