Help Your Employees Get the Most Out of Company Benefits

The average American company spends 43 cents for benefits for every dollar of payroll. With an expenditure that high, you want to make sure that your employees are getting the most out of their employer-sponsored benefit package. Yet employees consistently underestimate the value of their benefit offering and fail to understand how to take full advantage of these valuable resources. Communication, education, and ease of access are key to ensuring that your employees get the best bang for their buck from your employee perks.

Meet your employees needs

When you are going through the benefit selection process, do you talk to your employees about what their needs or the benefits that are most important to them? With 40 percent of employees saying that having a wide selection would make them feel more loyal to their employer, it may be time to start that conversation.

Rather than all or nothing plans, allow employees to select from a menu of benefits that meets that allows them to select the coverage that best meets their needs. Affordable options for medical, dental, and vision are standard, but your employees may also want to see less traditional offerings and more retirement planning options.

Educate employees

Being able to take advantage of all the perks that benefits offer starts with quality employee education efforts. If your employees don’t have a firm grasp of what options are available, what each benefit covers, and the steps they need to take to get covered, they won’t be able to make an informed decision when applying their benefits in their daily lives.

Set aside time for your HR team and a representative from your benefit provider to meet with your employees. Group discussion that deliver all the information your employees need and ensuring that employees have a good understanding of this information will increase their satisfaction and allow them to get the best benefit from their coverage offerings. Consider having your representatives set up for one-on-one or drop in meetings a few days or a week after your group meeting when employees have had more time to think about and discuss the benefits offered with their significant others.

Educate employees about the different plans available to them. Communicate the role benefits play in overall well-being and help employee understand the specific protections each benefits plan offers.

Make it easy

Open enrollment can be an overwhelming time for both you and your employees. If employees have to wait too long, don’t receive the information they need, or feel the sign-up process is too complicated, they may not select the benefits that best suite them needs or, worse, elect no coverage at all out of frustration.

Streamline the enrollment process by working with a benefits partner that has enabled online self sign-up. Provide employees with digital guides to walk them through the sign-up process. Streamlining the enrollment process can help ease employees’ confusion, empower them to make the right decision based on the benefits information they’ve received, and minimize stress during benefits election time.

Sheakley’s benefits experts are here to help

Accredited by Employer Services Assurance Corporation (ESAC), Certification Institute, and backed by a $3 million Employment Practices Liability Insurance policy, Sheakley’s 120 years of combined PEO and HR Outsourcing experience are unrivaled in the industry. Sheakley’s PEO experts take the guess work out of benefits – ensuring that you and your employees understand how to get the most out of your benefits package. Having Sheakley as a partner allows you to meet the needs of your employees, while remaining focused on the daily demands of your business.

Schedule your free consultation with a Sheakley PEO professional today. For more in-depth information about PEOs, download our What is a PEO e-book today. Stay up-to-date on all things Sheakley by subscribing to our blog and following us on social media. Join in the discussion by commenting below.