Put in a Good Employee Benefit Plan and Be A Hero!
Paying for an employee benefit plan is an expense. You could take the same money, and just pay it to your employees. HR professionals feel that the dollars spent on a good benefit plan result in more value to an employer than simply handing over money to employees.
Here’s why:
- Setting up a benefit plan requires thought on the part of the employer. Employees realize that thought equals concern and care.
- Employees realize that a benefit plan offers “benefits” that they cannot obtain on their own.
- Employees realize that without a benefit plan they might not be able to pass an insurance medical to obtain meaningful life insurance or disability insurance. The existence of a benefit plan helps employees meet a responsibility they know they have to their family.
- Employees know that if they purchase prescription drugs or pay the dentist, they pay with after-tax dollars, and with a benefit plan in place, they pay nothing or only a small percentage (where there is co-insurance).
- Employees who use the Employee Assistance Program (counselling) get relief from the pressures of modern life. Taking care of an aging parent, dealing with a marital issue, drug or alcohol dependency, financial or legal questions, depression – all those topics and more may be discussed by an employee with the EAP counsellors. And for the employer, if an employee is proactively managing these challenges and distractions, they will become a much more productive employee.
- What is the “value” if one of your employees has a serious problem and a significant insurance claim? What if one of your employees gets paid LTD for several months? What if one of your employees gets sick in the Caribbean and is flown home under the out-of-province medical coverage? If this happens in a firm, other employees see the employer as a hero.
- Finally, there is group Critical Illness insurance. In my experience in speaking with employees, this is one of the most “heroic” benefits an employer can provide. When an employee in a firm is diagnosed with cancer, it scares all employees. The logistical and emotional disruption the sick person and their family feels is understood. And it’s scary! And everybody realizes it could happen to them. But when the employees learn their co-worker collected Critical Illness insurance, provided by the employer, it eases the burden for everyone. It’s comforting to all employees to know their co-worker doesn’t have financial pressure, nor will they in the same situation.