Total Rewards: The Key to Retaining and Motivating Your Best Employees

Customized benefits programs can help you keep (and please) your best workers

As employers across the country offer increasingly customized benefits packages to their employees, it’s important to make sure that your business doesn’t fall behind. More and more workers say they’re deciding to stay at their current employer in part due to the specialized benefits that the company offers – and, in many cases, that means benefits can be a more powerful bargaining chip than promotions or raises. However, to be truly effective, you’ll need to initiate an employee benefits program that’s both comprehensive and employee-specific. Here’s how.

Buying and banking benefits can help you provide customized financial services to workers

When it comes to financial services, your employees may feel they need more options than their local bank or credit union can provide – and that’s where you come in. Providing a comprehensive financial services package to your employees could include benefits like employee stock purchase plans, in which employees can make zero-cash-down purchases of company stock and have a fraction of the cost deducted from each of their paychecks. Access to financial planning advice from a financial advisor made available by the company or financial education workshops may be something they find extremely valuable. Or, benefits could include access to low-interest short term loans, credit-union based flexible spending accounts, or employee discount programs.

As a company, you likely have access to financial resources far beyond those of a single employee, and you can use them to your (and your employees’) advantage. Whether it’s acting as a guarantor on a small loan for a long-term employee, or setting up a special relationship with a local bank or credit union to get your employees special benefits, corporate resources can provide great rewards for your workers without costing much.

Lifestyle and convenience benefits help reduce worker stress and improve productivity

Many workers, especially those who are trying to raise a family or care for older family members, may benefit from a wide array of lifestyle and convenience benefits, especially those which help them reduce stress while curtailing one or more of their financial burdens. For employees with children, flexible hours or reduced-price childcare services could the perfect benefit – while workers caring for older family members or pets may benefit most from financial assistance with eldercare or pet insurance. Other lifestyle and convenience benefits are almost limitless; options could include free or reduced-price auto insurance, adoption assistance, and legal assistance programs.

Specialized insurance can help protect your employees and their families from financial disaster

When it comes to protecting your employees and their families from financial emergencies, a smart rewards program can go a long way. Employers are increasingly providing financial “safety-net” benefits, including free or reduced-price homeowner’s insurance and home warranty insurance. In addition, companies can help protect workers with identity theft insurance or long-term care insurance to mitigate the risk of becoming seriously disabled. The benefit to employees is peace of mind and tailored benefits – the benefit to employers is that obtaining reduced rates on these items can cost a lot less than simply increasing pay.

Sometimes, however, the best benefit is still a bonus or a raise

A main goal of offering specialized rewards is to find a way to satisfy and retain employees without simply shelling out cash – in essence, the company will try to spend less on a reward than the value an employee gets from it. However, in some cases, the best investment is simply to spend more, especially if that’s what your employee is asking for and they are worth it in terms of ROI.

If a valued employee has repeatedly (and specifically) asked for an increase in pay and you instead try to push benefits on them that they don’t want, it could cost you a lot more money than the raise. You spend money on benefits the employee doesn’t want and then he or she leaves anyway, followed by the high cost of finding a replacement.

That’s why it’s always important to listen to your employees’ needs first; providing voluntary benefits is about providing more value to your workers – not offering something to them they didn’t want in the first place.

Companies across the country are constantly finding new ways (and new benefits) to keep their best employees satisfied without resorting to huge salary increases. To learn more about how total rewards packages can help motivate and retain your high performers, contact Karp HR Solutions today for a free consultation.