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.
Voluntary benefits, also known as worksite benefits, are an effective way to attract and retain the top employees with little to no effect on your bottom-line. These benefits are a great way to fill the void of coverage that traditional benefits don’t cover. What most employees and employers don’t realize is the effect that voluntary benefits offer to both parties.
Before Coronavirus swept the world with high unemployment rates, a strain on healthcare resources, and economic strife, employers were thinking creatively about how to not only retain their existing employees but also attract the best employees with benefits. While some states have been more affected by the health concerns surrounding COVID-19, almost all have felt the effects of the economic downturn. How have your employee benefits changed since the start of COVID? Once you identify the changes, how can you begin to prepare your insurance plan for post-pandemic employee benefits to attract and retain the best employees?
Employers had to act fast as stay-at-home orders went into place rather quickly. Therefore, they had to establish work-from-home policies, provide external education opportunities, provide new leave requirements, and anticipate new policies for return to work phases. All of this combined with the fear of potentially contracting COVID-19 can be overwhelming.
As we all continue to understand what the effects of Coronavirus will be, as an employer it’s best to try to get out in front of it. Ensure both your business and your employees stay safe. Contact us to begin crafting your benefit plans today!
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.
The Employee Retention Tax Credit was rolled out as part of the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act. It was enacted to encourage employers to retain employees throughout the Coronavirus pandemic. As our country begins to understand the full scope of COVID-19, this credit could allow employers to keep employees on their payroll and keep their doors open.
What is the Employee Retention Tax Credit?
The tax credit is a refundable tax credit that is meant to incentivize employers to keep employees on their payroll. For all businesses working to keep their staff on the payroll, 50% of qualified wages must be paid to the employees from March 12, 2020, to January 1, 2021. Including credit for qualified health plan expenses.
An employer can claim up to $10,000 in wages paid if the employer’s business is entirely or partially suspended because of coronavirus and if their gross receipts also decrease by more than 50%.
What makes someone eligible for the Employee Retention Tax Credit?
The ERTC is available all employers, including tax-exempt organizations. The only organizations that are not eligible for the ERTC are state and local governments and their instrumentalities and any small business that has taken a Small Business Loan. Those who are self-employed are also not eligible for the ERTC.
An employer must be a business that has been fully or partially suspended by the coronavirus government orders, to qualify for the tax credit. If they do not meet that requirement, they may also be eligible if the employer has gross receipts below 50% of the same quarter in 2019. If the employer’s gross receipts go beyond 80%, they are no longer eligible for the tax credit after the quarter ends.
Employers with fewer than 100 employees may receive a tax credit for all employees. Those with more than 100 employees can receive credit for the employees who are being paid but are not working due to coronavirus cutbacks.
How can I claim the Employee Retention Tax Credit?
The ERTC cannot be combined with any other tax credit. If you are counting wages toward the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act tax credit, you cannot count those same wages toward the ERTC.
To begin your ERTC claim, employers should report their total qualified wages and other credits quarterly. Form 941 allows businesses to report their income, along with their Social Security and Medicare taxes withheld from employee’s paychecks.
If an employer reduces the amount of payroll taxes they withhold from employee’s wages, they can be immediately reimbursed.
As businesses continue to adjust their business plans in the face of coronavirus, there are many ways they can find relief through various programs. The ERTC is a good option for employers who are trying to keep their employees on their payroll. Visit our COVID-19 resource page for more information on programs that can benefit your business.