Attracting and hiring high-quality talent is challenging in any market. The tendency is to assume that prospective candidates simply want a higher offer of pay. However, research shows that people, especially post-pandemic, are looking for more than a pay check in their jobs.
When creating or revising roles for your company, it’s important to take into consideration your total rewards programme. This includes your benefits offerings. Often benefits will help offset any objection to pay a candidate may have. Or they may incentivise a candidate who can’t be motivated by pay alone.
“Benefits” is a broad word encompassing a wide variety of factors, so in this article we’re going to break them down into categories.
Mandated Benefits
There’s not much to discuss about legally required benefits. These will be seen as a baseline expectation and not an exceptional reward. They should still be mentioned in any discussion of the total package.
Health and Welfare Benefits
Navigating healthcare and even just staying healthy day-to-day can be challenging. Benefits like additional health insurance cover, life insurance, disability insurance, telemedicine services, mental health options and health initiatives can go a long way. They make people feel safer and more secure with their health situation.
Retirement Assistance
For many of your employees, retirement has become a near-future reality and they are realising they haven’t prepared properly. You can help your employees of all ages cross the finish line with healthy retirement savings by raising awareness and providing education. You can also offer company pension schemes where employees contribute and retirement transition benefits.
Leave Pay
Most people expect a certain amount of paid time off, which makes it all the more important that you articulate your time off policy clearly when hiring. Annual leave, holidays, paid sick leave, study leave and more are important benefits that allow people to prioritise their health and wellbeing. We all know that this is good for the company. A healthy, happy employee is more productive than one who isn’t.
Flexibility
The great opportunity in the expectation of flexibility is that you can hire from a broader pool of candidates. Workplace flexibility opens up the door to talent like women, parents and people with disabilities who may not otherwise have been able to work. Making flexibility a benefit can help you attract and retain employees.
Wellbeing
Showing you are a company that values happiness and wellbeing can be helpful in drawing in candidates. Ideas include: cultivating a healthy culture, providing workplace and financial wellbeing initiatives, offering free assessments and screenings, providing childcare or childcare vouchers but also pet day care and team-building exercises.
Benefits are a pillar of any effective total rewards programme. There are really no limits on how creative you can get in offering them. Try to create a well-rounded offering that shows your prospective hire you are an employee-focused company.
Are you looking to revamp your total rewards offerings? Contact us and learn how you provide innovative and targeted benefits without breaking your budget.