The gap between Canada’s national health coverage grows every year. Canadians face ever higher costs for prescription drugs, routine health services, and dental work, and the results can be devastating.
If you’re a small or medium sized business owner, consider adding a group benefits plan for your employees. Group benefits plans are a good investment for your business because they:
1. Provide Better Healthcare
The additional layer of insurance coverage a group benefits plan gives your employees access to better medical care than they could receive on their own. The increased level of care is most apparent in preventative procedures that detect or treat illnesses before they become serious medical concerns. Doing so helps your employees avoid much costlier treatment in the future.
2. Increased Productivity
Sick employees are less productive than their well counterparts. A group benefit plan for your Grande Prairie employees helps keep your employees healthy and productive. Through the use of pre-screening and preventative measures, your company may be able to avoid significant time loss from major illness or disease.
3. Control Costs
Group benefits plans covers the gap left between the cost of treatment and what the national health coverage will pay. These employee benefits ensure that when your employees suffer from a major illness or a non-work related injury, they will not become burdened by a mountain of bills while they can’t work.
4. Give Employees Tax Benefits
Employee benefits and employee premiums covered by an employer are considered pre-tax benefits. This classification sees your employees pay less in income and payroll taxes with every paycheck, further increasing the value of the benefit.
5. Lower Hiring Costs
The cost of hiring a new employee is largely dependant on the amount of time and effort it takes for you to find the right match. Adding a group benefits plan to your list of employee perks brings top tier talent to you. Candidates will fight each other for the opportunity to interview with your company, so you have a greatly improved pool of talent from which to choose.
6. Attract Better Talent
Over the next decade, Millennials will become the new leaders of many companies. Traditional models of employee benefits are not as attractive to this new class of employees and managers, and up to 60 percent of Millennials prefer access to group benefits plans over a cash raise of up to $10,000. If you want to stay competitive in the modern job market, you must create a point of differentiation between your company and your competitors. When you do so with a strong package of employee benefits, you will attract better talent, and build a stronger company than you could with just a salary increase.
7. Retain Valuable Employees
Estimates vary wildly on the accurate mathematical number, but there is one thing most economists can agree on: keeping an employee is cheaper than hiring someone new. Studies have shown companies waste tens of thousand of dollars replacing good employees who left to pursue employee benefits a different company can provide.
8. Improve Employee Morale
Many factors affect productivity, but one that gets overlooked by business people is the role of morale. Employees who feel like nothing more than a wheel in the cog are generally less loyal to the company, and more willing to bolt for another job. Adding a group benefit plan for your Grande Prairie business signals to your employees that you care about them as something much greater than a resource and you are willing to invest in your people.
A group benefits plan for your employees provides a series of advantages that will make your company more competitive in the market now, and help position your business as a market leader to potential hires.
