The current employment climate continues to make it challenging for employers to remain ahead of the pack in their search for top talent. Simply offering a solid salary isn’t enough anymore to attract new employees, nor is it enough to keep current employees from jumping ship.

Instead, employers must find new and creative ways to become attractive to workers. Oftentimes, this requires an entirely different approach to recruitment and retention — one that looks at compensation from a holistic viewpoint.

Along these lines, employers that offer impressive indirect compensation can not only improve their recruitment and retention efforts, but also not break the bank in doing so.

But, what is indirect compensation in the workplace? We’ll take a look at some examples below of these non-monetary offerings.

Benefits

The most common form of indirect compensation is employee benefits. A benefits package is a great way to compensate employees for their work without giving them extra money directly in their paycheck.

Benefits can include medical, vision and dental insurance; paid time off (PTO) plans and paid holidays; short- and long-term disability insurance; and perks at the workplace, such as a company gym or supplied snacks, coffee and/or food.

All of these offerings add to the employee experience and take care of workers outside of the office. A solid benefits offering shows employees you care about their lives and their future.

Child Care

Work-life balance is extremely important to employees today, and a big part of that is having access to affordable child care.

Many people are having children later in life today, at a time when they are often much further along in their career paths compared to what it was like even 30 years ago. This has caused some logistical challenges to employees and employers alike, as there are many parental responsibilities that can conflict with work responsibilities at times.

A type of indirect compensation that employers can offer to help in this regard is child care. This can come in the form of on-site child care, if possible, or it could include discounts and/or reimbursements for child care services.

Beyond this, offering perks such as flexible work schedules, flexible spending accounts and paid leave are all important in helping parents care for their children when they need to.

Education and Training

Another attractive form of indirect compensation for employees is formal education and training. Employers today can offer reimbursement for schooling, such as earning a bachelor’s or master’s degree, or even relevant certification such as a CPA license.

In addition, employers can offer ongoing training and other courses so that employees can build their skills to help them further their career. Some examples of this indirect compensation can include training courses, company-sponsored scholarships, tuition assistance and tuition reimbursement.

All of these offerings show employees that you care about their long-term future and not just their present state as a worker for your company. This, in turn, often results in happier employees who are more likely to be loyal to you and want to move up within the company rather than leave for a higher position elsewhere.

Many companies today also offer financial education courses and training to all employees. This is another way that companies can contribute to their worker base’s overall wellness, and ties in directly with the next section.

Retirement Benefits

Retirement benefits could be lumped into the “benefits” section above, but it’s so important that it’s worth breaking out on its own. With the increased awareness about saving for retirement, so many more employees desire retirement plans at work today than even a few years ago — and this interest often begins at a younger age.

This makes it incumbent upon employers to offer retirement benefits as an essential form of indirect compensation. Doing so shows employees that you care about their long-term future and their overall financial security, especially since this is money your employees likely won’t “see” until long after they’ve left your company.

There are a few different forms that retirement plans can take. The most common is an employer-sponsored 401(k) or IRA plan.

In many cases, employers will match their employees’ contributions to these plans, up to a certain percentage. This essentially provides employees with extra “free money” that goes directly toward their retirement.

Depending on the type of retirement plan the company offers, and the employee selects, there are many great tax advantages, too. This could either be lower taxes now in the form of tax-free contributions — in traditional 401(k) or IRA plans — or tax-free growth on earnings over time — in Roth 401(k) or IRA plans.

Companies can also offer pension plans to workers to provide even more financial security to people once they retire. These plans used to be much more common than they are today, though some employers still offer them.

Beckham Ellis Insurance Group Can Help You Build an Attractive Benefits Plan

Indirect compensation is becoming increasingly important in today’s ever-competitive job market. These company perks are great ways to attract and retain top talent by showing employees you care more about just whether they are compensated for their work with a sufficient salary.

There are many options when it comes to offering indirect compensation, and it’s important to understand which ones would be most attractive to your current and prospective employees.

By working with Beckham Ellis Insurance Group, you can build an attractive benefits plan that will consistently attract and retain top talent. If your company is located in the South Carolina or Georgia region, contact us today to learn more.