Student loan assistance is an amazing benefit. Offering this benefit along with other popular offerings can have dramatic impact on your company’s reputation, morale, and productivity.
Reason #1: Workers tend to care more about benefits
Glassdoor reported that 4 in 5 workers preferred benefits or employee perks over a pay raise. Pay raises, while traditional, don’t always keep pace with inflation. People want perks that are more tangible and supplement their income.
Employers are not required to offer benefits such as maternity leave, health insurance, dental coverage, and vacation time. Yet many workers consider those necessities. People are more concerned with having the right types of benefits, especially since pay raises rarely cover the aforementioned benefits.
Reason #2: New talent want newer perks
The millennial generation is looking for benefits that match their values. Forbes reported that Millennials want benefits prioritizing their families and have a positive social impact. Perks such as college planning and student loan assistance are on par with their desires.
The emerging generation has tons of untapped potential. Millennials make up the largest segment of the working population and have influence over the voluntary benefits environment. To stay on track with the demands of the employee pool, employers need to start offering benefits that better meet the needs of younger generations.
Reason #3: A lack of benefits can shy away potential employees
The job market currently has a surplus of open positions and a deficit of talent. Job seekers are currently in demand. If Business A and Business B are seeking the same candidate, the company offering a better benefits package has the advantage.
The cost to offer quality voluntary benefits will pay off if it makes you an employer of choice and reduces your recruiting costs.
Reason #4: Good benefits show that employers care
Your business doesn’t run without your staff. Behind every thriving business is a group of hard-working individuals with personal issues that impact their work performance. Providing benefits is not only a fiscally sound decision, it’s an ethical one.
Companies should show compassion to their employees, especially to employees going through significant life changes. Benefits such as parental leave for a newborn, grievance leave, and health insurance not only show that you care, but they avoid pressuring employees to work while they’re distracting with personal issues.
Financial burdens such as student loan payments can create household stress. Offering a student loan assistance benefit can mitigate that stress.
Reason #5: You’ll keep more of your staff
Turnover is expensive to a company, and companies want to avoid losing employees to other employers offering better benefits.
A recent Huffington Post article states, “retaining a sales person for three years instead of two, along with better on-boarding and management practices, yields a difference of $1.3 million in net value to the company over a three year period.”
In the same article, they discuss how the cost of losing an employee could possibly range anywhere from tens of thousands of dollars to 1.5 – 2 times the employee’s salary. This comes from the amount of time it takes finding and training new talent, as well as the initial period of time that it takes for a new employee to really hit their stride.
Keeping staff isn’t only helpful to the success of your business, it’s economical.
Reason #6: Benefits can help improve company culture
Benefits can bring people together. Things like team-building activities and company sponsored events set the stage for employee bonding and culture building. Employees most often cite the people they work with as the reason why they love their jobs. If you’re offering benefits that can help build culture, you’re making the work environment one that people will love — resulting in improved engagement and retention.
When amazing workers leave, people feel the difference. There’s a shift in the culture, and it can even impact one’s feelings towards their job. When you have incredible benefits, the company culture has more chances to grow because the team builds on experience and history.
Reason #7: Workers perform better when they’re not stressed
Happy employees are less distracted and able to produce better — an essential component a company’s success. Studies show that employees are actually 12 percent more productive when they’re happy.
When employees can’t afford to take their sick child to the doctor, don’t have paid time off to care for them, and can’t afford things for themselves because their salary is going towards what benefits would otherwise cover, they become stressed, unhappy, and unproductive. Alleviating that stress is crucial to the happiness of your staff and ultimately the success of your company.
Reason #8: You can be a little pickier in the hiring process
You’ve put some amazing benefits into place, your culture is great, your hiring salary and payscale are competitive — you’ve become an “employer of choice.” This likely means you’re not scrambling to fill positions, rather, people are waiting for someone to quit. When it’s time to hire, you get to be picky.
When interviewing candidates, good employers will not only consider experience and qualifications but also personality type and culture fit. Even if the employee is perfect on paper, if that person doesn’t get along with the existing team, problems are inevitable. Since you’re an employer of choice, you can take your time and make certain the new hire is a good fit all around.
When you’re improving your benefits package, consider adding a student loan assistance program through IonTuition. With IonTuition, you’re on the right track to setting your business (and your workers) up for success. Learn about our products for colleges, employers, and brokers, and get started today to see how IonTuition could help your company.