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The Ins & Outs of Discussing Health Benefits in the Recruiting Process

Your potential employees consider several things before they decide to accept your employment offer. Gone are the days of simply evaluating the dollar amount of an annual salary offer to decide whether or not a company is right for one’s career path. In order to thrive in today’s highly competitive job market, it’s important that your company offer robust health and wellness benefits.

In fact, competitive benefits are directly tied to overall job satisfaction and employee retention, according to the 2018 Aflac Workforces Report. The report states that 34% of employees are willing to remain with their employer for an improved benefits package, and 75% of survey respondents said that benefits were extremely important to their overall well-being.

While most companies have at least a high-level overview of the type of benefits they offer employees on their website—perhaps on a careers or jobs page—most in-depth discussions surrounding benefits should be preserved for one-on-one discussions with prospects and current employees. It’s clear that benefits can be a tool to entice the right applicant. So, when and how should you bring up the topic during the interview process?

There’s no perfect timing

While there is no perfect timing for bringing up your company’s benefits package, there is nothing wrong with discussing benefits early in the interview process, particularly for preferred candidates. After all, if the job candidate is strong, there’s a good chance they are interviewing with multiple companies and weighing their options, so covering your benefits is a great way to “sell” your organization as the best fit for their future.

Related Reading: The Benefits of Understanding Your Workforce

However, phone screenings may be a bit early to provide too much detail on benefits unless it is a way to hook an attractive candidate. Likewise, depending on the circumstance, you may want to hold somethings back about your benefits in the event that you need a healthy dose of ammunition to influence them later to close the deal.

Addressing benefits with recruits

How you and your recruiters go about discussing your benefits package with potential candidates is also something to put some thought into. You may want to first consider if the candidate already seems interested in the position to ensure that they accept a position based on more than the perks that come with the job. While you obviously want to attract quality candidates, you also want to make sure that those candidates truly want to work for you and aren’t just signing on the dotted line for your solid benefits, willing to jump at the next best offer.

When you’re speaking to job candidates about your health and wellness benefits, don’t be afraid to highlight the differentiators and features of your benefits program. You and your recruiting team should feel comfortable talking openly about the aspects of your program that are most popular with your employee base.

Recruiting and retaining top talent is an ongoing challenge for many businesses. With low unemployment and a shortage of active job seekers, it’s important that you thoroughly explain the advantages of your health and wellness benefits to your job prospects so you can win the war on recruiting!

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Jonathan Amato

Jonathan Amato is the Vice President of Sales for SWBC’s Employee Benefits Consulting division. He is responsible for achieving divisional sales goals, recruiting and developing sales team members, and managing several high-level client relationships.

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