Employee Benefit News for School, City and County Employers

Benefits that Can Strengthen Your Attraction and Retention Efforts

Written by Ashley Veenendaal | Aug 31, 2022 5:24:40 PM

4 minute read

Attraction and retention are top of mind for employers right now. According to Zywave’s 2022 Attraction and Retention Benchmarking Overview, over 75% of employers consider attraction and retention to be among their top five business challenges. As a result, many employers are enhancing and expanding their benefit offerings to remain or become more desirable to employees. Here are some benefits that may be advantageous to attraction and retention efforts.

 

Competitive Compensation

With a high inflation rate and an increase in the prices of daily essentials, many employees are looking for competitive compensation packages to help them afford the increased cost of living. Eighty-three percent of employers found competitive compensation to be a top priority for workers during the hiring process. Employers may want to consider increasing salaries to at least partially match the inflation rate. Alternatively, employers can offer stipends for essentials such as groceries or gas if salary increases are not in their budgets.

 

Flexible Work Arrangements

Many workers grew accustomed to the flexible work arrangements they had during the pandemic such as remote and hybrid work and may want to keep them. Where possible, it’s beneficial to consider allowing remote or hybrid work to those who prefer it. Now that many roles have successfully performed remote, employees know that they can find this flexibility elsewhere if the employer doesn’t offer or continue to offer it.

 

Telemedicine

Telemedicine became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its popularity will continue. It can provide easy access to health care while cutting down on the time employees may spend away from work traveling to a physical doctor office. It’s essential that employers ensure employees can access health care services in ways that are convenient to them, otherwise workers are likely to seek out other employers.

 

Student Loan Assistance

Student loan debt may be a significant issue for many new workforce employees, especially as inflation drives up the cost of living. Some employers are introducing repayment assistance, and those who already offer the benefit are increasing contributions and expanding eligibility. Employees are prioritizing employers who help alleviate this added burden.

National Insurance Services offers a Student Loan Solutions program for school district customers who meet specific parameters. This plan can provide student loan debt and forgiveness assistance for public school employees. Contact your NIS Representative for more details.

 

Career Development Opportunities

Besides securing a job that employees have a skill set for, they also want to develop new skills. Forty-one percent of employers consider addressing current and future skills gap a top-three attraction and retention challenge.

Many employers are now offering different opportunities to their employees to help teach new skills and develop new skill sets. Employers may want to provide more career development opportunities to help retain workers. If employees feel that they can’t advance their professional development within their current roles, they are likely to seek out new ones.

 

Conclusion

There are various benefits that employers can offer employees to attract and retain. They include those that provide perks that became popular during the pandemic and help lessen the effects of inflation through competitive compensation and student loan assistance. Download the bulletin for more details.

This blog is intended to be a compilation of information and resources pulled from federal, state, and local agencies. This is not intended to be legal advice. For up to the minute information and guidance on COVID-19, please follow the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and your local health organizations.