You’ve posted new jobs to your company’s careers page. Your organization has a compelling mission and purpose. Your work is interesting, rewarding, and aligned with the market’s expectations, but finding top talent and keeping them is challenging. No matter how great your company’s brand or the positions available are, top talent needs the total package to engage.
Beyond ensuring compensation is competitive for your market, providing an employee benefits program is critical for drawing in top performers. Offering perks prioritizing employee well-being and growth lets candidates know you’re invested in their whole lives, not just at work. Create a workplace where people feel valued, supported, and inspired to drive your business toward excellence with a competitive package.
1. Provide Financial Benefits
Beyond providing market-appropriate and equitable base compensation, financial rewards are crucial for bringing in top performers. Develop clear metrics for employee performance and how those align with compensation and bonuses. Top performers are often used to seeing financial rewards for their contributions, so ensure your benefits match the market. If those in similar jobs earn bonuses, commissions, or profit-sharing, craft your compensation to be competitive.
Less direct financial rewards are key, too. Offer retirement savings programs with a generous company match, which can encourage top talent to save and stay loyal. Craft a benefits program that takes into account your employees’ journey before joining your organization. If your line of work requires a college degree, offer student loan repayment. This modern take on compensation can help employees improve their financial wellness and encourage top talent to stay on board.
Financial benefits that help employees enjoy more of their life for less go a long way to attract talent, too. Provide a customized corporate discount program that maximizes your employees’ other benefits. Travel discounts can reduce the financial demands for your high performers to take a well-earned vacation. Pair your program with encouragement to utilize it, as top performers often perform better after a break. Share tips, stories, and takeaways from colleagues using your discount program to encourage others to take advantage.
2. Promote Health and Well-Being
Another critical component of your benefits program is health and well-being benefits. Not surprisingly, health benefits are one of the key decision points for candidates, both for cost and access. Some employers restrict plan participation to just the employee if their spouse has access to coverage. However, this can present an issue for many, as this limitation may represent a thousand-dollar hit to their budget. To keep candidates engaged, make plan participation flexible and be open to compensation adjustments if this restriction is immovable.
In addition to traditional health benefits, make your wellness package as robust as possible. Include discounts in your corporate program that cover gym membership, home workout equipment, and fitness devices. By reducing the barriers to accessing wellness benefits, you encourage utilization, which can boost performance and reduce health insurance expenses.
Mental wellness, which is a component of total well-being, is paramount, too. Culturally, more people are caring for their mental health and workplace benefits should reflect that. Provide flexibility for employees to attend appointments or therapy during work hours. Reduce barriers to accessing care with an expanded employee assistance program with generous free visits, consultations, and resources. Pair your offering by modeling a work culture that supports caring for health and well-being at the leadership level.
3. Support Professional Development and Growth
Provide growth opportunities that enhance your employees’ experience and reap the rewards, too. Top performers often share a common attribute: a growth mindset. This outlook can be credited with their high-achieving nature, but if it isn’t nurtured, it can falter. Support employee skills development, personal growth, and leadership skills with programs, training, and an annual budget.
Offer premium subscriptions for LinkedIn to facilitate a better network and leverage the LinkedIn Learning library. Pay for training, professional organization membership, and conferences to grow your employees’ expertise and your brand. Reduce barriers to access professional development as much as is administratively feasible to encourage utilization. Make requests easy to complete, allow employees to learn during work time, and be generous with your allowance.
Provide one-on-one coaching or mentorship to individuals whose growth path, potential, or organizational needs demand it. This premium benefit can help support leaders who may not have colleagues whom they can turn to for advice. Mentorship and coaching can help hone the skills of new leaders, the benefits of which trickle down to their team. By investing in employee growth and development, you’re strengthening team performance and can improve retention across the organization.
Align Your Benefits Program With Your Culture and Values
How a company takes care of its employees directly reflects its culture, values, and how it operates. If an organization is offering the bare minimum, they’re likely to attract employees who do the same. However, if you want your organization to thrive, your employee benefits program has to reflect that aim. Strive to reward your employees with a range of useful, relevant, and valuable benefits that enhance their employee experience. Position benefits as the cornerstone of your strategy, and you’ll attract top talent, fuel innovation, and grow your bottom line.