You can never go wrong with employee motivation. Smart business owners understand the importance of motivating their employees and they practice it. When you motivate your staff, you encourage them to put in their best and be more efficient. The level of satisfaction an employee enjoys with his job has a direct result on his level of productivity. Also, motivating your employees would improve the reputation of your company and help you find and retain good employees.
Providing health insurance for your staff is one of the ways through which you can motivate them. It would show that you actually care about their welfare. Most countries do not make it mandatory for companies to give their employees’ health insurance benefits but encourage it. I would also encourage you to provide health insurance for your employees for the following reasons-:
10 Benefits of Providing Health Insurance for Employees
1. You would be able to attract and retain good quality of employees
Just like you are looking for the best employees, your employees are looking for outstanding employers too. They want employers who make the work worth it by providing them with extra benefits. If you don’t want to keep losing your best employees to your competitors, think of how you can offer them some extra incentives like health insurance. Also, you would be able to attract better quality of employees too because everyone likes to work for the good guys.
2. You would gain some tax savings
What you spend on getting insurance for your employees can be deducted as a business expense before tax which means obtaining health insurance for your employees’ means paying less taxes.
3. Have a healthier workforce
You see, health insurance makes it cheaper for people to get treatments. It also encourages people to get preventive healthcare. For instance, a person who knows that he needs general body check-up at least once a year may put it off or procrastinate due to the un-affordability of medical costs.
But when there is health insurance to take care of the bills, he is encouraged to have his regular check-up. When you provide health insurance for your employees, they are able to take care of themselves better and prevent illnesses and as a result, you would have a healthy workforce.
4. Spend less money
Purchasing health insurance for a group of people is way cheaper than buying individually. You can take advantage of this to provide health insurance to your workers at a cheaper rate compared to having them buy it individually which would be more expensive for them.
5. Enhance staff productivity
There are a lot of things that influence the performances of employees. Amongst these things is job satisfaction. When an employee is sure that he has a good and stable job, he would do what it takes to keep that job. He would focus on getting better at the job instead of thinking of ways to get another job.
One of the things employees look out for in a good company is staff welfare and benefits of which health insurance is at the top of the list. You can encourage your employees to serve you better by providing health insurance for them. And since their families are also covered, they would have a more balanced work life as a result of the peace enjoyed at home.
6. Less cases of absenteeism
One of the major reasons why employees miss work is illnesses and when employees don’t come to work, it creates a gap that may be hard to fill. Work doesn’t go smoothly and a lot of things might go wrong.
Now, you wouldn’t want to be a mean boss by insisting that sick employees come to work when they are ill or replacing them just because they feel ill for a few days. However, you can prevent these cases by ensuring that they are well taking care of through health insurance. You know what they say about prevention?
7. It boosts the image of your company
The way your employees perceive your company is very important for your business. I have seen cases where employees of an organization have hidden under the cover of the internet to bash their companies and ruin their employer’s image just because they were unsatisfied with their current working conditions.
I have also seen situations where employees stood up to defend their companies. It all depends on how happy your staffs are. Now, we may think these things don’t matter to clients but most of the time; they do and may lead to loss of current and potential clients.
8. Less cases of aggrieved and striking workers
One of the major things workers complain about when they protest or go on strike is poor staff welfare. When you provide proper health benefits for them, you would have successfully eliminated some of the things your workers may complain about in the future.
9. Enjoy Tax credits
Another benefit of providing health insurance for your employees is that you would enjoy tax credits.Tax credits are one of the ways through which the government encourages companies to provide health insurance for their employees. When you obtain health insurance or pay premiums, you would have access to up to 35% tax credits which can be used to reduce your tax burden.
10. Reduce employee turnover
The costs associated with hiring new employees and training them for the job is not in any way little. This is why companies always want to reduce employee turnover to the barest minimum. Employee turnovers are usually higher in companies with little or no staff welfare and lower in companies that provide attractive employee benefits. You can reduce the rate at which workers leave your company by keeping them happy and healthy always.
In conclusion, I want you to know that by ensuring your employees are happy, healthy and safe is very important and beneficial for your business. It may be expensive to do but the benefits always outweighs the costs, so you should always try to do whatever it takes to compensate your employees for their hard work through a solid staff welfare program.