Improve Retention by Improving Employee Health Benefits: What’s New in 2023

April is Stress Awareness Month, and “the number one stressor for HR pros is keeping top talent on board in a tough market,” according to a March 2023 survey from isolved. Keeping employees happy by showing them you care will be key to a company’s motivated team and ultimate success. Beyond the typical benefits, what are some of the newer trends? We’ll address that in this article, but first, let’s explore why there is a need to fortify your benefits offerings.

Employees Don’t Feel Cared For

According to MetLife’s “US Employee Benefit Trends” survey released in March, 42% of the 2,840 employees surveyed said they do not feel cared for by their employers. “Our research shows care is not only a differentiated driver of the employee experience – but also a proven workplace metric to measure employer outcomes, “ said Todd Katz, executive VP of group benefits at MetLife. “As the economy and the labor market remains volatile and workplace trends fluctuate, employers can’t afford to overlook employee care.” Caring for your employees is great for business and something employers can’t afford to ignore.

Two employee groups that are setting trends are Gen Z and women. Gen Z applicants are leading the charge on jobs with stability, a position where they can make an impact at a company that is socially responsible, and salary transparency. According to the latest Momentive/CNBC Women at Work Survey, conducted in February of a national sample of 10,278 adults, including over 5,000 women, the top reason women say they’re considering leaving their current role this year is for another job with higher pay (52%), followed by one with less stress (51%) and better work-life balance (48%). Women leaders are leaving their organizations at the highest rate ever, widening the quitting gap between women and men in senior roles, according to recent data from LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Company. To give some context, for every woman stepping into a director-level leadership role, two are choosing to leave, says Alexis Krivkovich, McKinsey senior partner and an author of the joint Lean In and McKinsey “Women in the Workplace” report.

Where Can You Find “Differentiated Drivers” To Your Employees’ Experience

“Businesses always try to find the employees who are truly impacting the organization positively or have the potential to with the right people and programs,” said Amy Mosher, chief people officer at isolved. “When the job market fluctuates between abundance and scarcity almost weekly, developing driven people is a necessity.” So, let’s turn our attention toward focusing on some differentiated drivers.

First, ensure your leaders are setting an example of taking time for their own health and wellness. Employees will notice this and feel more comfortable expressing their needs for support. Also, consider some of the following resources and programs to add to your benefits package:

  • A user-friendly digital platform to access benefits and other resources, such as
  • Prioritize mental health and emotional well-being benefits.
  • Substance Use Disorder (SUD) prevention programs.
  • Flexible hours for doctor’s visits and therapy appointments, caregiving responsibilities, and parents attending their children’s functions and events.
  • Subsidized or complementary childcare or daycare.
  • Adequate support and improved professional coaching for employees to excel in their jobs.
  • Adopting pay transparency practices (Laws already exist in Colorado, California, New York, and Washington.)
  • Short- and long-term financial wellness programs at work and benefits beyond retirement accounts. These include: building emergency savings, budgeting to pay monthly expenses, resources for critical items like food and housing issues, improving credit, and student debt repayment programs.

Putting Your People First is a Win

Financial well-being in the workplace is inextricably linked to physical and mental well-being. These, in turn, can have a positive, measurable impact on your organization – both for retention and recruiting. Focus on holistic programs rather than a single component when creating programs that support a strong workplace culture for all.

What do your employees want from your organization? Call Casey Accounting & Finance Resources to see how we can support you.

Reevaluating Recruiting in Today’s Hiring Market

It feels like changes in recruitment and retention are crossing our news feeds on the daily. That’s because it’s true. When was the last time you revisited your talent acquisition strategy? Last week? Last month? Last year? With so many fluctuations in the hiring market, your answer might be Yes, Yes, and Yes. While we may be exhausted by stories about the economy and possible recession, right sizing, layoffs, hybrid work environments, upskilling/reskilling, stretching your workforce, offering increased salaries, “perfect” candidates, culture, and more, the truth is that all these factors are creating a bit of lava in navigating how we recruit talent.

Looking Ahead

Even if you recently revised your practices, it may be time to be more forward-thinking. Some of the rules have changed. For example, skills may be more critical than experience. Could candidates with more general skills be a better fit to handle a wider variety of tasks if you can only hire one or two people? Maybe long-term adaptability is a better solution for your ever-changing business landscape.

How well are you monitoring your recruitment and retention data, and what’s missing in your data analysis? Most companies are pretty adept at monitoring cost per hire, speed to onboard, turnover, and poor performance. However, if you are just looking at the numbers within their individual silos for increases or decreases without truly analyzing the cause and effect of the numbers as a whole, you may be missing opportunities for significant solutions and improved milestones.

There are plenty of articles and guidance available on the candidate application journey all the way through the onboarding process. While we won’t get into these topics in this article, we would be remiss in reminding everyone that these areas are often overlooked. You’d be surprised how many candidates drop out of the cumbersome application process. Also, investing in your onboarding process may create a positive experience from day one, which translates into highly engaged employees from the start of their employment journey at your company.

