Kiwi businesses are facing a challenging time on a bunch of fronts. One of the most common we hear about is recruitment. Every business is powered by amazing humans and chances are if you’re scaling, you’re on the lookout for more.

At Kin we often consult with our clients early in the process about their employer brand, employee value proposition (EVP), and broader benefits package. Each of these factors feed into the attraction strategy of a good process.

When it comes to benefits, we’ve had some interesting conversations within our own leadership team about what a good benefits package might look like. Where we’ve landed is that one size fits one: not all. Depending on each employee's financial risk profile and time of life, some team members may value additional leave, others may not.

I like the idea of offering a benefits menu: a list of benefits that can be either realised or traded for a higher base salary. If your new hire is focused on accumulating cash to purchase their first home for example, they might be more than willing to forgo an extra week's leave (over and above the standard four weeks) for a bigger take-home pay. Below is a list of benefits that you might consider as tradeable:

• Additional annual leave
• Birthday off or a ‘duvet’ day
• Annual wellness benefit
• Enhanced employer KiwiSaver contribution
• Insurance cover (health, income protection etc.)

Benefits that I don’t believe should be on your tradeable menu are things that feed into the long-term development and support of your team like training and development and EAP or the equivalent.

How is your benefits package looking? Would you consider a more flexible approach to how it’s offered to your new hires?