Businesses nationwide are experiencing a growing talent shortage, with approximately 75% of employers reporting difficulty filling roles. Benefits benchmarking is an invaluable tool for helping companies stay competitive and align their offerings with the evolving needs of the modern workforce.
See how leveraging benefits benchmarking can help your business find the right candidates.
The Role of Benefits Benchmarking in Hiring
Hiring people with the necessary experience and skills for specific roles is essential for the long-term success of an organization. However, attracting qualified candidates can be challenging when your business doesn’t offer the competitive benefits that today’s workers seek in a job. Benefits benchmarking is an effective way for recruiters to understand what standards they should aspire to.
Attracting Talent
Benchmarking can help companies better understand what employees expect in a benefit package. Benefits benchmarking compares a business’s employee benefits to competitors’ offerings to assess various aspects, such as plan cost and design. With information gathered through this process, employers can build a competitive package that attracts talent.
Retaining Employees
Data from benchmarking can also help businesses keep their existing employees satisfied. Gauging what benefits are most important to workers can help you use your employee benefits spend on the benefits your employees consider a priority.
Industry-Specific Standards
When conducting benefits benchmarking, consider industry-specific benchmarks that will allow your company to remain competitive in your sector.
Desired benefits can differ across industries, with some industries favoring paid time off (PTO) while others prioritize healthcare above all else. Performing sector-specific benefits benchmarking surveys can help your business make the appropriate benefits changes.
Challenges in Benefits Benchmarking
With a competitive labor market, employers must recognize potential challenges within the employee benefits market. Once these challenges have been identified, you can create strategic solutions for overcoming issues relating to data accuracy, rising costs, and ever-changing benchmarks.
Data Accuracy and Availability
Many businesses find it challenging to collect accurate and complete benefits data when benchmarking. Outdated, unavailable, or inconsistent data, especially in emerging markets, can affect the accuracy of findings.
Data limitations can also come in the form of undisclosed information, which is common with private companies that are not legally obligated to disclose these details to the public. If not promptly addressed, data accuracy and availability issues can lead to unreliable results.
Constantly Changing Benchmarks
Industry standards and expectations constantly change, making it hard for companies to keep up. In an effort to keep pace, organizations must support a culture of continuous improvement, which typically involves regularly measuring performance against benchmarks to identify where changes need to be made. Tools such as surveys, audits, reports, and feedback can be used to collect and analyze data.
Balancing Cost and Competitiveness
Many companies need help finding the right balance between offering competitive benefits and effectively managing costs. This is where financial planning comes into play. Employers must use budgeting to determine how to provide a competitive benefits package without straining the organization financially.
Steps to Improve Hiring Capabilities Through Benefits Benchmarking
An organization’s ability to attract and retain top talent directly impacts its long-term growth and success. Benefits benchmarking can be useful during the recruitment and hiring processes, as it empowers businesses to gain insights from industry leaders, identify areas for improvement, and implement data-driven strategies to improve their talent attraction and retention efforts.
The following steps can help improve your business’s hiring capabilities through benefits benchmarking:
Data Collection
Companies can use various methods to gather relevant benefits data from competitors. Internal data can be collected through historical recruitment information, such as past hiring statistics, performance analytics, and applicant tracking systems (ATS). External data is commonly acquired through industry surveys, reports, and partnerships with benchmarking organizations.
Analysis
Once sufficient internal and external data has been gathered, the next step is to analyze and interpret it. Compare your business’s benefits against industry leaders to determine where your company excels and where there is room for improvement.
Implementation
The final step in the benefits benchmarking process is implementation. Planned strategies are realized and best practices are adopted to improve and monitor the business’s performance effectively.
During this implementation process, your company should make any necessary changes to your benefits package to enhance its attractiveness based on benchmarking findings. Focus on changes that will have the greatest impact on your objectives and employee satisfaction.
New City Can Help You Start Your Benefits Benchmarking Project
With competition in today’s workforce fiercer than ever, employers must find new ways to attract and retain talent. At New City Insurance, we offer a proven benchmarking system that helps drive employee engagement and can help your company attract top talent. Request a free benchmarking report or contact us at 888.210.2765 to get started.