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Am I Required By Law to Offer Employee Benefits?
Many employers are confused about which benefits they’re required to offer to their employees. Do employers have to provide a certain amount paid leave to their employees? What about insurance? While regulations vary from state to state, the following are benefits employers are absolutely required to offer:
Minimum Wage Law
Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour; however, different states have different requirements. Remember that when different state and federal wage requirements are present, the higher one always applies. Find your state’s minimum wage here.
Social Security Taxes
Employers are required to match the amount each employee pays to Social Security. Make sure you’re compliant with all rules by reading Social Security’s online guide for employers.
Overtime
Employers with hourly workers are required to pay them time and a half for every hour over 40 hours per week.
Those are really the only three things every business in the country is required to offer. However, there are other requirements that come apply only to certain businesses. For example, companies with more than 50 employees are required to provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave to someone who has a serious medical condition, must care for someone with a serious medical condition or just had a baby.
Business.gov has more information about which benefits your business is obligated to provide.
Since you’re not required to offer benefits, like paid time off, health insurance and retirement, it is in your best interest to show your employees how much these benefits are adding to their total compensation.
Learn more about how you can create comprehensive employee benefit statements in a matter of minutes with COMPackage.
How Much Do Benefits Factor Into Decisions of New Employees?
The latest annual survey of employee benefits trends conducted by MetLife shows that employees are placing a higher value on benefits than ever before. This development appears to be a direct result of the recession.
The poll found that the economic downturn served as a wakeup call to employees, many of whom suddenly found themselves without insurance or retirement benefits. As a result, 41% of respondents said that they considered workplace benefits the foundation of their personal safety net, up from 33% in the months leading up to the recession.
Also, while factors like advancement opportunities and company culture were important to employees leading up to the recession, the study showed that insurance and retirement benefits have quickly become the most important factors in finding a job.
To attract and retain the best employees, then, it is important that you offer a strong benefits package. If you provide benefits like health insurance or a retirement plan, potential hires will feel better about working with you because they know they’ll be covered during an emergency. Many who were hurt during the recession are looking for assurance that they won’t be hurt again.
Learn more about how you can present an attractive benefits package to your employees.
How Can Benefit Statement Software Help Reduce My Turnover?
The need to reduce turnover is greater today than ever before. As the first of the Baby Boomers turn 60, many are beginning to retire. The generation just now entering the workforce contains about 33 million fewer individuals, meaning that employers are finding a much smaller pool of talent to choose from. This smaller talent pool makes hiring quality employees much more expensive.
To make matters worse, studies show that as the economy starts to turn around, employers will start to see higher turnover. Many employees have reported that they’ve stayed in their current positions because they had nowhere else to go, but they’ll start looking for better opportunities as soon as the job market turns.
In a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, these employees were asked why they planned on searching for a new job as the job market gets better. The number one response given was that they were seeking better compensation and benefits.
While you may not be able to retain your employees by raising salary or offering more benefits, you could make them think twice about accepting other job offers by providing them with detailed benefit statements. You know the value of the benefits you provide, but chances are your employees do not.
By showing your employees the monetary benefits of their health insurance, 401(k), time off or even perks like free parking or cell phone service, you’ll readjust their perception of their current situation. This can help reduce turnover and, in turn, drastically reduce your hiring budget. The costs of employee turnover do not have to be such a burden.
View a demo to learn more about how benefit statement software can help you reduce turnover.
Why Do People Leave Their Jobs
A recent survey by Right Management asked over 1,000 people why they voluntarily left their jobs. The percentages don’t add up to 100 because many respondents provided more than one answer.
54% Downsizing or restructuring
30% Sought new challenges or opportunities
25% Ineffective leadership
22% Poor relationship with manager
21% To improve work/life balance
21% Contributions to the company were not valued
18% Better compensation and benefits
We can gather a few helpful ideas from these results:
- In an unstable economy, employees are looking for a place where they won’t be constantly worried that they’ll be the next to get laid off. If your company is currently in a stable position, emphasize that fact to current employees and new hires.
- Leadership matters. One of the top reasons employees have always given for job dissatisfaction has been dissatisfaction with leadership. If you experience high employee turnover, first look at your management.
- Employees want to love their workplace. If employees love coming in to work every day, they’ll stay with you even through hard times. To improve employee morale, give your employees jobs where they can best use their individual talents and show them how much you appreciate them when they succeed.
- While compensation matters, so do benefits. If you aren’t able to offer your employees large salaries, they’ll still greatly appreciate benefits like free food, time off and small rewards.
Show your employees how much their benefits are worth through an employee benefits statement. Request a free demo to learn more about how this benefit software works.
The Top Five Least Expensive Employee Benefits
While you may not be able to offer your employees extravagant benefits like an onsite gym or a cafeteria with gourmet food, there are many simple things you can do to show your employees you appreciate them.
1. Say Thank You
A simple word of appreciation is not only free, it is also one of the best ways you can recognize an employee. You can say “thank you” for a job well done through a personal card or email, a few spoken words or a formal recognition program.
2. Provide Free Food & Munchies
People appreciate few things more than free food. Providing free snacks or drinks throughout the day can be a great way to keep employees happy. If you don’t want to offer free snacks every day, you could choose to have a donut day once a week or a pizza party once a month.
3. Start an Employee Wellness Program
Keep employees healthy through a wellness program. Some wellness program ideas are gym membership reimbursements, smoking cessation incentives or free flu shots. Not only do employee wellness programs keep morale high, they can also help cut down on costly sick days.
4. Small Gifts & Rewards
While you may not be able to afford to hand out big bonuses every month, you can probably set aside a few dollars for rewards like movie tickets or gift cards.
5. Paid Time Off
An easy way to show love to your employees is to give them time off for a job well done. You could even throw in an extra day off for their birthday or their company anniversary. Depending on your business needs, flex scheduling that allows employees the freedom to create their own schedule can be a valuable benefit.
Do you have any additional ideas for inexpensive employee benefits? Please leave them in the comments below — and thanks for sharing!
Show your employees the monetary value of their benefits through COMPackage benefit statement software.
The 7 Best Open Ended Interview Questions
During a job interview, open ended questions provide valuable opportunities to peek behind the veil of prepared answers and find out what a job candidate is really like. The following are interview questions designed to get applicants to reveal more about themselves.
1. “Well…why don’t you start with telling me about yourself?”
As an hiring manager, pay attention to not only how impressive well the candidate can speak of themself, but also to how the candidate demonstrates her willingness to take the initiative in answering the question. Self motivated employees can do their jobs without constant supervision or motivational tricks.
2. “How would you go about handling _______?”
This question is designed to test technical knowledge. While candidates may claim to have experience in your industry, a question like this will test whether or not they actually know what they are doing.
3. “So, tell me about some of your biggest failures or regrets.”
This question tests honesty and sense of personal responsibility. Does the candidate take responsibility for their failures or do they blame others? Do they learn from their mistakes? Can they answer the question without going into personal details?
4. “If I were to call one of your co-workers, what would they say about you?”
This is a great way to indirectly find out whether or not a candidate can put their self in the shoes of another co-worker and to find out how well they can work with others, and also empathize with others.
5. “How have you handled conflict with coworkers in the past?”
We all have had at least one conflict with a coworker in the past. If the applicant denies ever having a conflict, dig a little deeper. This question is valuable for helping you determine whether or not a candidate is a good team player.
6. “Give me an example of a stressful situation at work and how you handled it. What did you do well? What could you have done better?”
The ability to work under pressure demonstrates that an employee is committed and can handle stress. For this question, look for specific answers that illustrate strength under pressure.
7. “Tell me about the strengths and weaknesses of your last boss.”
This can reveal how your applicant works with superiors and whether he will fit well under the new management style. Does the applicant have plenty of bad things to say about her last boss? Does she respond well to professional criticism? Ask for specific examples to back up her evaluation.
I came up with 7 — would love for you to share more in the comments!
Also, if you’re recruiting new employees, you may want to include an employee benefit statement during the interview to showcase how much your company spends on salary and benefits for your employees.
How to Write a Job Description
Writing a bad job description can attract the wrong job candidates, contribute to high turnover and even get you sued. If you’re writing a job description for the first time, you may not even know where to start. Relax and follow these tips for an effective job description:
Follow an outline. While you can add other things to your job description, make sure you include at least these five items:
1. Title
2. Department
3. Responsibilities
4. Qualifications
5. Preferences
Be specific. Don’t just say that your applicants need “computer skills.” Do they need to know industry-specific programs or just Microsoft Office? How advanced does their knowledge need to be?
Make the responsibilities section as complete as possible. One of the top reasons people quit their jobs is that the job never met their expectation. By accurately describing the job up front, you can reduce your turnover rate.
Know the difference between qualifications and preferences. Qualifications are only the minimum requirements necessary to perform the job, while preferences are the skills you might like to see in a candidate. Be careful about listing your preferences as requirements – the best candidates don’t always fit the predetermined ideal.
Don’t reinvent the wheel. Remember that you can find well-written job descriptions on job boards like Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com. There’s nothing wrong with using these descriptions as your guide as you write your own.
Don’t discriminate. If you don’t want to get sued, be extremely careful that your job description doesn’t discriminate based on age, race, sex, nationality, religion or disability. If the job does carry with it legitimate physical requirements, spell those out in detail.
Do you have tips for writing a job description? Write them below in the comments!
The Downside of Infrequent Performance Reviews
Is it part of your job description to complete regular performance reviews? If so, this is not something you should take lightly. It is important to do this at least once per year with each employee that you are responsible for.
So, what are the downsides of infrequent performance reviews?
1. Employees don’t have any feedback on what they are doing right, what they are doing wrong, etc. In turn, they continue doing things the same way and never progress as a worker. In the end, both parties are held back from reaching their maximum potential.
2. Out of touch for too long. Let’s be honest, there are times when you go month after month without speaking to some employees. While this is more common in large companies, it happens everywhere. Business owners need to share their vision with employees at every turn in the road. With an annual performance review, you will have time to focus on each employee’s contribution to the company.
3. One missed review can cause future trouble for you (the owner), the employee, and others in the company. Take this situation, for example. You have to fire an office manager because he failed to meet your expectations. While you have the right to do so, wouldn’t it be better for both parties to discuss this in a performance review?
Performance reviews need to occur regardless of salary expectations, such as a raise. It is not always about money. A review shows leadership and coaching, while ensuring that employees are growing and moving towards company goals.
Now do you see the downside of infrequent performance reviews? Avoid falling into this trap, or face the trouble outlined above. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to include a total compensation report in your employee performance review.
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