If there was one adjective you could use to define the job market, competitive would fit the bill.
Indeed, the ratio of the number of candidates to the number of jobs available is very high and for a candidate looking for a job, finding the ideal job is not an easy task.
However, the same applies to organizations as well.
While there might be a lot of candidates applying for a particular job posting, the number of candidates that are actually suitable and have the required skills are surprisingly low, and attracting these candidates can be quite a challenge.
What is even more important and unfortunately even more of a challenge is retaining them.
Every time a talented employee leaves an organization, it can lead to quite a significant setback.
The most effective way of attracting and retaining top talent is to offer an excellent benefits package.
One, that at the very least, matches the benefits package offered by the competition.
Here are a few ways in which offering a competitive benefits package can help you attract and retain top talent.
How Benefits Package Attract and Retain Talent
Offering benefits packages to your current and future employees can help you differentiate yourself from your competitors. This is especially true for small businesses.
Most small businesses do not offer any benefits package to their employees. As a result, offering benefits to your employees can help you stand out. It shows that you appreciate and value your employees.
A lot of candidates often opt for jobs that offer better benefits over jobs that offer higher compensation.
This is because benefits like insurance coverage, retirement benefits, loan assistance, and scholarships for children often increase the total compensation that the employees receive.
Furthermore, benefits like flexible and smart working allow for better work-life and personal-life balance, a factor that is very important to today’s generation.
Offering such benefits not only makes your organization a more lucrative workplace but also increases employee satisfaction. This improves your chances of retaining top talent, in addition to attracting them to your firm.
Most Sought After Benefits
Various benefits are often offered to employees as part of the benefits package, but certain benefits are more lucrative than others.
Here are some of the most sought-after benefits by the top talent.
Insurance Coverage
Insurance coverage is a benefit that a lot of candidates look for. With increasing medical costs, a good health insurance plan is an attractive benefit and one that can be a deciding factor.
However, offering medical and dental insurance can turn out to be quite expensive for organizations, especially for small businesses. Yet, there are some ways in which the expenses can be controlled.
A lot of businesses offer health insurance to their employees in which the organization only covers a part of the premium, while the remaining amount of the premium is covered by the employees.
For an organization, opting for group insurance is a good way of offering health insurance to employees in order to attract and retain top talent.
Furthermore, purchasing group insurance can not only help in reducing the expenses of the organization but can also help meet with statutory compliances.
Flexible Working
Flexible working hours are an aspect that can lure a lot of top candidates to accept a position with your organization. In fact, candidates often prefer flexible working hours over a higher remuneration. However, within flexible working, there are different types of benefits that are usually offered.
These benefits include work from home, flexible working hours, and compressed workweeks. Out of these, work from home has now become the norm as a result of a need to enforce social distancing.
The work from a home model, also known as remote work or smart work, has proven to be so effective, both in terms of employee satisfaction and productivity, that a large number of companies are already planning to make the shift to flexible workspaces.
The option of working from home or as per their working hours is bound to attract the top talent, even with a lower remuneration.
Furthermore, the model will also help reduce the real estate space and resources that the organization requires, helping reduce expenses.
Retirement Benefits
Offering retirement benefits is a great way of ensuring employee satisfaction while at the same time getting some tax benefits.
Offering retirement benefits is crucial because if you don’t, you are likely to fall short in terms of benefits offered when compared to most organizations.
This is because 90 percent of all organizations offer retirement benefits to their employees.
Retirement benefits generally include a contribution by the employer which matches the contribution made by the employee but only up to a maximum limit.
When you are trying to attract the top talent from the job market, it is important to stand out from the crowd. You need to be able to offer perks that others don’t.
This is where offering a competitive benefits package comes in. A lot of job seekers actually prefer a good benefits package over a high remuneration.
A good benefits package will not only help attract and retain top talent but will also help reduce the expenses of the organization.