Your staff is the most important resource your company has. As such, it’s vital to make smart decisions regarding who you bring on board. Successful businesses tend not to take the reactionary approach of simply recruiting when vacancies arise.
Rather, talent acquisition is an ongoing and more strategic method of identifying and hiring skilled professionals. This sees businesses focusing as much on recognizing what matters to candidates and the measures that can help retain them in the long term. It’s a method through which your company can secure high-quality employees that have a positive cultural impact.
Part of the strategy here surrounds shaping your forms of compensation in ways to attract professionals and keep them engaged. This isn’t just about providing higher salaries.
The range of benefits your company offers can improve workers’ quality of life and keep them connected to your organization — but a lot of businesses already recognize this. To be an attractive target for candidates, you need to think differently by providing benefit options potential employees won’t get elsewhere.
We’re going to outline 5 outside-the-box benefits you can consider when improving your ability to acquire and retain talent.
LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Healthcare Benefits
Health benefits are among the most basic expected perks for professionals today. Indeed, this usually incorporates vision and dental, too. But these are not likely to demonstrate to the most talented candidates that your company is a cut above the rest. Rather, it’s more effective to stretch further and offer LGBTQIA+ inclusive healthcare benefits.
This helps to make sure all your staff members have access to the care they need. Plans here must include network connections to mental health services specifically designed for this demographic.
This is because members of the LGBTQIA+ community often face unique psychological, emotional, and substance-related challenges. Your commitment also needs to extend to healthcare services for transgender staff throughout the transition journey and beyond.
Your commitment here has benefits for your company, too. Firstly, it helps you attract and retain more diverse contributors to your company. It also shows potential candidates of all demographics that you have an inclusive culture. This is a vital consideration, given that 80% of workers state this is among their priorities. Skilled and ethical professionals want to see you not just provide great care for them, but also for their colleagues.
On-site Daycare or Childcare Reimbursement
Another priority for workers at the moment is maintaining a good work-life balance. Employees rightly expect to be able to pursue a healthy family life alongside their careers. Importantly, when it comes to talent acquisition, candidates need to see how companies are actively supporting this balance. One way you can offer outside-the-box benefits is through on-site daycare or childcare reimbursement.
Too many companies still treat childcare as solely their employees’ responsibility. From a legislative standpoint, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives some employees the right to take up to 12 weeks per year to care for children. Though this is often unpaid and is limited to parents with newborns, newly adopted children, and children with medical conditions. It’s certainly not fit for helping all workers achieve a genuinely positive work and family life.
Instead, giving access to childcare at your business or providing a reimbursement is a more practical and supportive tool. It also demonstrates you recognize the value of having parents as part of your company culture. Not to mention you’ll find it reduces employee parents’ stress, which in turn has an impact on absenteeism, retention, and productivity.
Pet Insurance
Pet insurance as a benefit has only recently begun to see adoption by businesses. Yet, providing this communicates a great deal about how your business views the concept of family. Not all the talented professionals you want to attract will want to build a traditional family with children. Pets are an equally valid part of a solid and loving family unit as any of their human counterparts.
It is therefore natural that employees would appreciate tools to help them care for their pets’ health. After all, it’s common for companies to offer access to healthcare benefits for partners and children.
This doesn’t often represent a huge expense to businesses and they certainly aren’t as complex or pricey as human health plans. But this gesture can highlight how your company is committed to providing support for potential employees’ entire families.
Eldercare Assistance
Eldercare — also known as senior care — is a form of support for older family members. This can become necessary when these relatives experience cognitive, physical, or emotional challenges in the later stage of life. It can also take various forms, including living in a residential facility or professional help in the home. While this is a vital tool to help older relatives to maintain a high quality of life, it can certainly be extremely expensive.
This can be a grim reality for many of your employees. The investment needed to support their parents or grandparents may cause them additional financial hardship. They can also experience significant stress and anxiety as a result. Providing access to eldercare assistance as an employee benefit can show potential employees you’re committed to lifting some of this burden.
You don’t need to necessarily pay for elderly family members’ entire care. Rather, you can offer a certain amount of funding for each year employees work with you. You may also be able to collaborate with elder care agencies and providers to offer subsidized access to services.
Tuition Reimbursement
Well-educated employees can be a boost to your business. Indeed, those who are committed to continuing their education show they understand how valuable self-growth is. However, many people face challenges here. Formal learning has become prohibitively expensive for many people, with average private university tuition fees now topping $38,000.
As such, tuition reimbursement can be among the most attractive benefits for potential employees. This is particularly important when finding ways to support Millennial and Generation Z workers, who are already facing financial challenges in various areas of their lives. Your benefits here can take a few different forms.
You can reimburse a percentage of tuition fees tied to the length of time workers are with the company. It’s also smart to connect the benefit to your employee development program and reimburse costs for certifications related to relevant or desirable skills.
However, you’ll find it’s wise to provide a certain amount of financial assistance for courses not directly related to your company or your employees’ roles.
Firstly, this helps to ensure your business benefits from a more diverse range of skills. But it also communicates to candidates that you are supportive of their growth and goals no matter what those are. This can be a powerful tool for engagement and retention.
Conclusion
When you’re seeking to recruit or acquire new talent, the benefits you offer can be an influencing factor. You’ll find you can make a greater impact with outside-the-box options here. Utilize healthcare plans designed to support diverse staff and their families. Offer care funding for pets, children, and elderly family members.
Encourage employees’ personal and professional growth with tuition assistance. Each of these benefits shows your company cares about your workers’ quality of life. As such, each is valuable for attracting and retaining top professionals.
