Employees Want More Employer-Paid Benefits

The progress of any business is directly tied to the productivity of the workforce. Happy employees give the best results, are more productive, and loyal to the business. With the pandemic came the need for greater financial security. Thus, employees are looking for improved benefits as they return to work.

A rewarding benefits package is one of the crucial ingredients in attracting and retaining top performers in your workforce. And just like your consumers, your existing and potential employees have options. If you are not offering what they are looking for, the potential for employees to leave becomes more apparent.

Small business owners may not agree with the above statement. Looking at the way the business is set up, they would not want to offer benefit packages to workers. The working theory is that no benefits may improve the bottom line of the business. But this template only works short-term.

When you begin to consider maintaining your business long-term, not providing benefits to your workers trample that reality.

According to a Glassdoor survey, 60% of people agree that benefits are a major factor in deciding to accept a job offer. More intriguing is the fact that 80% of employees will choose additional benefits over salary increment in the grand scheme of things.

Giving your employees benefit packages is sacrosanct to job satisfaction, greater value, and a strong commitment to excellence in achieving organizational objectives.

Google is particularly famous for their perks to workers which includes yoga classes, haircuts, biweekly chair massages, lunches provided by a professional chef. Twitter staff enjoy 3 catered meals every day.

While your business may not be as big as Google or Twitter to offer such benefits, there are other benefits that will be just as attractive to them.

We’ll look at them below.

Health Insurance Benefits

Better health invariably means better performance for workers. In light of the pandemic, workers are now beginning to favor health insurance when choosing to work with a business.

It is expensive when your workers pay for their healthcare themselves. Thus, they would choose businesses providing health insurance as a benefit. There are several healthcare options your business can provide:

• Preferred Provider Organization (PPO)
• Accident Insurance
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance
• Health Savings Account (HSA)

Retirement Benefit Plans

Retirement security is another benefit employees are looking out for when deciding to work with a business. It is easy to see why. Everyone is planning for the future and it is only natural to start saving for life after work. Retirement security is crucial to workers of all ages, especially prioritized by generation.

Then again, employers of small businesses are not so keen on the idea. Setting up retirement plans for your workers can appear daunting especially if you are focused on several activities at the same time.

The SECURE Act of 2019 is there to help you. This act was established to promote offering retirement plans for workers of small businesses. As an employer, you would be able to offer retirement plans while increasing the tax credit employers receive while doing so.

Paid Time Off Benefits

For most workers, paid time off is another benefit they are looking out for when joining a business. Who does not want to get paid while they are on a planned vacation?

According to Harvard Business Review, 94% of planned vacations work wonders for workers when they eventually get back to work. Then again, paid time off is not limited to vacations. Your workers may need a breather from work to take care of their illness, serve on jury duty, or personal responsibilities.

Depending on the location of your business, there may be paid sick leaves by state. This law requires you to pay your worker for the sickness leave.

Flexible Work Schedule

Working 9 to 5 may not be the norm anymore. Most workers are now looking to work in businesses with a flexible work schedule. Employees are looking for freedom from work for several hours during the week.

This freedom will permit them to attend medical appointments, a grocery run, and promote a healthy work-life balance. Workers without a befitting work-life balance may feel disentangled from their jobs and experience daily turnovers.

Take a look at your business and examine if you can offer work schedules that are quite flexible.

Remote Work Opportunities

Remote work, as a result of the pandemic, is now a massive trend. People are now looking for opportunities to work from the comfort of their homes.

For businesses, this presents a lot of challenges. Some of them include tech issues and communication problems. With emerging tech at your disposal, you can quickly incorporate this to ensure a seamless workflow, no matter where your employees are.

Just like a flexible work schedule, you need to consider if remote working is possible for your business. Not every industry can accommodate that benefit.

Employee Development

Apart from the aforementioned attractive benefits, another benefit workers are also interested in is the opportunity to better themselves. According to a poll, 87% of millennials concur that employee development is important to them in job roles.

If you are looking at sustaining your business long-term, your business needs to foster workforce development via training and educational assistance.

Happy employees make productive workspaces. So, when you consider taking your business to the next level, think about these offerings. Not only will this lessen work turnovers but increase productivity in ways you never imagined.