The Value of Extending Family-Friendly Employee Benefits to Hourly Workers
Whether your business employs 10 or 100 people, there are some great advantages to be gained by offering various family-friendly employee benefits. Those advantages do not simply extend to the people getting them, but you stand to benefit as well. An hourly or yearly salary is often not enough to make your workforce fully engaged. Extending benefits should be viewed as an investment because although it will cost money upfront, you stand to gain a great deal in the long term.
Attract the Best and Brightest Around
Consider the following scenario: a person has been offered two positions that offer the same salary but one offers health, vision and dental benefits to the employee and his or her immediate family while the other offers nothing else. Which job offer do you think the person is going to accept Potential employees are going to think about which job is going to be in the best interest of their family. Not only does this include healthcare coverage, but it can also include which company offers vacation time or paid sick leave. It is crucial to understand that your employees have lives outside of work, and they should not have to choose between their career and their family. As an employer, you can extend family-friendly employee benefits to give your workers the best of both worlds.
Retain Employees for Longer
Companies that are capable of retaining hard-working employees for longer periods of time are more likely to be successful than companies that have to deal with constant turnovers. If you do not offer any benefits, then you may get employees for a little bit. However, once they are offered something more attractive, they will be more likely to jump ship because you have not created an engaging company culture. Healthcare coverage can make workers stay because they know they have stability with your organization. Employee loyalty can be expanded by giving your workforce family-friendly employee benefits. While not offering benefits may save you money in the short-term, it is not going to do you any favors moving forward.
Parental Leave
Depending on the average age of your workers, some of them may be thinking of starting a family fairly soon. You do not want your employees worrying about how they are going to balance having children with their work responsibilities. Therefore, it is in your best interest to offer paid parental leave. This not only includes maternal leave but also paternal leave in certain situations. By giving your employees a chance to spend time with their newborn babies and having time to recoup after the delivery, they will be much more refreshed going back to work than if they had to come by the office the day after giving birth. Make life easier on your workers by not having them have to choose between family and work.
Additional Benefits
There are numerous other family-friendly employee benefits you can offer that creates a better work environment. For instance, you can offer an onsite child daycare so that employees do not have to worry about finding an outside daycare program. This gives your workers peace of mind because they know their children are nearby and are being taken care of by someone they trust. You can also do a lot of good by providing some form of educational assistance for the family members of your employees. This assistance can come in the form of scholarships or loan programs. Not very many companies offer educational benefits, so you can attract some stellar employees by setting yourself apart.
Something else your company can do to help your employees juggle work with family is by simply being flexible. If an employee’s family member gets sick and needs to spend a week at the hospital, then your employee may want to spend time at the hospital with his or her loved one. This will be dependent on the type of work your company does, but you should see if there is the potential for someone to work remotely for a little bit. If you give people the time to get their personal lives in order, then their minds will be solely set on their work once they are at the office.
Even smaller businesses can do a lot of good by offering family-friendly employee benefits. Your workers will be incredibly appreciative for your understanding, and they will give you 100 percent while working. Look at all the resources Mighty Recruiter has to offer in creating the happiest and most productive workforce possible.