Employee benefits are a crucial piece of getting quality employees to work for your small business. In most cases, the small business owner cannot afford to offer many benefits due to the cost to the small business owner. As a small business owner, you can offer some incentives to employees to get quality employees to work for you. 1. Hours of operation are critical to a small business. You need employee availability when your customers or potential customers are available. However, you could offer your employees flex time or reduced hours on Friday (the day most folks would like to take off). You might post your hours from 9-5, Monday through Thursday and 9-3 on Friday. The extra two hours off on Friday actually increases productivity the rest of the week. 2. Employee lunches are critical to productivity. If you give an hour, make the employee take and hour. If you give 30 minutes, make the employee take 30 minutes. We all need a break from the everyday routine to rejuvenate. 3. Holiday pay is up to the employer, If you can afford it, give it. It is a small price to pay for productivity the rest of the time. 4. Sick days, even if minimal, are an incentive for an employee to work. The employee is more likely not to abuse sick leave if they have some type of leave to fall back on when needed. You could even offer 1 days pay for every 2 days not taken at the end of the year. This would encourage employees not to take their sick leave. 5. Insurance is an expensive benefit which most small businesses cannot afford. You can however search for a company that will offer a medical discount card or individual policies at a reduced rate if a certain number of employees sign up for an individual policy or medical discount card. 6. Understanding your employee when they have to take off for personal reasons or illness, will help create loyalty you cannot imagine. You want your employees to want to come to work. When they know you are going to be understanding for good reasons, they are more likely to not abuse the benefit of a good boss. |
