Set it and Forget it Automated Benefits the way To go
Whether your business has five employees or 500, fringe benefits beyond just a decent salary are important in attracting and retaining good employees. Half of employees say the benefits they receive are an important reason they remain in the job they have. On top of that, people have come to expect benefits as part of their compensation packages, and companies have delivered. Despite the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, which aims to guarantee people can get affordable health insurance outside of a job, 99% of full-time workers have access to health insurance and 98% get paid sick leave.
In many cases, the cost of providing the employee benefits isn’t the problem. While providing group health insurance can be pricey, you generally can offer benefits such as paid vacation and paid sick leave at a minimal cost to your business. The big cost, especially for small businesses with few employees, is administering those benefits. If you have to hire additional employees to handle the complexity and workload of human resource benefits administration or pay a third party to do it, it can be very expensive.
A good alternative can be benefits administration software. Using benefits administration software can help you automate your benefits administration, including vacation, sick leave, retirement plans and group health insurance plans. Using a software package, even when you figure in the costs for training employees and the costs of ongoing technical support, is much cheaper than hiring your own employee or engaging a third party to do your benefits administration.
There are plenty of companies on the market that offer benefits administration software. You may wind up starting from scratch with a new company or you may find that software you use for another automated business function, such as payroll, may have an add-on or separate software package that automates benefits, which may wind up being a cheaper route. Either way, whatever the cost, it is likely to be worth it in the long run because of the increased efficiency for your business as well as the continued ability to offer much-coveted benefits such as insurance and paid leave to your employees.
