For employers, attracting and retaining talent is an endless battle in business. Meeting salary expectations, when there is strong demand for specialised talent, puts pressure on employers to provide more. Employees expect flexible work arrangements, company culture, benefits and career development. As an employer, how can you differentiate yourself from your competitors without blowing an already limited budget? In the current competitive employment market, organisations are realising the opportunity to use benefits to attract and retain talent. With a modern salary packaging program in place, you can offer financial and tax benefits to current and prospective employees. When employees understand the impact and value of salary packaging, you, as the employer, become more attractive and an employer of choice. Here’s how to attract and retain employees with salary packaging.
Salary packaging financial benefits and perks
Salary packaging is an alternative way to offer value, attract and retain staff and avoid skill shortages. With salary packaging, you don’t need to offer bigger pay packets to give more value to your employee. Salary packaging enables employees to use their pre-tax income on benefits that they’d normally pay from their take-home pay. It’s a solution to ensure your employees get the most out of their salary. Salary packaging can have many financial benefits and perks, which your current and potential employees should be made aware of.
How to get a candidate’s attention
The key to getting a candidate’s attention through salary packaging is by informing them in a language they understand. When you can quantify the benefits, understanding the value of salary packaging becomes simple. A salary packaging provider can do this for you. They have the resources that show the financial impact and benefit on someone’s annual salary or hourly rate. For example, if you’re a not-for-profit employer, a job advertised at $26/ hour can effectively be $34/ hour with salary packaging. Businesses, particularly those with tax exemptions, should be utilising this information in their adverts. It allows them to attract candidates who would otherwise be lured to other organisations by the salary level alone. How you communicate salary packaging is the key to getting a candidate’s attention.
Building loyalty with salary packaging
Communicating your employee value proposition (EVP) builds loyalty and progressively builds retention as the employee experiences the benefits of salary packaging. In a candidate short market, you should expect your employees to be approached by companies with alternative opportunities. Rather than having employees enticed by bells and whistles, you want to be in a position where their loyalty outweighs alternative offers. Therefore, you should regularly remind your employees of the benefits of your EVP. Offering all available salary packaging benefits, including a novated lease, to all your employees will be valued and appreciated.
Retain talent with salary packaging
Salary packaging enables you to also focus on employee retention. Research by Robert Half Talent Solutions reveals that retention issues are driven by a combination of employee workloads and headhunters offering higher salaries, benefits and perks. Focusing on employee retention is the solution to maintaining an evenly distributed workload. To retain your staff, you should ensure that they’re satisfied and not lured by higher salary packages elsewhere. Salary packaging enables you to do this. As salary packaging is an agreement between the employer and employee, this helps bind your working relationship. Think about it as a way of protecting the investment you’ve made in the training and development of your employees.
Implement a successful salary packaging program and retain talent
The key message is that salary packaging enables employers to recruit, reward and retain valued employees. There are multiple benefits within salary packaging that employees have available. An employee might be able to salary package numerous benefits throughout their time in a company. For example, a car and a laptop.
With the current competitive job market that’s actively recruiting and seeking out different angles to attract new talent, salary packaging is your go to solution. The salary packaging program cost is paid by the employee so it comes at no cost to you, so get started today. The Salary Packaging People have the expertise to guide you through the whole process.
Contact us today or call 03 5229 4200. We’ll help you set up a program to achieve your recruitment ambitions.