Keeping Talented Employees?

Is Your Company’s Benefit Program Attracting and Keeping Talented Employees?

At times it seems the talent we want to attract tells us, “I'm highly motivated to succeed!” Translated, it means: “The minute I find a better job. I'm outta here.” Human Resource professionals and managers are sometimes forced to play the same game. When they say, “Our firm has a competitive environment.” They often mean, “We have a lot of turnover.” For both employer and employee, these situations are costly and unproductive. One way to avoid these discussions is to offer the best benefit program possible.

Once considered more of a “necessary evil” than a major recruiting tool, benefit programs are now high on employees’ lists of requirements, generating positive or negative impressions of your company. As we are all aware, this issue has been further complicated as a result of the rapidly escalating cost of benefits, particularly health-related insurance premiums, in recent years.

Whether you’re the primary income provider for your spouse and seven children, supervise a talented group of four employees, or are the senior Human Resources officer in your firm, you need to be as knowledgeable as possible of your employer’s benefit program. You should consider becoming a useful benefit plan resource for your team, your company, and yourself.

While compensation levels will remain important in attracting new talent and keeping the talent you have, benefit programs are now of almost equal importance. Companies must understand the value and importance of this twenty-first century reality. Human resource professionals need to stay on the cutting edge of at least two benefit areas.

1. What are the latest and best benefit programs offered and available?
2. What type and levels of benefits are being offered by companies with whom you compete for talent?

Because of the importance of a high level benefit package, managers can now tell applicants that, “We offer a competitive salary.” When they really mean, “Actually, we stay competitive by paying less than our direct competitors.” But, with a wonderful benefit program, you might still attract some excellent talent. Statistics indicate that, while a top of the line compensation schedule will still attract talented people, a comprehensive benefit program will often keep them producing for you, instead of your competition.

Historically, the way you learned if your benefit program is lacking was to ask your departing employees at an exit interview. However, learning this truth as your talented, now former, employee is cleaning out his/her office is a bit late. Managers need to be pro-active and learn what benefits are available in the market and what their competition is offering. Whether you’re in H.R. or in management, trying to build the best team possible, it is imperative you know what the employee market wants.

Should your company not be in a financial position to match the top-of-the-line packages offered by your competition, having this information should at least give you knowledge. If you can then turn this knowledge into power, you may be able to compensate for this deficiency through other measures. What other measures might you consider?

• Assuming compensation levels are competitive (truly competitive), you might “speed up” the track for employees to earn bonuses, increased salary, or promotions.
• If your benefit program is lacking in “luxury”, possibly waiting periods or vesting rules can be shortened or improved to allow newer employees to achieve more security.
• Provide other “in house” benefits, like flexible working hours, telecommuting options, increased personal days, or vacations.
• Create some new employee incentive programs involving money, time off, or pure recognition (employee of the month, quarter, etc.).

As the cost of health-related insurance, retirement plan options, child care, and other benefit programs increases, your company ironically faces similar issues your employees face: cost and availability. The higher the level of overall talent you need to compete and win, the stronger your benefit package should be.

Here are some suggested tips to achieve your goal of offering the best benefit program you are able to provide.

1. Evaluate where your benefit program rates in the current market. Be honest. During introspection and self-evaluation, you cannot afford to be terminally positive. This is one of the few times in your professional or personal life that strong positivity is not recommended. See what your competition is offering to have a baseline of measurement. You must decide what you offer that is excellent and what you’re not currently offering that could cost you talent.
2. How can you get what you lack and what will it cost? Now that you’ve discovered what benefits or enhancements you lack, you need to learn where you can find them. Then, determine what they will cost. The “cost versus value” ratio is never more important than in benefit package evaluation. Try not to overemphasize cost. Your employees will look at specific benefits based more on how these programs help them when they are in need, not what they cost.
3. Find out how Senior Management (not just the accounting or financial department) “feels” about the company’s current benefit package. Remember, they probably don’t have the technical or most up-to-date knowledge about the market and competitor plans. But, they will have some important opinions. Opinions that could make or break a proposal for a benefit program upgrade. Like scouting a football team before the big game, this can be helpful, sometimes critical, in making a proposal to upgrade your benefit program.
4. Be honest AND persuasive. Now that you have done your “homework” you know how your benefit program compares with your competition, what you might need to upgrade weak areas, what it might cost to accomplish the goal, and what the positive results might be. If you decide to propose a change, be honest and outline all of the pros and cons of an enhancement. But, also, be persuasive. Be an advocate. This is your professional decision. This is not necessarily on the wish list of the accounting or finance departments (responsible for controlling costs), other department heads (although always clamoring for the “best people”), or senior management (responsible for the bottom line). You may have to persuade all members of the executive team that this action is warranted. But – you can do it. You’ve got all the information you need to support your argument.
5. If you get a “go” decision, publicize it to all. After you successfully convince the final decision makers to adopt these improvements, immediately get all the benefit possible. First, publicize the coming changes internally, to your current workforce. You know some percentage of your current employee team is looking at new job opportunities, some of which might involve your benefit program deficiencies. Your publication of upcoming enhancements may stop some of these job searches right away. Advise recruiters, in house and third party, of your “new and improved” benefit package immediately. This enhancement gives them something new to “sell” and improves your company’s image as a top-of-the-line employer.