Think outside the wallet when choosing benefit options for your employees

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It’s not always just about the money. Employee benefit plans that appeal to staff in more ways than just financial terms are a great way to recruit and retain the best and the brightest. However, there’s always the potential for employers’ goals and employers’ perceptions of what their employees value most to be misaligned with what their staff actually desires. This can lead to unsatisfied workers and wasted money on undervalued benefits.

For example, you may have had an employee leave for a $0.25 per hour raise elsewhere, without giving you the opportunity to match that raise. All the while, the employee does not appreciate that they are losing much more in benefits than they are gaining to achieve that modest increase in hourly pay. And no matter how much it may be explained to them, sometimes there’s still a disconnect, either in understanding what really matters to that employee, or the employee not realizing what they’re giving up to get that slightly higher figure on their paycheck. Either way, in today’s hiring and work environments, it’s more important than ever to ensure priorities among employers and employees align.

Many factors influence those priorities, ranging from state and regional preferences, to rural vs urban vs suburban geographical differences, to individual employee demographics. Overall, however, there’s a surprisingly large degree of symmetry across age and sex demographics when it comes to benefits preferences.

Forbes recently published a survey of 1000 employees and 1000 business owners across the US to determine what each group thought were the most important workplace benefits.¹ Think you know what those are? Read on to compare your thoughts to the survey results¹:

Overall trends

• 40% of employers stated they believed workers would leave their current position to find better benefits elsewhere.
• 54% of workers reported being content with the benefits their current employer offers (implying that 46% were not).
• One in 10 workers would reportedly take a pay cut to receive better benefits (meaning 90% value their base pay more than the perceived value of better benefits).
• Of those aged 42 to 57 years, approximately 40% desired mandatory paid time off from their employer.
• Of those employees older than 42 years, more than 80% were looking for positions that included employer-covered health care.
• Interestingly, despite media coverage to the contrary, a majority of responding employees did not say they preferred a 4-day work week; however, 24% of those aged 42 to 57 years and 32% of those aged 58-76 years did prefer a 4-day work week.
• Also, only 37% said the option to work from home is important; however, interest was greatest among those aged 26 to 57 years.

Table 1. Benefits employees want vs benefits their employers perceive as important

More specifically, employees and employers were in very close agreement on 3 of the top 4 ranked benefits (Table 1) in terms of: employer-covered health care, life insurance, and pension/retirement plans.

Beyond those 3, however, there was a statistically significant disconnect between employers and employees on all other benefits surveyed, with flexible hours, mandatory paid time off, and professional development being undervalued by employers relative to their staff’s priorities, whereas employers grossly overestimated employees’ appreciation of free coffee/tea/sodas/snacks/etc.

Table 2. The most desired workplace culture characteristics.

Another aspect of the workplace that can positively or negatively impact hiring and retention rates is the on-the-job culture present in the work environment (Table 2). Interestingly, both groups strongly agreed on work-life balance as the most desirable workplace characteristic and team camaraderie as one of the least critical.

Real-world application

How can you determine what matters most to your employees? Keeping these data in mind and using the Golden Rule as a measuring stick is a great starting place:ask yourself what benefits matter most to you, and then seek to incorporate those as you’re able. Keep in mind, however, that as a doctor and/or owner, your perspective may be quite different than if/when you were in your staff’s shoes years ago, so attempting to see things from their point of view can aid your assessment.

Also, it’s never been easier to survey your employees (remember you don’t have to publish the results!). Using a free, anonymous survey tool such as Survey Monkey allows employees to respond with what they value most, should you prefer this method over 1-on-1 conversations. It’s also a good idea to annually provide staff with a detailed description of what benefits are available to them so they understand what is being offered and have the opportunity to ask questions. Consistently showing staff the dollar value of their benefits on their paycheck is another great tool to maximize appreciation for what’s offered.

This is not to say you should simply offer whatever your survey results may show. If you own your practice, these data can simply be used to guide your decision-making as to what will be most effective in hiring and retaining the best staff possible.

And although they may not be listed as top priorities, don’t forget that some small-dollar benefits can outpunch their weight class (eg, low-cost annual memberships for shopping clubs, gyms, streaming services), while also being potentially tax deductible by the business. Fostering good relationships with optical, pharmaceutical, and equipment representatives can create opportunities for complementary lunch and dinner meetings for staff. These cost the practice nothing but a little time, while engendering goodwill from the employee towards the employer.

Lastly, remember that workplace culture matters. It also costs very little to emphasize proper work-life balance. Offering small tokens of appreciation in the form of a “thank you” (either verbally or in writing), recognizing and praising team members in front of others at staff meetings, and ensuring opportunities exist for on-the-job professional development can mean a lot to staff. Even simply acknowledging important dates, such as anniversaries and birthdays, can go a long way toward creating an environment in which employees feel valued, invested, and reluctant to leave. Every little thing we can reasonably do to help make our practices more attractive to employees is a win, so here’s to better and more valued benefits for all of us.

Reference:

1. O’Reilly D. Best employee benefits in 2024. Forbes Advisor. Updated October 30, 2024. Accessed November 5, 2024. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/best-employee-benefits/