Simply put, adding employee benefits to a company can benefit you, your employees, and your shareholders all at once. In the modern workplace, it is imperative to provide at least a baseline level of benefits to everybody within a company. Because of this, we felt it necessary to put together a complete guide to doing so efficiently.
Step 1: Determining a Budget
If we had to guess, one of the most important aspects to you of your employee benefit program is the cost. While we’re sure you want to bring your employees the best benefits you can, sometimes they’re just not affordable. However, here are some things to take into consideration:
- These programs can directly cause an increase in productivity, therefore raising your bottom line and allowing you to scale faster
- Employee benefit programs decrease retention, which will save you money in recruiting and onboarding bonus costs.
Because of these often overlooked secondary benefits, we recommend that you still provide as many benefits as you can without breaking the bank. Budgets will, of course, vary on the businesses revenues, number of employees, and other factors but a great way to map these out is through detailed excel sheets.
Step 2: Deciding What Benefits to Offer
So now you’ve got your budget- but what exactly should you offer to your employees? It may seem easy to just pick a few out that sound good to you, but it may be better to take more of an in-depth approach. One way of doing this is surveying your current employees to find out what benefits would bring them the most happiness and security. This gives them a voice within the company and allows them to have a say in what benefits they’re provided. For some help in determining what benefits are currently available, we compiled a list of a few common ones:
Health insurance: Health insurance is a go-to when thinking about the best benefits to provide to your employees. While many conventional health insurance plans can be expensive, companies like Vitable make providing healthcare to employees significantly less expensive.
Paid time off (PTO): Paid time off allows employees to spend time on vacations or with loved ones without having to worry about their income being affected. It’s also very enticing for potential candidates who value a work-life balance.
Retirement plan benefits: Employees who are trying to plan for their retirement are incredibly likely to value a company’s commitment to their long-term goals. Providing some form of salary-matching or other retirement benefit can help employees feel more secure about their future finances.
Flexible work schedule: There are likely instances for almost any employee that impede upon their ability to work at a specific time. Providing flexible and task-oriented work as opposed to a strict schedule can allow employees to schedule their work around a plan that works for them.
Dental insurance: Dental costs can be sneaky, especially for people that weren’t expecting to have to pay them. Providing dental insurance to employees helps alleviate some of the stress that comes with these unexpected costs.
Vision insurance: Employees with visual impairments or that begin to experience them have the possibility of paying high costs as a result. Providing vision insurance helps employees feel less stressed about the costs associated with any visual impairments.
Life insurance: Many people worry about providing for their family or loved ones in the case of their unexpected death or another emergency; this can leave them anxious about the possibility of situations like this arising unexpectedly. Providing life insurance for employees can help them relax more because their family now has a safety net in case something happens to them.
Paid family leave: Paid family leave allows employees of a company to take time off so they can provide for family members who are ill or otherwise in need of assistance. Bringing this into a company shows that the managers/owners truly care about their employees’ family health.
Mental health benefits: Mental health issues can negatively affect employee retention, productivity, and the overall wellbeing of a company. Making sure that employees have access to any available mental health resource that they need is imperative to operating a successful business. Accessing Vitable for your employees is a great way of bringing them helpful, accessible, and affordable mental health care.
Professional development and education benefits: There are a slew of productive educational benefits available for you to provide to your employees, from GED classes to covering their MBA study. Regardless of what program you choose, prioritizing the personal growth and positive development of your employees is a win-win for your business.
Disability insurance: Providing insurance for current or future disabilities is a productive way of caring for their needs. Doing this can help accommodate for whatever their disability may require. It shows respect, care, and empathy for employees with disabilities and allows your workplace to become a more inclusive one.
Additionally, you can provide employee perks that are a little more low-cost. These can improve overall morale and further allow employees to feel empowered and cared for. Here are a few examples:
Company-Wide Wellness Activities: Offering employees the opportunity to
participate in Employee-led activities such as yoga classes, mindfulness exercises,
walking clubs, etc., is a great way to foster relationships amongst staff members and
provide a fun, fresh way for employees to stay active!
Mandatory Breaks: Forcing employees to take a break is a great way to avoid
employee burn-out and let them know you value their well-being.
