Attracting and retaining the best employees is likely of the utmost importance to you and your business. There are many ways to show your employees you care. One of the most effective ways is through offering voluntary benefits as part of your health insurance plans.
Looking for ways to attract the best employees in a market where thousands of employees have been laid off? Offering voluntary benefits adds a level of insurance coverage that many workers have not previously had access to. Benefits beyond the traditional 401(k) and health insurance are vital to attracting the right talent for your business.
What exactly are voluntary benefits?
Voluntary benefit plans are offered through the employer, but are paid, either partially or solely, by the employees. These benefits are typically paid through payroll deductions. Some of these plans offer group rates that employees cannot typically get on their own.
Why do employees look for employers who offer voluntary benefits?
Not only do voluntary benefits help your existing employees, but also your future employees. When you offer competitive voluntary benefit packages to your workforce, great talent will be more likely to join your team.
At SBMA, our benefit plan offers voluntary benefits that most employees will need. Your employees are the backbone of your business, so treat them right! Our plans can be modified to include dental, vision, life, hospital indemnity, accident, and critical illness coverage. Contact us today to see how voluntary benefits packages can improve your company’s ability to attract and retain the best employees.
Keeping employees engaged and excited about work can be a difficult task for some employers. There are a few things you can do as a leader within your organization to foster employee happiness. One of the main ways is to offer voluntary benefits. Employees are looking for insurance when they are looking for a company that will serve them, but they also require additional benefits, and other creative approaches to benefits. In the article below, you will see the best ways to keep employees engaged and excited about work, and how important it is to offer more than just health insurance. At SBMA, we have insurance options that include vision, dental, and other voluntary benefits. Check out our plan options here!
The Best Ways to Keep Employees Engaged and Excited About Work
Attract ENGAGE Retain.
An engaged workforce is a productive workforce.
But you can’t force someone to be engaged.
Once you’ve got a candidate through the hiring, onboarding and training process, you really want to retain them. But what about two years in, five years in. What do you do as a company to re-engage and thereby retain your staff?
People are engaged when they feel they make a difference. People are engaged when they feel appreciated. People are engaged when they feel a sense of purpose. People are engaged when they feel aligned with the company’s values.
So, here are 6 ways to align yourself as a company for the best possible chance of engaging, inspiring, and thereby retaining your workers.
Intentional culture takes time and effort to build and only a small amount of neglect to destroy. On that happy note, we’ll say, Happy retaining!
Encouraging and engaging employees can make a huge impact on your company’s culture. If you feel your company could use some adjustments to your current company culture, Culture Works can help!
Voluntary benefit plans are an important part of employee insurance opportunities. Among these voluntary benefits, vision and dental insurance are an important part of employees voluntary benefit plans. How can vision and dental plans add value to your employees’ wellbeing? Here are a few ways:
Vision:
Dental:
At SBMA, we provide voluntary benefits that employees love. To learn more about our voluntary benefit programs, contact us today!
Employees can choose from a number of insurance products to complement their coverage and to help achieve a greater degree of stability. Worksite Benefits (voluntary coverage) plans may be 100% paid for by employees or cost-shared with the employer. Here’s why worksite benefits benefit everyone.
Creating a more comprehensive and competitive benefits package is good for the employer as they attract better talent, good for the employee as they get improved coverage and good for the broker who is providing cost-effective solutions. In 2017 nearly half of large employers offered at least one of the three major voluntary benefits: accident, critical illness, and hospital indemnity.
Enrollment in voluntary benefits can be streamlined by offering these benefits at the time of enrollment in a MEC or other benefits plan, by ensuring ease of use in a portal or enrollment documents and by informing employees of the benefits of Worksite Benefits. .
Voluntary benefits generate commissions that can be used to fund overall benefits administration costs and project work done by TPAs that would otherwise be paid by the employer.
On the employer side, there has been a national push for physical and financial wellness initiatives. Employers are recognizing the increased stress their employees deal with on a day-to-day basis and are offering solutions. Stress costs American businesses more than $300 billion a year.
