How To Attract Great Employees By Offering Voluntary Insurance Benefits
For small businesses, attracting top talent can be challenging. Few can afford to pay employees the highest rates in their respective fields without hurting the company's bottom line. If you run a small business that's tight on cash but needs excellent workers, offering a voluntary insurance benefits plan could help your company recruit the best workers in the area without costing the company anything. Here's how you can best use voluntary insurance benefits to help your company get great employees.
Add Voluntary Insurance Benefits to Your Company's Compensation
According to ExpertBeacon, 50 percent of employees view voluntary benefits as "extremely" or "very" important. Thus, simply offering these optional benefits will make your company's compensation package more attractive to prospective employees. Your company will be able to give employees more comprehensive insurance options, and it doesn't have to cost your business anything because you can elect to have employees pay their full premiums.
Employees still find voluntary insurance benefits valuable even when there isn't an employer contribution to the premiums. They appreciate the convenience that enrolling through work affords and the ability to pay their premiums through payroll deductions.
Offer Insurance Benefits Everyone Wants
In recent years, the number of products available through voluntary benefits programs has increased. Voluntary benefits are no longer limited to traditional types of insurance but might include options like identity theft protection, financial counseling and pet insurance. While useful to some people, these have less broad appeal than more traditional voluntary insurance benefits.
If your company has limited resources, only offer the benefits that will appeal to the greatest number of current and prospective employees. Rob Lynch suggests offering a core package of benefits that includes medical, dental, disability and vision offerings. These will be of interest to all prospective employees, and, therefore, are the most important optional insurance benefits to offer. Specialized voluntary insurance benefits like accidental death and dismemberment insurance and pet insurance won't appeal to as many people.
Let Employees Enroll Any Time of Year
When setting up a voluntary insurance benefits package, you'll have to decide when employees are able to enroll in plans and change their coverages. Some companies only let employees enroll and adjust coverages during an open enrollment period, which is a set time of year, and others permit changes any time of year.
Permitting enrollment adjustments at any time, and not only during an open enrollment period, will let your employees make changes to their plans when they need to. This is especially useful for new employees, as they won't have to wait for an open enrollment period before they take advantage of the voluntary insurance benefits that interest them.
Publicize Your Voluntary Insurance Benefits Offerings
Once you've set up the voluntary insurance benefits that your company will offer, it's time to publicize that your company is making them available. Not only should you make sure current employees are aware of the new benefits options, but prospective employees and new-hires should also be told about the voluntary insurance benefits. After all, these benefits will only help your company attract employees if you tell them about the benefits. Secret benefits that no one's aware of won't help your company recruit people.
You can publicize your voluntary insurance benefits by:
- listing that you offer them on your company's website and in recruiting materials
- including detailed information on plans and enrollment in new-hire packages
- mentioning them below any salary information you include in job postings
- bringing them up in interviews when discussing compensation
If you're looking for a way to attract great employees to your company without spending money, consider offering voluntary insurance benefits. They won't cost your company money, and when selected properly and publicized, they add value to employees' compensation. Prospective employees will appreciate them, and they could help you land your next great hire.
For more information, research available insurance brands like All About Voluntary.