If you’re looking to offer the best employee benefits at your company—but aren’t sure where to start—this blog post can help. The types of perks that go into creating the employee benefits package for your staff may vary depending on your industry, however, offering your employees the opportunity to access services beyond the typical ‘health and dental’ coverage is a good place to start. Keep reading to discover what other benefits will be appreciated by employees, including training and development, as well as access to academic consulting agencies, like BeMo, for their dependants in post-secondary.
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No matter what type of business you’re operating, offering your staff additional perks and benefits—beyond their base compensation—is a great way to boost morale, align your actions with your company culture, and increase retention.
While pinpointing what the best employee benefits are might be subjective across various industries, it is fair to assume that the best benefits are ones that are all-encompassing and offer perks that benefit employees and their families in several ways. These benefits are usually offered through internal company programs or through external employer partnerships with other companies. Employees may not only require (and enjoy) having access to benefits for their:
- Personal health
- Dental and vision care
- Academic endeavors
- Additional training and development
- Paid parental leave and childcare
Oftentimes, in modern businesses, additional benefits are offered. These can include wellness benefits and leisure benefits, such as coverage for yoga and meditation classes, as well as educational benefits for employees’ dependents. While childcare benefits may be commonly enjoyed and appreciated by employees who require child supervision, this is really only benefits the employee while their children are quite young. Beyond this, as their children reach secondary and post secondary age, many employees are left without additional perks for their adolescent dependents. It is important to stay relevant to your employees and their families by offering them personal development benefits and perks that can help them set their children up for success.
That is why offering BeMo Academic Consulting services to your employees as a part of their benefits package is a way to ensure you’re offering the best employee benefits possible. Through the BeMo employee benefits program, employers can partner with BeMo to offer their employees unique perks and opportunities for continuing education. From coaching your employees on getting accepted to an MBA program to helping their children get into law school, BeMo provides expert admissions consulting services to your workers.
What Are Employee Benefits and Why Are They Important?
Offering employee benefits, in addition to regular compensation, is a great way to be an attractive employer and retain employees. Providing your employees with an expansive benefits package is a great way to employees how much they are appreciated, and give them the opportunity to access services outside of work that can help with their/their family’s health and overall wellness.
Benefits can be divided into two categories: monetary and non-monetary. Non-monetary benefits include things like health insurance, retirement plans, vacation time or paid holidays off of work. Monetary benefits include things like bonuses and other incentives given out as part of your compensation package.
Many companies offer non-monetary benefits, because, in general, happy employees who are well taken care of and can afford to take care of their families, are often more productive and motivated. Employees who are satisfied with their jobs tend to stay longer, which improves overall retention for your company.
Employee benefits have become an integral part of any modern workplace. Not only do the best employee benefits help retain talent, but attract it as well. If you’re scaling and looking to build the best team, having a great benefits package is an enticing perk.
The best employee benefits packages are tailored to each individual company's needs, culture, and budgets. Some companies choose to provide more comprehensive packages than others, depending on their budgets and the needs of their employees. Overall, benefits that allow employees and their families to live healthy lives, and grow as professionals and individuals, are favorable!
The advantages of offering employee benefits include:
What Options Do I Have for Employee Benefits Packages?
If you’re looking to offer your talented team the best employee benefits possible, then you’ll first need a solid understanding of what standard benefits look like, as well as what could additionally included to make your benefits package the best.
The most basic and fundamental employee benefits often include the following:
1. Medical Insurance
Medical insurance protects employees against unexpected health emergencies and costs that arise from illness or injury. It also provides psychological comfort because it allows employees to take care of any immediate medical needs without worrying about how they will pay for them later on. Medical insurance, depending on the benefits package, often offers partial or full coverage for things like prescriptions, as well as options to include coverage for ambulance bills and some hospital stays. This varies depending on your country as well, but in general, basic medical coverage provides support and peace of mind to employees.
2. Dental Insurance
Dental insurance provides partial or full coverage (depending on the benefits package and company) for annual or bi-annual cleanings. Many dental insurance plans aim to protect against dental decay or other problems with teeth and gums, which can cause pain and discomfort at work as well as in daily life outside work hours too if left untreated. Dental insurance also covers routine x-rays, and sometimes, additional cosmetic dentistry.
Not only are staff members able to take advantage of their basic health and dental benefits, but in most cases, their spouses and dependents will have access to these benefits, too.
