Employee Benefits You Could Be Offering Your Staff in South Africa

The benefits you offer employees are not only crucial to their wellbeing, and their productivity, but it’s also important if you as a company wanting to attract top talent. Yes, you are required to offer certain statutory benefits but you want to go above that baseline. So where do you begin?

First you need to establish who is entitled to benefits. Full-time employees (employees who typically work 40 to 45-hour workweeks) are entitled to benefits whereas contractors are not entitled to benefits in South Africa. Employees on fixed-term contracts may be entitled to benefits, depending on the nature of the contract. It’s also important to notice that employees on probation may not be entitled to all benefits but they are entitled to statutory benefits, which are as follows:

1. Overtime pay
2. Family responsibility leave
3. Sick leave
4. Maternity leave
5. Paternity leave
6. Unemployment insurance fund (UIF)
7. Compensation for occupational injuries and diseases (COIDA)

Benefits worth offering

Health insurance:

Although South Africa does provide free medical care to everyone in the country, the truth is that private insurance provides quality care that public health insurance may not. Because health insurance is expensive in South Africa, promising better coverage can draw and maintain top talent.

When it comes to the types of health insurance you have two choices: work with a benefits provider to offer a group policy to all employees or provide a stipend, allowing employees to choose their own plans.

13th month bonus in South Africa:

While many companies give employees bonuses of some sort in December, not all offer a 13th month bonus, which amounts to one month’s pay for each employee. Though the bonus is not a statutory requirement, it is a benefit that is highly appealing to potential employees and is also a staying card for current employees.

Retirement funds and pension schemes:

Many employers do already provide some sort of pension scheme or retirement contribution system to staff but if you are not, it is worth considering as a benefit to employees. From defined benefit pension schemes to defined contribution programs, funds vary widely.

Personal time:

In addition to paid time off, more and more companies are offering wellness days and personal time off, which allows employees to handle personal things that do not fall under sick leave or vacation time. This can be anything from car checkups to attending events like parent-teacher conferences or just a time out to destress.

Tracking leave with an online leave management system

It’s not always easy keeping track of who is off, who has taken off, when that person will be off, how much leave have they accrued and whether it is in compliance with the BCEA. An online leave management system can help streamline the process and accurately track the leave process so that there is no confusion and so that you do not have to worry about conflicting schedules, employees taking time off when they have already exhausted their leave and costs involved with errors that would occur if you were tracking it all manually.

If you would like to give it a try we can assist. LeavePro is offering a 14-day free trial, all you have to do is signup. You can also book a demo and we can show you how the system works and answer any questions you may have.