Employee benefits attract and retain workers. After all, perks like health insurance and paid vacation show how you prioritize their wellness and enjoyment. Additionally, our post “How to Engage and Retain New College Graduates” discusses how offering compelling benefits retains newer hires, too. Fresh graduates bring new perspectives, preferences, and talents to the workplace that can benefit your company.
This is why it’s important to offer benefits that employees will enjoy. Apart from the usual benefits related to health and paid vacations, you should consider giving them audiobook subscriptions. Audiobooks have become popular in recent years as a form of entertainment, but these can offer advantages to your employees beyond this.
Here are the reasons why you should consider offering audiobook subscriptions to your employees.
Easy Access to Multiple Audiobooks
Audiobooks are easy for your employees to get their hands on. They only need an electronic device, like their phone, to listen to a book. With this, they can access multiple audiobooks spanning different genres and topics. This can encourage them to build a learning habit without requiring you to break the bank. The audiobooks on Everand has original works from celebrated authors across multiple genres. This allows the employees to easily find content related to their interests. Moreover, the subscriptions are affordable, with monthly rates starting as low as the cost of a single paperback book. Its app is also available on the Google Play and Apple App Store, catering to employees’ devices.
With newfound access to thousands of audiobooks, it’s easier for your employees to learn new skills or gain new knowledge, whether these be closer to their personal interests or related to their line of work.
Helps With Mental Fatigue and Stress
Employees often get stressed, especially when it comes to juggling their responsibilities. This impacts their mental health, leading to burnout and low productivity. Luckily, listening to audiobooks can relieve your employees of this. 14News notes the positive mental health benefits of reading—including listening to audiobooks—provide them an escape from their stressors. An audiobook subscription allows them to enter a new world and enjoy something different, helping them unwind.
In addition, they can listen to audiobooks about self-care, such as Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski, which teaches them how to break the stress cycle and become better versions of themselves. This way, they can better focus on work and retain their productivity.
Encourages Productive Multitasking
Doing mundane but necessary tasks, like file sorting or data entry, can be repetitive. This is why some employees may prefer listening to music (that doesn’t disrupt their work) while doing so. This allows them to get into a steady rhythm, helping them accomplish work more efficiently. Similarly, gaining access to audiobooks encourages them to multitask productively.
An audiobook report by The Washington Post informs that listening to these can enhance productivity, as they help some people reduce procrastination. Employees will enjoy working since they’re entertained by listening to stories and narrations. Not to mention, if your employees listen to educational audiobooks—like those about marketing or personal development—they can gain helpful knowledge while working.
Promotes Healthy, Intellectual Conversations
Having audiobook subscriptions paves the way for workplace book clubs to form. A post about book clubs on LinkedIn reports that these groups encourage healthy discussions among employees. Everyone can listen to the same audiobook—thanks to their subscriptions—and meet over coffee at the end of the week to hear one another’s thoughts on the topic, genre, or author.
This helps them connect on a deeper level and lets them gain unique knowledge and insights from one another. In the long run, this can build a more harmonious workplace where everyone listens and respects each others’ thoughts, whether they’re audiobook- or work-related.
Audiobook subscriptions for employees are a good investment. These encourage lifelong learning, foster productivity, relieve stress, and promote insightful conversations at work.
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