We are finally coming to a point where the end of the Covid-19 pandemic is in sight, as vaccine rollouts continue globally and cases begin to diminish. The effect that this pandemic has had on the workplace is phenomenal, from normalizing remote working to highlighting the necessity of certain workplace benefits. Many employers have had to implement permanent change to survive, and this may well have revolutionized the workplace of tomorrow.
Although this time has been hard on employers, it’s fair to say that most employees throughout the USA have been affected much more by the pandemic. With minimal financial support from the government, employers have been expected to pick up the slack to help their employees. Now that the end is in sight, it’s important to start looking at how you can prepare your employees for post-Covid, whether that’s reviewing the standard workplace retirement plan or implementing all new workplace benefits.
Much like the beginning of this pandemic, we can expect a lot of change as we transition back to normality. Here are some ways which you can help your staff hit the ground running, which in turn will benefit you and your business or company.
Which Benefits Matter?
A question which has often been pondered by employers, but never more so than in the last 2 years with studies showing as much as a third of polled employees are dissatisfied with their current benefits (read here). While some old school employers may believe that satisfaction has nothing to do with productivity, modern studies of the holistic effect of dissatisfaction in the workplace say otherwise.
So which benefits matter to employees?
Survival of the Financially Fittest
In the Metlife study referenced above, they asked what are the top 5 sources of financial stress to employees. Four of the five relate to workplace benefits, specifically health insurance and retirement, which blatantly shows how important these benefits are to employees. In fact, 37% of employees polled by Metlife expect to postpone their retirement due to their financial situation.
So, with this information at hand, what can you do to help your employees prepare?
In Sickness and in Health
Although often treated like it is, health is in no way a black and white issue, and has implications which reverberate out into the lives of all those in the community. In the workplace, sickness is often treated as an inconvenience which must either be ignored for the sake of work, or overcome for the sake of job retention. This attitude has forced countless employees to sacrifice their physical and mental health, which in turn affects their productivity and job satisfaction. This simple fact alone should be enough to motivate every employer to at least try to find a way to provide or subsidize some form of health insurance for all their employees, regardless of role.
The Twilight Years
The purpose of the workplace retirement plan is to provide the employee the means to survive after many years of service to one or more jobs. Although often isn’t enough, even savvy entrepreneurs who have finely tuned their solo 401k plans struggle to keep up with the rapid increase in the cost of living. Preparing employees with a worthwhile workplace retirement plan, or providing assistance with your independent contractor’s solo 401k plans can only go so far. Instead of simply providing an account in which money can be squirreled away for later, employers need to look at how the other benefits they could provide now can benefit employees in retirement.
Protecting their Health and Ensuring Stability
One of the most expensive bills that your average American will ever face are those from hospitals when the individual doesn’t have health insurance. In fact 41 percent of working-age Americans are currently struggling with medical related debt (source). With some standard procedures costing tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, this could clear out even the most well-managed solo 401k plans.
Mitigating medical debt should take precedence over most workplace benefits, especially those wellness and wellbeing benefits popularized in recent years. Although we may be moving away from the most recent pandemic, there are no guarantees that this won’t happen again soon. By ensuring your staff can seek the medical help they need without facing financial ruin, you can be sure that they have at least some stability in the foundation of their financial situation. This in turn will benefit you as employees will be able to focus more on the task at hand, and won’t be distracted by bankruptcy nipping at their heels.