5 Reasons For Employees To Start Benefits Planning

employee benefits planning

Many people look mostly at the salary when they're searching for jobs without realizing that jobs usually offer another form of compensation: benefits!

This can be anything from standard benefits like health and life insurance plans to money for commuting, free gym and pool, or daycare services for single parents.

Whether you are a brick and mortar business or an e-commerce site, it is a good idea to think about business benefits. After all, offering benefits can mean the difference between hiring someone and losing them to another company, so why not put some thought into your benefits planning now?

That is where we come in with our handy guide to employee benefits planning, where we will give you insider tips about why it is necessary to plan benefits for new and existing employees.

Ready to learn and earn? Let's get into the big benefits below.


How to Set Up Employee Benefits Planning

Before we talk about the advantages of having employee benefits, let's talk about how to even start your employee benefits planning journey in the first place.


Determine Budget and Benefits

The first step might be the easiest in the planning phase: you need to figure out what kind of budget you have for benefits, as well as what kinds of benefits that budget will allow.

It helps to think of these two things together because they are so closely related - after all, a small budget might not be able to afford a lot of extra perks outside of necessary benefits like health insurance and paid time off.

On the other hand, if your budget is large, consider throwing in some things to sweeten the pot like remote work time, customized logo clothing for employees, holiday parties, etc.

It's also a good idea to plan budget and benefits at the same time because then there will be no hollow promises - it would feel pretty awful to tell an employee you offer 401k match and realize later there's no room for that in the budget.


Shop Around for Providers

Once you've figured out a budget and a benefits package, it's time to start window shopping. 

Interestingly, a lot of financial and payroll benefits providers offer free trials, so don't be afraid to test out a few before making a decision.

With other benefits, make sure you understand the playing field of that benefit - going with the absolute cheapest option might tempt you, but it's not worth it in the long run if the coverage they provide isn't adequate.

On the other hand, a more expensive service doesn't always provide an equally more quality end product.


Implement the Benefits Package

Once you've selected benefits providers, that's basically it - now you just need to start advertising that benefits package on jobs, as well as offering it to your employees.

We know how to set it up now - what about the advantages of employee benefits planning?


Advantages of Employee Benefits Planning

You might be thinking that employee benefits planning costs you a lot of money as a business owner without a lot of obvious benefit to you. You couldn't be more wrong!


Low Turnover

Benefits packages can be designed to be a significant influence on whether or not employees leave a company. After all, the salary is one thing, but benefits can define an employee's quality of life in a completely different way than the amount of money an employee makes.

Doing some in-depth employee benefits planning can serve to keep your employees, the heartbeat of your business, happy and in the same place (working for you).


Healthy, Happy Employees

When people don't have health insurance, they often have to skip going to the doctor even when it's absolutely necessary (or be put in a mound of debt). Your benefits package can impact not only that person's ability to get healthcare but to be happy about it as well.

Think about it: your employees just went from not being able to afford routine doctor's visits to being able to afford them whenever they need. That means a more healthy, productive employee, which in turn makes the employee happy. After all, they're not crushed by medical debt.


Creates Great Business Appeal

Employee benefits planning doesn't only do wonders for your existing employees - it's actually a positive in regard to finding new (and highly skilled) employees as well.

One key role of a benefits package is to attract great new employees, and the strength of your benefits package can significantly alter the landscape of new hiring. Ultimately, what you're doing is standing out from the crowd, saying, "Come here, we've got the good stuff."

That's often more than enough to attract dedicated, well-trained workers to your business, which is much more effective for your business than hiring unskilled labor and training them.


Job Performance

Lastly, a great benefits package can serve to create loyal, dedicated employees, especially depending on the benefits.

While many benefits come standard (like health and vision insurance), depending on your benefits package, you might even be able to create reasons for your employees to love coming to work.

People often talk about Google's headquarters - how the cafeteria is amazing and free, or how there are relaxation stations and other such benefits. While you don't have to go full Silicon Valley with it, there's a lot to be said for offering fun, interesting benefits to your employees when they're at work.

This, in turn, makes them work harder and keeps them loyal - after all, why would they want to leave a company that provides them with so much cool stuff?

At the end of the day, benefits are just that: they are perks of working at a place. So while we take some of them for granted, employee benefits planning doesn't have to only be boring - in fact, it can be pretty fun, especially for employees.


Now What?

Now that you're an employee benefits planning expert, why not learn more?

Check out some of our other great business and human resources blog posts, and contact us if you have questions or concerns. 

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