Low or No Cost Benefits You Can Offer Your Employees
The cost of benefits is often the factor that determines whether or not a company can offer them to their employees. While some of the flashier benefits can be well beyond what some small businesses can afford, there are benefits available that you can offer that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
Discounts – Talk with companies that are in your company’s neighborhood and see if you can arrange to get discount coupons or discounted rates for your employees. This will help increase patronage to local businesses, and it will save your employees money on food, beverages, and services that they want or need.
Pick-up/Drop-off Service – Another service that you can negotiate with local businesses is pick-up and drop-off services. Talk to dry cleaners, restaurants, copy centers, etc. to see if you can arrange free pick-up and drop-off services for your employees. Again this would increase patronage for the local businesses and it would save your employees time and money.
Free In-House Education Programs – Offer your employees lunchtime seminars, classes, lecture series on industry issues. This benefit will not only create employees that are better trained and better qualified to perform their jobs, it can give lower level employees a chance to add skills to their repertoire and allow them to qualify for higher level positions within your company.
Group Insurance Rates – Even if your company cannot afford to fully fund employee benefits like health insurance, life insurance, and retirement options, you can enroll your company in these types of programs, administer them through payroll, and gain group discounts for your employees. While you are not paying for employees to participate in these programs, you are getting them a sizable discount on the products that are offered through these programs.