Carefully considering the benefits package you offer your employees is an important task year-round, but it’s never more important than during benefits renewal season.
With the end of the year closing in fast, it’s crucial for the continued success of your organization that you put some extra thought into how you structure your benefits program.
Following these tips for creating a great benefits package can not only help you to recruit top talent, but it can help you retain them, too.
Evaluate the Successes and Failures of Your Current Package
Before you begin to consider how to create a new benefits package or modify an existing one, take a look at the hard numbers of your current benefits package and see what kind of story they tell.
These numbers can help you determine where your plan is costing too much and requiring revising, as well as what areas your plan is effectively succeeding in and should be retained.
Analyzing the pros and cons of your current plan will show you where to start in order to make the most beneficial changes to your new package.
Understand Which Benefits Are Important to Your Employees
While it’s useful to consult experts, review research, and analyze data, the best way to understand what makes a great benefits package for your particular organization is simply asking your employees for their opinion. They’re the ones who have real experience with your current offering, and that experience is absolutely invaluable.
Make sure to give your workforce the opportunity to be as honest as possible with you about their view of your benefits package. Asking them directly may skew the results to the point that they are not helpful. Instead, you’re far better off providing an anonymous survey where they can express themselves fully.
Ask Your Employees What They Might Add
Providing a review of the benefits you’re currently offering is important, but so is exploring the idea of altering your current package to offer more. Ask your employees what they think might be missing from their benefits package to see if there’s a notable consensus. You can then explore the potential of that consensus.
Ask Your Employees What They Don’t Use
There may be a component to your current benefits package that’s taking up resources that may be better allocated elsewhere. If you find that something you’re offering isn’t used very often and is therefore not really enticing anyone to come to or stay with your organization, then it’s time to reconsider that benefit.
Look at What Your Competitors Are Offering
Another great way to gauge the appeal of your employee benefits as renewal season rolls around is to check in on what kind of package your competitors are offering and evaluate how yours compares.
Benefits are an aspect of the employee experience that has been growing in importance in recent years. This means that benefits have become one of the best ways to attract top talent and inspire employee retention.
If you are unable to offer a package that is comparable to your competitors, you may likely struggle in both those arenas.
Consider Some Non-Traditional Benefits
A great way to make your organization stand out from the crowd when you post a job listing is to add to or expand your current package with some non-traditional benefits. You can only do so much with healthcare packages and retirement plans, but you can get creative in other areas in order to make your offers more enticing.
Some ideas for unique employee benefits include:
- Flexible hours
- Work-from-home options
- Employee Assistance programs
- Health and wellness programs
- Volunteering opportunities
- Mental health benefits
- Floating holidays
These are just a few of the nearly endless non-traditional benefits that you can consider.
Work-life balance is an increasingly important aspect of the employee experience for a vast majority of today’s workforce, which is why many of these benefits revolve around maintaining one. Take that balance into consideration this renewal season, and it should serve next year’s benefits package well.
Benefits Advisory Group has extensive experience in creating employee benefits packages to suit your company’s needs. We can help you put together a robust benefits package — let’s schedule some time to review your current offering.