What Tech Talent Wants in a Benefits Package
What Tech Talent Wants in a Benefits Package
Never before has it been so difficult to accrue top tech talent. Even during the pandemic, the best programmers, designers, and project managers are all in greater demand than ever before. It’s a given that a business needs to offer generous salaries if it wants to hire a great team of techies, but where exactly do benefits fit into the equation?
The simple logic here would dictate that larger benefits packages mean more top prospects, but the connection isn’t necessarily so direct. The best workers don’t want a whole smorgasbord of benefits — they just want what they need. Particularly during the newfound era of remote work, ping pong tables and massage rooms aren’t going to cut it anymore.
The Benefits Package Tech Talent Wants
If you want to boost your hiring power, you’re going to need top-of-the-line benefits.
1. Benefits Usability
So, let’s say you’re enrolling all of your employees in excellent health insurance plans — that’s great, but are they going to know what perks they offer and how to use them? Benefits are only worthwhile if your employees can actually take advantage of them. Simply put, you need a system in place that effectively administrates all of the benefits you offer your workers.
One of the best examples of this kind of system is Benebee, an application that is a part of Hamilton Insurance Agency’s benefits administration platform. Benebee consolidates and streamlines all health insurance-related documents into one application on their phone, eliminating headaches.
Jason Zuccari, vice president of business development for Hamilton Insurance Agency, recommends to “take a similar approach to all of your benefits: make sure that they’re as usable as they are valuable.”
2. Working Flexibility
For companies new to the remote work game, promising remote work flexibility to a new employee can seem risky to offer in a benefits package. The truth is that remote work and working flexibility are very much here to stay. Employers need to adapt in order to secure the top talent looking for remote options.
Your remote working setup doesn’t need to just be a relic of the COVID era: workflow software company Zapier has been a fully remote company for nearly a decade now. Ultimately, there will always be some very talented workers unwilling to relocate or wary of going into the office. Accommodate them — the results will be worth it.
3. Company Equity
How do you make a worker feel like they’re truly a part of your business? Company mission? Team-building exercises? After-hours drinks? None of these answers are wrong, but none of the answers go quite as far as company equity does. Equity turns an employee into a partner, drawing them into company operations in ways they simply would not have had access to otherwise.
Use equity as a final selling point for your top job candidates in their benefits package. Company equity is a great way to differentiate your business from some of the larger operations that may offer heftier salaries but can’t compete with your whole package.
Once an applicant knows that they’ll get to be invested in your business as they work for you — they’ll be far more likely to bound over the finish line into your office. Employees who hold company equity are more likely to stay with the company that they are invested in, providing less turnover.
4. Meaningful Development Opportunities
Top talent only reached that distinction because of their passion for learning and growth. If your business offers further opportunities to pursue personal and professional development, you’re more likely to attract the kinds of candidates interested in growth.
One of the best models for professional development, in terms of what companies can do for tech workers, is Schneider Electric University. The company is a compendium of courses and certifications run by Schneider Electric at no cost to their employees. Interested workers can learn new skills, hone existing ones, and grow in manifold ways through programs like this one.
Companies that don’t offer personal and professional opportunities for its employees are at a severe disadvantage in the hiring process compared to those that do.
Just because nabbing top tech talent is difficult doesn’t mean you should stop trying. By improving and refining your benefits package, you can run with the fastest of them — and recruit the best of them too.
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