Employee benefits are a major part of any company or business. It’s no wonder why it is important to make sure you offer your employees the best benefits possible. 57% of employees surveyed said “benefits and perks play a major role when deciding whether to pursue a particular job,” according to Forbes. Many employees would rather take a job with better employee benefits over one that pays more money. Your company’s employee benefits impact your ability to attract candidates and employees to your business. It’s important to know the best benefits to offer job seekers and which benefits attract the most talented employees.
Money: Always a Winner
A recent Deloitte article describing what employees and job seekers want cites the most basic and sought after benefit — money. Money is the number one and most important thing to employees. If a company can afford to pay their employees a larger salary, they should. This ensures that the company is able to keep the “best and the brightest of their staff”. Although high salaries attract talented employees, money alone sometimes is not enough to keep those employees. Pairing a good salary with the best benefits will allow you to strike a balance when it comes to hiring and keeping talented employees.
Good Health Insurance: One of the Best Benefits
Health Insurance is another important part of any employee benefits package and is the second best benefit to job seekers. Good health insurance gives employees a sense of security within in their job. It shows them that their employer cares about their health and well being. Health insurance also ensures employees can be healthy and productive.
Health benefits are usually an expected benefit as 88% of job seekers say health insurance is important but only 41% of employers provide it! Making sure your employee benefits package includes good health insurance gives your company a competitive advantage over employers that do not. Good health insurance can be costly to a company – especially small businesses. With less money to support health insurance costs, it’s harder to offer this benefit to employees. Costs can reach almost $6,000 per person for health insurance. Finding a way to ensure your employees receive healthcare benefits is important – and a critical step in crafting your best benefits package.
Work-Life Balance: A Difficult Thing to Find
In today’s society it has become hard to find that perfect balance between home and work life. It is up to employers to make it so that employees can have the best benefits that allow them to accomplish this. Taking too much time from work or home life has a negative impact on a person’s ability to balance them. It is becoming more popular for employers to offer benefits such as flexible work hours and telecommuting options.
Having employees work from home at times has multiple benefits. Employees who work remotely save office space and allows you to expand your company geographically as you can have people from anywhere in the world.
Also, an increase or unlimited amount of vacation days and paid time off add huge value to employee benefits packages. These perks are the best benefits that allow people to get that perfect balance of work and home life.
Overworked employees who spend extra hours in the office are more likely to develop negative feelings. They are more likely to resent their workplace, colleagues, and their bosses. This could ultimately end up in a business losing valuable employees. Offering benefits that allow employees to balance their work and home lives could, ultimately, be a deciding factor when it comes to working for a company.
Parental Programs: Best Benefits for Families
Another issue that has sparked interest for changes in employee benefits is adapting to having full time employees that are also full time parents. 66% of employees say parental leave is an important and necessary benefit they look for. However, only 13% of employers provide any type of parental leave. Focusing on family can be hard when you work a full time job. Employers are offering new, helpful benefits to accommodate parents and parents-to-be. For example, Facebook offers benefits such as four months of paid parental leave, as well as subsidized daycare and other expenses after a child is born.
These perks and benefits are crucial for parents. They increase retention. This has a positive impact on employers and their businesses. At the end of day, it is all about keeping your employees happy. It is hard to find employees nowadays that do not have family priorities.
Employee Development: A Long-Term Play
Employee Development is regularly overlooked by employers, but is easily one of the best benefits offered. Employees that do not have the benefit of professional development often have a harder time keeping the same job as employee retention is harder than ever. An article from Inc describes the benefits of employee development programs and how to integrate them into your company. Right away, implementing these kinds of programs gives you a competitive advantage over most employers. Many are not aware that offering development programs is one of the best benefits. It is a big bonus to job seekers. Employee Development Programs create:
- Loyalty and Trust
- Good reputation
- Better attraction to the employee market
- Motivated Employees
- Long term company benefits
Companies that invest time and money into employee development build trust and loyalty with their workers. This ensures employees do not quit or leave one job for another. These programs also lead to a good corporate reputation.
Training employees to do better helps your company, as a whole, stand out in the crowd of thousands of other employers. A company’s employee development program also prepares workers for the possibility of promotion in the future. Hiring from within is more effective then going outside for people who are unfamiliar with your day to day operations.
Employee development is also key for motivating and engaging workers. Employees develop a sense of boredom at any job. However, implementing interesting and engaging training programs that challenge and bring fun to the work place have a positive impact on your employees productivity. Ultimately, this has a positive impact on your company.
Some easy ways to engage and motivate your employees include:
- Rewarding Employee Accomplishments
- Allow Employees to Work In Groups
- Engage Employees In Fun Activities/Trips
- Health Based Activities/Competitions
Offering the Best Benefits Possible
A company may see many positive impacts on their business with the implementation of Employee Development Programs. Well-trained and productive employees are going to do better work in the long run. It saves employers time and money when it comes to searching for the best and most talented workers. This is because they already have them! Efficient employees are an investment. Many employers should take the time to look into as these programs. They are one of the best benefits to offer employees.
Employee Benefits come with costs that are sometimes too much for small businesses to handle. This is where a PEO comes in handy! PEOs can handle any size company. When determining the best benefits plans, PEOs are able to get much better pricing than a small company would on their own. Have a PEO put together your benefits package and save your company lots time and money.
