What if an employer cannot afford to fully fund benefits?
Most benefits plans offered by small or midsize businesses are not fully funded by the employer. When deciding what benefits to fund or partially fund, a good benchmarking of your largest competitors’ benefits may help decide where your money is best spent. In today’s economy every little bit helps, so do not underestimate the importance of contributing even a small amount to the benefits that are important to your population.
What are some examples of nontraditional benefits?
Nontraditional benefits are as varied and unique as the companies that offer them. Unconventional examples include bringing your dog to work, a handyman on staff to assist with home repair while employees are busy at work, weekly in-office massage therapy, a full-time concierge and dry cleaning services. Some of the more popular options include offering paternity leave for new fathers. Allowing men to be at home with a new baby and take a more active ‘daddy’ role is a big deal to families. While this is becoming standard with large corporations it can set a small to mid-size business apart from others. Paid or non-paid this can put a feather in any company’s benefit hat.
On-site child care, child care discounts or a child care allowances are all great ways to assist parents with young children. Offering unpaid leave is a no-cost way to add a benefit. Studies have shown that employees will take six to nine unpaid days per year if available to them. Telecommuting and flextime also top the list of widely used nontraditional benefits. Another trend is moving to a completely performance-based model. In this situation there are no set hours, just very defined job expectations and goals. As long as these standards are being met employees can set their own hours and enjoy the ultimate in job flexibility.
How can employers help employees with work-life balance?
The first thing employers can do is survey their work force. Design a plan that is important to you and be willing to listen and make changes when necessary to keep it current. Secondly, be creative and have an open mind to new ideas. Companies can always pick a ‘beta’ group before rolling out a new benefit to the entire company. Work-life balance is more important now than 10 years ago, and the trend will only grow as the next generation enters the work force.
Melissa Hulsey is president and CEO of Ashton. Reach her at (770) 419-1776 or [email protected].
