Tips on Improving Your Employee Benefits

by: Doug Griffith

• How large employers do it - Getting Better Benefits at Less Cost

If you're looking for ways to enhance your employee benefits package yet control - even reduce - your costs, take a lead from some large companies. A Foster Higgins survey of employers with 1,000 or more employees found that many have moved into flexible spending cafeteria - type plans for a variety of reasons. While these plans offer better quality protection targeted to employees' needs, both employers and employees are able to save money.

• Everyone Wins

Other survey findings support the broad acceptance and flexibility of cafeteria plans:

• 52% of employers offered flexible benefits to control or reduce health care costs.
• 28% offered flexible benefits to meet the needs of a diverse work force.
• 53% offered health care spending accounts to pay for expenses not covered under the basic medical plan.
• 60% offered dependent care accounts.

But the bottom line with flexible benefit programs is that everyone wins. Employees save 25%-40% on taxes depending on personal brackets. And for the employer a typical savings of 8% to 10% of employee contributions cover administrative costs for running the plan.

• It Will Work for Smaller Companies, Too

Fewer than a third of companies with less than 500 employees offer a cafeteria plan. That means hundreds of companies in Southwest Ohio are missing out on improved benefit values. If you are one of those companies, BusinessPlans, Incorporated can help you discover how flexible benefits will work for your company.

Contact BusinessPlans today or visit myCafeteriaPlan.com, a division of BusinessPlans, Incorporated for any questions you may have.