Benefits, but only by name
Today we had the “opportunity” to hell HR what we thought of the health benefits, but only in a very closed survey format. For example, we had the opportunity to “rank” features, but the 5-level scale was from “Very Important” to “Not Important At All” and you could only give each feature one of these levels… so even if you thought all five features were very important, you had to rank one Not Very Important and so on! What kind of options are those?
Then we were asked something to the effect: “As we research and plan for future benefit packages, which option would you most likely select to keep the same level of coverage: pay more up front through payroll deductions (or) pay more when you use healthcare (co-pays/deductions)?” Fair enough, but this short sited thinking (and wording) tells employees, “hey, we’re doing our research, but you’re going to have to pay more to get the same level of benefits you are getting now, regardless. We love you though!”
This is all from the same HR department that once said, “We don’t want people choosing to work here for the benefits package…” Makes you feel good about your employer, right?
Then later this AM, I came across an article on 37signals’ blog, 5 Business Lessons from Costco, with the most relevant lesson to my day being:
1) Take care of your employees
Costco pays 40%+ higher in wages than competitor Sam’s Club! And their health benefits are top notch too.
I know businesses would like to think that employees stay around for the high quality working environment, the exciting work, or all the friends they make on the job… but I’d tell them, you can get those things anywhere you work! The real difference maker for any job is the BENEFITS. Good benefits = less turnover and higher employee morale. Companies like Google and Starbucks show this works.
Read the rest of the article too. It goes to show you that being like everyone else (or sticking with the status quo) isn’t always the best option. Costco goes against more conventional business wisdom and analyst advice, yet they are still very successful. A successful company with happy employees, customers and shareholders. If you’re in business, you can’t beat that, can you?
