The 7 Best Employee Benefits in 2015
By: Jordan Jolley (Zane Benefits) January 2015
Employee benefits are not only a good way to get candidates and current employees to love your company, but they’re essential to recruiting and retaining as well. So, we’ve rounded up seven of the most sought-after and best employee benefits in 2015.
1. Healthcare
When it comes down to it, the better your healthcare benefits are, the happier your employees are. In fact, according to a Metlife employee benefits study, 61% of employees who said they are “very satisfied” with their company were satisfied because of the health benefits. Having said that, you have a choice to offer employees group health insurance or a premium reimbursement for individual health insurance. But what are they?
Group Health Insurance: This is the traditional way employers offer health insurance. The company selects and purchases a group health insurance plan, or plans. Employees can choose if they would like to become part of their employer’s group health insurance plan.
Premium Reimbursement: A newer way to think about employer health insurance is to provide employees an allowance for health insurance – like a stipend or gift card. With this approach, the company provides its employees with a health insurance allowance or “contribution” to spend on their own individual healthcare – at an annual cost that the company controls. Employees choose and purchase the healthcare plan that works best for them, pay for the health plan with their own money, and are reimbursed for their premium up to the amount the employer has specified.
2) Retirement
Retirement benefits are another top type of employee benefit. They provide your employees with something to look forward to after retirement and more importantly, allow them to be sustained and live comfortably.
Though programs such as Social Security exist as a part of an employee’s retirement, most employees greatly value additional retirement programs that help them begin to save for their life after retiring from a job. Many employees often times forget to begin saving for retirement, but when you offer retirement plans and savings, it makes it possible to begin this important step.
3) Workplace Flexibility
Taking time off without pay can be financially straining if an unforeseen event should arise. As we wrote about previously, stress over money takes both a mental and physical toll on workers, increasing health related costs and decreasing productivity by a significant amount. As such, your employees hold flexible pay and schedules high in the various types of employee benefits. Furthermore, it’s not uncommon for one of your employees to fall ill. When this happens, knowing that you will allow time off to recover is comforting and reassuring to the employee.
4) Wellness Program
One of the biggest new employee benefit trends this year is building a company culture of health as a way to create and maintain a healthy and productive workforce. As such, many companies put wellness programs in place to keep their employees active, happy, healthy, and productive.
Some of these programs include a company gym, exercise classes, smoking cessation, stress management, and others. Overall, these programs are beneficial to the company simply because when employees are happy and healthy, productivity is generally higher. Wellness programs can save you money as well. In fact, health promotion programs can yield a three to six dollar return on your investment for every dollar spent over a two to five year period.
5) Tuition Reimbursement
Employees who embody a balance of work experience and education can be extremely successful in your company. Statistically, Americans with four-year college degrees made 98 percent more an hour on average than people without a degree. Additionally, employee development is important to employee retention, and to your company culture.
Knowing this, employees greatly value when you’re willing to pay for furthering their education. Many times, employees are promoted within their company soon after degree completion as well. Moreover, tuition reimbursement is one of the types of employee benefits that has a lasting effect on the employee and your company – producing educated employees that have the knowledge and experience necessary to handle their daily tasks effectively.
6) Company Outings
What better way is there to unite a company than to go out together and do things? Companies that hold get togethers or outings typically have the goal to build morale and comradery between employees and their families in order to establish deeper roots in the company.
Outings or get togethers can include dinners, sporting events, movies, or plays. And whether you hold them once a year or once a month -whatever your company is able to support- your employees will love getting together for a fun-filled evening.
7) Family Focus
Speaking of get togethers, employees love spending time with their families. As such, a family-focused company that allows employees time with family as a benefit is always appreciated and sought after.