In addition to health and dental, fundamental benefits can also include:
3. Vision Insurance
Eyecare is important for all, especially if your employees are working at a computer throughout the day. Many people require prescription glasses; in America, 75% of adults require some form of vision correction. At the very least, most adults require glasses for blue light protection, driving, reading and/or computer work, by the age of forty. And, many children require glasses too! Vision care can be costly, so including it in your benefits package can help cover costs of eye exams and glasses or contacts (and, sometimes even laser eye procedures) for the whole family!
4. Extended Health and Dental Insurance
This many include travel insurance, as well as coverage for orthodontics, periodontics, chiropractic, physiotherapy, and other types of physical or psychological services not covered under basic health benefits.
The best employee benefits packages, that offer additional perks, may include:
5. Wellness and Leisure Benefits
While you cannot provide insurance for things like yoga, meditation, or gym memberships, you can certainly consider offering these as an option for your employees! Oftentimes, companies that offer such benefits will encourage employees to submit receipts and will partially or fully reimburse their employees (up until a pre-determined amount if hit) for specific wellness and leisure classes/memberships.
6. Childcare and Family Planning
When you offer benefits to your staff, you’re also extending that coverage to their immediate family, that is their spouse and children. Depending on the needs and demographic of your employees (ex: most have young families or are in the age bracket where they may be starting families), offering reimbursement/coverage for childcare, as well as options for fertility and other related treatments is a great way to encourage great behavior and performance, and help out your team. Oftentimes, companies will pay a portion of daycare fees, offer childminding service options, and/or even send the children of their employees to summer camps.
7. Continuous Training and Education Benefits
A very modern option to include in your benefits package is training and education support. To not only include incentives for your staff to be supported in any educational endeavors, but, for their children to access resources either free of charge, or for a low cost, will surely be appreciated.
Offering complete or partial coverage options for a number of important things in your employee’s life mean that your company’s culture stands behind all aspects of the individual and family, including health and dental, but also wellness and leisure holistic medicine, sports therapy, child care, and/or academic support. Preparatory services, such as the 1:1 academic consulting provided by BeMo, is a great option for companies looking to support their staff with growing/maturing families, and/or, employees who wish to continue their own learning.
Some staff may welcome the opportunity to return to the classroom for training courses or additional qualifications that will help amplify their skills and enhance their credentials, and if/when they choose to do this, they may need help to prepare. For instance, if your employee is opting to pursue an MBA after ten years of employment, then they will be considered a mature, non-traditional applicant to admissions and will face obstacles that undergraduate applicants won’t. Offering access to benefits and services like BeMo means that your employee can seek the support they need to be admitted to, and succeed in, their desired program. As a result of their educational endeavor, there is a good chance they’ll become a very valuable asset to your company.
If your employees have children, they more than likely want only the best education for them. Young adults looking to attend various graduate programs and professional schools, including dentistry, medicine, law, and business, will benefit tremendously from additional preparatory consulting services. BeMo offers admissions consulting for undergraduate students looking to enter college and/or university as well.
Acceptance rates in graduate programs can vary, but are often dependent on more than just a great GPA. Often, applicants must connect with tutors or consultants and study endlessly in order to prepare to participate in interviews, submit detailed multi-step applications, and write entrance exams, such as the LSAT or the MCAT.
No matter what their post-secondary path is, development and consulting benefits being made available to families can really make it worthwhile for employees to stay in their roles long-term. If employees know that their children have a bright future, and that their company will help by offering them benefits and access to consulting services, like BeMo, they’ll most likely remain in their role at your company.
8. Additional Perks
Beyond just offering coverage and reimbursement for specific services, some companies enjoy offering additional perks, such as ‘flex days’, unlimited time off, coffee or nutrition allowance, and spending/reimbursement options for office equipment that can better an employee’s performance, and encourage a healthy and happy working environment. Often, these are considered to be a privilege and vary greatly depending on the company’s structure, number of staff, and culture.
How Can I Offer the Best Employee Benefits at My Company?
As an employer and/or business owner, the sky is the limit in terms of determining what types of benefits you offer. There are handfuls of benefits packages and possibilities, and part of your role is to determine which options not only suit your budget, but also the needs of your staff and company culture.
Offering great benefits, as noted earlier, can make acquiring and retaining talent easier for you, and can help your team of employees feel happy and appreciated. In turn, when employee’s feel heard, accepted, and taken care of, they’ll be productive and view their role—and workplace culture—in a positive light.
When deciding on what the best employee benefits are for your company, consider:
In short, you want to not only ensure your benefits being offered are affordable for your company, but also meet the coverage needs of your team, both now, and as you continue to scale and head toward the future.
