Follow these four steps to ensure you build a benefits package that aligns with workers' wants and expectations — and your business's financial situation.

1. Do your homework beforehand

Small employers aren't a select group with common interests — they span a broad swath of industries and often have competing priorities. That means there's no one-size-fits-all approach, and that it's critical to research your business's market, assess your company's demographics, and open up a dialogue with your employees to identify benefits they will actually use.

For instance, mid-career, white-collar professionals at a modest accounting firm may be looking for family leave policies, robust health insurance, and a generous paid time-off policy. Teenage hourly workers at a local sandwich shop, on the other hand, may prefer less common workplace perks like flexible scheduling or student loan assistance.

Lastly, you should assess what your competitors offer — whether it be through industry associations, small business forums or a simple LinkedIn search — and try to match or exceed that. This way, you can compete for the best talent in your industry and region.

2. Prepare to offer a comprehensive suite of benefits

A single benefit isn't likely to set your business apart from the competition or improve retention. Instead, you should be ready to support every facet of your employees' wellbeing — including the emotional, physical, financial, cultural and intellectual aspects of their work life. For instance, a recent study found that 42% of employees with access to mental health benefits said they were more likely to stay at their company.

It may seem like a tall order, but many insurance providers provide a diverse range of product bundles. And you can shore up their benefits package with low-cost and/or non-traditional workplace perks, such as hybrid or remote work, educational assistance, flexible spending accounts, strong bereavement leave policies, pet insurance and financial wellness tools.

3. Create your own benefits hierarchy

If your company is on a tight budget, a common rule of thumb is that it should offer medical insurance first, dental and vision second, then life/disability insurance and, lastly, supplemental health benefits, such as critical illness or accident coverage. But rules are meant to be broken—and this oft-repeated advice is sometimes misguided.

For example, voluntary benefits consulting firm Eastbridge found that employees ranked medical insurance the most important benefit, followed by dental insurance, prescription drug coverage, vision and then life insurance. Not entirely different from the generally accepted rule in the industry, but different enough to be misaligned with employees' priorities.

And while supplemental health benefits tend to get pushed to the backburner, they sometimes offer more protection than dental or vision coverage. For instance, employees who experience a heart attack could face a huge hospital bill — the median expense was measured at over $53,000 as recently as 2017. If that employee had critical illness insurance, the plan's lump sum payment would have covered the initial hospitalization; likewise, hospital indemnity insurance would have helped cover expenses associated with the employee's ongoing treatment. Compare that to most dental plans, which only cover between $1000-2500 a year in services.

4. Consider the financials

Now that you have an idea of your employees' biggest priorities, you can decide what to offer them based on your bottom line.

Many business leaders typically provide benefits with various funding approaches — some employer funded, some partially funded by the employer and employee, and some paid entirely by the employee.

Remember: it's better to offer a holistic package with less employer funding than it is to offer a single benefit entirely covered by your business. To stretch your dollar, you can also offer supplemental health products to your employees on a voluntary, employee-paid basis.

Join our LinkedIn group, ALM's Small Business Adviser, a space where small business owners can gather to network, have discussions and keep up with the trends and issues affecting their industries.

Consider a defined contribution approach as well, in which your business establishes an annual dollar-contribution amount per employee. Workers can then draw from those contributions to select the benefits they prefer. This can help employers reel in costs and enable employees to invest their hard-earned money into the benefits that matter most to them — an important distinction when catering to a diverse workforce with different priorities.

5. You've made it this far — now, let employees know

If you've followed these steps, chances are you have invested a lot of time, effort and money into constructing an effective benefit offering. The last thing you want to do is stop short of providing the necessary education, training and guidance to help employees understand and use what's available to them.

As you roll out your benefits package, be prepared to offer employee resources, such as decision support tools (e.g., streamlined third-party software that makes choosing benefits easy to understand) and access to benefits counselors. Even something as little as sending a quick update on employee benefits through text or email can go a long way.

Related: Small businesses priced out of health insurance? Here's a solution

Benefits aren't just for employees

As a business leader, it's in your best interest to keep your employees healthy and happy. Today, two-thirds of employees are waiting to review their company's new benefits offerings before deciding whether or not to keep their jobs. But by offering your employees a strong benefits package, they will reward you with their loyalty — and prospective hires will start knocking at your door.

Stephanie Shields is the Head of Employee Benefits at Equitable and a member of the company's Operating Committee.

Equitable is the brand name of the retirement and protection subsidiaries of Equitable Holdings, Inc., including Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company(Equitable Financial) (NY, NY), Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company of America (Equitable America), an AZ stock company, and Equitable Distributors, LLC. Equitable Advisors is the brand name of Equitable Advisors, LLC (member FINRA, SIPC) (Equitable Financial Advisors in MI and TN). All group insurance products are issued either by Equitable Financial or Equitable America, which have sole responsibility for their respective insurance and backed solely by their claims-paying obligations. Some products are not available in all states. GE- 5760260.1(6/23)(Exp.6/25)