Employers have faced a difficult situation during the pandemic—and that’s the challenge of holding onto employees. In fact, in November 2021, the U.S. Labor Department reported that around 4.5 million employees quit their jobs. However, they didn’t appear to leave their work for something new, as other research from USA Today reported that during the end of 2021, around 1.5 jobs were open and available to the unemployed. What this spells out for employers is that workers have no issues leaving—what’s important is taking steps to make them stick around.
Employee benefits make a big difference
To prove the value of a company, it helps to offer a rich employee benefits package. In the battle to retain talent, you can imagine employees can be easily lured away by a competitive offer from another company, especially if the worker is more than willing to leave in the first place.
What benefits are employees looking for?
It makes the most sense to offer the benefits that are most in demand with today’s employees. First and foremost, they need to be affordable. Offering benefit plans that are inaccessible and cost-prohibitive won’t encourage employees to use them, and certainly won’t help you retain workers. Instead, provide benefits at affordable premiums with reasonable deductibles (and supported by spending accounts to help employees cover health care costs).
Beyond that, employees are looking for the following:
- Retirement plans. Saving for the future never goes out of style. It gives employees peace of mind in the knowledge they’re planning for what’s ahead. A 401(k) allows workers to plan, and even better if you offer an employer match up to a certain percentage.
- Wellness resources. Gym reimbursement, biometric screening, on-site mammograms, flu shot clinics, weight management programs, access to dietitians or health coaches, on-site workout classes, healthy cafeteria and vending machine options, and much more are valuable to employees. By making wellness easy, you can improve health outcomes and lower associated medical expenses, too.
- Digital health care. Improving access to care encourages employees to use it—and services such as telehealth and health care apps are becoming increasingly popular. By providing digital options for workouts, healthy eating, medical advice, medication adherence, condition-specific support and mental health counseling are all attractive and valuable resources in an employee benefits plan.
- Flexibility in scheduling. Beyond the benefits plan, employees are looking for other perks. To be able to work around busy schedules and commitments to appointments and family, it helps to offer flexible scheduling. This allows employees to complete work on their own timeline while fitting in the rest of life’s demands.
- Hybrid work options. The pandemic ushered in requirements for remote work. Now that many are returning to the office, some workers have decided that they prefer a remote work situation, or at least a hybrid option. By offering this, you’ll make your workplace more attractive to employees, depending on their preferred workplace.
Aside from employee retention, what other risks does your business face?
It can help to have a risk assessment to understand and mitigate your business risks—and Odell Studner can help. To learn more, contact us today!
