Employer benefits are often an important deciding factor for employees considering a job offer.
Employers who review their benefits can attract qualified employees, especially with today's focus on financial wellness.
Although health insurance and retirement plans remain valuable, employers who add less common benefits to their packages can rise to the top of strong candidates' lists.
Here are three to consider.
1. Emergency savings
Retirement plans can provide long-term security, but they don't help to address short-term financial worries.
Providing employees with more readily available funds during times of need can have more benefits than employers may expect.
When employees feel financially stable, they're more likely to be focused and productive, which leads to higher engagement and satisfaction.
Employers should offer a liquid account to prevent 401(k) loans and high-interest credit card debt to ensure employees feel covered for both now and later.
Offering more flexible accounts will address liquidity concerns, reduce hardship withdrawals and improve employees' overall financial well-being.
When employers are hiring new employees, showing the top candidates' liquid assets in benefits packages can give those employers an edge over the competition.
2. Sponsored financial planning
Employees typically make benefit decisions on their own by using web tools they may not understand, but the advice received from a qualified financial professional is unmatched in comparison to online resources. Employees can feel the difference.
Providing access to objective advice dramatically improves outcomes and confidence, and it helps employees map out the future.
Offering employer-sponsored financial advice showcases the difference between having benefits and using them effectively, giving employees the opportunity to coordinate their benefits with their personal accounts.
Financial advice is especially valuable when employees are considering more complex benefits, such as equity compensation for highly compensated employees, health savings accounts, and decisions about whether to use Roth IRAs or traditional IRAs.
3. Income protection
An employee's ability to continue making income is what makes everything else in their overall benefits package work.
Some who read this might object and say that disability insurance benefits are common. But the likelihood of suddenly losing income from a disability happens more often than expected, and income protection products remain underutilized.
Many employees underestimate their income risk, so employers should consider using key protection products, such as short-term and long-term disability insurance, critical illness, hospital indemnity and life insurance with adequate income replacement, rather than expressed only as a death benefit.
Employers today are increasingly looking at benefits as a competitive differentiator, as employees are more likely to express interest when offered financial wellness information, flexibility, personalization and offerings that actually improve their lives.
Organizations that offer more than the standard benefits often see higher employee retention, better recruiting outcomes and happier, more engaged employees.
Mike Weintraub, CLU, is the former principal and co-founder of Next Step Retirement. He's a 51-year member of the Million Dollar Round Table and a past chair of the MDRT Top of the Table membership tier.
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