Employees want to have more control when it comes to deciding which options are useful for them.
When employers offer a wide range of benefits that address physical and mental health and wellness issues, employees can adapt the package to fit their lifestyle needs.
Employees want a benefits package that feels personalized to them, so that they feel like they An Aflac survey found that employees who were offered voluntary benefits were 19 percent more likely to be satisfied with their job – and 14 percent less likely to be job searching.
The wide array of technology providers offering more streamlined technology also makes voluntary benefits easier to implement for employers and brokers. Online enrollment, automated processing of administrative tasks and the ability for employees to “self-serve” all make the voluntary benefits enrollment process more attractive to employees and employers.
Voluntary benefits are only going to increase in popularity for employers and brokers of all sizes as they become more essential in the lives of employees. Isn’t it time to take a look at your benefits offerings and make sure they are competitive? Call SBMA today.
The Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010, ensured that everyone was able to receive health insurance regardless of if they have pre-existing health conditions or for any other discriminatory reasons. This Act gave employees the ability to leave their employers if the only reason they were staying was insurance reasons. Employees who were stuck in their jobs to receive benefits now had the opportunity to look for opportunities elsewhere.
When employees leave a company, that company incurs many costs to their business, in addition to the added inconvenience. A study done in 2016 by the Society for Human Resource Management discovered that the average cost for companies to find replacement employees is $4,129, including turnover costs, and the average 42 days of lost productivity to find a new employee.
If that employee holds a job that requires higher skills, that number increases, according to the Center for American Progress. The economic cost for finding a replacement goes from 5.8% of a year’s compensation to up to 213% for a highly skilled employee.
So how does a company prevent employees from leaving their company?
In short, the answer is simple: offer better benefits. While the ACA ensured benefits for all, you can differentiate your company by providing great options for their benefits.
Around 75% of employees said that being able to customize their benefits package based on their specific needs is an important consideration they take when accepting a new job. Not only will it attract new people to your company, but 88% of employees say that the ability to customize their benefits package leads to higher overall job satisfaction.
With these statistics in mind, if you offer voluntary benefits like vision, dental, accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and life insurance options for your employees, you will be able to retain and attract great employees.
At SBMA, we want to help you attract and retain those employees. Contact us to get started on your employee benefits packages.
There are many options to consider when choosing what coverage you would like to include in your group benefits plan. When considering the purchase of voluntary benefits versus buying group benefits options, you need to understand the advantages and disadvantages of both. Here are a few significant differences that will allow you to make a more informed decision.
These are some considerations to take when looking for policy options. You may not be able to decide whether or not your employer offers group or voluntary benefits; this should help you navigate your policy. Inform yourself about what your policy provides, and you will be better suited to get the coverage necessary for you. Contact us for more information.
Including options for voluntary benefits and supplemental benefits is quickly becoming the norm for most employers who offer health insurance to their employees. As an employer, attracting the best talent and keeping them is of the utmost importance to maintaining a successful business. Over the last few years, there has been an increase in demand for voluntary benefits. While major medical coverage is the foundation of a good employee benefits program, it’s important to ask the question: how can I use these voluntary benefits to make my company more attractive to new prospects?
Most employers view voluntary benefits as a way to provide a choice to their employees, to offer options for their diverse workforce, and to ensure that their employees are happier and healthier. Employees need solutions that they can cater to their specific lifestyle.
Some voluntary benefit options include hospital confinement, accident, critical illness, disability, cancer, legal services, identity theft protection, and commuter benefits. Some employees will enroll in every type of coverage available.
This shift in regard to voluntary benefits could be attributed to employers wanting to offer holistic coverage that supports their benefits strategy. Employers can align their benefits with their overall company offerings and values.
With multiple generations involved in their workforce today, an employer must offer benefits that would cater to each of their needs. Those who are older might consider traditional benefits packages to be sufficient, but younger generations might prefer voluntary options.
