When job applicants compare their options, they look for compensation packages that meet their financial needs and offer excellent benefits. Some benefits matter more than others to the talented people you want to bring to your company. Include these five employee benefits in your compensation package to attract and retain the best people in your industry.
Tuition Reimbursement and Student Loan Assistance
Many of today’s college graduates have so much student loan debt that they cannot afford to start families or purchase homes. On average, people who earn bachelor’s degrees at public universities borrow $30,030. About 42.9 million American students who borrowed from the federal government owe an average of $36,406.
To make matters much worse, experts expect that student debt will continue to climb. No one seems to have an effective plan to curb the cost of education or help students pay for degrees without going into debt.
Employers can offer tremendous relief by adding student loan assistance and tuition reimbursement to their benefits plans. By agreeing to pay a percentage of a graduate’s loans, you can attract applicants with high levels of education. Tuition reimbursement programs make it much easier for your current employees to take college courses that will make them qualified for positions that require more skills.
If you need educated employees, tuition reimbursement and loan repayment assistance are win-win benefits.
Recommended reading: 9 Best Employee Benefits to Offer in 2021
Flexible Schedules – Employee Benefits That Don’t Add to Costs
You need employees to follow schedules so you can rely on them to work at specific times. People understand that you need them to follow schedules. But they also need their employers to understand that life doesn’t always cooperate with expectations.
Employees will feel less anxious when they can add some flexibility to their schedules. For example, you might give them an hour of flex time each month. When someone shows up 15 minutes late because of traffic or difficulties getting their kids to school, you deduct that time from the hour. No disciplinary action need.
Flexible schedules might sound inconvenient, but they can benefit you as well as employees. With strict scheduling, employees feel forced to take sick days when they know they can’t get to work on time. With flexible scheduling, they don’t have to take the entire day off.
Affordable Health Insurance – Required Employee Benefits for Some Businesses
Most people rely on their employers to help them access group health insurance policies that they can afford. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), most employers provide PPO (preferred provider organization) plans. These insurance policies mostly cover services that patients receive from specific doctors or healthcare groups.
Depending on your organization’s size, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) may require you to offer health insurance as a benefit to full-time employees. Unfortunately, ACA has complex rules that you might find difficult to implement.
Schedule a consultation with America’s Back Office to learn more about ACA compliance.
Paid Time Off (PTO) and Vacation Days
Employees need time away from work to enjoy themselves, travel with family, and take care of personal needs. When employees have vacation days, they can return to work feeling fresh and ready to tackle projects.
Your employee benefits should also include paid sick leave days. Otherwise, sick employees will feel like they need to come to work, where they can infect other people. It’s much better to let a sick person stay home and avoid spreading sickness among your staff.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that companies tend to give employees more vacation and PTO days as they spend more years working within the organizations. The average number of vacation days for all full-time employees come to:
- 8.1 days after one year of employment.
- 10.2 days after three years of employment.
- 11.9 days after five years of employment.
- 13.9 days after 10 years of employment.
When it comes to paid sick leave days, the average comes to:
- 8.0 days after one year of employment.
- 8.7 days after three years of employment.
- 9.5 days after five years of employment.
- 10.3 days after 10 years of employment.
Part-time employees might not earn any paid vacation or sick days. Adding them to your benefits package could help attract part-time workers who want to stay with your organization for years instead of hopping to the next job they find.
Advancement and Skills Development Opportunities
Most people want opportunities to advance their careers. They want to earn more money and feel challenged by their work. Adding skills development and advancement opportunities to your employee benefits package shows your commitment to helping employees evolve.
You don’t necessarily have to commit to tuition reimbursement for your employees to learn new skills. You could pay for them to attend weekend training seminars, assign them to mentors within your organization, or encourage them to shadow other employees.
As long as you show a commitment to an employee’s career, that person will want to stay within your organization. Otherwise, they will seek opportunities elsewhere.
Recommended reading: What Employers Need to Know About Workers’ Compensation Benefits
Schedule a consultation to talk about adding skills development to your employee benefits package.
How America’s Back Office Can Help
Choosing and managing employee benefits puts a lot of strain on your HR team. In the end, you might find that you need to hire more people to track vacation days, research health insurance plans, and identify training programs that help your employee develop the skills they need to move forward with their careers.
America’s Back Office can fulfill a broad range of features for your team, including 401k retirement services and guidance for ACA compliance. Schedule a consultation to learn more about how America’s Back Office can help improve your employee benefits package without adding to your administrative workload.
