A importância dos benefícios para funcionários
Offering employee benefits can go a long way when it comes to retention and talent attraction. Here’s why employment benefits are so important, and how companies can incorporate Nutrium Care into their benefits package.
Employment benefits are an essential part of a compensation package, and can play a big role in attracting new talent or retaining existing employees. Furthermore, it’s important to make sure that these benefits are competitive and effective based on what your employees truly want.
So, how can companies use these benefits to boost existing policies and keep employees satisfied? Here’s what companies need to know about the importance of employee benefits and how to effectively implement them.
What are employee benefits?
Employee benefits are perks provided by employers in addition to compensation. These indirect and non-cash compensations are offered to attract and retain employees. As such, these can be attractive elements for gaining new employees or retaining existing ones.
Importance of employee benefits
Research shows that 92% of employees consider employment benefits as important for overall job satisfaction, retention, and productivity [1]. Furthermore, 63% of job seekers say that they pay attention to benefits offered by a prospective company [2].
This information suggests that offering (and mentioning) employee benefits are vital for attracting new employees and retaining current ones.
What are the four major types of employment benefits?
Benefit packages often take up a lot of HR professionals’ time, and for good reason–benefits can greatly impact employee engagement, retention, and talent attraction.
While there are many types of employment benefits, the most common categories are ones that are most often met in companies across the world. These would include:
- Insurance
- Retirement plans
- Additional compensation
- Time off
The most popular employee benefits
In addition to the major types of employment benefits, there are other popular ones that can attract people to working or staying with a company. Here are some of the most popular employee benefit packages.
Insurance
Even though insurance is a major type of employee benefit, it’s also the most popular one.
While every company in every country is different, it’s common for the organization to pay a specific amount of money to cover an employee’s medical care, which may include insurance for losses from accidents, disability, sudden death, or dismemberment.
Furthermore, a company can choose if they will offer different levels of health insurance coverage. This could include “extra” perks like dental checkups, vision, dermatology visits, or biometric screenings. Oftentimes, the better the insurance policy, the happier the employees are.
Retirement benefits
Offering financial security is a great way to provide benefits to full-time employees. Whether it’s pension plans, 401(k)s, and more, it’s important to include competitive retirement plans in a compensation package.
Stock option plans
This perk is quite popular, because it allows the employee to buy company shares at a lower price than market value. These stocks can also be matched up to the value of how much an employee buys.
Work from home and/or flexible hours
It seems that the days of only working from an office are slowly dwindling. Instead, people may be looking for more flexibility when it comes to a work location. Offering flexible hours or remote work could entice potential employees and help retain current ones.
Paid time off
Burnout is a serious issue that can plague both the employee’s health and a company’s bottom line. To help prevent this, offer paid vacation packages that will entice people to take time off. And don’t forget about sick leave, as this should also be worked into paid time off.
Company equipment
A big perk of any job is getting new company equipment, which could include a vehicle, laptop, and/or phone. However, this may not be necessary depending on the type of job the employee has, so consider which option works best for your company and employees’ needs.
Learning and development
Many talented employees are always looking for resources to help them grow as professionals, so provide them with ways to enhance their skills. Some examples include paying them to attend conferences, online courses, or obtain a higher education degree.
Bonuses / Awards / Gifts
Employees are more likely to be happier and feel appreciated when they are recognized for their hard work. By offering bonuses, awards, and gifts, a company can boost retention and improve the overall morale.
Obstacles in implementing programs with employment benefits
As time goes on, it’s apparent that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work when it comes to employee benefits. Companies are finding that it’s important to implement various benefit packages to give employees what they want, need, and expect. And, as you may expect, this isn’t easy. Here are some obstacles a company may face when implementing benefit programs.
- Cost per employee. Surveys have found that employee benefits in the U.S. make up 30% of total compensation costs, and that health benefits average $15,000 per employee [3,4]. This rising costs can prove challenging, and may prompt employers to look at other solutions.
- Finding the “sweet spot” for benefits. There is often a lack of alignment between employee healthcare needs and the benefits package a company offers. If the benefit package offers too much, employees may not use it; however, if it offers too little, then employees become disgruntled.
- Lack of employee knowledge around benefits. If an employee isn’t aware of the benefits, then they are less likely to use all of them or understand how they can benefit. Furthermore, if an employee doesn’t know which benefit package is right for them, they could unknowingly set themselves up for proverbial failure each year.
To overcome some of these obstacles, it’s important that every employee understands what each benefit package entails, how they benefit, and why it’s important to utilize.
How can Nutrium Care fit into employee benefits?
Health and wellness may be overlooked when it comes to employment benefits. However, it’s something that should be focused on more, especially considering that the health of employees can greatly affect the company’s bottom line. After all, the healthier your employees are, the more productive they will be, and the less likely they are to use time off for personal or family related illnesses [5]. Learn more about how health affects productivity here.
Nutrium Care can greatly improve wellbeing in the workplace by giving your employees access to tools they need to manage their health and wellness goals. We also help improve your employees’ health by addressing many dimensions of employee wellbeing, including sleep issues, weight management, chronic diseases, bad eating habits, and more.
Here’s how the program works:
- Online appointments with nutrition experts. Each employee can choose a specialized nutritionist and have their first online nutrition appointment. The nutritionist creates a personalized plan and works with employees to help them achieve their health and wellness goals.
- Direct access to a nutritionist. After the first appointment, employees can communicate directly with the nutritionist at any time with the Nutrium mobile app. They also have their meal plan always at hand and receive important notifications to remind them to eat or drink water.
- Educational materials. The entire process is accompanied by relevant information for a healthier life, through newsletters, webinars, and personalized workshops, created especially for each company. We also offer wellbeing in the workplace training.
Contact us if you’re interested in adding Nutrium Care to your business strategy!
Summary
Employment benefits are an essential part of a compensation package, and can play a big role in attracting new talent or retaining existing employees. Time off, retirement, insurance, and additional compensation are just some of the main things employees look for in benefits packages, so it’s important for companies to offer competitive offerings. Nutrium Care can also play a role in benefits packages, as studies show that employees who are healthier tend to be more productive and take less time off.
References
- 2018 Employee Benefits Report. Retrieved November 9, 2022 from https://www.shrm.org
- Glassdoor Study Reveals What Job Seekers Are Looking For. Retrieved November 9, 2022 from https://www.glassdoor.com
- Employer Costs for Employee Compensation Summary. Retrieved November 9, 2022 from https://www.bls.gov
- For 2019, Employers Adjust Health Benefits as Costs Near $15,000 per Employee. Retrieved November 9, 2022 from https://www.shrm.org
- Increase productivity. Retrieved November 9, 2022 from https://www.cdc.gov
