Providing reasonable benefits to your employees is a standard part of procedure. However, you want to do more than offer just the basics. Instead, you want to ensure that you examine the packages to offer your employees fair benefits for their work. Doing so can help to increase morale, which can then have a positive impact on the success of your business.
Compare Your Benefits
While other companies might not be willing to share the details of their employee benefits packages with you, try to find out what the standards are in your industry. Take into account that employees may have different benefits depending upon their positions and how long they have been with the company, so you will need to factor in these elements as well. You want your company to be desirable to the top prospective employees, and failure to offer a competitive benefits package detracts from that goal.
Survey Your Employees
If you want to know whether or not your employees perceive the benefits as fair, the best way is to ask them. Having outright conversations with them might not produce the most honest results, so consider the distribution of an anonymous survey. Keep in mind that disgruntled employees might express more harshness with their responses than is necessary. On the other hand, you can use these survey results to gauge average opinions of your benefits. If most of you employees are saying that the benefits package is unfair, then you likely need to make some revisions.
Equivalent to Work
You also need to assess whether the benefits you are offering are equivalent to the amount of work that your employees perform. For example, you may have some employees who work long hours for six or seven days out of the week. Providing them with a nominal amount of vacation days each year is unfair. Also, some of your workers may have no sick time or personal days because they are part-time or freelance employees. Consider how this time of benefits package can isolate some employees from the rest of the team and create tension in the business.
Coverage for Medical Care
Many of your workers are likely concerned about their medical care and expenses. Providing comprehensive benefits is a wise decision. You want to provide insurance, but you also want to provide insurance that is usable. For example, offering coverage through a carrier that many local doctors do not accept is a problem. In addition to providing coverage for your employees, you should examine if you offer it to their family members too. Failure to do so means that your employees might start looking for jobs where they can procure coverage for their children and their spouses.
What You Can Afford
Your ideal vision might include providing all of your employees with every benefit and perquisite that they need. However, that is not always possible due to budgetary constraints. Putting the financial future of your company at risk is not worth it. You might have the ability to offer more benefits now, but you may have to close down your business in the near future, causing all of these employees to lose their jobs. As the owner, you must find a balance that involves keeping your business in a healthy financial state and making provisions for the care of your employees.
Reviewing your employees benefits package is important because you want your workers to feel valued. When they feel as though you care about them and their needs, you are likely to see an increase in motivation, which can create more business and profits for your company.
Photo: Andy Nguyen / CC 2.0