As an entrepreneur trying to grow your business, it is vital to attract the right top-notch talent that will help you achieve your vision and turn your dreams into a reality. Frequently, though, this is easier said than done. After all, this kind of talent isn’t necessarily common, and typically won’t just come walking in, asking to join your team.
More often than not, you will have to go out and find it. Not only that, but once you do find it, you will have to convince them to join your team by selling them on the vision you have for your company.
What many entrepreneurs forget about, however, are the secondary hurdles you must clear in the mind of a promising potential hire you hope to recruit. When you started your company, you are sure to have made trade offs and compromises in terms of things like financial stability and security compared to working for someone else in order to make your dreams possible.
However, while you made the tough choice that these costs were worth the risk in order to pursue your goals, this is not necessarily the case for others you hope to recruit to join your company. If you hope to recruit the high-level talent that will take your company to the next level, you need to remember the importance of employee benefits in recruiting and have them sorted out before it comes up in an interview.
Health Benefits
To put it plainly, if you do not offer employee health benefits, or only offer subpar options, you will miss out on great candidates.
That’s the bottom line.
Insurance
Due to the high costs of individual insurance plans, the complex and confusing marketplace to shop for those plans, and current ACA requirements for individual coverage, the lack of an employer health insurance option is enough reason for many great job candidates to not consider your company a viable option.
Even with the possibility of changes or a repeal of these ACA regulations currently up in the air, the possibility of going without employer health benefits is simply not an option for many people. Those with preexisting conditions, have spouses and/or children who depend on them for coverage, or are otherwise economically priced out of individual health plans will place employer health insurance higher on their list of priorities when making employment decisions.
By not placing an emphasis on not only providing benefits as an option for your employees, but providing adequate and competitive options, you are making yourself a less attractive or viable option to a large section of candidates.
Even if you offer competitive or higher wages than your competitors, discerning job candidates may not want to come work for you if the extra money they would earn is immediately swallowed up each month by additional health care costs.
FSAs, HSAs, and HRAs
If you truly want to go above and beyond your competition, and be able to recruit better talent, then a great way to accomplish this is with benefits that offer increased flexibility to their lives. This is especially effective if that flexibility comes in an area that has considerable potential to be a major point of stress and concern.
For many, health care is a prime example of such an area in their life—especially from a financial standpoint. This is why offering a benefit such as a Flexible Spending Account (FSA), Health Savings Account (HSA), or Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) is a fantastic way to set yourself apart and show that the benefits you offer are truly for the good of your employees. By giving your employees the ability to reduce the impact health care has on their wallets, you allow them greater flexibility and freedom with how they spend their money, which is something that everyone wants.
After all, life happens and it likes to throw curve balls—unexpectedly most of all. Frequently, these situations have a financial impact, but having an option to alleviate any amount of stress on your employees in this area can be a huge help, and one that will make your company an attractive option to those you hope to recruit.
PTO
As easy as it can be for entrepreneurs to forget sometimes, there is, in fact, life outside of work. Giving your employees the ability to live life with a greater degree of flexibility can be an essential tool to maintaining positive company culture and high levels of productivity.
Demonstrating an understanding of this concept by offering PTO can be a great way to make your company a more enticing option to better talent. Seeing that they will be afforded the ability to live their lives outside of work in this way, they will be more likely to see your company as a place where they can not only pursue their professional goals, but their personal ones as well.
By emphasizing the importance of this benefit as a foundation of your company’s culture in your recruiting and hiring efforts, you will give yourself an advantage in bringing in talent over your competition. Even after you have recruited and hired these employees, this company attitude will continue to be a great advantage, since they will be able to carry greater motivation while at work without feeling completely burnt out.
Instead, your employees will be able to get away for a while, enjoy life, and come back to work with their batteries recharged—ready and motivated to get back to work and go full speed ahead.
401(k)
When people think about their employment, they rarely do so without at least somewhat looking ahead to where they hope to be in the future. Everyone has their own dreams and aspirations they hope to one day achieve, and a huge factor in making that a future reality for most people is financial stability. One great way to appeal to this desire when recruiting is by offering a 401(k) to your employees.
There are many reasons your small business should be offering a 401(k), and both recruiting and retention are among the strongest of those. Offering a 401(k) is a great way to set your company apart from the competition when it comes to hiring the strongest candidates available. As we wrote back in February,
“Employees looking for a new job probably have their eggs in a few baskets at the time you’re interviewing them. If they’re looking at two promising opportunities, they’re probably going to compare benefits packages. A strong savings plan like a 401(k) is a valuable bargaining chip in the hiring process.”
In fact, studies have previously shown that almost 40% of employees currently at a job without a 401(k) being offered said they would leave their current job for one where a 401(k) is offered. This is despite less than 20% of employers in the same study believing a 401(k) would prevent an employee from leaving.
Simply put, if you are not offering a 401(k) to your employees, you put yourself at a serious disadvantage when it comes to recruiting the kind of top-notch talent you hope to land.
As an employer, if you can’t demonstrate that you are invested in your employees’ future, then they are unlikely to become invested in your company’s future.
Take a Look at The Ultimate Employee Benefits Guide
How a PEO Can Help
As it becomes more and more competitive every day to attract the talent you need for your business, a strategic partnership with a PEO could be just what you need to give your company the edge to beat out the competition when it comes to using employee benefits in recruiting.
You will not only have access to the benefits you need at competitive pricing, but you’ll get the HR infrastructure and experienced support to keep your employees and you focused on what you do best. Here are some ways that a PEO can help.
Health Benefits
- Find better and more competitive plans to offer your employees.
- Navigate complicated ins and outs of health benefits stuff so you don’t have to, saving you time and worry when it comes to administrative and compliance concerns.
- Make better plans available to you than would be on your own because of the co-employment model.
- Answer any questions you or your employees may have with years of experience, knowledge, and expertise to back it up.
PTO
- Take care of timekeeping for your company so that you don’t have to worry about things like tracking PTO accrued or used.
- Handle payroll so that employees are paid correctly and on time.
- Save you time away from running your company to process and focus on payroll and PTO.
401(k)
- Avoid things like hidden fees, setup and annual fees, paperwork, compliance headaches, and liability of investments performing poorly might make a 401(k) seem not worth the hassle.
- A PEO provides the multiple employer advantage and administration services.
- The co-employment model means you and the PEO share ownership of the plan, which offers small businesses much-needed protection.
- No administrative headaches, the PEO takes care of necessary compliance and paperwork for you.
- You only have to pay one simple and affordable annual enrollment fee.
- Enrollment is easy. You simply select your plan options with the PEO and serve as a co-sponsor of the plan.
