To hire and retain employees, the best organizations often offer generous employee benefits. These benefits, however, can be counter-productive to turnover
When a company has spent time and money on hiring the best employees, it is very important for them to retain them as the cost of hiring is very expensive. One of the main ways in which organizations do this is by providing an attractive employee benefits package to keep employees from jumping ship. Although pay remains the most important form of compensation to employees, they are also looking at what else is on offer and how it will impact their decision to take or leave a job. At the top of the list of most benefits packages is health insurance. Dental and vision insurances also play into a prospective employees decision making process. Modern employees are looking for more benefits than have been offered in the past and employers are being forced to respond to these demands. Employees are looking for a number of additional benefits that can include flex spending accounts, child care and retirement plans. The addition of these additional benefits will make a position more appealing to a prospective employee and often keep employees working at a firm a little bit longer. Many small businesses mistakenly believe that they are unable to afford to offer benefits to their employees, but this is not always the case. While saving money on benefits will boost an organization's initial bottomline, it is not matched by the cost of constantly hiring new employees and training them in their roles.
Employee Benefits That Keep Employees From Leaving The Organization
Benefits That Increase Loyalty
Offering even a basic employee benefits package will make employees feel valued and rewarded for the work they do and will encourage them to be more productive and stay at a company. A good benefits package will encourage employees to be more loyal to the business, they will feel that they are being rewarded and also see the value in staying with a company especially if the level of employee benefits increases over time.
Increased Focus and Productivity
A lack of employee benefits can also decrease employee focus, morale and productivity as employees can be distracted by their personal lives and other external factors. If an employee already has piece-of-mind that the issues such as health and childcare are being taken care of, employees are able to focus more on their work, be more productive and will likely stay with that employer longer than they would have if less benefits were available.
Increased Attendance
Having good employee benefits will also encourage employees to turn up to work as the three major reasons for employee absenteeism are finances, family commitments or health issues, however if these issues are already covered by employee benefits, they will be less likely to occur in the first place.
Are The New Generation Of Employees Willing To Take Pay Cuts In Return For An Attractive Employee Benefits Package
In recent times it has been found that most millennials believe that compensation is more important to them in a job than the corporate mission of an organization. Although additional employee benefits such as free food, cutting edge technology, and flexible work schedules are very important to younger employees, it is the basic the benefits like health and dental insurance and eye care that place the highest in any survey conducted with employees. According to new research from survey software firm Qualtrics and Venture Capital most employees are willing to give up a small percentage of their salary in return for long-term job security and flexible employee benefits. The additional employee benefits that organizations offer like free food, cutting edge technology, and flexible work schedules, are huge selling points making modern companies desirable places to work. The survey also found that it would take a huge 20 percent increase in salary for an employee to even consider switching jobs.
Employee Benefits that are of the greatest value to employees:
- Health insurance
- Retirement savings plan
- Dental or vision insurance
- Life insurance
- Traditional pension or defined benefit plan
- Retiree health insurance
- Disability insurance
- Other health-related insurance
- Long-term care insurance