HR Innovation, HR Management, HR Updates
Employee Leave Benefits – Paid Leave – HR Affiliates Blog
Employers are reviewing their employee benefits to ensure they remain competitive in this challenging job market. Many employees indicate that paid leave is a benefit that could sway them to choose one employer over another. If you are an employer with over 50 employees, you should follow the Family Medical Leave Act and have an FMLA policy in place. FMLA is unpaid as written so many employers are implementing paid leave policies.
What is Paid Leave?
Employer paid leave is different from FMLA because it is paid time off rather than unpaid. It is becoming a popular benefit for employers to offer to attract and retain talented employees. As the employer you may be asking, “What’s in it for me?” Offering paid leave for employees can have many benefits, including: employee retention, talent attraction, reinforced company values, improved engagement, morale and productivity, and enhanced brand equity.
Types of paid leave that employers can offer:
- Parental Leave (maternity and paternity)
- Extended Family Care Leave
- Personal Extended Medical Leave
- Safe and Domestic Violence Leave
- Caregiver Leave
Adding a benefit such as paid leave helps from a competitive standpoint and helps retain employees, and the cost of replacing an employee can be high. Those costs can come from advertising, time for recruiting and interviewing, background checks and drug screen costs, and potential negative effects on culture and team morale. On average, employers spend around 33% of a worker’s annual salary during the replacement process. Offering a benefits package that includes paid leave can help you retain your best employees and avoid high turnover. After reviewing all of the information about FMLA and Paid Leave, you may be wondering what is right for you and your employees.
While you determine what makes sense for your company, here are a few tips to keep in mind.
- Review your existing paid time-off policies
- Eliminate or combine overlapping benefits
- Survey your employees for feedback
- Put an end to the “it’s always been this way” school of thought!
For more information or advice from the experts, contact HR Affiliates.