Although employee benefits can run the gamut from retirement benefits to more vacation days, the most effective means to improving the ROI of your corporate employee benefits program is first to survey employees to find out their preferences. In certain respects, smaller businesses have a leg up on their larger counterparts because the former has a closer connection between managers and employees, or decision makers and beneficiaries.
Moreover, smaller businesses have the extra advantage of being better able to accommodate the sometimes quirky preferences of employees when it comes to benefits programs. It’s critical to gauge the preferences of individual employees before administering employee benefits, though, as there are cases in which perks like daycare might be very coveted whereas retirement benefits might play at best a secondary role, or vice versa.
Different Strokes for Different Employee Populations
Did you know that employee benefits are the second leading contributor to job satisfaction after job security? There’s also a strong link between an employee’s understanding of perks like disability and health insurance and their occupational engagement, or whether employees feel valued on the job.
There are actually some formulaic tactics employers can embrace to enhance the ROI of employee benefit schemes. The first has already been alluded to – offering employee benefits attuned to employee preferences, paying special attention to the composite makeup of the employee base of organizations.
For instance, a baby boomer employee may have different needs and responsibilities than a millennial employee. The baby boomer employee, who may be responsible for the healthcare of both offspring and parents, would probably respond more favorably to retirement benefits and long-range health insurance.
Voluntary Benefits and Stability to Improve ROI
Consider the contrast between the above and an on-the-go millennial employees who may want to take advantage of voluntary employee benefits such as pet insurance. It’s important to make the employee benefits both elective and stable. Employers shouldn’t later rescind benefits, because that conveys to employees that benefits are only present during easy times, perhaps as enticement to stay with the company or attract fresh talent.
Utilizing Technical Help and Being Creative
Administering employee benefit programs is an increasingly complicated morass of financial and legal challenges that may require the assistance of outside specialists. The goal when employing specialists to negotiate the complexities involved in designing and administering your employee benefits is to find technical experts who treat your benefits program as a service that will boost employee morale and enhance the company’s value.
Getting Employees Onboard
Perhaps the most important aspect of employee benefit programs is fostering a sense of understanding. Research shows that employees who understand these perks are more apt to report high employee loyalty.
Your employee benefit provider should use an array of communication mediums, from podcasts and handouts to more complex interactions online, to convey the pros and cons to each employee benefit offering.
Employees should then be given time to dissect each option, ask follow-up questions and finally pick the perk most suitable to their station in life and personal needs.
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