An employee benefits package is crucial for talent attraction, retention, and the overall employee experience. This article will show you the top benefits of having a good benefits package, what benefits are compulsory, and optional benefits you can choose to maximize employee experience.
Many businesses are offering employee benefits, but at the same time, employees are expecting them from their employers. As employers pay more attention to this, they are concerned about how many benefits options they offer with their plans.
So, the question is if employee benefits matter? The answer is yes! Benefits do matter; in fact, more than 82% of employees claimed that a company that didn’t offer benefits and progression would only result in them leaving in the future.
Well, you get the whole idea now. First, however, let’s dig deeper into this article and determine how your business will massively benefit from offering employee benefits packages.
Many ways your business will benefit from offering employee benefit packages
Attracts top talent
If you want the best employees to come and work for you, you have to ensure you offer them employee benefits packages as a great way to start.
According to Grove HR research What the Vietnamese candidates want in 2022, 60% of employees prefer companies that offer health insurance. So if you want to have a more talented team, health benefits can help.
That is not a wrong number to consider at all, but at the same time, it makes things competitive, in other words.
Why do we say that?
If your competitor is offering more than you, you are losing top talents that you can potentially recruit. As we mentioned before, you want motivated people to join your team and believe that they will grow within your business, but if you fail to offer them what they need, we have an issue here.
Reduces stress levels
A common thing that happens at a workplace is either employee burnout or a demotivated team to do anything. According to a study, 94% of employees claimed that they experienced stress at the workplace. So if you want to have a more productive team, health benefits can help.
For example, offering dental insurance, vision insurance, or any other type of insurance has never done any harm to businesses, as it is better if your employees have insurance instead of having to take many days off from work.
Additionally, paid sick days work the same way. You surely know that employees won’t be at maximum productivity when they are not feeling well, so the best thing you can do is to pay their sick leaves.
Sick leaves allow employees to get better and not stress over their salaries. The entire point behind insurance and paid sick days is that a team taken care of will also take care of your business.
Boosts employee productivity
Up until now, we have shown you how an employee benefits package can get you the right talented workers in the long term and give you an overall healthier workforce, increasing overall employee productivity.
If you think about it, motivated and talented workers will get things done faster and benefit you in the long term. After all, keeping employees for an extended period of time is better financially for you. Why so? Because you won’t be ruining your reputation by changing workers all the time and having to invest in unnecessary costs to hire them.
Furthermore, benefits will allow your employees to stay mentally clear and feel good about their freedom and the job position. Hence, this boosts productivity and will enable workers not to feel worried if they have to miss work another day or not whenever they are sick. In short, their mental space is more freed up and allows them to move more freely and become more productive.
Improves employee morale
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Last but not least, having an excellent employee benefits package directly affects employee morale.
In addition to that, employees will feel that you care about them and their well-being. This results in them being loyal to your business and increasing satisfaction when working at your company.
Moreover, loyal employees directly affect your long-term success and spread good thoughts and words about your business. So, you get the whole idea and why it’s essential to have great benefits. It’s because most companies will act the same way, and when you have different approaches, it makes you and your business unique.
Includes consumer-oriented benefits
Consumer-orientated benefits are employer-funded but selected by the employees. With these benefits, employees can customize benefits based on their personal preferences. This includes making their own healthcare choices and for their families.
Here are a few examples of consumer-oriented benefits:
- Health savings account (HSA)
- Health reimbursement arrangement (HRA)
- Allowances regarding wellness activities
Even though healthcare may be an employer decision, many employers are letting employees decide about it through the offering of HRA. Through the HRA, you are allowed to offer your employee tax-free, more than 200 qualifying medical expenses, and much more.
Which kind of benefits are required according to law?
There are many different benefits that employers must provide for employees according to federal law. They are the following.
Employee compensations: protect employees and the business from injuries or losing wages during the job. As an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure you follow state guidelines regarding employee injuries and provide the proper coverage.
Health insurance: it’s mandatory for employers to offer health insurance. However, guidelines will depend on what your country requires. For example, in the United States, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires employers to provide health insurance if the business has 50 or more full-time employees.
Social security: social security taxes are a part of what employers must pay to the federal government. These are done through payroll taxes and are calculated based on employees' salaries. For example, before employees join a full-time job, they’ll be informed of the percentage that will be deducted from their Brutto salary.
Medical and family leave: medical and family leaves account for employees who have to leave their jobs on a particular day either because they are sick or one of their family members is sick. Medical and family leave acts differ in each country worldwide, so it’ll depend on your country’s guidelines regarding this.
Retirement plan (401K): offering a 401K plan is becoming a standard, especially in the United States. 401K plans have different contributions that employers can offer. They will set a percentage of employee contributions and see how much employee matching contribution will put a tax deduction percentage.
What kind of other benefits can you give your employees?
Volunteer hours
The company grants these types of hours to employees to dedicate a specific part of their time to volunteering opportunities. Moreover, participant organizations and businesses offer a set of hours and days per year that employees can volunteer for the organization.
Employee assistance programs (EAP)
Employee assistance programs are great for addressing employee challenges, employee mental health, counseling, career advice, financial services, and more. Moreover, these services are available 24/7 for employees who need to talk to a professional and much more.
Student loan payments
Newer generations of hire include many graduates who are still in debt. On average, over half of the students only in the USA have debts of more than $22,000 from 25 to 49. Most big and small companies are making new decisions offering new lifetime maximums until the loans are fully paid or annually.
Fitness reimbursement
Fitness reimbursements are when employers offer employees fitness-related refunds. This can be a gym membership, fitness program fee, equipment, and more. Fitness reimbursements are usually done to keep employees mentally and physically healthy to excel at work.
Parental and paid maternity leave
Not all organizations and businesses worldwide have a parental leave policy. Additionally, even if the procedure is there, it won’t be paid in most cases. Usually, these leaves include employees who are about to give birth, have just given birth, or even adopt a child.
According to a recent study, over 25% of companies offer parental leave for birth and non-birth parents. In contrast, this offer seemed to be very important for candidates who were thinking about whether to accept a new job offer or not.
Wrapping it up
Well, that’s all on employee benefits. We got the opportunity to learn more about how your business can benefit from employee benefits and how much value they provide to your employees.
Employees are the backbone of a successful business, and we fail ultimately if we don’t take care of them.
Consider what your business can offer, whether financially or operationally, and ensure that you initiate employee benefits to your overall package. There’s nothing worse than having someone join your business and not offering them any benefits alongside.
Figure out what you can do and keep it ongoing. After all, you want your team to be productive and stay with you in the long term!
About the author
Flavia Silipo is a skilled SEO copywriter and digital marketing specialist with over two years of experience. You can find her on LinkedIn.