Healthy Snacks: A great way to keep your staff happy is by always ensuring they've
got a full belly. Keeping a stockpile of healthy snacks tucked away is a great way to
ensure you keep your staff energized.
Gym Memberships: Offering to reimburse employees for gym memberships is ideal
for supporting your staff's health goals without shoaling out loads of cash on the
front end.
Health Challenges / Initiatives: Turning healthy living into a competition is a great
way to keep things fun and improve employee health at the same time (be sure it
doesn't end up like the weight loss challenge from the TV show the Office).
Paid Sick Leave: Offering employees paid sick leave ensures that they prioritize their
health and show that you care about their health.
Dedicated Room(s) for Nursing Mothers: Depending on the business, providing a
room for nursing mothers shows you're a supportive employer and offers new
mothers privacy to fulfill their motherly duties.
Family Picnics & Events: Finding any excuse to get co-workers to spend time out of
work is a great way to build relationships with your staff and strong company culture.
Flexible Hours / Remote Work: Giving parents with children an option for flexible
work hours / the ability to work (if possible) is a great way to continue working
without affecting their ability to be a great parent!
New Parent Welcome Back Packages: Rewarding new parents with a welcome back
package will show prospective parents that you support their family plans and that it
won't affect their career trajectory.
Company Days Of Service: Days of service are a great way to do good in the
community and give your staff an excuse to spend time together and build a strong
culture.
Time-Off For Volunteering: Rewarding employees for doing good deeds promotes
your culture and shows employees you care about them and the community.
Company Food Drives / Charity Events: Food drives and charity events are a great
way to get your staff to work on something together outside of work and help to
foster long-term relationships.
Casual Fridays: Simple yet effective. Casual Fridays are a great way to get employees
excited to come to work.
Bring Your Pet to Work Day: You know how important an animal can be if you're a
pet owner. Allowing employees a day to bring their four-legged friends to the office
shows you care and offers a great therapeutic benefit as well.
Book Clubs / Company Library: Book clubs are a great way to get employees to
engage with each other and provide a resource that allows employees to grow.
Employee of the Month Parking Spots: While it may be a bit tacky, having an
employee of the month encourages employees to always perform at their best.
Regardless of the prize, an employee of the month program will engage employees
and drive friendly competition.
Company Happy Hours: Bringing employees together at the end of the week to
share a drink will help co-workers build relationships and provide an environment to
destress after the work week.
Lunch & Learns: Finding experienced industry professionals to come in and speak
with employees is a great way to show employees different career paths in your
industry and provide valuable insights to your staff.
We hope this list helps inspire some ideas for your own employee benefit plan! One you decide which ones to implement, it's on to the next step.
Step 3: Determining Total Cost and Comparing to Your Budget
While this step is pretty self-explanatory, it’s still a vital one to follow. Piecing together an employee benefit plan can be complicated as you likely had to shop through several options for each benefit. After finalizing your choices for each benefit, compare those costs to the costs you allocated in your budget to make sure that you’re not spending more than you expected. If your costs align with your budget, then it’s time to implement!
Step 4: Organizing and Implementing Your Employee Benefit Plan
Once your plan is put in place, it’s time to organize it; while these benefits don’t necessarily require this step, you might as well get some recruiting benefit from your benefit package! Put together some form of marketing collateral that allows you to effectively communicate your benefits package to recruits and employees.
Once this is done, you can begin to implement your amazing benefits package to the people working within your organization! This process varies case-by-case as the benefits often have to be initiated individually. For some cases, like with Vitable, this process may take a relatively short amount of time. For others, like with conventional insurance companies, you may have to set aside some time to work on this. Regardless, making sure you follow through as promised on your employee benefits plan is imperative to retaining employee trust.
Step 5: Enjoy the Benefits!
We hope that after implementing this employee benefits plan, you enjoy an increase in retention, productivity, and overall company success. After all, the statistics show that if you did it right, you will. At Vitable, we feel that employee benefits plans are a win-win-win-win; your employees are able to enjoy the benefits of your plan, you are able to enjoy their increase in productivity, your customers enjoy a better product or service experience, and your shareholders enjoy an increase in company value. If you found this guide helpful, feel free to share it and if you have anything you feel needs to be added, reach out and let us know. Best of luck and we hope this adds value to your company!
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