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The fact that benefits outweigh salary in the minds of many employees today is only one of the main advantages of offering excellent employee benefits. However, it’s the most important one for a startup that can’t afford to offer high salaries in order to attract top-quality talent.
The problem is most startups have limited resources and won’t be able to offer many different benefits. Therefore, you need to know which benefits are popular and trending today so you know which are the most important to offer. This year the most popular employee perks include paid maternity/paternity leaves, health insurance, and student loan reimbursements, among others.
Top 4 Benefits to Offer Your Employees in 2019
1. Family Planning and Paid Parental Leave
Employers today should be more family-orientated in order to compete for the best talent. The most important benefit you should be offering is paid parental leave. Both mothers and fathers should have a chance to bond with their newborn babies, and offing paid parental leave is a good way to make sure they’ll come back from that leave and be even more productive and loyal.
Today paid maternal/paternal leaves usually last between six and 12 months. However, many employers offer more flexibility by allowing their employees to work flexible hours for a few months as well as work from home.
If you want to establish yourself as a family-oriented employer, you need to offer more than paid parental leave. You should also look into family-planning benefits, such as specific medical treatments as well as fertility assistance or egg freezing.
2. Health Insurance
Health benefits have always been at the top of employees’ priorities, and the growing cost of healthcare only makes them more important. With the wide range of health-related options available today, a startup might need help from an experienced PEO broker in order to choose the best deals.
Using a PEO is a must for the majority of startups, since they can’t typically afford expensive healthcare plans on their own. Brokers navigate the multitude of diverse PEO health plan options and can pick the best ones based on the unique audience the startup targets.
Employers of today should look into offers that include some telehealth options as they are one of the most popular trends today. The fact that they’re more affordable than traditional health plans is another great plus for the employer.
However, the most important thing you should be looking at related to health insurance benefits today is flexibility. We live in the era of personalization, so offering your employees a chance to customize their individual health benefit plans gives you a great advantage. However, finding these plans can be challenging, so be sure to explain to your PEO broker exactly what you want and why.
3. Student Loan Reimbursement
Companies like PwC can attract young talent with great promise by offering the most pressing financial benefit of all, the reimbursement of student debt. As of 2018, student loan debt in the United States exceeded $1.5 trillion and it’s growing constantly. Many young professional are crushed under these insurmountable financial obligations.
Offering to relieve some of this burden, even at the cost of a smaller salary, will definitely attract some graduates to your company. Startups that are recruiting young creative talent can benefit from this the most.
4. Travel Stipends
Offering a small travel stipend to your employees is a definite way to make them happier, and a happy workforce is a productive workforce. Travel stipends are benefits that will work well for companies that are trying to build a strong and positive culture.
Another option is to give employees additional time off when they travel. If your employees have to travel a lot for work, you can give them an opportunity to have an extra free day with their main expenses paid in every new location so they can relax and enjoy themselves after completing their work. This might be a more affordable alternative to a travel stipend.
