GROUP BENEFITS
Business owners are increasingly recognizing the critical importance of implementing employee benefit plans in their organization, and this is an area that has grown considerably in recent decades.
If you want to ensure you attract top talent, one of the best ways is by offering significant benefits to your employees. It will help improve their attitude and willingness to do their job and show them that you care about them, which helps build respect for your business. In addition, these benefit packages provide tangible value in terms of lower absenteeism and higher productivity.
Employee benefits comprise all the additional things that you offer to your employees on top of their regular salary, which could include:
- Group health benefits
- Group retirement plans, including pensions or group RRSP
- Training and education programs
- Flexible working hours and remote work
- Wellness programs
Employees are increasingly interested in the total benefits package a potential employer can offer them rather than just being focused on salary.
Many employees value their employer’s benefits, considering them an integral part of their take-home pay, none more so than health coverage. This benefit can provide financial and emotional security to your employees and their families.
When you offer a group benefits plan to your employees, it does three things:
- Employer-sponsored health and dental benefits are tax-effective to help attract, reward, and retain your employees.
- Your employees are an essential part of what makes your company great. Group benefits make it easy to take care of their most important assets—their health and wellness.
- Build loyalty: When employees feel like they are more than just a number and their employer appreciates them, they are more loyal and happy to work for the company’s future success.
There are four main components to an employee benefits plan:
- Extended Health and Dental
- Disability
- Life and Critical Illness Coverage
- Employee Wellness
1. Extended Health & Dental
Health and Dental coverage are the backbone of any benefits package. As the cost of healthcare continues to rise exponentially, it is more important than ever for employers to offer this coverage to their employees. When putting together your plan, you can choose the types of coverage you provide, including:
- Prescription drugs
- Paramedical expenses
- Dental
- Vision
2. Disability
In addition to health benefits, disability insurance helps protect your employees’ income if they become ill or injured and cannot work. It removes the financial pressures of losing their income, allowing them or their family to focus on getting healthy and returning to work as quickly as possible.
3. Life & Critical Illness Coverage
Employee life insurance is an essential benefit for your employees and their families. If a covered employee becomes critically ill, their designated beneficiary can receive a lump sum benefit to help cover medical costs. Life insurance is an integral part of a business’s benefits package. It’s challenging to think about, but it does happen. With life insurance coverage, you can be sure their families will have help in a very trying time.
4. Employee Wellness
Good mental health is essential to a healthy work environment. Typically, a benefit plan will include access to an Employee and Family Assistance Plan, which is a resource that provides support and counselling to your employee.
Not only do these benefits provide a sense of security to your employees, but they can also help them to feel valued as part of your organization, which increases productivity and loyalty to your company.
It is, therefore, worthwhile for business owners to recognize that the benefits package you offer should be considered an integral part of their take-home pay, alongside their actual salary.
Talk to us; we can help design a group benefits plan that makes financial sense for your business.