What Kind of Benefits Should You Be Offering?

Your government contracting business might be a spectacular place to work. Your company culture might be the actual greatest company culture of all time, providing nonstop joy and happiness to all of your employees. That’s all great, but if you aren’t backing it up with a competitive benefits package, you’re still going to have trouble attracting talent.

Benefits are one of, if not the, most powerful factors when it comes to attracting people to your company. In fact, recent studies show that half or more working people would leave their current job for one that simply offered better benefits. So, if you’re not offering the right benefits, you’re at a real disadvantage.

But what kind of benefits should you be offering?

Find Out What Your People Want

The best way to find out what sort of benefits your employees actually want is to ask them. You can do this through surveys, focus groups, or simply casual conversation. Work with HR to come up with a list of benefits that would be appealing to your employees, and then narrow it down to the ones that would be most feasible for your company.

Remember, not all benefits are equally important to employees. For instance, free parking isn’t a benefit for people who take the bus. But something like a wellness program could have a lot wider appeal.

Let’s start with the basics.

Common Standard GovCon Benefits

While the extra stuff can go a long way to attracting talent and setting your government contracting business up for success, you have to make sure you’ve got the basics covered first.

Here are some of the most common benefits that modern GovCons offer:

Health Insurance: This is non-negotiable in today’s job market. If you don’t offer health insurance, you’re going to have a hard time attracting top talent.

Dental and Vision Insurance: This is often bundled with health insurance, but not always. If you want to attract employees, you need to offer at least some basic dental and vision coverage.

Retirement Benefits: Employers are increasingly expected to help their employees plan for retirement. At the very least, you should be offering a 401(k) plan.

Paid Time Off: Employees need time to relax and recharge, and they shouldn’t have to worry about using up all their vacation days. Make sure you offer a competitive amount of paid time off so your employees can enjoy a healthy work-life balance.

Sick Days: In addition to vacation days, employees need to be able to take time off when they’re actually sick. No one wants to come into work sick and risk getting everyone else sick, so offer a reasonable number of sick days as part of your benefits package.

Life Insurance: This is another benefit that’s becoming more and more common. Employees want to know that their loved ones will be taken care of financially if something happens to them.

If you’re not offering these benefits, you’re already well behind your competitors. But like we said, the basics are just the beginning. To really set your company apart, you need to offer some unique benefits that will appeal to your employees.

Fringe Benefit Ideas for Government Contractors

Once you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to start thinking about some of the more unique benefits you can offer. These are the sorts of benefits that will really help you stand out from your competitors in the GovCon world and attract top talent.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Flexible Working Arrangements: More and more employees are looking for flexible working arrangements that allow them to better balance their work and personal lives. If you can offer flexible hours, telecommuting, or other arrangements, you’ll be in a much better position to attract talent.

Student Loan Assistance: This is a big one for recent graduates. College is expensive, and many new employees are struggling to pay off their student loans. If you can offer any sort of assistance with student loans, you’ll be in a great position to attract recent grads.

Generous PTO Policies: We already talked about the importance of offering paid time off, but you can really set your company apart by offering more generous PTO policies than your competitors.

Childcare Assistance: Childcare is expensive, and many employees struggle to find affordable childcare options. If you can offer any sort of assistance with childcare, you’ll be in a great position to attract working parents.

Commuter Benefits: Commuting can be a big expense, especially if you live in a big city. If you can offer commuter benefits, you’ll be able to attract employees who are looking to save money on their commute.

These are just a few ideas to get you started. There are endless possibilities when it comes to offering unique benefits, so get creative and see what you can come up with. The more generous and unique your benefits package is, the better your chances of attracting top talent.

Seriously, Though. What About PTO?

We want to hit extra hard on the importance of being competitive with your PTO offering. If you’re starting people off with 80 hours of PTO, and a competitor is offering 120 hours, why would a potential hire join your team? They wouldn’t, at least not without a significantly higher salary.

The reality is that most people would rather have more time off than more money. In fact, a recent study by inc.com found that 20% of employees would prefer more time off over a 10% pay raise. So if you want to attract top talent, you need to be competitive with your PTO offering.

The bottom line is this: if you want to attract top talent, you need to offer a competitive benefits package. The basics are just the beginning – you need to be creative and generous with your benefits if you want to set your company apart from the competition.

BOOST Can Help You Attract Talent

At BOOST, we’re experts in all the ins and outs of running and succeeding as a small to mid-sized government contractor. Attracting talent is one of the most important areas that a lot of contractors are struggling with, and we’ve made it our mission to help out with that.

We can help you put together a benefits package that will attract talent. We can also help you retain that talent once you hire them.