Many employers operate under the mistaken assumption that offering medical benefits to their staff is nothing more than an added cost. This is a very short-sighted approach to the issue. It stems from a failure to understand that health care insurance can be an excellent factor to induce retention in employees. Companies would actually benefit from treating their employees’ health as an investment instead of a cost. In the long run, the economic advantages of offering medical insurance far outweigh the costs. Here are a few reasons companies need to start this practice.
One direct result of health care is a reduction in worker absenteeism. When preventative health care is more easily available to workers, they will be absent less often due to health related concerns, whether it’s their own health or that of their family members’. Additionally, the more healthy the worker, the more productive they will be at work. Plus, workers won’t have to worry about medical payments as much, and thus will be able to focus on the job instead of being distracted by money concerns.
Companies that offer health care benefits have an obvious advantage over those that don’t when it comes to employee retention. When similar firms are offering health care benefits in addition to comparable pay, it’s not hard to see why managers might slip out of your net into theirs. And it’s not just top talent. Since the ACA made it easier to offer health insurance, lower paid staff has also come to increasingly enjoy these benefits. This means that failing to offer them insurance could lead to them leaving as well.
Additionally, companies that offer medical insurance usually make it a point to mention this when advertising for recruitment. As a result, quite a few workers won’t even bother applying to companies that don’t offer this. This means that you’d be losing top talent before it even has a chance to get through the door. The quality of employees you do attract then is compromised. If you only end up attracting second-tier workers, productivity at the workplace will go down, leading to increased costs for the firm.
You may think that health care is only a topic of significance to a small sub-set of employees, such as older workers or employees with health issues. Of course, these are groups that are going to need health insurance. If a large number of employees in the workplace come down with health issues, they are going to be attracted to other firms if you don’t have health insurance in place. However, it’s not just them who require health care insurance. Younger employees are growing increasingly concerned about healthcare as well in the current environment, since they might have to pay a penalty if they can’t get it from their employers. Additionally, relatively young workers could still have families, which would automatically drive up the need for healthcare insurance. Not offering them benefits could lead to serious ramifications for the company in the long run.