This article is part 2 of a 5 part series titled A Guide to Building Better Benefits which is intended to help companies differentiate themselves as top employers in a competitive job market. This series was created to help promote CloudAdvisors newly launched BAR Score, where you can evaluate how effective, and competitive your current benefits plan is in seconds. In post 1 in the series, we established ten basic benefits every HR professional should know.
Recruitment and retention are extremely important to your organization’s growth. Employee benefits play a key role in these two areas. Employee benefits provide a way to showcase to both potential qualified applicants, and talented employees how much your organization cares about their value. Today, employees continuously search for employers with the best pay, benefits, and workplace culture.
Retention begins with recruitment, which follows the screening, application, and interview process. Failure to retain employees is costly for companies. The cost of turnover was estimated at $600 million in 2018 alone. And from the employee perspective, did you know that 4 out of 5 want employee benefits more than a pay raise? Therefore, one way to attract and retain talent is to offer compelling job benefits and leverage their use as a recruiting tool.
Benefits are an afterthought in the recruiting process
Though benefits are an effective part of recruitment, employers often only discuss employee benefits after the applicant has been hired. Surprisingly, only 22% of organizations promote employee benefits in their job description according to research done by GRiD. This is a missed opportunity. In other words, employee benefits should be communicated and advertised throughout the recruitment process in order to obtain top talent.
Here are five benefits to set apart your recruiting and retention:
1. Health Insurance
According to an SHRM survey, health insurance remains one of the top benefits that employees seek. Adding and communicating your health insurance into your employee benefit plan will help attract the best talent, because it helps them stay covered and feel secure whenever a medical emergency may strike.
2. Student Loan Repayment
With many millennials and Gen-Z’s in the workforce today, look to offer student loans to impress and attract candidates who face challenges associated with student debt. Student loan repayment in benefit packages is growing more popular. Successful organizations have made sure to consider employee demographics in their employee benefits.
3. Food Delivery and Credit
With many employees working remotely, employers are looking to add food delivery and credit as part of their health coverage. Food rewards can be a new and innovative way to continue supporting your employees who work from their home. It helps provide employees with more satisfaction, making them feel more connected to their wellness, ultimately preventing burnout.
4. Employee Assistance Programs
An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) helps employees navigate through a variety of life’s challenges at no cost. Whether they be health challenges, stress, student debt, or many more of life’s challenges, EAP’s support your employees wellbeing in both their personal, and professional lives and work to strengthen mental health in the workplace.
5. Wellness Apps
With mental health at the forefront of the employee experience, wellness apps can play a big role with their low cost and ease of accessibility. Employers can boost their mental health benefits with a wide variety of wellness apps available.
Employee Benefits at CloudAdvisors
Get the best benefits for your business with Canada’s largest employee benefits marketplace. Through an extensive list of benefit advisors and providers, explore the solution that works for you. Our marketplace has transparent, affordable, seamless, and fast benefits that make the most sense for your business, helping you recruit better with the greatest offerings.
Benefits play a fundamental role in the employee recruitment and retention process as it can play a huge role in their decision to either stay or join the company. Talent attraction requires altering your benefit offerings to help your organization have a strategic advantage over others.
These 5 benefits can help your company stay competitive so you can retain and recruit top of the line employees.
Resources:
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/benefits-are-often-an-afterthought-during-recruitment.aspx
https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/5-job-benefits-attract-quality-candidates/
How to Win the War for Talent with These 5 Employee Benefits & Perks
