The unemployment rate is at an all-time low. Organizations have to be more competitive to attract new talent and prevent current employees from quitting.
To stand out as an employer, it’s essential to provide relevant and attractive benefits that help your employees. Here are three to consider offering that will allow you to recruit and retain high-performing EHS workers:
• Health and wellness benefits. Traditional health benefits, while extremely important, are getting increasingly more expensive for employers. One popular way of managing healthcare costs is providing health savings accounts to staff. These allow for tax-free savings that can be used to pay out-of-pocket expenses that aren’t covered by health plans.
Also consider extending healthcare coverage to opposite- and same-sex spouses if you don’t already. The majority of organizations offer this benefit, with 95 percent of those surveyed by the Society for Human Resources Management (SRHM) in 2017 providing it versus 71 percent in 2014.
Other health and wellness benefits that more organizations are offering are standing desks for employees to use when they’re working in the office, as well as paid gym memberships to promote exercise and healthy living.
• Work-life balance opportunities. Having the ability to balance work and life is a significant benefit for employees. With so many things going on in workers’ lives, organizations that encourage work-life balance are going to attract and retain more people than those that don’t. Consider offering telecommunicating opportunities and flextime, which allows employees to choose their work schedule, when possible. Some companies also offer perks like free coffee, cafeteria food, and on-site parking to help employees save time when it comes to going out to get coffee or lunch, or looking for a parking spot.
• Options for retirement savings and loan relief. Today’s employees are struggling to save money and repay loans. In research conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the majority of employees surveyed were saving for retirement, but 40 percent of them said they have less than $50,000 saved. Consider offering some kind of 401(k) or similar contribution savings plan if you don’t already.
Additionally, more and more companies are starting to offer student loan assistance. According to SHRM, 88 percent of Millennials say that student loan repayment assistance is an important benefit for organizations to provide.
Companies frequently fail to communicate the benefits they offer to current and potential employees. Make sure your workers are aware of these benefits that could significantly help them in their lives and allow them to perform better at work. If you want to grow your business, and attract and retain the best EHS employees, consider offering these competitive benefits to help you stand out as an employer.
Adapted from: The Benefits That Will Attract – and Retain – Tomorrow’s Talent, Todd Wasserman, EHSCareers.