It’s definitely an employee’s market these days, much to the dismay of many employers. Some businesses are finding it to be quite difficult to find help these days, let alone good help. That’s a real problem, especially for jobs that you can’t afford to have just anyone fill. So what can you do to attract the people who will be the best employees to your business? The answer might be in the benefits you offer.
Paid Time Off
There’s been a huge shift in the attitude people have towards work over the last several years. While previous generations seemed to be content to live to work, with life revolving around their employment, today there is more of an emphasis on working to live, or working in order to enjoy life. Life no longer revolves around work, but is rather a means to an end. That’s the way employees want it, and if you want to attract the best of the best, that’s what you need to give them. You need to understand that life happens, and even when it doesn’t, it’s still important to be able to take time for vacations and mental health. Offering employees PTO, vacation days, and sick leave can help employees feel more satisfied with their job. On average, PTO starts at 10 days out of the year and goes up from there. If you want to really stand out, however, you might consider offering unlimited PTO.
Paid Family Leave
FMLA leave can be a real boon to those who are growing their family. It protects the job of an employee who has to be away from work for qualified medical and family reasons. Something like bringing home a newborn baby can go so much smoother when both parents are able to take time off of work and be at home. It’s helpful for both bonding and recovery, and the more time that can be taken, the better in many cases. FMLA leave doesn’t guarantee paid leave however, which can lead to one or both parents feeling a need to return to work for financial reasons before they and their newly expanded family are ready to. Employees want to feel like they are valuable to their employer. If you want to show your employees that you care about them outside of work, thereby attracting some of the best, offering paid FMLA leave is an excellent way to start.
A Retirement Plan
Social security may have seemed like a viable retirement supplement back when it first started, but not so much to many people today. It’s not too uncommon these days to hear workers belonging to the Gen Z and millennial generations grumbling about not seeing any of the money they’ve paid into the program by the time they retire. That might not be entirely true, but the fact remains that starting to plan for retirement early can make a huge difference in your financial comfort in retirement. As an employer, you can help by including a retirement plan as a part of the benefits package you offer your employees. Go the extra mile by offering to match their contributions. You’ll attract better potential employees while also reducing your tax liability.
Health Insurance
The best employees take good care of themselves. That means doing things like getting regular physicals, attending regular dental appointments, taking care of their vision, and seeing a healthcare professional when needed. All that can be expensive, especially if you don’t have health insurance, which doesn’t come cheap either. That’s one of the reasons why people tend to look for jobs that offer health insurance plans as a part of their benefits packages. If you really want to attract the best, however, a basic, run-of-the-mill insurance plan isn’t going to cut it. Healthcare plans should provide specialized care such as dermatology services. Including dental and vision is just a given.
Flexible Scheduling
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the struggle of balancing work and family life into sharp relief. The shortage of available childcare resources isn’t helping anything, and neither is the rising cost. Some parents are having to find ways to work around that. One of the things employers can do both to help and to attract the best employees is to allow for flexible scheduling. Allowing flexibility in start and stop times can make a huge difference for employees with families. Even those who don’t have families can benefit. After all, no one likes being stuck in rush hour traffic. Go the extra mile and offer employees the option of working remotely if the job allows it.
Performance Bonuses
Few things can suck your soul quite like being stuck in a job where you know your efforts go unnoticed and are unappreciated. It’s not enough to just say, “Good job,” every once in a while. That’s definitely not going to cut it if you truly want to attract the best employees, let alone retain them. Think about it – why do people really show up to work? At the end of the day, for most people it’s going to be to collect a paycheck. Offering performance bonuses, whether in the form of extra PTO, an actual bonus to their pay, gift cards, or some other incentive can be a great way to encourage better performance, show your employees that you are paying attention to the work they do, and that you’re actually willing to reward them for it.
The truth is that there are plenty of things that attract people to come work for any particular business. Interest in the industry, proximity to home, and truly competitive pay are just some of the things that people look for when searching for a company to work for. All too often, however, businesses find that that alone isn’t enough. Competitive benefits packages are becoming less of a perk and more of a requirement if you want to actually attract the best of the best to your business. Take a look at the benefits your business offers. How do they stack up?
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