Importance of Benefits in Recruiting

Most companies offer some level of benefits to stay competitive in the market for new hires. Potential candidates expect to receive benefits in addition to their salary compensation. It’s part of the total package being offered to the potential new hire. Here is a list of benefits that could be offered:

Health Insurance
- Medical, dental and vision
- It’s always depends on a company’s budget what they are able to spend on benefits. Some variations of coverage could be:
  - 100% of employee coverage to 50% of employee coverage on medical. Family portion of the coverage could be 50% or the employee picks up spouse/family portion. Dental & vision could be the same or the employee absorbs the full cost of them. The medical coverage, of course, is the most expensive of the coverages.
Pre-Tax Benefits
- Flex spending, health, dental, vision,
- Commutation (public transportation/parking) – If commuting is mandatory for the position, see if you could provide transit/parking benefit.
- The more pre-tax benefits you offer, the more payroll taxes is saved for you and your employees.
401k
- It’s important that companies support employees in saving for retirement. The cost is usually minimal for initial set up and the employees absorb the management fees for investing. Though there is time allocated to this for government reporting.
Time Off
- Vacation/Personal/Sick/Holidays – this is fairly standard part of the employment package.
- There are a few companies that don’t have paid time off policies and allow employees to choose how much time they need off. Nothing is perfect in that with a no paid time off policy, you may have an employee that takes advantage of it, though it is then a performance management issue. The biggest issue with no paid time off is that employees don’t take time off and they need a break from work in order to perform at their best.
Stock Options
- This benefit has value depending on the individual employee. There are employees, especially in start ups, that see the value of this benefit. You have to know the talent you are searching for to access whether it’s a solid benefit for them.
Tuition Reimbursement
- Always encourage training as part of the package and this is a perk most employees are attracted to.
Employee Referral
- This program works great when the employee is already working at the company. This is a perfect way to find great talent without the major expense. Also employees look for ways to make more money.
Wellness Programs
- Minimal copays for medical and medication
- Health club memberships
Perks
- Discounted movie tickets, discounted cell phone plans, Employee Assistance Program.
Virtual work
- Commuting takes time and adds additional stress to an employee’s life. This is especially true in dense populated areas; for example, New York City. If work can be done anywhere, they think about offering virtual opportunities to employees. They can work from home 2 days a week, 5 days a week, and you can wait until they are employed for three months to see if they are able to manage their work.
- Another benefit of virtual work is a manager can search around the country for the best talent to do the job.
Flexible work schedules
- This works well with virtual employees, where they can balance their personal and work lives. If the actual time the work needs to be done is flexible, some people are night owls and do their best when everyone is relaxing or sleeping, so flex time works well for them.
Mentoring Program
- Millennials are a major force in the workplace and offering a mentoring program that provides them with guidance in their career choices is a powerful benefit to a new hire. The mentor is not a direct manager, rather across department or upper change of command. This is perfect in encouraging the employee to step up and take control of their careers.

If you are a manager in a small company and want to offer a full range of benefits in order to be competitive in the talent market, a strong solution could be a Professional Employer Organization (PEO). They offer a full body of benefits, along with other perks that can be offered to employees. Yes, there are administration costs, though medical coverage alone would be cheaper than if you had to create your own group policy with an insurance company.

Take time to understand your market. Depending on the generation you will be attracting, they will be interested in specific benefits, though a full array of benefits usually attracts most employees.

Be well,

Pat

**********RECRUITING THE BEST TALENT**********