Many small businesses across the country are finding it hard to find employees. Not only is finding employees challenging, but keeping them is proving difficult.
If you need loyal employees to see your small business thrive, you must take steps to make employees feel appreciated and appropriately compensated. Evaluating types of health insurance plans, retirement options, and other benefits can help you find the programs for your team.
Benefits Contribute to Employee Satisfaction
Small businesses have a hard time providing employee benefits because they’re small. They often do not have access to cost-effective health insurance plans and lack the depth and security to offer retirement programs.
Health Insurance for Small Businesses
If you want to attract qualified, top candidates to work for your company, the benefits you offer can significantly help you.
Health insurance is one of the top benefits employees consider when taking a job. You have a couple of options. One is a Health Reimbursement Arrangement or HRA. This option allows you to reimburse employees for their health insurance premiums or medical costs.
With this option, you can let your employee choose the Health Insurance Marketplace plan that best meets their needs, and you can reimburse them.
Alternatively, you can choose a small business health insurance plan. The average health insurance cost per month is costly, but it may be worth it to keep your employees happy.
Retirement Plans for Small Businesses
One of the most popular options for small businesses to offer is a Simple IRA. With this program, the employee is responsible for making their own contributions. Still, you will either have to match those contributions up to 3% of the employee’s compensation or contribute a flat 2% of the employee’s compensation.
Once again, there’s a cost to providing these benefits, but in a competitive market, you must offer compensation that attracts employees and keeps them from searching for new jobs.
An IRA is also an excellent way to protect your assets from liability lawsuits.
Additional Benefits for Small Business Employees
The list of potential benefits is nearly endless. You can provide anything from a cell phone to unlimited days off. It will be essential for you to find out what other local small businesses offer so you can create a competitive compensation plan.
Some employers even choose to include pet insurance or pet benefits for their employers. Providing unique benefits that meet your employee’s needs can help them feel valued.
Employee Appreciation Can Result in a Loyal Team
Providing compensation and benefits that show your employees that their time and skills are valued will help attract and retain employees. Happy employees can also help boost your conversions and profitability. But you can also take it a step further and show your employees how much they’re valued.
Express Your Appreciation for Your Team
Simply letting your employees know you appreciate them can help boost morale. It’s even better when you notice what they’ve been working on and thank them specifically for their accomplishments.
You can send a letter, text, or email in addition to your verbal acknowledgment.
Host Team Building Adventures
Spending an afternoon away from usual tasks and doing something fun together may seem like a waste of time. But, building relationships and improving morale can help your employees become more productive overall.
You should find out the kind of things that your employees would like to do together and plan an activity once a month or once a quarter.
As a small business owner, you can’t do everything, but you can come up with a few changes that will help improve your employee attraction and retention. Good employees can make the difference between your team thriving and just getting by.
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