When we say you should be offering uncommon benefits for nurses, we’re not talking about happy hours and ping pong tables. Sure, there’s more out there than gym memberships and signing bonuses—but the right benefits for nurses actually help them live better, more balanced lives, at work and at home.
Here are seven of our favorite uncommon benefits that are actually designed to help nurses and other healthcare workers live their best lives.
1. In-House Training
In-house training is a major perk for candidates who are just moving into healthcare positions. Free training doubles as an educational benefit, which is a great way of showing your investment in all your staff. You’ll also attract candidates who are drawn to continuous professional improvement, which will result in better quality of care in your facilities.
There’s another hidden benefit to offering free training: you’ll likely get more candidates who are looking for an entry point into the industry. By developing your in-house training strategy you can help non-clinical staff move into clinical roles and appeal to healthcare newcomers. That can really pay off for you as an employer in the midst of a staffing shortage.
2. Tuition and Student Loan Reimbursement
Tuition and student loan reimbursement programs are gaining popularity in healthcare, and they don’t just affect recent graduates. Parents also benefit. If you’re able, try offering tuition support for your employees’ children.
It’s common knowledge that nurses are predominantly women and that many nurses balance their professional lives with their duties as mothers and primary caregivers. But non-clinical staff are often in the same boat. Tuition help is a unique benefit, but it’s invaluable to workers in any position.
3. Shorter Shifts
Pandemic-era burnout has forced many workers out of the healthcare industry in the past few years. We’ve spoken before about how to fight pandemic burnout in your facility. One of these strategies doubles as a perk that nurses have been requesting for ages: shorter and more flexible shifts.
There are plenty of reasons why shorter shifts in healthcare are a good idea. Nurses who work shorter shifts are less prone to fatigue and less likely to make errors. In fact, nurses who work 13-hour shifts experience more than double the rate of burnout experienced by nurses who work 8 or 9-hour shifts. If nurses work lengthy shifts repeatedly, they’re much more likely to show lapses in judgment caused by exhaustion. It may be challenging to offer shift flexibility while you’re also fighting to fill roles, but if you can shorten shifts, your workers, patients, and business will all reap the rewards.
4. Relocation Fees
If you’re asking new hires to relocate, you can ease the transition by reimbursing moving fees. Doing so can hugely expand the reach of your recruitment. It’s one thing to ask a candidate to move to a brand new state with no support or connections. It’s much easier to pitch relocation if moving isn’t cost-prohibitive.
You can take this even further by covering new employees’ first month of rent. A temporary housing stipend will give your hires greater flexibility to explore their new community and find permanent housing. Starting a new job is complicated enough—this is at least one way to simplify the stress of moving.
5. Onsite Daycare
Daycare is becoming more and more popular as a perk in healthcare. But this benefit is still uncommon enough to stand out to your candidates looking for family support.
Child care is an almost universally useful benefit, and by offering it, you’re giving support to a wider range of candidates and employees. In a woman-dominated industry like nursing, many workers are mothers and primary caregivers. But the same is also true for workers in non-clinical roles. Begin an onsite daycare program to instantly expand the number of people who have the flexibility to work in your facility.
6. Transit and Gas Reimbursement
Commuter benefits are slowly but surely being embraced by everyone from hospitals to home health agencies. Transit reimbursement is one more way of removing the obstacles that prevent your potential employees from coming to work.
Like room and board, transit and gas reimbursements can make it much easier to attract applicants from different geographic areas. Depending on your facility’s location, you might not even need to ask candidates to relocate. Instead, they can take advantage of your transit program and commute in from neighboring cities.
7. Culture Pass and Local Immersion
If you do have candidates relocating for a job, you can help them get settled in by introducing them to local attractions. This could include museum passes, theater tickets, restaurant gift cards, and more.
Even better, you can tie these local benefits to your onboarding program. Encourage or coordinate group trips to local attractions to encourage new hires to start building relationships. The more you can do to get staff engaged with your community (both inside and outside of your facility), the better your chances of increasing retention.
Stand-Out Recruiting With Apploi
Apploi is here to simplify your healthcare staffing. Make the most of your attractive benefits for nurses with improved recruiting. We help employers source candidates, streamline hiring, and onboard new recruits. With Apploi’s suite, create automatic digital employee records, track important documents, automate workflows, and get alerts when paperwork is missing or soon to expire.
Interested in learning more about how you can recruit, hire, and onboard healthcare staff quickly? Contact us today for a free demo of our end-to-end talent management solution and learn more on our website about how Apploi helps you keep candidates engaged.
