Attracting and keeping the best employees is essential for any business. If you want to be the best and stay competitive in the job market, it’s obvious that you need the best employees.
That means you need to make your organisation attractive, so the best people want to work there. One way to do this is to ensure you offer an attractive remuneration package.
But how should you go about this?
This guide covers the essentials to keep in mind when coming up with a remuneration package that attracts the best people to your organisation.
Overview of Remuneration Packages
First, what exactly is a remuneration package?
Essentially, this is what you provide to your employees in return for working for you and consists of a collection of benefits.
The salary is just one part of the package, and this is what will initially attract people to the role. It needs to be competitive, but the total remuneration package goes beyond the salary.
It includes all the benefits they get from working with you, like flexible working hours and other non-cash benefits.
Why Have a Remuneration Package?
It’s easy to overlook the importance of remuneration packages. Perhaps your organisation already has a great reputation, and you think this will be enough to attract the best applicants.
In addition, remuneration packages cost money because you will have to pay for the benefits.
But remuneration packages are worth it. People don’t just want a good salary; they want a job where they are rewarded for their hard work and valued. A job that matches their lifestyle and expectations.
Someone may choose to work in an organisation with flexible working hours because it allows them to meet their family commitments over a better salary.
It’s not only about attracting the best employees: you can also make them feel more valued. This can lead to more productivity and loyalty, lower turnover and less money spent on recruiting.
A good remuneration package could even mean you can offer lower salaries. Still, you will have to weigh up the benefits of this, especially when the economy is not in great shape.
So, how should you go about creating attractive remuneration packages?
Research the Industry
Start by conducting detailed research of your industry and find out what other companies, especially in your industry, are doing.
You need to know what other companies are providing so you can decide whether you can match their packages and improve on them, especially in the case of your competitors.
This will take some research including looking at job openings, reading what is provided and asking around. You could also ask your employees and find out what they got in their previous roles.
It’s relatively easy to find salaries, but it can be trickier to find out the specifics of the remuneration package. Try to find the details of remuneration packages for several organisations and create a list of the most popular. There may be some perks that they all offer, while some may be more unusual. Also, be prepared to negotiate to get the best employees.
You should also try to find out about employee retention. If a company has a good package but low retention, this may be a warning sign. The other companies are your competition for attracting the best people, so this is a good starting point. Remember that you are competing on many things, not just the remuneration package. Providing the best package won’t necessarily help you attract the best applicants.
Analyse the Different Types of Remuneration
Next, consider the main types of remuneration that you can offer. Here are four of the key options:
- Salary – Salary is the main element, so it makes sense to make it competitive.
- Performance-based remuneration – This includes things like bonuses and commissions, and it is another good way to attract people.
- Stock – Stock ownership has been offered to employees for a long time, and this could be an option if it makes sense for your company.
- Benefits – These can be almost anything. In the following section, we’ll take a closer look at the main types of benefits you could consider.
Choose the Benefits that Work for Your Company
There are many possible benefits to choose from, and this list is by no means definitive. You could provide any benefit you can think of, and you might want to be original to make your remuneration package stand out and offer something no other companies in your area provide.
But to get started, here are some of the potential perks you can add:
- Holidays – Offer more days off each year, perhaps increasing after certain milestones are met like five years in the role.
- Working from home – Allow your employees to work for one day a week at home or more. This is very popular because people got a taste for home working during the COVID quarantine, and now they want more.
- Flexible hours – People want to improve their work-life balance by being at home when needed. Mums and dads with kids want to pick them up from school. So give them flexibility.
- Medical plan – A private health insurance package can also be popular. Employees are taxed BIK (Benefit-in-Kind) on health insurance but an employer who is willing to facilitate access is often preceived positively by employees.
- Company car – This is another classic benefit that will appeal to employees. Again both the employee and employer need to be conscience of the rules around commercial vehicle ownership. Broadly speaking, non-business use is taxed as a BIK.
- Childcare – If you can provide assistance towards childcare costs, this can be very attractive for parents.
- Gym membership – Try to work out an arrangement with a local gym so you can provide your employees with a free or discounted membership.
- Life insurance – This can be especially appealing to breadwinners. Life insurance is also taxed as a BIK but again employers who are will to arrange and support employee access are regarded positively.
- Training and education – By providing training for career progression, you are showing that you are investing in your employees’ futures.  Training is not a taxable benefit if the course is relevant to the employment. Fee’s are a tax write-off for employers.
- Retirement plans – Get creative and help your employees save more for retirement. Retirement plans make tax-sense from both the employer and employee perspective.
- Bike-to-work scheme – This tax incentive scheme was set up to encourage more people to ride their bikes to work. With this, you can pay for a bicycle and accessories for an employee, and they can repay the cost in instalments.
- Taxsaver – This commuter ticket scheme was introduced many years ago, and it encourages people to use public transport while allowing your employees to make tax savings.
- Employe Assistance Programme (EAP) – With this programme, your employees can get assistance with psychological issues, whether related to their work or personal lives.
- Work-from-home scheme – You could pay your employees an allowance towards expenses when they work from home, which is tax-free up to €3.20 per day.
- Gift vouchers – You can give your employees a gift card of up to €500 tax-free as part of your remuneration package.
Ask Your Employees
One of the easiest ways to create an attractive remuneration package is to ask your employees what they want. You may have an idea about what you think they want, but their expectations may differ.
There’s no point in creating a remuneration package that doesn’t appeal to job applicants and attract more people to your positions.
Send around a questionnaire, either giving them complete freedom to make suggestions or to select from a list of potential company benefits and ask them to choose the one that appeals to them.
You may think that flexible working is the most popular perk, but it may turn out to be healthcare benefits or cash incentives.
Decide What You Are Prepared to Offer
It’s important to know what you can offer your employees. It may be tempting to give all new employees free gym memberships, but can you afford to do this?
What your employees want may not correspond with what you can realistically offer. So talk to an accountant to work out what you can offer, and then be prepared to explain to employees why you are unable to offer certain benefits. Be clear about what you can and cannot provide, and have reasons ready to explain why you cannot provide certain perks.
It’s better to provide something you know you can keep. You don’t want to take away a benefit because your employees will feel worse in this case than if you never provided it in the first place, which can lead to resentment.
Get Feedback
Once you have set up a remuneration package, don’t just leave it at that. The best remuneration packages are flexible. The world changes, trends change, and what people want from their jobs changes.
We’ve recently seen a big change in flexible working practices with more people wanting to work from home. Lots of companies are allowing them to work from home in order to attract the best talent.
Get feedback on your remuneration package and ask your staff what they like about it and what they don’t like. Do this regularly, and you may spot certain trends. If something comes up that you could offer, consider adding it to the package and make employees feel even more valued.
Conclusion
Most organisations implementing an attractive employee benefits package will argue that they are worth it, but you will have to try it yourself.
If you set about creating remuneration packages, ensure they are attractive, so they have the right outcome – better employees, higher retention and increased productivity.
Use the steps outlined in this guide to create your comprehensive remuneration package, and take advantage of the benefits this can bring your organisation.
