Employee Benefits for Small Business Owners – A guide
Giving benefits to employees makes a small business more attractive to top talent. Expert professionals find it beneficial to work for the company. When a small business offers a series of assured benefits in terms of insurance policies and other types of compensation to its employees, it becomes more competitive. Before going to the list of benefits, it is crucial why such benefits are offered.
Table of Contents
Why employee benefits are offered?
The broad reasons why businesses and start-ups offer employee benefits:
- Attracting talent from the industry
- Enhancing the productivity of the business
- Retaining employees
- Boosting the efficiency of individual employee
- Establishing a good moral in the work environment
The health insurance plan is the most important employee benefit
There is no doubt that providing health insurance to employees is the most important benefit. Employees of a small business feel more protected by availing such provision from their employer. It is arguably the simplest benefit to implement. For businesses, it increases their goodwill in the market. Health insurance covers all aspects discussed in the previous section.
Let us now know about other kinds of benefits.
Paid holidays
Paid holidays mean the days when employees take vacation leave and get paid. Sick days are also counted among paid holidays. But, keep in mind that there is a limit to the number of paid holidays.
Remote/Flexible work options
The choice to work remotely in certain instances is one of the top benefits. It is more relevant post-pandemic. The employer gives a choice to the workers to deliver from convenient remote places. The flexible environment to work can improve the efficiency level of the employee.
Life insurance
It is one of the basic employee benefits that many small businesses provide. If the employee passes away, his nearest family members get a certain sum of amount from the insurer. It creates a safety net for the family of the particular employee.
Retirement benefits
As the name suggests, the small business pays the employee a certain sum of money on his retirement. The benefits provide a financial support to the employee in his old age. Good retirement benefits can attract more talent for the small business, even in tough competitive market.
Scope of professional development
There are several small businesses in India that provide opportunities for its employees to develop new skills and hone their expertise. In numerous cases, the company covers the costs of training and/or learning. It creates more value in the career growth plan of the employee, from a practical perspective.
Incentives for a healthy lifestyle
Corporate India is rapidly changing. There are new forms of compensations nowadays. For example, there are some start-ups that provide incentives to its employees for developing and leading a healthy lifestyle. The incentives help the employees to eat healthy food items and use devices and equipments to improve fitness level.
Employee assistance plans/programs
There are some companies, especially in the small business sector, which organize assistance programs for their employees. In most of the cases, the programs focus on improving the mental wellness/ emotional well-being of the employees. It ultimately leads in an increase in the productivity of the small business.
Protection against identity theft
In the fast evolving corporate sector of India, there are some new companies and old companies with new policies that care about employee privacy and related data. They provide protection against identity theft. It is a kind of employee benefit, too.
Maternity benefits
The maternity benefits help women employees to take paid leaves during pregnancy. The benefits are not only measured in financial terms but from a social angle, too. Nowadays, there are many small businesses that are gradually implementing maternity benefits to their women employees.
Childcare benefits
Childcare benefits are basically paid leaves when a woman employee takes care of her newborn. There is a ceiling to the number of paid leaves the employee can get. Previously, very few companies had such benefits. But, in current times, more and more small businesses are trying to implement childcare benefits in their frameworks.
Benefits for loan repayment
An employee, in some companies, can also expect to avail partial benefits in terms of repaying a loan. The benefit is generally in terms of paying a lower interest on the loan. It immensely helps the employee to keep personal budget under control.
Incentives for improving home office
An employee in some situations can also get incentives to improve the infrastructure of his home office. The costs for buying new devices, equipment sets and furniture items are covered, to an extent, by the employer. It makes the employee more accountable to the small business for which he works.
Sign-on bonuses
There are bonuses for sign-on given by small businesses, especially tech start-ups. The bonuses are a good amount of money. The bonus ensures that the new employee will not leave the company. It is a good strategy by a relatively new company to acquire top talent.
Performance bonuses
Performance bonuses are incentives or additional compensations paid to employees for their high performance. When an employee provides the desired results efficiently and meets the targets convincingly expanding the prospects of the small business, the company shows appreciation by giving him a performance bonus.
There are two broad categories of employee benefits
Most of the employee benefits fall under two major categories, irrespective of the domain of small business. The first category of employee benefits is termed as organizational-oriented. On the other hand, the second category of employee benefits is termed as consumer-oriented.
Employee benefits those are organizational-oriented
The employee benefits that are organizational-oriented are particular benefits owned by the employer, and also selected by the employer. A group health insurance policyThe legal document issued to the policyholder that outlines the conditions and terms of the insurance; also called the ‘policy is a prime example of such a benefit. Also, the benefit of retirement pension is such a benefit, too. A wellness program also falls under this category.
Employee benefits those are consumer-oriented
The employee benefits that are consumer-oriented are specific benefits owned by the employer, but selected by the employee. In this case, the employee enjoys the flexibility to customize the features of the benefits within a certain limit fixed and funded by the employer.
Know more about employee benefits
As a small business owner, if you want to know more vividly about different kinds of employee benefits, then it is a good idea to consult with the professionals of PlanCover. It is a reliable insurance broker active in the Indian market. The broker promptly provides you with rich information about various types of employee benefits. You will not have any problems in clearing doubts.