Enrollment portals allow employers to offer both core benefits and voluntary benefits in one place. This gives employees the flexibility of changing their plans whenever they need to and educate employees on how to choose the benefits that align with their needs.
Not only do these benefits allow your company to attract and retain talent that will benefit your company in the long run. For more information on how you can offer the best, affordable benefits to your employees, contact us.
Offering employees the benefits they want and need is one of the best ways to retain talent and improve your employees’ satisfaction. There is a large portion of employees who view benefits as an essential factor in their satisfaction with their job and company. So, what employee benefits can you implement that will differentiate you from your competitors? Here are a few options:
Retirement benefits: 401(k) and defined-benefit plans are becoming more important in retaining talent. The incoming workforce of younger employees views retirement benefits as an important factor in deciding whether or not to take their job. Glassdoor found that as companies increase their retirement benefit programs by 1 star, the employees experience a .08 star increase in satisfaction.
Wage increases: Increases in wages can increase employee satisfaction. Some companies choose to forego traditional group benefits and raise employee wages instead. While this seems like an excellent solution to improving employee satisfaction, if you decide to forego any benefits program, it might cause employees to look elsewhere. Employers expect the additional wages to be spent on benefits, but employees may not spend that money to account for a benefits program. Employees typically do not see wage increases as a replacement for benefits.
Transportation benefits: Commuting can be a hassle for many employees across the U.S. Employees may dislike it so much that they decide to look elsewhere for a job closer to their home. Transportation benefits may mitigate this hassle and help employees justify a commute. Companies that offer a supplement for transportation cost are viewed as better places to work. Not many employees provide these benefits so that it could differentiate you from the rest.
Bring your device programs: These programs employees can use their own devices for work-related purposes. Companies can also offer to reimburse employees for any costs that incur with their devices. While this is seen as a benefit to its employees, it also can reduce the costs of buying devices for your workforce. The satisfaction increases when companies offer to reimburse employees for their expenses, like their phone bill.
Traditional Group Health Insurance: This is the most valued benefit program for employees. Employees increasingly desire healthcare benefits that are customized to their needs. Offering different options depending on the lifestyle each employee lives can increase employee satisfaction significantly.
Education Benefits: Educational assistance from companies gives employees a greater feeling of importance. More and more employees desire additional education benefits. These benefits could be in the form of tuition reimbursement or paid job training. With these types of benefits, employers must ensure that they are offering robust education options to ensure their employee’s happiness.
Employee benefits can allow employees to feel cared for and important within their company, which leads to higher company satisfaction. For more information on how to offer the best, most affordable options for your employees, contact us.
Information about group benefits is often convoluted and can be difficult to navigate. Employees do not always want to read through their benefits package or read through the long emails associated with benefits communication. Clear communication as to what benefits employees are receiving and how they can maximize the use of their benefits will increase employee satisfaction. How can you communicate employee’s group benefits more clearly to improve your employee experience?
First, write simply. Stay away from technical jargon to inform your employees of their benefits. Most people do not care about the technical aspects of their benefit plans, they just want to know what it can do for them. In order to communicate clearly and effectively, you must use familiar language for all audiences.
An aspect of putting benefit jargon simply is using real-world examples to explain how the benefits will improve their lives. Give tangible real examples of how these benefits have improved others’ lives so they can put themselves into that example. People innately respond to stories. Ensure that they are relatable so they can really envision themselves in the example.
Putting a personalized touch to your communication will also create a more emotional connection to what you are communicating. You should segment your communication based on who you are talking to. Small tweaks to your message and communication methods could drastically improve your employee’s ability to better understand their benefits.
Employees are not incredibly invested in learning about health insurance. But learning about them and understanding them will likely help them navigate using them when they need to. Framing understanding benefits as a way to save money in the future is a good way for employees to want to learn more.
At SBMA we offer an online portal for easy navigation of benefits, so employees can understand and utilize their benefits to the best of their ability. Portals like these make benefit communication simple. Not only will employees be able to navigate things on their own, but your HR department will save time not constantly dealing with navigating employee benefits.