Without your employees, you wouldn’t have a viable business. They enable your business to function, and they enable it to grow, so how you treat them has a significant impact on their performance, their engagement, and their loyalty. This makes employee benefits a crucial factor in achieving your company’s goals and objectives.  

What are Employee Benefits?

There are a number of different types of benefits and perks you can offer the people you hire. Some benefits are mandated by federal law. These include:

• Minimum wage: Currently, the U.S. Federal minimum wage is set at $7.25 per hour. Some cities and states have set an independent minimum wage which is higher than the Federal minimum. 
• COBRA: The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act allows eligible employees, and their family members, who lose their health benefits, to continue health benefits at group rates for a limited time. 
• Unemployment benefits: This provides monetary payments for workers who become unemployed through no fault of their own. 
• Family and medical leave act: The FMLA mandates that employers should allow employees unpaid leave should they need to take time off to care for family members. 
• Workers’ compensation: This benefit provides compensation insurance for employees who become ill or are injured while on the job.

Employer-Provided Benefits

Along with mandatory benefits, it is to the employer’s advantage to offer additional benefits to show that they acknowledge their social responsibility to their employees. Employer-provided benefits include:

• Health insurance: Many employers offer workers group health insurance plans to help with medical costs. Employers can provide a menu of medical insurance options so that employees can find one that best fits their needs. 
• Paid holidays: If employees have to work on a holiday, many employees offer them extra pay. 
• Vacation leave: The amount of vacation time an employee is entitled to, based on the company policy. 
• Pay raise: Some employers have a merit system in place. This means that higher-performing employees are rewarded with additional pay.

The C-Suite and Benefits Discussions

Because your C-suite is responsible for managing the finances and knows your business from top to bottom, they should certainly be in on the conversation about developing a benefits strategy. However, this discussion often tends to be one that the C-suite is reluctant to have. Many executives feel that benefits are an added burden because of the extra expense they incur.

Employees are aware of the fact that the C-suite doesn’t want to discuss benefits. The fact that they know this makes the problem even more complicated because it creates dissatisfaction and discouragement among the workforce. This can ultimately lead to loss of productivity, lack of engagement and poor employee loyalty.

The best way to encourage a discussion of benefits plans among the C-suite is to avoid thinking of benefits as a burden or issue. The implementation of benefits should be discussed as a particular strategy to help employees, and therefore to benefit your company as a whole.

How Benefits Impact an Organization

Employees value benefits packages; 71% of employees surveyed stated that benefits are important to both their job satisfaction and their company loyalty. When it comes to millennials, they have particular benefits in mind. So, employers who wish to recruit them and obtain the best talent out there should bear this in mind.

The benefits most favored by millennials include:

• Health insurance
• Student loan repayment assistance
• Flexible work schedules
• Retirement funding

Obviously, employee loyalty is vital for the employer because it has benefits for the company, such as:

• Increased focus
• Increased productivity
• Improved attendance
• Improved recruiting
• Better employee retention
• Increased overall company morale

All of these can be considered a return on investment for the company. So, when the C-suite are expressing concerns about spending money on benefits, they can be assured that they are developing a more solid foundation for the company to thrive. Remember, the company’s culture reflects directly through employee wellness.

Why the C-suite Should Talk About Benefits

Benefits and employee financial wellbeing should be thought of as a strategy for adding investment to the company, not a financial burden. Rather than avoiding this topic altogether, it should be discussed at length with the right people. This should include HR representatives and others, as well as the employees themselves.

It’s important for the C-suite to be concerned with how the company is investing in employees because they are in control of money management. Furthermore, providing benefits stimulated potential growth so that through satisfied workers and increased productivity, the company can evolve.

How TrueConnect can Help

TrueConnect is a voluntary employee benefits service. We offer a simple and effective solution to help employees improve their financial wellness. Our seamless program has advantages for employers and employees.

• Employee benefits: TrueConnect can help employees cover unexpected expenses such as medical bills, car repairs, as well as everyday expenses. Doing so can help them save for retirement and provide financial security where they might’ve otherwise felt vulnerable. And having TrueConnect as a partner can also prevent employees from going into debt having to borrow from predatory lenders. Taking the financial stress away from your employees and strengthening their financial stability is TrueConnect’s primary focus. 
• Employer benefits: TrueConnect can help employers show that they care about their employees’ health and wellbeing, and increase employee productivity and engagement. We can also help to reduce healthcare costs and reduce employee turnover in the workplace. TrueConnect is free for employers.

If your C-suite is reluctant to talk about employee benefits, remind them that investing in benefits will not only increase employee productivity and loyalty – it will also help the company to retain current employees and to recruit the best new talent out there. This makes offering benefits a great return on investment.