Offering healthcare benefits is a difficult, painstaking process, especially for fully remote companies whose employees work in different cities and states. Everyone needs healthcare coverage, but not everyone understands it.
More than 50 percent of Americans rely on their employers for health insurance, yet one in four businesses are uninsured. Additionally, making poor decisions regarding your company’s health insurance or simply not offering it could cost your company time, money, and — ultimately — employees. Here are some tips to understanding, searching for, and providing the best health insurance plan for you and your remote employees.
Table of Contents
- Why Do I Need to Provide Health Insurance as a Remote Company?
- What Other Perks Can You Offer Remote Employees?
- How to Offer Health Insurance to Remote Employees
- Related Resources
Why Do I Need to Provide Health Insurance as a Remote Company?
“Do I really need to provide health insurance to a handful of employees?” The answer is an overwhelming “Yes.”
According to SHRM, to remain competitive in the talent marketplace, one out of three organizations increased their overall benefits offerings within the last 12 months, with health and wellness benefits being the most likely to experience growth.
Group Coverage Benefits
Shopping around for individual or family plans can be difficult and expensive for employees. Group coverage is often a lot more flexible. With group coverage, which applies to businesses, insurance premiums and coverage won’t depend on your employees’ personal medical histories. Instead, the insurance company will gather basic demographic information about the group members, such as age and geography, to best assess potential health risks.
Employee Satisfaction and Retention
Health insurance is a big deal to a lot of people for a variety of reasons. As a remote company, you may find that health insurance is the one benefit that will really sell a candidate to your company. Offering health insurance shows that you truly value your employees even though you’re not a huge corporation. “Offering health insurance is a no-brainer for us,” says HiringThing's COO, Jess Tejani. “Employee wellbeing is paramount at HiringThing. Additionally, healthy employees are productive, satisfied employees. In addition, studies show that offering health insurance increases employee loyalty and decrease turnover.
Healthy Employees Are Productive Employees
Simply put, employees are more likely to work their best when they feel their best.
Employees without health insurance are less likely to get yearly checkups or visit the doctor when they aren’t feeling well. This, in turn, can lead to a decrease in productivity. If their health grows worse, they may take time off work, which may hurt your bottom line. In addition to health insurance, consider implementing wellness programs.
Although providing health insurance will cost you money, time, and effort, the benefits will greatly outweigh the costs.
What Other Perks Can You Offer Remote Employees?
In addition to health insurance, HiringThing offers the following for our remote workforce:
- Unlimited PTO
- $50 monthly fitness stipend
- Wireless and electricity reimbursement
- Stock options after a 90-day introductory period
How to Offer Health Insurance to Remote Employees
Do Your Research
If you are a remote company that hires in multiple states, your options on carriers may be limited. Before you begin exploring options, do your initial research to find out what kind of coverage your employees will need. You may want to conduct an anonymous survey to gather demographic information such as age, location, dependents, etc. so you can take that information to an insurance professional.
Partner with Someone Who Knows Their Stuff
As previously mentioned, you must glean a ton of information before you can offer health insurance. Even knowing what you don’t know can be extremely tough. Consider partnering with a company such as Decisely that specializes in benefits and has vital information readily available.
Keep Your Employees Updated Throughout the Process
As a fully remote company, you have the opportunity to be fully transparent with your employees. Be sure to keep them updated throughout the process, and allow them to feel comfortable asking questions and knowing what resources will be available to them. As mentioned above, partnering with a good, knowledgeable company can help you address additional questions, concerns, or problems that may arise.
Now that you know the benefits to providing health insurance, as well as a few tips to help along the way, you should feel much more confident about taking the leap. Remember, happy employees are productive employees!
HiringThing has been a remote employer since the company was founded in 2012. Visit the HiringThing Remote Work Hub for a plethora of resources on remote work! And if you think remote work is in your future, check out our open positions!
Related Resources
- Why HiringThing Loves Remote Work
- Workplace Leaders Can Benefit From Being People-Forward
- How to Convince Your Boss to Let You Work Remotely
- Attract and Retain Talent by Creating a More Autonomous Workplace
About HiringThing
HiringThing is a modern recruiting platform as a service that creates seamless hiring experiences. Their private label applicant tracking system and open API enables technology and service providers to add hiring capabilities to their solution. Approachable and adaptable, their platform empowers anyone, anywhere, to hire their dream team.
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