Employee Benefits Policies For Your Small Business

A new job or a career change may be the way for some of your staff this year, so how will you retain them? Staff resignations are not just distracting. They’re costly. It’s common knowledge that hiring new employees is more expensive than the cost of staff retention strategies, especially with specialist roles in niche areas that are hard to fill. Therefore, employers recommend starting each new year by reviewing and tweaking their company perks and benefits.

In an employee’s job package, the salary or wages are the most crucial factor in acquiring and retaining; however, it’s not the only consideration. Even with an above-average wage, the job can be hard to fill as workers want more from the job and the company. Why? There are more considerations to taking a job than just the salary. Is your small business including these employee benefits?

• Bonuses
• Insurances
• Flexible hours
• Remote working
• Employee development plan

Training and Development

One of the significant reasons to take a role with one business over another is their commitment to employee development. Does your small business have employee development plans? Progress within the company usually requires experience, additional skills and knowledge. Promoting from within your business makes sense for reducing hiring costs and staff retention. Commit to personalised training and development plans for employees.

Flexible Hours

Work-life balance plays a significant role in job assessment and careers. For example, in the professions, becoming a doctor seems glamourous, but that’s just the perception of the position from what is presented in TV medical dramas like ER and Grey’s Anatomy. Of course, a physician’s job in a hospital is much more than chats with patients, peers, support staff, and groundbreaking procedures! Therefore all posts have an element of monotony and what entices workers to stay in the role is their place of work, the company culture, and the perks and benefits.

Review Employee Benefits

Reviewing your employee perks and benefits every year is advisable. In some industries, you can check how competitive your employee packages (salary and bonuses) are in your industry and region every six months. Your company will likely need exclusive perks that are the USPs for your staff retention and generic benefits like paid leave, insurance and bonuses. Here are a few more apparent perks employees expect as part of their employment package.

Insurances

A few different types of insurance are offered to employees, including life, health, and disability.

Disability insurance is commonly considered a policy that can provide ultimate peace of mind should you become incapacitated and not fulfil your role. It’s big business, too, with many large companies like Aetna\ providing insurance to millions of workers in America.

However, it’s not a given that a claim will be approved; when a claim is denied, it’s a lengthy appeal process that requires legal representation. Therefore it’s the employer’s role to select an insurer with a great reputation as your employees will likely know if the provider is hard to deal with when injuries happen. Other types of insurance are more straightforward but nonetheless need inclusion like life insurance.

Maternity And Paternity Leave

Regardless of how large your business is, your employees should be granted adequate maternity and paternity leave as part of their basic contracts.

Even though this type of leave may seem somewhat standard, countless businesses opt not to offer employees maternity and paternity leave, resulting in unplanned absences. You can adjust the leave terms to suit your business and your employees, although avoiding offering this crucial employee benefit would be a devastating mistake.

Limitations For Employees Paid Overtime

You may feel that your employees are happy to clock in as much overtime as possible as they are paid for their efforts. However, risking employee burnout can devastate your business and your employees. For this reason, you should consider the well-being of each member of your team by capping the amount of overtime each member of your team is allowed to clock. Your limitation on overtime should allow your employees to rest adequately to ensure they can function at their best at all times.

Performance Bonuses

Even though you may feel somewhat reluctant to offer your employees performance bonuses as a benefit, the effort will pay off greatly. This benefit will also serve as a method of enhancing employee motivation and productivity.

Your employee will also feel appreciated as their extra efforts are rewarded, which means there will be little chance of your valued staff packing up their workspace to take their skills elsewhere.

There are countless benefits associated with treating employees fairly, so you should start by drafting suitable contracts that appeal to your team. Your employees are the backbone of your business, and therefore, they should be treated with as much appreciation and respect as possible.