The 5 Most Common Mistakes with Employee Benefits
by Mike Nacke

Progressive companies are increasingly relying upon employee benefits to attract and retain top talent according to a new MetLife study. 55% of employers rank ‘employee retention’ as their No. 1 benefits objective.

Unfortunately, the same study showed that only 33% of workers feel strongly that their company effectively educates them on their benefits options. This reveals just one of the many problems the employers face when confronted with the daunting task of developing a benefits strategy and communicating it with their workers.

If you’re going to use benefits to build a solid workforce, here are the five most common mistakes to avoid.

Lack of communication

Perhaps the biggest mistake employers make is not involving the employees during benefits decisions. Open communication is key. Finding out what employees want in regard to benefits should be your first step before making any changes. Communicating your objectives will make employees an active part of the decision making process.

Different employees have different needs. Don’t assume that the folks in the warehouse are interested in the same benefits as the middle managers in accounting. This is a big mistake.

Cutting benefits to control costs

This is often misused because it is a short term solution to a long term problem and frequently results in high levels of employee turnover. While cost sharing is an important element in a long term benefits strategy, it’s important to do this over multiple years. Managed incorrectly, this is a serious morale killer.

To avoid this, develop a 3-year cost sharing timeline and instead of trying to figure out how to cut benefits, focus on exchanging low value / high cost benefits for high value / low cost benefits. Approaching this with a give-and-take mindset can alleviate most complaints from your employees.

Offering everything but the kitchen sink

Offering every known benefit causes more problems than it solves. When you offer every benefit imaginable, you set yourself up for skyrocketing costs. Also, down the road your employees will ask why you never add new benefits.

Instead, consider starting with a simple package and adding new benefits incrementally. This will also provide the advantage of testing new benefits to understand their impact on your workforce.

Offering the benefits your management team suggests

Don’t assume that feedback from managers will give you the best idea of what benefits to offer. While this is a valid way to gauge several business issues, benefits desires are often personal and not communicated to managers.

Administering a survey to collect information about what employees want from their benefits is a simple solution. Larger companies can form a committee to explore the issue further and develop champions of the process through leaders in the organization, encouraging everyone to get involved.

Taking a short term approach

Anything you do to make short term improvements without considering long term objectives can be dangerous. This is often where an outside advisor can be advantageous, especially one with a long history in business that can share experiences that support or refute possible changes.

By focusing on long term goals like employee retention, productivity, and absenteeism, you can navigate many common obstacles.

Designing and implementing a benefits strategy can take as little as two weeks and the long term implications can be sizable. As the labor market tightens, employee benefits will continue to grow in importance as companies seek an edge to attract and retain strong workers.