The Landscape of Hiring Shifts To Benefits - It Is Time To Revisit Your Offerings
Since there have been so many changes in the landscape of hiring we thought we would offer a round-up of trends in benefit policies that we are seeing and some thoughts for you to consider. The key these days in hiring is to be competitive – there are more jobs than people so having a comprehensive and thoughtful benefit package is more important than ever. As a note - spell out your benefits in detail in all job postings - “competitive benefits” doesn’t cut it anymore. Listing out all of your offerings will distance your posting from others.
PTO Policy
Pre-COVID a good package was considered 3 weeks paid vacation to start, 10-12 sick/personal days, and 9-10 holidays. Post-COVID the same package could work, but the difference would be that it would need to be matched with a hybrid/flexible work policy, and vacation time that increases at the 2-year mark. Here the thinking is to incentivize people to stay past two years as a marker for employee retention. Increasing leave time is a low-cost way to make your employees feel appreciated and prevent burnout. At TSM we employ an unlimited policy that you can read more about here – but acknowledge that it doesn’t work for everyone. Our PT employees have floating holidays and prorated vacations based on 4 weeks.
Trends of Note
Many organizations give the whole organization off 1-2 weeks at the end of the year which does not impact their vacation time. Applicants get really excited about this.
Adding a couple of self-care/mental health days to their packages
Summer hours-- every other Friday off, or half-day summers
Parental Leave
Paid parental leave, inclusive of all kinds of parents and caregivers, should be addressed. We have a policy that is inclusive of all of the various ways that you can become a caregiver. Here is our language,
“The Spark Mill recognizes the value of providing employees meaningful bonding time upon the birth of a child or when a child under the age of 18 years has been newly placed with an employee through adoption, foster care, or custodial care.”
Floating Holidays
Who says that an employee needs to adhere to someone else’s ideas of holidays? Having a floating holiday policy allows employees to select the ones that best meet their cultural beliefs and family needs. Here’s what we have
“As strong believers of inclusion, The Spark Mill does not require any single employee to adhere to the Commonwealth of Virginia’s designated holiday schedule which includes 12 recognized holidays. While the schedule is observed by many at The Spark Mill, the Commonwealth’s holiday schedule is not representative of all cultures, customs, and beliefs that many employees celebrate.”
Sabbaticals
These are becoming very popular on a national level with nonprofits especially. It's not right for everyone, but certainly, something to consider. Most policies allow a sabbatical of 8-12 weeks paid every 5 years. This has mostly been done to prevent burnout at the director level.
Here is a list of some more ideas
Self-Care Fund/Employee Wellness Fund
We have been seeing more and more benefit packages with a certain amount of money ($500-2000/year) that can be used for things that are related to self-care-- some examples we are seeing are gym memberships, yoga classes, massages, acupuncture, meditation apps, etc.
Dependent Care FSA
Offering this can be a nice bonus and doesn't cost you anything.
Professional Development
Aligning development to the work of the agency but not necessarily the current work the employee is responsible for allows them to learn new things and grows the bench strength of your organization. This is also a good strategy for high potentials to grow into leadership positions.
Student Loan Repayment Support
This is a magnet for anyone under 40... it doesn't even have to be a significant amount, it just feels so rewarding to even see it as an option.
Bonuses
A "pool" of funds available if the organization meets benchmarks is most typical.
Training and Coaching
Create a fund for each employee that the employee could access and work with their supervisor to develop a custom solution for them. This way this is tied to your strategies and their personal development.
Fringe
This is a Richmond-based start-up that is having success working with different workforces. I don't have a real-life example of it working but it is worth a look. It gets to the equitable distribution and choice side of the equation. https://www.fringe.us/how-it-works
Last Thoughts
Your benefits package and employee packages should be reviewed by an employment lawyer to make sure you are staying on the right side of legal. We have a partner that we refer to with deep experience in nonprofits and would be glad to refer you. The least expensive way to approach changes is to have a SHRM-certified professional look over and draft new policies and then get a stamp by legal counsel. If it is time for a full re-do, give us a call and we can get you started.