How To Design a Benefits Package That Your Employees Value and Use

A successful business doesn’t happen by having a smart product offering. It’s built on the shoulders of great employees. Without a dedicated team driving your company’s vision, achieving long-term growth isn’t likely to happen.

But finding the right individuals for a business is tougher than it used to be. The competition for talent is fierce, made even more difficult by economic shifts and declining talent pools.

As a business trying to stand out from others, it’s important to create a compelling value proposition for potential applicants that extends more than just salary.

Most employees want and need more than just regular wages – they also are looking for tangible proof that their employer is invested in their happiness and overall well-being. Employee benefits packages are a great way to achieve this.

Get to Know Your Workforce’s Needs

Your ideal starting point when building a “high-value” benefits package isn’t necessarily from an external source. Asking your current employees is the better way to begin this process. Directly asking for their input is the easiest and most cost-effective way to guide your decisions.

There are many ways of gathering this important feedback. One of the most common is to setup an employee survey.

These can be fully anonymous and cover a range of questions to help gather unique perspectives about preferred benefit types. You could also have in-person check-ins and gather feedback directly.

Making your employees part of the benefit package design process shows you value their input. Even though not all their ideas might work, it shows you’re willing to listen and try to make decisions that actually answer their needs.

Evaluate Your Company’s Capabilities

Once you’ve gathered feedback from your team, the next step is to see what’s achievable for the business. You should take a hard look at current benefits and see if there are obvious areas that should and can be improved. From there, evaluating financial feasibility should be your next focus.

Budgets aren’t always cut and dry. You may need to make certain concessions to find the right balance of affordability and coverage.

Still, it’s important to make sure you’re not overextending yourself. Trying to offer more benefits coverage won’t serve much value if you can’t sustain it long-term.

Benchmarking Against Industry Standards

Sometimes, the best strategy is to learn from your competition. Investigating what similar companies offer them provides you with some much-needed valuable context. You can then benchmark what’s typically offered by businesses like yours or minimum levels of coverage and how you compare.

This is also a great way to learn about other benefits options you may not have thought of. All this information is valuable to know and can help you create something more attractive.

Ultimately, your goal shouldn’t be to provide every benefit offering possible. Instead, it’s about finding the right balance of cost and value. This is what will allow you to bring in more candidates without worrying about stretched budgets.

Try to Keep Your Benefits Flexible

Keep in mind that company and employee needs will change over time. This makes it important to make sure your benefit packages naturally adapt.

One way to ensure you’re meeting new demands is to personalize your benefits offerings. Creating flexible employee packages allows employees to fine-tune their coverage based on their own unique needs.

You also might find that certain benefits become less used over time. A flexible benefits structure ensures you’re not tied to rigid, long-term agreements with providers. This gives you more freedom to tweak your offerings as your company grows.

Components to Consider in Your Benefits Offerings

The expectations for modern businesses have changed significantly. Today, companies need to provide a more comprehensive mix of benefits to stay competitive. Here are some of the most common benefits that employers should evaluate when designing their benefits strategy:

Comprehensive Health Insurance

Health insurance is generally the most used component of any benefits plan. Businesses should consider ways to provide wider coverage that addresses multiple needs. This likely includes a mix of medical, dental, and vision care. I can also include life or disability insurance options, depending on the company’s size.

A key factor to consider is the cost-sharing element with employees. The right balance should be struck between employee premium contributions and what the company covers. Employee expectations regarding the scope of this coverage can vary based on location and industry.

Retirement Planning and Financial Wellness

Retirement savings plans are an effective way to support your employees’ long-term financial stability. At the same time, it can offer them and the business certain tax-efficient savings opportunities.

As an employer, you have flexibility in choosing plan types and determining the level of matching contributions you make. While retirement benefits might appeal more to more seasoned professionals, they can still be a significant draw for attracting longer-term employees.

Retirement plan management can have some additional administrative hurdles to get through. This is why it’s important to have the necessary tools and resources in place.

Many companies find it beneficial to dedicated benefits technology platforms to streamline these efforts while reducing additional strain on their HR teams to manage them.

Paid Time Off and Flexible Work Arrangements

More companies are using flexible working models for their employees. This includes providing the option to work remotely and have employees set their own hours.

For many people, being able to work remotely improves their work-life balance. This can be a key factor for job seekers when choosing an employer.

If your business can support a hybrid or fully remote work setup, it might be worth considering. It’s a great way to attract more talent interest and can lead to better employee productivity. There are also cost savings related to reduced office space needs and overall infrastructure expenses.

Family-Friendly Benefits

Childcare expenses can be considerable for many people. Employees with families have a lot of extra costs and can find it difficult to manage their schedules. Businesses have an opportunity to alleviate some of this financial strain.

Offering a childcare assistance program can significantly reduce the stress of securing affordable care for employees’ children while employees work.

The investment in a childcare assistance program will likely depend on your company’s size and the specific services offered. However, it can be a powerful way to demonstrate your commitment to your employees’ families and your willingness to support their needs.

Professional Development and Growth Opportunities

Showing that you value your employees’ professional development is a powerful way to boost morale. Many companies now offer educational assistance programs or tuition reimbursement as part of their benefit offerings.

These programs all look different from one company to the next. They could include discounted training courses or reimbursements for learning materials to even offer full tuition coverage for degree programs.

Outside of just benefiting individual team members, educational assistance programs also provide long-term advantages for the company. By helping employees expand their knowledge or refine existing skills, you’re equipping them to become even more impactful contributors to the organization.

Employee Wellness and Recognition

Another important approach to showing employee support involves consistently recognizing contributions. Feeling valued is critical to many people, and a structured employee recognition program can significantly boost morale and improve motivation levels.\

To help achieve this, you could create a formal awards ceremony for the office and have a system in place for publicly sharing team contributions.

Highlighting exceptional performance and dedication whenever possible helps to reinforce positive employee behaviors and creates a stronger sense of loyalty within the team.

Many times, simply handing out a small tangible gift like a gift card and a thank you note can mean more than most realize.

Along with employee recognition, it’s essential to acknowledge the important for employees to take care of their mental health.

Offering access to resources like Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), counseling services, or stress management workshops shows a genuine commitment to supporting employees on all levels.

Establishing a workplace culture that openly addresses mental health concerns helps reduce stigma and encourages team members to seek support when they need it.

Providing a simple benefit, like extra time off for mental health, shows the team that you value them taking care of themselves rather than simply being focused on profits.

Bring in More Qualified Talent to Your Business

Regardless of whether you’re business is a small growing startup, family owned business, or a larger global enterprise, your employees are by far your most valuable asset.

To attract and retain the kind of dedicated talent that will contribute to your business’s long-term success, you need to present a competitive and attractive employee benefits package that gets job candidates excited to apply.

By carefully considering the points discussed and by striking the right balance between your company’s financial health and the well-being of your employees, you can build a reputation that attracts top-tier professionals and helps to reduce turnover percentages.

Author Bio: Frank Mengert: Frank Mengert continues to find success by spotting opportunities where others see nothing. As the founder and CEO of ebm, a leading provider of employee benefits solutions.

Frank has built the business by bridging the gap between insurance and technology driven solutions for brokers, consultants, carriers, and employers nationwide.

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