What Innovators Really Want

How important are benefits to attracting and keeping the talent your business needs to thrive? In a word: very. Both traditional and non-traditional benefits are critical in establishing value with job candidates and employees.

Traditional benefits include health coverage, life insurance, disability coverage, and retirement plans. Non-traditional benefits include perks such as flexible work schedules, pet insurance, training and mentoring.

A comprehensive benefits plan brings far more than its monetary value. Our partners at TriNet recently conducted a survey which found that 91% of respondents at small and medium size businesses view non-traditional benefits as an important aspect of their job satisfaction. Most respondents said that providing non-traditional benefits improves employee morale, employee retention, and company culture.

91% of respondents view non-traditional benefits as an important aspect of their job satisfaction.

Employers can help keep valuable institutional knowledge from walking out the door by making sure that all employees have what they need to succeed. Whether it’s training and advancement or benefits and flexible work arrangements, employers can draw from a host of options to make their workplace nothing short of incredible.

Catherine Wragg, senior vice president of Human Resources at TriNet explains the importance of non-traditional benefits: “With low unemployment and more jobs available than job seekers, it is an important time for companies to re-evaluate their incentive and benefit offerings to recruit and retain employees. Non-traditional benefits can help employers stand out by offering uncommon perks that can be meaningful to employees, positively impact company culture and potentially help retain top talent.”

Determining which benefits to offer can be complicated. Based on their findings, TriNet has provided an eGuide overview of the types of traditional and non-traditional benefits you might consider offering.

TriNet eGuide: What Workers Really Want