How Employee Benefits Can Boost Recruiting, Retention, and Reputation

In today’s job market, employers need to put significant effort into attracting the best and brightest talent. When you can’t always offer a higher salary than your competitors, a big difference maker can be found in your employee benefits. Recruiting and retention are areas that can be particularly boosted. Big-ticket benefits like health insurance are obvious favorites, but less expensive perks like flexible work and earned wage access also attract job seekers.

The Importance of Employee Benefits: Recruiting, Retention, and More

Employee benefits are indispensable, even in hourly jobs where they used to be less common. Keep your company fully staffed by making a visible investment in employee well-being.

Attraction & Recruiting

In less than five years, there has been a sharp rise in the number of job listings that advertise at least one benefit. Where less than 40% of listings featured benefits in 2020, that percentage has risen to 59% according to Hiring Lab by Indeed.

Unexpected perks and benefits help your job listings get more attention. Hourly workers may not expect generous benefits, and salaried workers will still notice perks that go beyond industry norms.

Retention & Loyalty

GlassDoor conducted a survey and found that, while 75% of employees said it’s “extremely important or very important” that their employer supports their well-being with great benefits–only 65% of workers are satisfied with their current benefits.

High turnover is a nightmare for HR and productivity. Make benefits practical and accessible to hold onto your experienced and motivated staff.

Morale & Productivity

Since at least 2019, the meme “Corporations Throwing Pizza Parties” has ridiculed how many employers offer cheap perks like pizza as a substitute for more impactful incentives like bonuses and raises.

Experienced workers appreciate your investment in useful benefits. As pay transparency becomes the norm in some states, perks and benefits let you reward high achievement without creating pay discrepancies.

Employer Brand & Reputation

The same GlassDoor survey found that nearly 70% of workers said it’s extremely (or very) important that their employer has a brand they’re proud to support.

Perks and benefits allow you to shape the company culture from the inside out. Job listings influence a company’s reputation, setting expectations for compensation and employee benefits. Recruiting and retention are greatly affected by your company’s reputation. Current and former employees will also share their experiences on review sites and within your community.

How to Build an Employee Benefits Package for Recruiting and Retention

The most popular benefits include health care and vacation time, but perks don’t have to be expensive. An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can help support mental health while offering different resources to different workers.

Health and Wellness

While the majority of companies offer some form of health insurance, only about 56% of employees trust their employer to get the best quality healthcare available. You can boost retention by making sure that current staff are reluctant to leave behind your generous health care benefits.

With telemedicine and remote services, employers can make services like counseling easily accessible. Fitness and wellness programs also promote healthier lifestyles.

Financial Security

Workers can’t focus on their job if they’re worried about their finances. Financial planning services help employees set aside funds for a rainy day. Life and disability insurance provide peace of mind for anyone with dependents. Newer payment options like daily pay and earned wage access cover unexpected expenses between scheduled paychecks.

Work-Life Balance

The pandemic taught many businesses how to create a hybrid work environment, supporting the option for remote work. In industries where remote work isn’t feasible, you can emphasize benefits like generous vacations and flexible working hours.

If you provide paid parental leave and support working mothers, parents won’t feel the need to choose between your company and their family.

Learning and Development

Self-motivated workers want to continue learning. Promote retention with upskilling, and employees won’t feel like they need to hit the job market in order to advance their personal careers. Encourage cross training between departments, reducing communication barriers and opening up new possibilities. 

Partnering with HR Technology for Employee Benefits, Recruiting, and Retention

Benefits administration can be intimidating. Use HR software to make employee benefits easy to access and easy to manage. 

Access

It’s not enough for your benefits program to offer quick phone response times. Your benefits administration software needs to be mobile-friendly. Other HR software for scheduling and timekeeping can also be accessed from smartphones. Employees appreciate the convenience when updating their policies or personal information. While traveling or during an emergency, remote access makes it easier to take advantage of benefits.

Education

Employees need to understand their options and how to use available benefits. Months (or years) after onboarding training, workers still need to be able to review and explore those resources.

Digital access to an employee handbook will answer some of the most basic questions, but a Learning Management System can make a wider range of materials available. Provide optional training material on changes to benefits, and you can upload your own walkthroughs in response to frequently asked questions.

Enrollment

Paper-based onboarding is increasingly obsolete, but the different digital systems are far from equal or interchangeable. Whether it’s an open enrollment period or onboarding for a new hire, nobody wants to repeatedly provide the same information. Integrated HR software automatically transfers employee information, reducing the opportunities for human errors.

Compliance

Regulations can change quickly at the local, state, and federal level. Your HR software provider should help you keep up-to-date with recent HR legislation and legal challenges. Automated software makes it easier to stay compliant. 

Calculations like base compensation, withholdings, and employee contributions need to be fast and accurate. Falling out of compliance can result in costly fines. Mistakes and miscommunication might even prevent employees from accessing the benefits they selected.

If you want to provide a great benefits package, then it’s not enough to pick a popular health insurance company. Your HR staff (and HR software) plays a huge role in making those benefits accessible and easy to understand. Considering the impact on recruiting and retention, investing in benefits administration software is the same as investing in the future of your company.

Discover how Netchex can help your organization with benefits administration, employee benefits, recruiting, and retention: