In a labor market that seems to tighten its grip with each passing year, recruiting and retaining key talent becomes increasingly difficult to achieve. Like almost all companies, time, money and resources, in turn, must follow suite to counter this trend. So what’s the best way to solve these problems? We’ve identified three challenges and their appropriate fixes so that you can recruit the best talent and keep it that way.
Compensation Budget
You don’t always have the budget to boost compensation, but you know how important increased compensation is to retaining talent. After all, salary increase budgets in 2018 for U.S. employers will be stagnant from last year, averaging 3%. Yet 70% of HR leaders report feeling pressure to pay higher wages due to an increasingly competitive labor market.
What can you do?
Leverage a way to spend less and give more with a tax-efficient* benefit. Supplemental expense reimbursed insured plans, like ones provided by ArmadaCare, are a more financially-efficient* way to compensate given their tax-efficient* nature for both companies and executives.
For example, rather than giving a 3% salary increase that’s subject to taxes, employers can put the same investment into an expense reimbursed insured solution. Let’s say the salary was $200,000, a 4% increase costs the employer over $9,000 and nets employee less than $5,000. A similar investment into a supplemental expense reimbursed insured plan could mean $10,000, $25,000, or evenz $100,000 of tax-efficient* reimbursements into their pockets. Unlike a one-time bonus that’s soon forgotten, these insurance plans offer constant reminders given throughout the year.
Recruitment and Retention
It’s difficult to bring on or keep talent with unimpressive health benefits. That’s why there is a direct correlation between health benefits and retaining top talent. With supplemental expense reimbursed insured plans, you can enhance benefits selectively for hard-to-retain-and-recruit positions only.
What can you do?
Look at your company for reoccurring retention and recruitment issues. Explore solutions that can help you to avoid falling into the trap where saving on benefits increases turnover costs. Set your company apart from competitors who have larger budgets.
As ACA-excepted benefits, ArmadaCare’s insurance plans can be carved out for specific employee classes. With powerful coverage, convenience features and white-glove service, you gain a unique tool to recruit strategically important executives as well.
Health and Productivity
HR uses wellness initiatives to help manage primary insurance plan costs, but the same programs don’t work the same for strategic leaders whose health and productivity have significant ripple effects for the company. Because of the nature of their work, including frequent travel, leaders are more vulnerable to health problems, including heart disease. Health concerns can reduce productivity by as much as 70%, which is especially bad for executives who are ultimately the ones to drive loyalty and retainment.
What can you do?
It’s important to have programs that fit with the lifestyle of these key constituents. Offering elective prepackaged executive physicals is an important way to benchmark their current health status.
Specialist referrals can drive better outcomes if the patient’s condition is matched to the specialist who has the most experience and expertise treating that exact condition.
Comprehensive domestic and international travel support can limit a company’s risk, eliminate language and cultural barriers and speed up care by qualifying local providers and providing medical transport to a facility of choice.
Sources:
Society For Human Resource Management
*This is not local, state or federal tax advice as each person and company is unique. It is recommended that you seek the independent counsel of a professional tax adviser. Compounded tax rate of 40% is for illustrative purposes only. Employer state and federal payroll taxes and other payroll costs are estimated and may vary depending upon the company and state. Actual premiums will be determined based on standard underwriting guidelines and characteristics of the group.