By Angela Adams, CEBS, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, Client HR Services Consulting Manager

As we head into autumn and toward open enrollment season for many employers, it’s a good time to think about employee benefits. Have you ever asked your employees what they value when it comes to this aspect of their compensation package? It’s important as an employer to continue to update and modernize your benefits package to put yourself in a strong position to not only retain your current employees, but to attract new talent. An employee benefits survey will give you the information you need to ensure you stay on top of trends in employee preferences.

The cost of benefits in general represents at least an additional 30% of an employee’s salary on top of their cash compensation. Are you using this large expense to leverage benefits for strategic purposes? Doing so can lower turnover costs and lead to higher productivity and stronger team morale (Wellhub).

You may want to focus on two areas: the benefits themselves and how well your employees understand the benefits. Here are some questions that could give you valuable answers:

Questions About Benefits Specifically:

Have employees rank their benefits from most important to least important.

Is there something employees want but that you don’t offer?

What do they like and dislike about your current medical and retirement programs?

Questions Regarding Use of Benefits:

Do they understand how to use the benefits that are available?

Do they know who to ask if they don’t?

Is the enrollment process easy?

Miller Cooper’s Client HR Services can assist you with conducting a comprehensive benefits study through our Employee Benefits Satisfaction Survey. Here are some outcomes that previous surveys have yielded for clients:

• Employer implemented more competitive medical plan options and brought in a 401(k) advisor to help employees better understand the retirement plan; this retirement presentation is now an annual event.
• Employer held a dedicated presentation on more of the lesser-used benefits to make sure that employees understand all that is available to them, such as an employee assistance program.
• Employer added an additional medical plan option to meet employee needs.
• Employer added voluntary benefits to address additional benefits their employees were looking for.
• Employer performed a compensation system redesign after employees perceived their cash compensation as not competitive.
• Employer added additional holidays after employees indicated that the paid holiday offerings were not as competitive.

The importance of asking these questions is clear – for instance, 73% of employees (Benepass) would feel better about staying at their company if the health benefits were better, and 60% say a solid retirement plan is a good reason to remain (Society for Human Resources). Good benefits don’t only keep current employees; a competitive package can attract the best new ones.

Beyond positively impacting retention and recruiting is the fact that employers should feel good about the investment they are making in employee benefits.  It’s a significant part of the overall compensation package and these surveys help employers put their money into the right places.

Interested in surveying your employees? Let us help you gain valuable insight.  Contact Miller Cooper’s Client HR Services for more information at chrs@millercooper.com.