It’s a difficult question to answer, but the right answer will have to be yes, even small companies do need to provide benefits to their employees. The difficulty, however, is not in the conclusive answer, which is actually quite easy to provide, but that conclusion does need some explaining if it is to make sense to an actual small business owner.
There are Exclusive, Affordable Group Insurance Plans for Small Businesses
Did you know that a group insurance plan will cover your “workforce” at affordable rates, even if you are the only employee in your business? Having a self-employed business status is not exactly anything new and even before you expand, there are plans for single-person businesses.
Group insurance plans from reputable providers are specifically created to tackle the various insurance needs of small businesses with a workforce of 50 employees or less. What such plans do is that they solve the main reason why most small business employees are not insured today, which is in most cases, because of financial limitations.
Retirement Plans are Often Unnecessary in the Beginning
Retirement plans are always a good idea for business owners to consider, but the RRSP, in particular, can turn out to be quite expensive for small organizations to afford in the long run.
However, they are not the only retirement plans available. In fact, you don’t even need to provide a retirement plan right away, unless your business has been in business for a significant few years in its specific field.
By the time the company has matured sufficiently, you will likely be able to afford retirement plans suited for the needs of your workforce and the capacity of the organization at that point.
Sticking to Smaller Benefits: Make the Best of Your Situation
Once you cover the group insurance provision for your employees, you have already taken care of their basic and most important needs. If you want to offer more benefits, then they could just be small ones, designed primarily to attract, entertain and refresh your employees. Some of the popular ideas for that are as follows.
- Gym memberships or office gyms/fitness centers
- A recreational game room
- On-site or reimbursement support for personal traumas; therapy, counseling, etc.
- Support for advanced education and training
- Discount vouchers, company dinners, etc.
- it’s a new idea but a relatively cheap one where the employee gets paid for a number of extra sick days
It needs to be understood that SMEs have a few valid reasons to avoid offering full employee benefits at times, and the most important one of them all is their fear of the future.
When an entrepreneur isn’t yet sure about the sustainability of the business itself, it is hard to be optimistic about expensive employee benefits and their sustainability in the long run. However, plans designed exclusively for smaller operations, as already discussed, are changing the outlook in Canada and SME employee insurance and benefits scenes have already changed for the better since 2017.
