Low and No Cost Benefits Every Small Business Owner Should Consider Offering Employees

Hiring and retaining talent can be tough, especially if you don't have any attractive benefits in place to help out. Here's a list of ten low and no cost benefits every small business owner should consider offering their employees. Let's start with the obvious and go from there.

1. Major Medical Insurance - If you're thinking "low cost? Major medical? Yeah right." You're right to a certain degree, however, depending on the size of your team, their location(s), and your industry, you may be able to offer benefits at no cost to the organization, or choose how much you want to contribute. Some small businesses can offer major medical plans without being subject to the Affordable Care Act's reporting and contribution requirements.

However, many small businesses have trouble establishing affordable rates due to having a small group participating. If you find yourself having trouble getting decent rates from Insurance Agents, consider talking with PEOs such as Infiniti HR, ADP, or Paychex. Professional Employment Organizations help level the playing field with corporations so that small businesses are able to offer competitive benefits to their employees at affordable prices.

2. Dental and Vision Insurance - These types of plans do not require the employer to contribute anything to them, and they are usually affordable enough for employees to pick up the tab on their own. If you want to compete with the bigwigs though, consider covering 50% or more of the cost of monthly premiums.

3. Flexible Spending Account (FSA) / Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account - These are two separate types of benefits accounts. Neither requires a monetary contribution on your part, and they allow the employees to pay for medical expenses and/or child care with pre-tax dollars. The federal government limits these pre-tax benefits, so be sure you're offering a plan that is compliant with state and federal guidelines.

4. Paid TIme Off (PTO)- Offering your employees paid time off shows them that you are aware, and you respect the fact that they have personal lives that have nothing to do with you. If you're not offering at least one week of paid time off during their first year of service, don't be surprised when they jump ship for the business next door that offers two, three, four, or unlimited PTO.

Unlimited PTO became popular due to Netflix originally offering it to their employees, and enjoyed more of the lime light throughout the main throws of COVID-19. If you're not sure how much PTO to offer, be conservative, but do give as much as you can. Even if your employees don't take the time off, they appreciate knowing it's there.

Be aware that some states require you to pay out PTO at the end of each calendar year, some require you to pay out unused time upon termination, and some states have no requirements at all. If you're in a state with no requirements, consider letting employees "roll over" a certain amount of hours they can utilize in the upcoming year.

However, if you do allow a roll over, make sure your PTO policy clearly states that "all PTO must be pre-approved," and if there are any limits you want to set on home much time a person can take off at once. For example, would you allow an employee to take off 1 month (30 -31 days) if they stockpiled their PTO? If not, put limitations in your Employee Handbook under your PTO policy.

5. Remote Work - Employees LOVE the option to work where they are most comfortable, and many employees say they are more productive working from home than in an office setting. If your business is set up so that remote work is possible, you'll see higher retention and employee satisfaction rates than your Office-Work-requiring competitors. It costs you nothing to let your people work from home, so why not consider it when they want it so bad?

You don't have to go full-time remote; just offering a hybrid option is likely to please most people. If the thought of your employees working somewhere without you being able to see their every move, you're likely a micromanager and already hurting your retention and satisfaction scores. Loosen up the reigns or get rid of people who can't be trusted and aren't pulling their own weight. Do what you need to to do to build a culture of trust and flexibility, and you will reap the benefits of those decisions for years to come.

When offering a remote work benefit, make sure your policy is fair and equitable for everyone in the company, meaning, don't allow only your favorite employees to work remotely and make everyone else be at the office. This will breed ill-feelings between coworkers, make leadership look juvenile and petty, and given the right circumstances, end up an ADA lawsuit (if the employee has requested an accomodation around remote work due to a medical disability, and the request was denied, but other employees were allowed to work remotely without an accommodation request being made.)

6. Leadership Development Training - This old saying has a kernel of truth it, " People don't quit companies, they quit managers." While this is somewhat accurate, it's probably more accurate to say "employees quit bad leadership."

