These days, modern employers have a good understanding of why it’s necessary to provide a good employee benefits package. With the job market more competitive than ever before, employees aren’t just looking for a job with a good wage or salary – they’re also looking for extras. Most professionals today expect to be provided with employee benefits by the company that they work for, and in many cases, benefits can be useful to employers when it comes to helping them source and hire the top talent to come and work for their company.
Employers who can offer a range of perks to job candidates such as cheaper retirement plans, health insurance, supplemental benefits, discounts on memberships and purchases, and employee assistance programs are more likely to get more interest in their job positions and a higher number of applications in comparison to employers who are not offering any benefits aside from a regular salary. If you are in the process of overhauling your hiring process, or are running a business and have gotten to a point where it has become necessary for you to hire employees for the first time, then some of the most in-demand employee benefits to offer include:
Health Insurance
Since getting your own health, medical, vision and dental insurance can be quite expensive for individuals, it’s no surprise that employees will often seek out employers who offer these types of insurance as part of the job. Offering health and medical insurance that will cover employees and their families is sure to make you more popular in the job market among professionals who are looking for work. Most employees say that health insurance is the one benefit that they will look out for when applying for a new position, as it is a sure option to save them money and make their life easier. Along with this, offering health insurance as an employee benefit can help with employee retention and turnover rates, as employees who can access health insurance through their employer tend to stay at the same company for longer.
Retirement Plans
With an increasing number of people now in the process of planning for their retirement earlier in life, it’s unsurprising that retirement plans are an employee benefit that is in high demand. With an increasing cost of living around the country, saving for retirement today is not an easy task. Many people have found themselves in a position where they need to start thinking about saving for retirement younger and younger in order to ensure that they have met their financial goals when the time finally comes for them to retire. Because of this, many are taking as much help as they can get, including looking out for employers who provide retirement plans such as a 401(k) with employer contributions that will help to boost their savings and help them reach their retirement goals sooner.
Supplemental Benefits
Supplemental benefits such as those offered by Medline OTC are also worth offering as these often come at no additional cost to the employer but are very beneficial for employees. Employees may be willing to pay towards the cost of these benefits out of their wages if they are able to get better access to things like health plans, prescriptions, and medical equipment. Health-based supplemental benefits often allow employees to shop at a large range of national and independent retailers that partner with the benefits provider to access better prices and deals that are exclusive to them as an employee of your company.
Education Benefits
With the cost of education at an all-time-high, professionals who are interested in returning to college to study in the future, but aren’t sure whether they want to get into further student debt, might look out for an employer who is willing to offer education to them as an employee benefit. Offering to pay for some or all of the cost of helping your employees go to college or complete a training course can have a lot of benefits for all involved. It allows employees to become more educated without getting into as much debt or spending as much money, while on the other hand, for employers, it is an investment in the company that allows them to access better trained and better educated employees who can help the company get better results. With tax breaks available for employers who invest in employee education, this one can definitely be worthwhile considering. You may want to consider adding some terms to the agreement, such as requiring the employee to work for you for a certain number of years after graduating in order to benefit from your funding.
Employee Assistance Programs
An employee assistance program is an increasingly popular benefit that may be worth considering offering to your employees. EAPs are work-based intervention programs that are designed to be available for employees to reach out if they need support, advice or help with a range of personal issues. Employees could use an EAP if they are struggling with any aspect of their personal life including addiction, financial issues, marriage and family problems, mental health illnesses and more. In the modern world, more and more employers are beginning to realize that it is not often realistic to ask employees to leave their personal lives at home, and that unresolved personal problems can lead to productivity issues in the workplace.
Offering this kind of benefit can be useful for both employers and employees. Employees feel supported by their employer and are able to easily access the help and support that they need, while employers can enjoy the benefits of investing more in the mental health and wellbeing of their workforce.
Accident and Disability Insurance
Employees will always prefer having the peace of mind that comes with knowing that them and their families would be protected financially if they were in a position where they had to take a lot of time off work due to an accident, serious illness, or disability. Because of this, accident and disability insurance is a very highly sought-after benefit, especially among employees who work in jobs where there might be a higher level of risk compared to others. Offering this benefit will give both you and your employees further peace of mind that if any employee were to be injured or become disabled leaving them in a position where they could not work for more than a couple of weeks, they would be financially covered and able to continue covering their expenses and caring for their family while they recover.
Flexible Spending Account
Another employee benefit that might be worth considering offering if you are going to offer health insurance and other healthcare benefits is a flexible spending account or flexible spending arrangement. This account is there for employees to pay money into for certain out-of-pocket healthcare expenses that may not be included in their health insurance plan. These accounts are often popular as employees do not need to pay any tax on money that they pay into the account, which ultimately allows them to save more money towards their healthcare expenses or get better healthcare in the long run. The accounts can be set up for just the employee to pay into, or you may be interested in also making an employer contribution.
Travel Benefits
If your business involves sending employees on business trips quite a lot, then it makes sense that you may want to offer travel benefits. These benefits can be used by employees who also enjoy traveling in their free time. For example, you may want to allow employees to use any travel points or airmiles that they incur when traveling for business for personal trips, or have deals with hotels and other accommodation companies overseas that employees can access at a discounted rate when traveling with their family on vacation.
Remote and Flexible Working
While it’s becoming more and more of the norm after the COVID-19 pandemic, remote working and flexi-time is still a very highly sought-after benefit in the world of work today. Wherever possible, allowing employees to work from home, and work flexible hours is a great way to widen your candidate pool and put your job in front of many more people who may not have deemed it suitable for them otherwise. After the pandemic, many studies have found that remote working was highly beneficial to both employers and employees, including better productivity, more work-life balance, and cost savings for both parties.
Lifestyle and Wellness Benefits
Finally, there are lots of smaller, lifestyle and wellness benefits that you may want to access to provide to your employees to help them save money, make their lives easier, or give them more opportunities to be healthy and well. For example, you could partner with local gyms and fitness centers to offer discounted memberships to your employees or offer benefits that include exclusive discounts on healthy meal subscription plans.
Whether you’re hiring your first employees or overhauling your business, employee benefits can be what makes your company stand out from the rest and attract the best talent.
