If you are a small business owner thinking of supplying benefits packages to your employees, you need to read this small business employee benefits guide below.
With almost 28 million small business in the U.S., you would think employee benefits would be common. Yet, only 67 percent of people are covered with private insurances, typically provided through their employers. Most other people rely on government insurance that can leave them with heavy expenses after treatment.
As insurance coverage becomes a national controversy, small businesses are given a unique opportunity. It isn’t just a political talking point to say small business make up the backbone of the economy. They employ 51 percent of the nonfarm, U.S. workforce.
Small business employee benefits can change the way people talk about insurance coverage, like those found at benefit enrollment companies. By providing health, life, dental, vision or legal insurance – employees will be more productive and eager to work. They will know they’re cared for if things go wrong. So they will work harder not only to keep their jobs, and to also continue being a part of your business’s family.
They are not just employees – you get to know them like your own family. Keep reading for some tips on providing them insurance coverage through your small business.
Healthy Employees Stick Around and Grow With the Company
One of the best investments any small business can make isn’t in new equipment or in an office. It is in the health of its employees. Owners hire employees with the expectation that they will work. That doesn’t mean it is the employee’s responsibility to make sure they can. Business owners also need to make sure employees can be productive.
That means owners should make sure their employees are covered by health insurance. By investing in health insurance, employers can net several positives for their businesses. First, employees are less likely to avoid seeing a doctor. That means sicknesses are less likely to develop into worse illnesses, so employees can work longer and harder.
Second, since small businesses which provide health insurance are so rare, employees are more likely to stick around. They understand that through the business is the only way they can afford medical care, so they are more likely to stick around.
Since employees are more likely to stick around longer, that means small businesses get to develop their institutional knowledge. The more an employee does their work, the better they get at it. So as your small business grows, so will your employees’ skills. Within a few years, you will have a team of professionals at an entry-level cost.
Plus, health insurance can linger if employees lose their jobs, helping them back on their feet.
Life Insurance Is One of The Most Forgotten-About Small Business Employee Benefits
Life insurance may seem like a poor investment for small business owners. Yet, it is actually one of the best ways to attract top-tier employees. Plus, it can be purchased cheaply. The best term life insurance companies offer group-terms at lower rates.
The workers at the top of their fields are usually thinking about providing for their family. They are looking for stability. Life insurance gives that to them. It lets them know that should something happen to them, their family will be taken care of. It attracts them to your business and encourages them to stay.
And should something happen that employee, their families will appreciate you. Not only will you have made clients and customers out of them, but you will have done a good deed. You will have helped keep a family afloat. Your community will notice and appreciate that, making you stand out from other businesses.
If They Greet Clients With A Smile, Insure It
Dental insurance is rarer than you think. Most disabled veterans aren’t even provided it through the Veteran’s Administration. In fact, dental insurance is usually called one of the clearest divisions between high-and-low-income workers. It is hard to get a good job if your smile is missing some teeth.
You don’t want your clients to be greeted by people with yellow, decaying teeth. It is not only unsightly, but it can cost you money. Not only will your employees’ appearances drive people away, but people will start to question why you don’t provide them with dental benefits.
Dental insurance isn’t a needless benefit that you should give to employees. It is an investment in protecting one of your strongest assets: your employees and their smiles.
You Have the Vision But Employees Need to See
Small business owners need to have a vision when building their business. They need to be able to see where the company is headed. At the same time, their employees need to be able to see.
Vision insurance often isn’t included in overall health insurances, which can leave people in a blurry darkness. Without appropriate glasses or contacts, employees are in danger of accidents at work. This can result in injuries that will strain your own business’s insurance.
Vision insurance also isn’t expensive and can be a nice benefit to attract and retain employees. Individual plans can run around $18 a month. Employer-provided plans are usually cheaper.
Lawyers Are Expensive – Legal Insurance Isn’t
The cost to defend something as simple as a traffic ticket can cost around $1,000. However, legal insurance costs around $240 for the year. That makes legal insurance one of the smartest investment any business can make. The numbers speak for themselves.
With legal insurance, employees will have access to a network of trained lawyers. While these lawyers are usually only trained in laws relating to the employee’s work, they can still be highly valuable. Legal insurance for your employees is especially valuable if you’re a small media company or a manufacturer.
Media companies can be strangled by first-amendment laws related to slander or libel. Meanwhile, manufacturers must adhere to a complicated maze of trade regulations to avoid penalties and fines.
Small Business Owners Do More than Build Our Economy
Small businesses also support their communities. Each person that walks through a small business’s doors is more than just clients or employees. They are part of a family, each contributing their own part to your company’s mission.
Employees are like close family members. They are there to support you, and just like a family, you should support them. Small business employee benefits not only support your employees, but it also supports your vision.
Most of all, it supports your community. Your business does more than bring commerce to the area. It gives support structures to people who need it, and wealth to people who may not have it. Your small business does more than make money, you are building more than a company.
Insurance coverage is just the foundation for when you build the rest of your dream. And when you build your dream, people will notice.
Though sometimes that doesn’t happen quickly enough. If you want to spread the word about your business’s many employee benefits, use my outreach tool. Blogging is still one of the best ways to increase traffic to your business. It is also one of the best ways to let people know about the benefits of working for you!
