Employee Benefits as the New Employee Wages

Contrary to traditional expectations, the old adage “money talks” is becoming increasingly less true for today’s modern workforce. While high salaries always help to attract top talent, more employees are searching for different incentives to come on board.

As the cost of health care continues to rise, it’s not just traditional health care services topping the list of attractive employee benefits. It’s no longer just about high salaries and healthcare benefits, but also adjusting benefits budgets to meet changing employee needs.

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Here we look at the various employee benefits many employers are using to help recruit top talent to the job.

Telemedicine

Convenience and accessing healthcare when and where it is needed has led to a surge in Telemedicine. As one of the fastest-growing benefits in America, it offers many advantages over traditional approaches including more privacy. Patients also don’t have to travel to appointments, and often have access to off-hour time slots to speak to health care professionals. Also known as Telehealth, people love the convenience of telemedicine and how it fits into their busy lifestyle. They avoid taking time off work for their own, and family member appointments without sacrificing care.

Proactive Health

Wellness resources are also very popular. This is a more proactive approach to health, offering access to wellness resources, programs and events that help people manage their health in their own way. What are the 4 major types of employee benefits based on wellness? The top examples of wellness resources include:

1. Providing standing desks in the workplace
2. Subsidized or reimbursed fitness programs both on and offsite
3. Rewards or bonuses based on organization driven health incentives
4. On-site stress management programs

All these wellness programs help employees maintain health using programs that suit their lifestyle, age and location. They focus on their own healthcare needs, whether it is keeping fit, or reducing stress.

Chronic Disease Management

Where insurance companies once put people through the paces to prove they didn’t have pre-existing or chronic diseases, they now see the error of their ways. Instead, they are beginning to see offering programs that help people manage chronic diseases saves money on health plans. Offering disease management as a new form of health benefits provides a major incentive for those struggling with various healthcare issues.

Future Planning

In a country where people carry tremendous debt, future planning programs that focus on healthy finances have also become a major incentive. Employers offer many different variations of future financial planning, from helping students pay off loans to fee credit counseling and from the usual 401(k) or similar plan to escalated salary deferral contributions.

Time

Quality of life is a major concern for today’s workforce. Benefits such as banking vacation and sick time for paid time off, extended vacation days and increased paid leave for new parents are all examples of how time is being used to offer a better life/work balance.  

Flexible and Hybrid Workplaces

Remote work had already become popular before the arrival of the pandemic. However, more businesses have realized there really is no need for everyone to come into the office. From schedules with days in and out of the office to flexible work hours, and from shared job roles to compressed or shortened workweeks finding new ways to improve that life/work balance is a major draw.  

Parent-Friendly Plans

Both flexible/hybrid workplaces and more time-oriented benefits are part of a more parent-friendly plan. As young parents make up a growing part of the workforce, companies need to think of ways to accommodate their needs. This is not just based on time away from home, but also onsite daycare programs, childcare stipends, and college savings assistance. Even a culture with more understanding of parent challenges, such as accepting time off for sick children or for doctor’s appointments helps create a more family-oriented workplace.

Phased-In Retirements

This option straddles the fence on who actually benefits from the plan. For organizations losing top talent due to retirement, the phasing in of the retirement works in their favor. They continue to benefit from the skills needed and can also accommodate effective mentoring programs to be fully prepared when full retirement kicks in. However, some employees like the idea of continuing to work part-time so they feel useful and productive until they are ready to retire fully.

As benefits change, organizations have to become more responsive to how they provide benefits packages. The right approach to benefits administration allows employees to select and change their benefits as their needs change. This can provide an incentive in itself, as employers become more responsive to changing attitudes about what makes a good living wage.

About the Author

Kayla is the Marketing Manager at Paypro Corporation overseeing all inbound and outbound marketing and sales efforts. She has 7+ years of experience working within the B2B and SaaS based solutions space and thrives on creating messaging and campaigns that introduce products and services to those who need them most.