When you run a small business, the key to success is making the most of what you have by finding the right group benefit plan. Having the right benefit plan can minimize your employees’ stress, and keep them working at their best. Enterprise-level businesses can afford to give their employees exciting and extravagant benefits like a well-stocked cooler of beverages, health insurance premiums, or monthly tech giveaways. Small businesses usually don’t have the same budget but that doesn’t mean they can’t provide certain benefits that are perfect for their employees. So, where to begin?

At Benefits Pensions Consulting, we help organizations evaluate their benefits so you can optimize your offerings, reduce your expenses and reach a new level of growth. We’ve identified 4 simple steps to come up with the right combination of benefits to fit your business perfectly. The next time you’re thinking about how you can use of benefits to attract new talent, maximize employee satisfaction and work culture, keep these four useful steps in mind:

1. Maximize The Benefit Plan

As a business owner, you want to retain your talent, and prevent the loss of any hard working employees. One way to achieve this is by providing a group benefit plan. The owner or head of Human Resources can do this by approaching qualified benefit advisors to provide a variety of desirable yet competitive benefit plans to choose from. With a suitable benefits plan, companies can count on workplace productivity and satisfaction. Selecting a group benefit plan for your team would entail understanding the demographics in the office and your employees preferences, hence the next step.

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Read more: What to Consider Before Creating a Group RRSP

2. What Does The Team Need?

Group benefit plans only work well for your company if they match up with the needs of your employees. The best way to determine their specific needs is to send out a survey to understand your employee’s habits, preferences, and the office environment. A good idea would be to check what other businesses in your industry offer their employees, or review your workers’ demographic profiles and determine what they would collectively want. This is also something an advisor can help you with. Once you pinpoint your team’s needs and concerns, you’re ready to move on to the next step.

3. Questions For Yourself
   After you determine what your employees would want and have managed their expectations, you need to ask yourself some important questions in order to understand the cost and purpose of providing the change or implementation in benefits. These questions will help shape your decision making with regards to determining the right group benefit plan for your workers, avoid overspending, and help narrow down the list of possible benefits available:
   
   

1. What’s your reason for offering a benefits plan?
2. What is the program’s primary goal going to be?
3. Will it cover the current needs of the workforce?
4. Will the plan address the emerging needs of your future talents?
5. What’s your annual budget for the benefits coverage?
6. Will your workforce understand the benefits you’re going to be providing them?
7. How often will you review the plan design/cost to make sure that it meets the needs of an evolving workforce and check the rising health care costs?
   
   

Asking these important questions will help you refine your benefits strategy, and help you avoid making costly and unnecessary expenses on benefits that aren’t as effective for your company and employees. Once your idea of what your company needs from a group benefits package is refined, it’s time for the final step.

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Read more: Choosing The Right Benefits Agency

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4. The Consultant Connection

A benefits advisor or consultant can certainly help you through all the steps of determining the best benefits package to suit your workforce. Advisors can give you insight on any impending legislative changes or revisions that would affect your benefits and therefore, your employees. The key to finding the right advisor is also asking them the right questions:

1. What services do they offer?
2. According to your benefit goals and annual budget, what plan would they recommend?
3. What are the most effective ways to communicate the plan to employees?
4. How can they help to ensure that the benefits plan continues to meet goals, considering ever-changing demographics?
5. How can they assist in ensuring a benefits plan remains competitive in a specific industry? And at the same time help effectively manage the rising costs of benefits plans?
   
   

Once you find a reliable and valuable consultant, it’s all about connecting with them, then finally going through the various benefit products and deciding on the perfect group benefits plan for your workforce.

Think about what benefits coverage works best for YOUR company. Ask your employees what they think, ask yourself what goals you are trying to achieve, then connect with a trustworthy benefits agency. Consider our pension consulting solutions and services. We have a proven record of helping businesses come up with the right combination of benefits to deliver a holistic and positive work experience for you and your employees. If you need more information on our Benefits, Retirement, and HR services, check our About Us Page. Or, connect with us for  paperless benefits consulting that leads to the right group benefit plan, via our Contact Page.

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