Finding valuable employees isn’t an easy task and an even harder one if you’re a new or small business owner. You want to find people who will not only put the necessary value into their job but also represent your business well. Fortunately there is a pool of qualified great professionals out there waiting for their opportunity to gain your attention, but with so many competitors, the trick is keeping their attention.
For small business owners, there’s no use in trying to outdo big corporations when it comes to your employee benefits package because although we want to give our all, if we did that, we’d have no company left.
The key to creating the most attractive benefit plan possible is to know your limits while also maximizing on the value of what you can provide. For example, did you know that small business owners can help their employees find practically anything from the best yoga classes to the best auto insurance for the independent contractor?
Small businesses may not be able to offer every possible benefit, but that doesn’t mean the benefit plans have to be terrible. Find out how to make sure your benefits are both attractive and affordable to your employees.
Know Who You Attract
To be a good business owner you have to know your business inside and out, which includes knowing what kind of people your business attracts. Just like dating, every business has “a type,” so knowing who is likely to come work for you will make designing a benefit plan easier than shooting blind.
What are the common health issues folks in your line of business usually have? What are the most popular attractions in your area? Great benefits include anything that makes life easier or more enjoyable, and by offering perks for future care and local activities increases the quality of company culture and can also gather local support for your business.
If buying the mandatory employee benefits in bulk seems to be overwhelming your business’s budget, try exploring smaller multiple options that your employees can choose from. Having multiple options for health, dental, or even student loan repayment programs allows you to keep from overspending on benefits that don’t get utilized.
Think Creatively
The good thing about being a small business is that even though you may not have a corporate budget, you have the freedom to tailor your needs based on worthy talent.
Familiarize yourself with the needs of your community and pick the benefits that tailor to those needs in order to give your business compelling starting points against your competition. If your budget for benefits is small, look into annual and seasonal perks like events and bonuses that give your staff things to look forward to or assistance with things they need.
Helping provide extra money during birthdays or the holiday season for holiday turkeys or extra groceries, or child care are incentives that make employees feel valued which keeps them around longer. You don’t want to lose good talent simply because you couldn’t do the small things you could’ve that show you care about them and their family’s well being.
Chances are if you’ve thought about starting your own business, you’re a creative person even if you don’t see yourself as such. After pricing out the necessary benefits like health, dental, and retirement plans, try to have things career seekers can actively value and enjoy that will make the positions you offer stand out.
Provide A Cell Phone
This is easy. Business accounts with mobile providers are extremely flexible and great for small businesses. Everyone needs a phone nowadays so why not offer discounts or even to provide mobile devices for your team.
The upside to this is you’ll have dependable communication with your team as well as be able to reap the benefits of having multiple lines. Cell phone carriers want your business so ask for everything, and you may be surprised at what you can get!.
Invest In Mental Health
Health plans are a basic standard when creating a benefit portfolio, but it’s not often someone has an extreme medical emergency so most employees don’t actually feel the perks of this benefit. One way to keep this necessary cost low while giving potential employees something extra to think about is offering something in your benefit package that caters to mental health. This can be something as simple as offering to provide or assist with anything from gym membership to EAP benefits to specified counseling costs. Tailor this to fit your business and your employee’s needs. Look into offering the benefits as individual or office perks depending on your budget.
With the rise in anxiety due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more companies are increasing the quality of their mental health benefits for their employees, which just goes to show that mental health care is always needed.
It’s been proven that happy workers are better workers so if you want to optimize the potential with each hire, you should invest in your employees’ mental health just as you invest in your own if not more.
What Options to Take Away
Maybe you’re here, and your business still has some growing before you can fully include more compelling qualities to your employee benefits packages. However, sometimes the best things in life really are free.
Keep your business attractive to talent by providing a positive safe atmosphere for your employees. Attitude goes a long way when deciding if, where, and who you’ll be working with. Make sure you offer an environment that is attractive to all potential talent.
Remember coffee only goes so far when people are showing up everyday to help grow your dream brand. Investing in them in a variety of ways will multiply the value that comes back to you.
It’s okay if you can’t afford all of the bells and whistles as long as the benefits you provide add to your employee’s benefit of life, and these things show that working for you is an experience unlike any other job offer.
Danielle Beck-Hunter writes and researches for the car insurance comparison site, CarInsuranceComparison.com. Danielle has grown up around entrepreneurs and is a small business owner herself.
