How to Use Benefits to Recruit and Retain

Benefits matter a lot when it comes to recruiting and retaining talent yet many companies don't use that to their advantage. They'll spend a fortune on all their offerings but fail to highlight it in their recruiting material and even worse make it too hard for employees to take advantage of the benefits once they do come on board. "For a lot of folks the benefit package is about as clear as mud," says Chris Hill, founder and Chief Executive of Spotlite, the benefits enrollment and communication technology company. "It's really up to the employer to tell the benefits story." Blame it on the Affordable Care Act or more of the healthcare costs being passed on to the employees but either way, workers are increasingly ranking a good benefits package as high as a competitive salary.

How to Recruit and Retain Employees

Recruiting employees is only half the battle. Benefits may play a big part in your ability to recruit, but following through and constantly improving your benefits packages is pivotal in retaining top talent. What constitutes as a good benefits package will vary from one industry to the next. For some companies it's the perks that matter like flex time, Fridays off in the summer and free memberships to a gym. For other companies it's going to be about having good healthcare coverage, a 401 (K) matching program and some sort of life insurance coverage. The key in both cases is to offer options. "You don't have to have the best of everything," says Scott Carver, president of PlanSource, the human resources cloud company. "But you do have to have the essentials. You can't just have one health plan you have to have options people can select from." How companies think about benefits will also impact how well they can recruit and retain talented professionals. According to Laura Kerekes, chief knowledge officer, at ThinkHR, a human resources cloud company, companies can't just think about cash and stock but look at benefits as total package that can be customizable. After all millennial workers are going to have needs from their benefits that baby boomers may not. Just like a 24- year old single male worker is going to care about things that a 45 year-old women with kids won't. "Younger workers don't care about traditional benefits like healthcare and retirement savings," says Laura Kerekes. "You have to come up with that sweet spot and mix it up." With benefits top of mind for many job seekers, companies have to use them as a recruiting tool as well, but it can't be something that's mentioned during the interview or as an afterthought. The company website has to highlight the benefits as well as on all the social media channels whether it's Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. "Focusing on the cool and different benefits that can be customized is where you really get them," says Kerekes. Take Spotlite, which offers unlimited vacation as one of its benefits. Hill says that perk is highlighted in all of the company material including in its job ads. That doesn't mean he doesn't highlight the healthcare and retirement benefits as well, but something like unlimited vacation isn't common and is likely to pique the interest of many job seekers. Although it's not realistic to put all of your benefits in a job ad, especially in this mobile age, but you do want to have a teaser like Spotlite's mention of unlimited vacation. Using a solution like Glassdoor is also a great place to promote your benefits. Glassdoor's employer branding solution provides an enhanced profile to showcase your company culture and perks, post jobs, and is proven to drive more well-informed candidates. Highlighting benefits shouldn't stop once the employee takes the job either. After all if employees have a good benefits package that they actually use they are more apt to stay with the company longer. Unfortunately many companies do a bad job of making sure employees and their significant others know what the company offers, which can not only hurt retention but actually waste company money. Some of the mistakes companies make include having an outdated benefits Website, not sending out regular communications about the benefits and forgetting to target family members who may be the ones who will utilize the benefits for the family. Promoting your benefits can be essential to retaining your key employees. It's also important to personalize and customize the messaging employees get. Since the benefits are not one size fits all you need to make sure your communications material hits on the benefits the particular employee cares about, says Hill. Employers know who their employees are, know where they live and know their family status so they should act as a guide to help them create a benefits package that works for them, he says. "It's a challenge for a lot of employers who are used to everyone getting health insurance with a $250 deductible plan," he says. "It's up to the employer to retain talent and a key piece is telling the benefits story and making sure the employer gets credit for the big check its writing to coverage these benefits."