Today, modern employers have a good understanding of the need to provide their employees with various benefits. Most professionals expect to be provided with employee benefits by the companies that they work for, and in most cases, employers choose to provide benefits in order to make it easier for them to attract the top talent. Employers who can offer candidates perks such as health insurance, cheaper retirement plans, discounts on shopping and memberships, assistance programs and more tend to get more applicants for their open positions compared to employers who are only offering a salary in return for working for them. Some of the most in-demand employee benefits to offer include:

Health Insurance

Health, medical, dental, and vision insurance plans can be quite costly for individuals. Because of this, it’s no surprise that employees tend to look out for companies that offer this type insurance as a perk of the job. Any employer that offers medical insurance cover to employers is going to be in-demand when it comes to qualified professionals looking for work. With employee benefits insurance offered by GNA Partners, you can get cheaper deals on offering insurance plans to your employees and attract better professionals to come and work for you in the process. In addition, employees who have insurance as a perk of their job are more likely to continue working for the company for longer.

Accident and Disability Insurance

Employees like having peace of mind that they would be financially protected if they had to take extended time off work due to an accident, disability or serious illness. Because of this, it’s no surprise that accident and disability insurance is one of the most sought-after benefits for employees today. This type of insurance will allow your employees peace of mind if they were to go through a serious illness or accident, as they will continue to be paid for the duration of the time that they need to take off work to recover.

Employee Assistance Program

An employee assistance program (EAP) is another benefit worth considering offering to your employees. This is a work-based intervention program that is designed to be there for employees to reach out to if they need help and support with a wide range of personal problems including marriage and family issues, financial problems, addiction, mental health conditions and more. Since problems in an employee’s personal life can quickly spill over into work and have an impact on their productivity and performance, offering this kind of benefit can help both employees and employers. Employee assistance programs may work with local counselors, health professionals, lawyers, and others who can be somewhere for employees to turn when they need additional help and support.

Retirement Plans

With more and more people beginning to plan for their retirement earlier in life, it’s no surprise that this is one of the most wanted employment benefits available. Saving for retirement is not easy today, with the cost of living on the rise and many people in a position where they need to start thinking about preparing for their retirement almost as soon as they have graduated from college. Employers that provide some assistance with saving for retirement will usually always be favored by professionals over those that do not. Most employees will pick a company that offers retirement plans such as a 401(k) with employer contributions to help boost their savings.

Flexible Spending Account

A flexible spending account, also known as a flexible spending arrangement, is an account that employees are able to put money into for certain out-of-pocket healthcare costs that are not included in their health insurance coverage. Employees do not need to pay any tax on any money that they place into this account, allowing them to save more money towards out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. Some employers may choose to make contributions to these accounts on top of whatever the employee pays in.

Education Benefits

With the cost of education on the rise, it’s not surprising that more and more people are actively seeking out employers who will be able to help them improve their qualifications and get a better education for less. There are several things that you can do to help your employees become more highly qualified. And in many cases, it will benefit both you and them. Offering to pay for employees’ tuition costs when getting a college degree or advanced qualification is one of the main ways that you can offer this benefit.

You can choose to pay for some or all of the tuition fees and, in many states, employees can get tax breaks for doing this and may be able to write the cost of tuition off as a training expense. Offering payment towards education is also a great way to improve your employee turnover, as many employers offer this perk on the condition that the employee continues to work for them at least a certain number of years after they graduate, which most are happy to do since more qualifications usually means that they will get a promotion.

Health, Lifestyle and Wellness Benefits

Along with the bigger benefits mentioned above, there are plenty of perks that you might consider offering your employees to make their lives easier, help them save money, and get them access to more. For example, you might want to consider making deals with local gyms and fitness centers to provide your employees with discounted memberships, or get special discount rates for use at participating businesses so that employees can save on what they buy. Today, employers can easily do this by signing up to online employee benefits programs with various lifestyle and other perks available for them to offer.

Today, it’s not just the salaries that will attract an employee to come and work for you. Employers need to think about what is going to set them apart from their competition when looking to hire new talent, and employee benefits are usually the main deciding factor. By offering some of the most sought-after employee benefits, you can give professionals more reason to come and work for you.