With over 11.5 million job openings in the US market, organizations are in a battle to recruit and retain talented employees. A solid employee benefits package can offer a significant competitive edge. A well-rounded package makes employees feel more satisfied with their job and empowers them by providing a sense of security. This ultimately leads to productivity and even improves profit margins.
What constitutes a solid benefits package? Ideally, it must be a combination of tangible (competitive pay) and intangible (mentoring) rewards. Read on for tips to create an attractive employee benefits package to keep your employees satisfied, healthy, and productive.
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What Does a Competitive Benefits Package Look Like?
A competitive package often boasts a range of benefits. An employer is legally obligated to sponsor and recognize certain baseline benefits. These include time off to vote, perform military service or serve on a jury, provisions of worker’s compensation, Medicare, social security benefits, FICA, family and medical leave, health insurance, and unemployment insurance.
In addition to the requisite benefits, there are voluntary benefits that are both supplemental and intended to boost employee morale. These include additional health coverage, 401K plans, disability insurance, gym memberships, life insurance, flexible work schedule, paid time off, career development opportunities, and more.
To create a benefits package that stands out, the right approach is to offer perks beyond what most employers are offering. Employee benefits and company profits must align in order to fully realize the benefits to employee morale.
How to Create a Competitive Benefits Package
Employee retention is a pressing concern for human resources. The HR arm must continue to innovate its talent acquisition strategies to make the organization’s recruiting process a success. Reviewing the benefits package is one quick way to infuse excitement and security into the workplace.
Employment benefits influence every employer’s brand. Each branch of coverage or benefit sends a clear message about the company culture. For that reason alone, companies must follow a structured approach when developing a benefits package. Consider these tips as a start:
Study Your Demographics
While creating a benefits package, a company must consider the age range of its employees. For instance, a young workforce may be more interested in financial wellness packages, work flexibility, and individual health benefits. A more mature workforce, on the other hand, might be interested in family benefits, flexible spending accounts, or robust 401K programs.
A one-size-fits-all benefit system may not work for an organization with employees from various generational demographics. An elective scheme where employees are allowed to select benefits that match their situation and lifestyle might be the most viable solution in those cases.
Know What Your Employees Want
Unfortunately, most employers are unaware of what benefits employees value the most and so the benefits and compensation are often misaligned. In a scenario like this, even if an organization follows the best centralized recruitment approach to source candidates, it might fail to retain them.
According to a survey, paid time off (35%), remote work flexibility (27%), and paid family leaves (24%) are the top non-insurance benefits employees want. Other perks they desire include fitness incentives (19%), financial management and planning (18%), professional development (17%), and benefits related to student loan repayment (9%).
Conduct Employee Survey
When unsure about what employees want, employee surveys will undoubtedly provide some significant clarity. For an organization that already has a competitive package, workplace surveys can still reveal shifts in employee preferences. This approach also offers valuable insights that can, over time, be used to revise benefits packages and enable your organization to remain relevant in the present economic vacuum.
Communicate the Plan
If employees are unaware of the benefits that are available to them and how to attain them, even the most carefully designed employee benefits package might fail to inspire employee confidence. It is crucial to communicate all details of the package to employees and answer the questions they might have.
Businesses should also demonstrate that they consider employee feedback to develop and refine benefits packages, and educate the staff on leveraging the available benefits for the greatest gain.
When working with a staffing agency in Pennsylvania, communicating the most competitive perks to them in order to best represent your employer’s brand can go a long way to attracting top talent as well.
Evaluate Periodically
A crucial step in the benefits management process is the routine assessment of all benefits packages, separately and as a whole. The organization’s goals and the needs of the workforce must be taken into consideration when evaluating the benefits on a regular basis.
Benefits packages are affected by dynamics brought about by shifts in the corporate environment, the economy, and labor demographics. Employers must create objectives and metrics to evaluate their benefit plans and make any required adjustments.
Conduct employee surveys and needs assessments regularly in addition to using benchmarking data and external trends to analyze the efficacy of the benefits plan.
Conclusion
Decisions about compensation and benefits packages will have an indelible impact on any organization. A carefully managed compensation plan that aligns with the company’s strategy and expectations of the employees generates better performance.
A dated or ineffectual benefits plan, on the other hand, often has long-term corrosive effects (such as demotivation, and loss of key talent) and can foster a toxic work environment. Hence, it is critical for the management of an organization to develop a comprehensive plan with all employees in mind.
