9 Affordable Employee Benefits Many Small Businesses Can Offer
As a small business, it’s difficult to keep up with the laundry list of benefits that larger corporations can afford to provide employees. It’s not just higher salaries – it’s 401(k)s, health, dental, vision, bonuses and more.
Many benefits are simply easier for larger businesses to digest thanks to efficiencies of scale. The bigger their company grows, the less costly (per person) those plans are to implement and maintain.
But if you own a small business, fear not. You have more options than you think when it comes to providing affordable employee benefits early on in your company’s lifecycle.
9 Affordable Employee Benefits Your Small Business Can Offer
Remote Work/Flexible Hours
Admittedly, not every type of small business can offer this employee benefit. Restaurants and factories immediately come to mind as businesses that absolutely need to have their workforce on site.
If you’re the owner of a business that does have some wiggle room in location, however, you should consider offering that flexibility to your employees – and soon. Because if you’re not already, you’re actually behind the 8-ball.
Consider a Harris poll in May that showed 32% of adult American workers were still working from home full-time, and another 21% were working from home part-time. (Of the remaining respondents, 19% had returned to the office and 27% never worked from home in the first place.)
And workers still want flexibility, with 25% saying if it were up to them, they’d work in the office permanently, and another 35% saying they’d prefer some sort of home-office hybrid.
Remote work doesn’t necessarily mean flexible hours – many of these arrangements require the same 9-to-5. But flex hours are still a highly desired perk. According to Statista, 53% of teleworkers say flexible scheduling is the top employee benefits.
Work-from-home situations require a high amount of trust in your employees. But if you believe you can hire well, flexible work hours/locations are an affordable employe benefit that could give you an edge.
Workers’ Compensation
Depending on what state you do business in, workers’ compensation – insurance that tackles expenses including medical treatment, lost wages and disability benefits – might be required.
But even if it’s not, it’s in your best interest.
Workers’ comp is an affordable employee benefit that comes out to a little more than 1% of your employee’s compensation. It provides a safety net for employees worried that a mere accident could turn into financial ruin. And it provides something similar for employers, preventing a heavy hit to the bottom line should you be held financially responsible for a mishap in the workplace.
QSEHRAs
Employee health benefits can be prohibitively costly. However, Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangements (QSEHRA, pronounced “Q-Sarah”) provide something of a middle ground.
With a QSEHRA, a company sets aside a fixed amount of money every month. If an employee makes a claim on qualified expenses, that money goes toward paying those expenses off. If an employee doesn’t claim as much as that amount (or claims less), the employer keeps that money.
This is a relatively new option that only came about in 2019, so there’s little data about the efficacy of these plans. They also can be complex, making them difficult for small businesses to implement, and employers can only offer up to $5,150 per individual (and $10,450 to couples and families).
But they’re tax-deductible for employee and employer alike, they can be implemented equally across state borders, and employers can easily control costs by determining exactly how much they will contribute each month.
Other Affordable Employee Benefits
- Company teambuilding activities
- Free paid time off for volunteering
- Healthy office culture
- In-office snacks/drinks
- Regular awards/recognition
- Wellness programs
Our Consulting Professionals Are on Your Side
If you own a small business and aren’t sure about a specific aspect of running your company – from how to attract a high-quality staff with affordable employee benefits to conducting strategic planning sessions – reach out to McManamon & Co.
We help small and midsize businesses with a wide array of needs, including tax, fraud, accounting and consulting services. Our seasoned professionals can fortify your small business and keep you operating on the highest level so, over time, you can offer increasingly better and more lucrative benefits to your hard-working team.
Learn more about the myriad ways McManamon & Co. can help – call us at 440.892.8900 or contact us online today.
Tags: hiring, McManamon, McManamon & Co., small business, small business finances | Posted in small business