Is Your Benefits Plan Attracting the Best Employees?
We have a guest blogger on Direct Talk today - Ken Parson of Bost Benefits.
Businesses of all sizes struggle with the cost of offering creative and usable employee benefits. Now they are also struggling with determining what benefits employees value most. It’s all about gaining an edge in the employee attraction and retention game.
A recent Harvard Business Review survey revealed that 80% of American workers would choose additional benefits over a pay raise. That’s because ‘use value’ is far greater than ‘cost value’ if and when the employee needs to use the benefit(s).
One of the hottest benefits is tuition credits.
Recently I came across a totally unique employee work site benefit that caught my eye. It consisted of a Dental plan that also gives the policyholder a $2,000 per year college tuition credit that could be used at any one of over 380 schools nationwide. I counted 15 of those schools that are located right here in NC.
The credit can be designated by the employee to go to children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews & Godchildren, so just about any employee could make use of it.
It’s fascinating how this was put together. The consortium of schools decided that it would be worth their while to offer the tuition credit as a means of attracting students to their schools. All of the schools are private and are positioned cost-wise between a typical state school and your much more pricey elite private schools like Harvard and Stanford. And, 80% of them are on US News & World Report’s list of “America’s Best”.
For the typical wage earner, putting money into a college savings account is next to impossible. According to Forbes magazine less than half of Americans have a college savings plan, and of those that do, the average balance is $10,000. One of the more common methods to save for college is through a 529 plan, but that requires the participant to put money into that plan and hope it grows quickly.
With this Dental/College Credit plan, the $2,000 is awarded for each year the policy is kept in force without the individual having to put any money into it. With built-in enrollment and persistency bonuses, the tuition credit would reach $11,000 after just four years! If someone terminates the policy, they keep the credit that has accrued. It certainly seems that this plan will offer people far more options when it comes to choosing a college or university.
In this day and age of skyrocketing employee benefit costs, it is refreshing to see an insurance carrier and a lot of colleges getting together to offer a great value to the consumer.
Offering a host of HR benefits through BOST including group health, dental, life, disability, HR admin, as well as consulting on business succession plans.
Ken Parson
Benefit Specialist at BOST
Office: (919) 667-6896
Email: kparson@bostbenefits.com
