Employee Benefits
Choosing a Benefits Package for Your Business
When workers are looking for a job, benefits are essential to their decision. About 80% of workers would choose a job with good benefits over a job with a higher wage. No matter how small your company is, offering benefits is essential to attracting the right talent. You can use everything from paid time off to life insurance, health insurance, and more.
It can be challenging to manage employee benefits in a way that’s profitable for your company. That’s why a business financial advisor is a great choice. They can help you create a competitive benefits package without breaking the bank.
Why Employee Benefits?
Offering a competitive benefits package makes a huge difference when you’re posting new openings in your company. You’ll get a lot more interest from candidates if they know you have benefits beyond salary. Many job hunters will reject an offer if the benefits are subpar.Some job posting sites, such as LinkedIn, are introducing features so that candidates can filter jobs by available benefits. If you want to attract top talent, your benefits package is one of your strongest recruiting tools.
Having good benefits will also help your staff be happier on the job. The more satisfied your employees are, the better they will perform. Higher morale also leads to more productivity and profitability for your company.
Benefits also have a strong link with employee turnover. Turnover is extremely expensive—the cost to re-post, re-interview, and re-hire add up quickly. On top of that, high turnover damages the productivity and morale of other staff members.
As you can see, you can’t afford to overlook employee benefits if you want your company to succeed.
Choose the Right Benefits
Knowing which benefits matter most—and what you can afford—isn’t easy. It’s tempting to go to an extreme and either offer extremely generous benefits or be very stingy with them. Consider what benefits your competitors in the labor market are offering and which benefits are most important to your employees.
Offering paid time off, health insurance, disability coverage, parental leave, and more can get expensive. It’s also challenging to manage. Health plans alone come in many different forms and can be difficult to understand. And in the time you’re trying to become that expert, you’re not managing your company.
An advisor can help you determine the cost of each benefit and help you find the technology you need to manage it seamlessly. Once you have the right benefits in place, you’ll be much more comfortable recruiting and hiring new employees, and your top choices will be more likely to accept a job offer from you.
Understand Legally Mandated Benefits
Depending on the size of your business, providing certain benefits may not be optional. A company with five or more employees must provide worker’s compensation in case of an injury on the job. If you have twenty or more employees, you must provide COBRA insurance, meaning that if they lose their job, they must be able to continue their health insurance coverage for 18 months. And if you have 50 or more employees, you must offer health insurance or be liable for a fee.
All employers must pay also for unemployment insurance. In some states, disability insurance is also required. Some employees are entitled to family and medical leave, depending on how long they have been with your company.
It’s vital to know what the requirements are for your business so that you can stay on the right side of the law!
Consider Employee Ownership
Nothing motivates employees like having a stake in the company. Different versions of employee ownership are becoming a popular benefit. Studies show that employee-owned businesses consistently perform better. You can give employees a stake by offering company stock, by setting up a trust that manages stock for employees, or even making the entire business employee-governed. There are a number of different ways to make your employees part owners, and some may come with tax benefits.
Another advantage comes into play when you are ready to step down from management. After all your work setting up the business, you may not want to sell to a stranger or entrust it to a family member who doesn’t care about it the way you do. Who is as invested in the company as you are? Your employees.
There are myriad ways to arrange employee ownership legally, with different amounts of control and varying tax benefits. Talk to a financial advisor about what the options are for a company your size.
Get an Unbiased Viewpoint from an Advisor
As a business owner, it can be easy to get stuck on specific details of your benefit plan. Perhaps there’s a benefit you never had as an employee, and you’re determined to offer it now. Or, maybe you’re so focused on profits that you’re actually hurting your business and your employees.
Either way, a professional advisor can help. If you’re struggling to see the big picture, they can give you a long-term perspective. If you’re stuck on a particular detail, they can help you strike a balance between cost and benefits.
Having an outside perspective is priceless when it comes to making important financial decisions.
Make Creative Solutions with an Advisor
If you’ve been an employee in the past, you might only be familiar with traditional benefit options. As a result, you might not know of all the possibilities you could offer.
A business financial advisor can help you think outside the box. Perhaps you need specific benefits for key employees but not for everyone. Or, you can offer deferred compensation based on longevity.
Maybe remote work would be a cost-free benefit that would offer employees additional flexibility, or you could offer flex time instead of additional time off. All of these options help boost employee loyalty and retention. Work with a financial advisor to make creative solutions that are a win-win for both you and your employees.
Work with a Business Financial Advisor Today
When you talk to a financial advisor about employee benefits, you’ll end up benefiting just as much as your employees. A business financial advisor can make a big difference in how effectively you can offer benefits. They’ll help you evaluate which benefits are too expensive and what you can do instead. They can walk you through the legal requirements to make sure you’re treating your employees legally and fairly.
Are you ready to get started with a financial advisor? We can help you connect to the right professional for your needs. Contact us for more information today!
Learn more about the different types of benefits: