As a Human Resource Professional, you have done everything right! You reviewed the job description, determined the best way to acquire talent and then conducted some killer interviews. Now, you found “the one”! So, why then, when you’re reviewing the job offer with the candidate, does your offer fall flat? Benefits are often an afterthought during recruitment AND make a big difference in your sealing the deal! In fact, in a 2020 survey of employees, GRiD found that close to 32% of employees say benefits are as important as salary.

Understanding what your employees want requires some planning and communication. Before you make changes, you’ll want to determine what benefits your company can afford, as well as evaluate what makes sense for your employees. Take a good hard look at your current pool of people. Thoughts and needs of employees change as they grow older and change priorities.

The most popular benefits include: health insurance, paid time off/vacation days, vision insurance, dental insurance, 401k retirement plans, life insurance and short- and long-term disability. If you’re going to step beyond these, you’ll want to review the potential of adding things that enrich and make your employees life easier.

At the end of 2020, our company gave each employee a sum of money to spend with a local business! This was an amazing way for our organization to support area businesses (our life blood) and give back to the employees. The benefit was in-line with our company mission as well as a beautiful way to recognize our employees’ contribution over the year. These are the kinds of benefits that don’t get reviewed with a new hire – perhaps it should.

Benefits have never been my favorite part of recruitment. I’ve always “delegated” this to someone else. Learning how important benefits are for offer acceptance makes me want to spend more time learning about benefit options. What unique options does your company offer? How are these options being received from both your current and prospective employees? Drop me a note. I’d love to hear from you!

Be well,

Lori