Employee Rewards Trends with Jennifer Strauel, arrivia

Businesses across the US, Canada, UK, and elsewhere are scrambling to increase their workforce as they face historic labor shortages. 

As employees' attitudes have changed as a result of the pandemic, they're looking for opportunities that provide more flexibility and value. And because the choice remains firmly with the candidate, this means companies have to change their rewards structures, as well.

In this HRchat episode, we discuss ways that HR teams and leaders can help attract strong candidates and successfully retain workers by offering travel benefits and rewards to go beyond traditional employee perks.

Bill's guest in HRchat 414 is Jennifer Strauel Chief People & Diversity Officer at arrivia, a technology company that works with employer brands and member-based organizations to design unique incentive structures, believes companies should offer benefits that inspire their workforce, using the power of travel to reward.

Questions Include:

• Ignoring the labor shortage for a moment, can you paint a picture of the problem facing many employers if their best people are quitting en masse?
• What can an attractive employee brand mean to a company's success this year? 
• Can you share examples of other new/newly popular benefits that are leading to more engaged and loyal employees? What unique benefits or employee programs has arrivia added or enhanced recently?
• So arrivia’s travel software platform helps match employees with awesome experiential rewards like cruises, hotels, and tours. Tell me about why travel rewards are more impactful.
• Let’s be real, how much does it cost to add benefits like these?  What’s the ROI?
• “Companies invest heavily in acquiring and retaining new customers. Their customer loyalty programs are significant drivers of growth and revenues. But they often forget to pay the same attention to talent acquisition and retention. If employees are a company's most valuable asset, why aren't they treating them as clients?” Talk about this quote from a recent post on the arrivia blog and how arrivia helps its clients treat employees more like customers. 
• Many countries appear to be through the worst of Covid. What does the prospect of Covid moving from a pandemic to endemic status in more and more countries mean for travel in 2022? 
• How has the Russian invasion of