Improving staff engagement and company loyalty is high on the list of priorities for nearly all leaders because it leads to employees staying in the company, reducing turnover rates. By keeping around skilled employees, there’s less need for recruiting and onboarding. Organizational knowledge doesn’t get lost or even potentially move across to competitors.

Offering benefits is one of the main ways that companies improve staff engagement and loyalty, besides fostering a positive company culture and celebrating milestones. For companies who want to offer their employees benefits that keep them feeling good about their tenures but don’t quite have the funds to offer financial benefits, here are five non-monetary benefits.

Health funds

Employees who feel their best, perform their best — physically and emotionally. Many companies encourage their employees to take care of their health, with access and support for improved nutrition and exercise. Healthy minds and bodies mean happier individuals, which can have a huge impact on not only productivity but also office culture.

Employees love health funds that have earmarked benefits for exercise classes or fitness gear. Some companies invest specifically in corporate accounts for ClassPass or GymPass, while others provide their employees with a monthly stipend to put towards a gym membership. Health funds can even be used to buy fitness trackers like FitBits or equipment like yoga mats, resistance bands, or weights.

Also consider health funds for funding mental health, mindfulness apps, or remote therapy.

Education credits

Companies that want to keep their employees engaged not only in their work but also in the company mission often provide education credits to their employees so they can continue to grow. By enabling additional training or coursework, companies not only benefit from employees’ increased knowledge and skills but also communicate to their teams that the company values learning. While some companies offer employees money to put towards work-related education, other companies believe that any type of learning can be helpful — and enjoyable — for their employees. These companies allow their employees to spend their education credits on barista classes, yoga teacher training, or language courses.

Commuter benefits

The next benefit that improves staff engagement and loyalty is commuter benefits — that is, public transportation cards or money to put towards gas when driving into the office. Commuting into the office can be expensive, especially with train fares and gas prices rising almost every year across the country. By giving employees money to put towards their transportation, companies take part of the financial burden of coming into the office, which can be a very impactful way to support employees.

When commuter stipends aren’t accessible for companies, they can sometimes offer their employees pre-tax benefits when buying public transportation cards. When this is set up, an employee can elect that a portion of their pre-tax pay go towards refilling their public transportation card. This not only gives them reliable access to public transportation but helps them save money, as they aren’t paying tax on those dollars.

Give them flexibility

One of the most sought-after employment benefits is flexible working arrangements, including work-from-home or hybrid options. This incentive is an excellent way to provide employees with the space they need to maintain high morale as they work.

Flexibility doesn’t just mean physical location, it can also mean time. Some people might find that it works best for their lifestyle to start work earlier or later. For example, someone who has kids might appreciate starting earlier in the morning, then taking a break when dropping their kids off at school, and then logging back on for the day. Someone else might appreciate starting at lunchtime and finishing later at night because they work better in the evening. Being flexible with location and working hours can be a helpful way for companies to show they care about their employees’ whole lives, not just their work lives. This can be a great motivator for employees and subsequently lead to greater engagement — it can also be a benefit that’s hard to walk away from, encouraging the employee to stay.

Employment Assistance Programs (EAP)

The last non-monetary benefit we’ll mention is access to Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). EAP companies often offer more than one form of assistance, the most common ones being mental health counseling, legal counseling, financial counseling, and nutritional counseling. Employees can access these sessions free of charge, and can use the services for either work-related or non work-related issues. For a work-related example, an individual might access mental health counseling to find conflict resolution with their manager, or they might use financial counseling to better understand how to maximize their retirement funds. Otherwise, employees can use the services to unpack a family issue, understand how to interpret their late parent’s will, learn how to invest their savings in a term deposit, or set up a diet plan to maintain a healthy weight.

Engaged, loyal staff means less time spent troubleshooting problems or hiring new people, leaving more time to focus on the work at hand. It also means that employees are empowered to do more than just their work, they’re encouraged to take care of their health and to learn more about what’s interesting to them. Company benefits are a great way to keep employees within the company but also to keep them aboard the company mission.