If you hear lots of grumblings amongst employees about unfair treatment, unrealistic expectations, or just bad management and people skills, it may be time to re-evaluate how you decide who gets promoted. If your managers were given their people-management job role due to their outstanding performance on the job as a non-people manager, consider offering them opportunities for leadership development training. There are several ways you can go about this:

• Send your leaders to a leadership conference

• Give them a stipend to attend online workshops and webinars to learn communication and people management skills

• Bring in diverse speakers for "lunch and learns"

• Establish monthly presentations that are taught by your Human Resources professional

• Set up a mentoring program.

• Formally acknowledge managers who exhibit leadership qualities and follow best practices.

• Establish 360 Feedback.

Often employers don't have up-to-date, realistic views of their managers' leadership capabilities, including how they talk to and treat their workers day to day. If you haven't shadowed your managers in awhile or ever, consider doing so. You may learn that a little training is all that's needed to improve productivity, morale, and retention.

7. Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) - FWAs are similar to remote work arrangements, except they may or may not include an option to work remotely. FWAs allow employees to work out an agreement with their employer so that they can work a schedule more suitable to their personal needs. This usually includes consideration for work allowed during off-peak hours, the employee coming in hours early or hours later than their typical start time, or a compressed work week. If remote work is not an option for your company, consider flex time. It costs you nothing, and your employees will appreciate you acknowledging their lives outside of work matter to you.

8. Cancer Protection and Hospitalization Indemnity Plans - Many employers aren't aware that they can offer their employees extensive cancer cost containment coverage or prolonged hospitalization coverage, at no cost to the company. Companies like AFLAC will come to your place of work and present their catalog of protection plans to your employees for free, or they will present to your team virtually if needed.

I have a plan through AFLAC for about $50 a month, and my favorite feature is that for every year I don't use my benefits, my coverage amount increases. They're literally rewarding me for staying healthy, and you can reward your people too, free of charge to you!

9. Casual Dress - Long gone are the days where wearing a suit to work is the only way people will take you seriously, and if you're employees are going to be barricaded in their cubicles taking customer service calls all day long, I bet they would at least like to be comfortable. One study found that American employees would gladly give up $5k just to be able to dress more comfortable-casual at work. Some employers allow casual dress only in certain departments or certain days of the week, but if you can open it up to the entire company, do it!

10. Mental Health Resources - COVID-19 drove into realization that fact that mental health is and always will be a part of all of our personal and professional lives. "Taking a mental health day" used to mean that you're weak, lazy, or unmotivated to go to work. Nowadays, as noted in this extensive Workable.com study, things are much different. Employees everywhere have been calling out their employers and urging them to do something about the company's culture surrounding mental health, and requests for new helpful resources are still flooding in to HR departments everywhere. Workable's study found that 92.6% of respondents have personally experienced mental health challenges that impacted their work.

So what you can do?

• Create a culture of inclusive, accomodation, acceptance and safety for all.

• Communicate in mass-form about mental health via newsletters, Slack messages and groups, during meetings, and when engaged in casual conversations.

• Offer an Employee Assistance Program (PEOs often provide this to small businesses!)

• Hold mental health fairs throughout the year

• Create a committee to oversee mental health activities for the company

• Go above and beyond to destigmatize mental health in your workplace with relevant trainings and workshops.

• Approve accommodation requests quickly and without question (when possible) from employees with mental health challenges (provided they have requested a modified work arrangement due to it)

• Tell the team about your own personal challenges with mental health.

• Tell your future employees about the mental health resources you offer on your Careers page on your website.

If you implemented even 1 of these things in your workplace, you can bet your employees will take notice! Mental health programs may not be free for you to offer, but it should be free for your people to utilize, which in turn will improve your retention rate, and therefore your bottom line. :)

There you have it. Ten benefits your small business can offer at low or no cost to you, and this is just the tip of the iceberg! Don't forget HSAs, "bring your pet to work day," "bring your kid to work day," team building events, birthday luncheons and birthday PTO days..

What benefits does your small business offer, and which ones do your employees appreciate the most? What other benefits could you offer at low or no cost to your organization? If you'd like help selecting, evaluating, or implementing programs, plans, or resources for your team, we're here for you! Reach out to today to get started: chandy@ctuckerconsulting.com.