Pay Your Employees With Key Benefits

There are other ways to compensate staff. Some additional benefits to consider include:

 

Employers aren’t required to provide vacation time and sick leave, but many do provide these benefits as a way to attract and retain employees and keep them satisfied. In many types of businesses, it’s expected, and likely what your competitors are offering. If you offer these benefits, you should explain them in an employee handbook. Make sure you adhere to consistent standards. If you provide paid vacation time, you must abide by your state’s laws on issues like accrual of vacation time and whether you can tell an employee when to take vacation time.

 

If you provide sick leave, describe the terms in an employee handbook, and decide whether you’ll pay employees for accrued sick leave when they leave the company. Some companies combine sick leave and vacation time into a lump sum called “Paid Time Off.”

 

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FLMA) allows qualified employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons, including caring for a newborn or adopted child or an immediate family member with a serious medical condition.

 

Thinking outside the box in terms of compensating employees can involve alternative work arrangements. Flexible arrangements can be more valuable to some employees than actual cash payments. Telecommuting, flexible hours, temporary job shares, sabbaticals… these are part of a long list of creative or flexible work arrangements that can help to lower employee stress as individuals juggle multiple responsibilities. By offering these, you can improve employee morale and productivity and help attract and retain employees.