Using Employee Benefits to Help with Recruiting and Retention

One of the reasons that demand across the staffing industry has continued to increase is a significant percentage of businesses are facing major challenges. Specifically, 1/3 of all organizations are facing more problems with employee recruiting and retention than they did in the past. Although the specific causes of these problems may vary somewhat based on the industry, the good news is there's a clear solution employers of all sizes can use.

A Proven Way to Improve Recruiting and Retention Efforts

For any organization that's struggling with recruiting or retention (or wants to take preventative action against those issues arising), benefits offer a proven solution. More organizations are realizing that benefits provide a point of leverage for both recruiting and retention. The first type of benefits that organizations can use are health care. Although the Affordable Care Act has changed the healthcare landscape for both individuals and businesses, quality health benefits are something that most people care about a lot.

For companies that already offer great health benefits, it's important to communicate this information during recruitment efforts. If a company offers health benefits but they're not the greatest, it's worth looking into the total cost of offering better benefits. The upside of offering higher quality health benefits often outweighs the additional cost of implementing this kind of program. And on the retention front, organizations should see if it's possible to offer some bonus benefits to employees who stay with the company for an extended amount of time.

Health benefits aren't the only thing companies can use as incentives to potential and current employees. Retirement savings and planning benefits are also something that most people value quite a bit. Finding the right way to integrate these benefits into recruiting and retention programs can make it possible for organizations to find and keep the type of highly-skilled employees that are in such high demand across virtually all industries.

Consistent and Clear Communication

If a company offers great benefits but still struggles to find or retain employees, they may wonder why they're having this problem. In most cases, the answer is that they're not communicating clearly or consistently enough about their benefits. In terms of clearly communicating, it's important for companies to let potential employees know exactly what they'll get.

On the consistency front, existing employees are commonly overlooked in regards to fully understanding benefits. Regardless of how good the benefits are that a company is offering, if few people in the organization understand what's available, the benefits aren't going to help with the task of increasing retention.

Although organizations with solid benefits may be frustrated that they haven't had as much recent success with recruiting or retention as they'd like, the good news is that a handful of communication adjustments may be all that's needed to start seeing improvements.