Remember that Benefits Matter

• April 5, 2019

Offering excellent benefits to the people in your company is expensive – no question – but it is critical to cultivating and retaining a strong employee base. And as we noted at the start of this chapter, your staff is your greatest asset.

Benefits keep people within your organization. If you are not providing comprehensive healthcare coverage and another company offers a better package, people in your company will look for work at that other company. The same is true in relation to funding a 401(k).

Investing in benefits ultimately means that you will keep good people and reduce your turnover. And remember, the turnover is expensive. To find a replacement for an employee who leaves is expensive and time-wasting. You have to spend money and time to recruit each new employee – usually, while the job of the employee who left is being handled by other staffers or being left undone. After you bring your new employee on board, it costs money for the training that gets him or her up to speed. And in some cases, the first person you hire doesn’t work out. He or she fails to serve customers well while getting up to speed, for one example, which costs you money and business. And if that new hire doesn’t work out, you have to repeat the entire process a second or even a third time.

Those steps are hugely expensive. Yet in many cases, you can prevent them by simply having an excellent benefits plan.

I have been a small business person and I have worked for large companies, too. I am fully aware of how time-consuming and expensive it is for small businesses to offer good benefits. But the reality is that doing so is worth it. The money you invest is money well spent.