How We Can Help

According to Business.com, the cost of a bad hire is estimated at approximately 30 percent of the employee’s salary or more. Talent acquisition isn’t a pristine journey, and you are not alone if you feel your strategy isn’t perfect. Even if you don’t have all the digital bells and whistles, we can offer suggestions to track and get better results.

Let us review your processes and metrics to drive improvements.

  • Review how you’re filling roles. Is the process quick but suffering from low retention or poor performance? Stakeholders only see things like longer project completion rates or slower fulfillment of products or services. These factors affect business improvement.
  • Consider consistent question lists for all interviewers to help predict a candidate’s success in your organization.
  • Benchmark the employees who appear to be the “perfect” candidate to understand the soft and transferrable skills that make them better performers. Incorporate some of this data into job descriptions and interviews.
  • Remain engaged with candidates to assist in future referrals. Likewise, your employee base might be one of the better options to mine for new hires. This “human cloud” resource may help you stay connected to the talent you seek.

If you have limited resources to execute improved recruiting strategies, there are still ways to adapt your long-term talent acquisition strategy.

Call us today to discuss your recruiting challenges. We’ll put on our consulting hats to help create an environment that is adaptable to the unpredictable business climate, and where everyone wins.

Are the Economy and Inflation Hampering Recruiting?

We’ve all heard the news reports on how unusual the economy is right now. Interest rates are rising – great for our bank accounts, terrible for loans and mortgages. Wages are up. Unemployment is down. Consumers are feeling the pinch at the gas pumps and grocery stores. And while employees may be earning more money, it isn’t covering the increased costs of goods and services. While the Federal Reserve hasn’t declared a recession, everyone from the CEO to the receptionist certainly is wary that our country is headed in that direction. How can you keep your eye on the potential impact all this may have on finding and retaining employees in an already competitive talent war?

Lack of Engagement

There has been a strong recovery in the lost jobs since the pandemic started – faster than seen when jobs went away during previous recessions. Labor Economist Andrew Flowers commented, “In the previous recession that started in 2007, it took 76 months for job openings to return to the level at the start of the downturn. But in the recent COVID recession, it took only 12 months for job openings to recover to the February 2020 level, and by November 2021, openings had risen 50% above that.” However, Flowers notes that “there remain 5.6 million people who say they want a job but are not actively searching for one.” Even with the lure of more money and better job benefits, there are many potential job candidates out there who just aren’t interested. Have we hit a plateau in labor market participation? Perhaps. Are we in a transition? Maybe. Either way, we need strategies to recruit and retain the best.

Tips to Weather the Storm

With the labor market so tight, many companies have settled for the best available candidate versus the best candidate. Part of the challenge is the disconnect between what companies will pay and what candidates will accept. Currently, candidates are in a position of power.

Whether you are still struggling to fill positions or you’re in preparation mode for a recession, or both, there are some ways to improve recruitment strategies.

A recent article on SHRM’s website offered the following suggestion: review all open positions, why it exists, and what value does it bring to the company – drive business, contribute to employee engagement, or serve the customer. “Every role and position must have a purpose, a defined expectation for achievement of specific metrics, clarity in the purpose of the organization’s business strategy and how their position plays into that strategy. Just because you thought you needed a senior leadership role in the past does not mean you need that same position today,” commented Melanie French, managing principal at DLP Capital.

Review your job advertisements. In the old days, it was acceptable to simply list the skills requirements and other necessary credentials, and candidates would apply. Now, job seekers are looking for the WIIFM on job posts. Consider attracting candidates with a picture of what it looks like to them if they were offered that job. Companies are also waiving some of the education requirements if there are other assets and skills a candidate offers that bring value to the company.

Trent Cotton, Senior Global Director of Talent Acquisition and Retention at HatchWorks, offers these three strategies:

  • Identify top talent and show the love
  • Stop being cheap – you get what you pay for
  • Develop and nurture your pipeline

He also notes:

  • Workers are plentiful, but they have a higher price point than most companies are willing to pay.
  • Large employers are changing requirements, pay, and benefits to compete for the workforce.
  • We still have a huge number of long-term unemployed workers who are not entering the market.

Summary

The combination of economic conditions may be souring the mood of employers and employees, but it’s not all bad news, and there are opportunities in front of us.

A recession is bound to happen at some point, but we aren’t in one right now. Balancing your needs to fill positions right now with the odd economic conditions will be key. “Employers are probably keeping in mind that they went quickly from letting people go to hiring them, and they had a hard time rehiring people,” commented Nick Bunker, economic research director at Indeed.

How can we help? Casey Accounting and Finance Resources is here for all your sourcing and outsourcing needs. We can prepare recruiting strategies that offer the flexibility you require to manage the ups and downs of the labor market. Call us today!