Taking Away Benefits from Employees: Things to Consider

Taking Away Benefits from Employees: Things to Consider

In tough economic times, most businesses start looking at cutting costs to survive. While employee benefits offer significant advantages, they’re also expensive and increasingly costly to maintain.

But before you start cutting employee perks, you should consider whether the drawbacks of taking away benefits from employees are worth the short-term savings.

Table of Contents

Drawbacks of Taking Away Employee Perks

It May Be a Breach of Contract

Damaging Company Culture

Makes Getting New Talent Harder

Alternative Solutions

It’s clear that simply removing employee perks is not the right solution to handle the rising costs of benefits. The drawbacks of such a move can be incredibly severe and may have lasting repercussions that are impossible to recover from.

The best way to avoid the legal implications of cutting benefits is to consult with employees before making any sweeping changes to their contracts. Employees may challenge constructive dismissals by asking their employer to maintain the agreed-upon terms of their employment contract.

An alternative is to provide additional pay so that the employee can pay for similar benefits out of their own income. However, you may have to increase employee pay by a much larger amount simply to compensate for the lost benefits, which isn’t much better for your bottom line.  

Most employers can benefit from group benefits that cost significantly less per person than individual plans due to a significant employee discount. Combining the solutions listed below can make your business’s benefits sustainable and cost-effective.

HSAs

Group Benefits Plans

Find the Right Provider

Many companies have group benefits plans that don’t fit the company’s goals or needs. You may be paying too much for benefits that nobody uses, or you may find your plan lacking in an area you desperately need.

Like any other insurance plan, it’s a good idea to regularly evaluate whether your plan aligns with your organizational goals. Some providers offer one-size-fits-all solutions, but while simple to manage, they may restrict your options and adaptability, leading to more problems than it solves.

Unfortunately, finding the right group benefits provider can be a challenging task. Not only do you have to research various providers, but you also have to contact them and request proposals from each one separately. Often, these proposals will differ slightly, making them more difficult to compare. And the more quotes you get, the trickier the situation becomes.

It’s also not a good idea to simply focus on price. Some providers may be slightly more expensive but offer a much more comprehensive service. Others may have hidden fees that impact the overall cost, which you’ll only discover once you start paying.

Some businesses may take weeks to find their next benefits provider, only to discover that they’re not satisfied with the service they receive within a year.

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Find Insurance Solutions with Help from Group Enroll

One of the best ways to find the right provider is to use an insurance broker like Group Enroll. All you need to do is fill in an online form with your details. One of our agents will contact you to get more detail and identify your requirements. The agent then contacts multiple providers for proposals.

Once we receive all the proposals, we’ll evaluate them to see which one is the best fit. We then contact you and present the most competitive proposals and our reasons for choosing them. You then get the final say on which proposal to approve and get to enjoy the benefits of having the best plan for your needs.

Don’t let increasing benefit costs get you down. Whether you’re looking for group dental insurance or want to set up an HSA to avoid taking away benefits from employees, we’re here to help. Get in touch using our convenient online form, or email us at hello@groupenroll.ca or visit us in our office at 10 Great Gulf Drive, Unit 5, Vaughan, ON, L4K 5W1.