For employees who are parents, or—who will one day be, knowing that they have the best benefits for themselves and their dependents can reduce a lot of stress. That is why offering the best employee benefits spans beyond just offering standard health and dental care to your staff and their families.
Employees who are proud parents to academically driven children may, at a certain point, feel as though their company benefits no longer include their children if benefits only include basic coverage for things like childcare. Many benefit plans halt their coverage for dependents when children reach their twenties, and some discontinue coverage when dependents enter post-secondary and/or move to an address away from their parent. That is why it’s important to consider offering academic support as a part of your employee benefits if you’re looking to support staff (and families) throughout all stages of life—day care and fertility benefits are a great perk for young staff—however, academic consulting is a unique and generous way to show you’re invested in your employee, and their child’s future career and academic path.
FAQ
1. What kind of coverage comprises the best employee benefits plans?
This may be subjective depending on your industry, budget, company culture and the needs of your employees! However, it can be suggested that the best employee benefits are ones that are all-encompassing and offer coverage for your staff, and their families, across several different areas. This can include the basics (health, dental, extended health, and vision), but also things like wellness perks, child care, and educational services, like BeMo Academic Consulting.
2. Why is it important to offer the best employee benefits?
Offering foundational health and dental benefits to your employees can help make working at your company more feasible for current employees and appealing to future applicants. However, offering the best employee benefits possible to your staff will help improve productivity and retention and boost team morale. Offering additional services, like wellness perks and educational services, under your umbrella of coverage shows your company is eager to go above and beyond and support your employee’s and their families in several ways beyond the standard health and dental coverage.
3. Do signing or performance bonuses count as employee benefits?
Offering foundational health and dental benefits to your employees can help make working at your company more feasible for current employees and appealing to future applicants. However, offering the best employee benefits possible to your staff will help improve productivity and retention and boost team morale. Offering additional services, like wellness perks and educational services, under your umbrella of coverage shows your company is eager to go above and beyond and support your employee’s and their families in several ways beyond the standard health and dental coverage.
4. Do employees pay for their benefits?
Again, this can vary by company! There are organizations out there that offer complete benefit coverage, but most often, a small percentage is deducted from each individual employee’s paycheque as a way to ‘pay into’ their benefits and cover the base cost of their individual and/or family plan. Still, this is far less expensive than seeking a personal benefits package, and will likely be more expansive, useful and unique if you offer the best employee benefits possible!
5. How can I ensure I am offering the best employee benefits for my staff?
Do some research if you aren’t sure where to begin, or, whether or not you’re offering the best benefits to your employees. A great way to understand what your employees and their dependants require (coverage-wise) is to conduct a survey in your company. Survey’s are easy to create on platforms like Survey Monkey, and can be kept anonymous. This way, you can ask questions and leave room for feedback to gauge what services and additional perks your employees would benefit from. You can also look at what your competitors are offering, and, read what great, or even unique, benefits other modern companies offer to their staff.
6. I have a low budget, but still want to offer the best employee benefits, what should I do?
If you don’t have the budget to offer your employees coverage for everything, there are a few things you should consider. Firstly, some benefits companies and workplaces are able to offer a ‘build your own benefits’ package, where employees select from a list of options and decide what type of coverage suits their needs best. For example, coverage options may be divided into a few categories, where employees can “select one of the following four: receive 70% coverage per visit up to $500.00 annually for either massage therapy, physiotherapy, chiropractic, or acupuncture.” Additionally, some plans (often the more expensive ones) offer complete coverage and direct billing for specific services, whereas others require people to pay for the service and submit receipts, and/or, only offer partial coverage. In general, less expensive plans offer less coverage, but are still beneficial to many.
7. Why should I consider offering academic/educational services to my employees?
Offering things like partial or full coverage (up until a certain amount) for child care and skills training isn’t uncommon in modern businesses. However, offering academic consultation is a great additional option to offer that will make your stand out as an employer who truly cares about the futures of your employee’s children! Once their dependents are teens and young adults, your staff members may feel as though their benefits package is only useful for basic purposes, like health and dental. Knowing their children will have access to support in the form of academic consultation and preparatory services available will surely lift a weight off the shoulders of busy, stressed out parents who work hard in order to provide the best for their children. In return, their young adults will be able to seek help from the experts at BeMo to prepare for their exams, interviews, and futures in undergraduate programs and/or graduate school.
8. I want to offer BeMo Academic Services as an employee benefit, where do I start?
If you’re interesting in offering BeMo’s Academic Consulting Services to both your staff and their families as a benefit, you can contact us here to learn how to get started!
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