Unique employee benefits
In any business, the employees are crucial to its growth and success. Employee benefits are important when it comes to attracting top talent to achieve your company’s goals and objectives.
Employee benefits, or job perks, are provided to employees in addition to salaries or wages. They’re important in demonstrating to your employees that you’re invested in their well-being and can help set your business apart from the competition.
Some of the more popular employee benefits offered by companies in the U.S. include:
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Retirement benefits or accounts
- Paid vacation, holidays, and sick days
- Disability insurance, both long and short-term
- Dental/vision insurance
- Profit sharing
- Tuition reimbursement
However, there’s really no one-size-fits all when it comes to what kind of employee benefits or programs you choose to offer your employees. More and more companies are offering some rather unique employee benefits that are tailored to engage the interest of their employees, which, in turn, helps to improve employee engagement and productivity.
Get creative
When it comes to employee benefits, here are some of the more “creative” job perks that are being offered by companies across the country:
- Mentorship and life coaching
- In-house gyms and yoga classes, monthly wellness cards to use on any fitness/yoga classes
- Travel stipend
- Event tickets and transportation
- Parental benefits such as paid maternity leave, 24-hour lactation consultants, onsite daycare
- Parent’s Night out
- Telehealth solutions
- Bring your dog (or cat or ferret) to work
- Pet insurance
Slack provides its employees with a nap room and the “coffee gong” that rings at 3 PM every day to remind employees to relax and get a cup of coffee. The company found that socialization in the workplace has important psychological benefits. Who can’t benefit from some positive interaction with their colleagues!
Start with the basics
While organizational-oriented benefits are more traditional, many of today’s smaller employers are discovering the value of more consumer-oriented benefits for their flexibility and affordability.
If you are not sure which route to take, consider starting out with more traditional employee benefit plans such as defined contribution plans, health plans, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), or defined benefit plans, full and limited in scope.
As a plan sponsor, you have a fiduciary responsibility for protecting the assets of your plans as well as maintaining the integrity of participant records. You will be held liable for mismanagement, and this includes having a qualified CPA perform an annual audit of your employee benefit plans if subject to Title 1 of ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act).
At GYL CPAs and Advisors, we have a team that is well-trained and has extensive experience in performing ERISA audits. Contact our office today to schedule a free consultation.