Employee welfare means anything done for the comfort and (intellectual or social) improvement of the employees, over and above the wages paid.
In simple words, it means “the efforts to make life worth living for workmen.” It includes various services, facilities and amenities provided to employees for their betterment. These facilities may be provided voluntarily by progressive entrepreneurs, or statutory provisions may compel them to provide these amenities; or these may be undertaken by the government or trade unions, if they have the required funds.
According to ILO, “Employee welfare should be understood as such service, facilities and amenities which may be established in or in the vicinity of undertakings to enable the persons employed in them to perform their work in healthy and peaceful surroundings and to avail of facilities which improve their health and bring high morale”.
The objectives of employee welfare are to improve the life of the working class, to bring about holistic development of the worker’s personality and so on. Employee welfare is in the interest of employee, employer and the society as a whole. It enables workers to perform their work in healthy and favorable environment.
Hence, it improves efficiency of workers and keeps them content, thereby contributing to high employee morale. It also develops a sense of responsibility and dignity amongst the workers and thus makes them good citizens of the nation.
Apart from the wages and salary, anything done by the organization to improve the living standard of employees and keep them contented comes under the realm of employee welfare. All those services, benefits and facilities offered to employees by the employer to make his life worth living, are included in employee welfare.