Smaller companies are the backbone of our economy. In fact, there are over 27 million small businesses in the united states today. Great culture, easy adaptability, and the lack of bureaucracy make small businesses attractive places to work. However, there is one caveat, small businesses do not often provide great benefits. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, small employers are far less likely to offer health benefits to full time employees. This is usually due to a lack of budget, being in the early stages of business or simply lack of information, but small businesses are notorious for the lack of employee benefits. Regardless of the size of your company, business owners should make an effort to provide employees with the best possible benefits.
Do I Have to Legally Provide my Workers with Benefits?
The short answer is it depends. According to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), companies with less than 50 employees were not legally mandated to provide their employees with health insurance. However, just because you’re not legally required, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still provide health insurance. Providing employee benefits is a great way to lower employee turnover, while attracting and maintaining top talent.
More Benefits than just Health
Health care is the main component to any employee benefits package, however it isn’t the only kind of benefit an employer can offer employees. Vision, dental, 401(k)s, pensions, vacation days and more are all part of a robust employee benefits package.
Taking Care of Your Employee Shouldn’t be Expensive
Paying for employee benefits can be a challenging and expensive endeavor. The government offers a Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP). This program is designed to provide small businesses, with less than 50 employees, with affordable health insurance coverage. However, many businesses have stayed away from this program since it is still in developmental stages and many of the offerings have not made it to market yet.
Without using SHOP the same problem occurs: How can I afford employee benefits? For companies looking to offer a robust benefits package on a small budget, a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) might be a great option. PEOs pool employees from their client companies to purchase benefits packages at a cheaper cost. Those savings are then passed on to their clients and their employees are able to have access to benefits normally reserved for a Fortune 500 company.
PEOs also offer other services besides benefits like payroll processing, employment taxes, risk management, compliance, and human resource management. Companies that already outsource one or more of these functions might benefit from using one provider for all of these administrative tasks.
The Cornerstone Advantage
Like other PEOs, Cornerstone will help you save significantly on employee benefits, automate your payroll, lower your experience modifier, and help with certain employee related compliance. However, unlike other PEOs, our focus is on excellent customer service.
Other PEOs will just add you to their system and send you an invoice. At Cornerstone we assign a professional customer service rep to work with your account. This not only adds more of a human touch, but it also allows us to create custom solutions unique to your business. Got questions? We have a rep to help you answer them. A problem occurred? You have a rep who understands your business and can create an effective solution.
Contact us here for a FREE consultation.
