"Expansion Benefits": What They Are, And Why You Need Them (part 2 of 3)
In this three-part series, Renegade Partners’ Chief People Officer, Susan Alban, explores how startups in the Supercritical Stage should approach their benefits strategy—from nailing the core offerings to communicating the long-term vision. Read Part I of the series here.
Establishing strong core benefits is a great start, but it’s often not enough. Competition for talent is only intensifying, with the number of job openings continuing to hit record-breaking numbers. And many employers are wooing employees with not only higher compensation, but also by enhancing their benefits across parental leave, education, loan forgiveness, fertility, mental health and more.
That’s why many employers choose to add on what is commonly referred to as “fringe” benefits. However, I’m not a fan of this term because the implication is that these offerings are somehow less important, less impactful, than offerings like health insurance or 401(k)s. But we firmly believe that, in today’s world, these benefits are nearly as critical to a startup’s success as the core.
That’s why, at Renegade Partners, I coined the term expansion benefits instead—to make it clear that these benefits should be viewed as a cohesive, necessary part of a startup’s offerings, rather than an afterthought.?
Let’s take a deeper dive into the world of expansion benefits.?
Expansion benefits to consider adding to your existing offerings
Expansion benefits refer to anything that falls outside the four core offerings we covered in part 1 of this series. They tend to fall into one of these categories:?family-focused benefits; financial benefits; expanded health and wellness benefits; and enhanced paid-time-off.
Family-focused benefits
As an employer, it’s important to acknowledge that people can’t neatly separate their professional and personal lives anymore. And employees increasingly want the support, resources, and tools to help them integrate these two worlds.
That’s why family-focused benefits are skyrocketing in popularity, with 40% of employees saying they would prefer to have family-related assistance and perks over more pay or a higher bonus. Here are a few offerings to consider for your own organization:
Expanded parental and caregiver leave
For employers that do offer family-related perks and benefits, paid family leave is, by far, the most in-demand offering. If you’re already offering the 12-13 weeks of birth-parent-neutral, gender-neutral paid parental leave we recommend, consider expanding it to 16 to 20 weeks, or more..?
You may also want to consider paid caregiver leave, which allows employees to take time off to look after a family member. This is becoming an increasingly popular benefit and has the added positive feature of being very inclusive to different types of caregiving.
There are myriad services that help companies with all aspects of all types of leave management, including parental leave, short and long-term disability leave, and beyond. The services we recommend considering are:?
Family-formation benefits
Another way to support employees, and take into consideration the varying needs of LGBTQ+ employees or employees having children at different stages in life, is by providing multiple paths to start their own families. These benefits can take the form of egg freezing, fertility treatments, gestational carrier services, or adoption assistance. If this is an expansion benefit you’re interested in, here are a few vendors you can partner with:?
Childcare support
Childcare needs are the number three reason why Americans are leaving their current jobs. COVID and work-from-home only accelerated this trend, which is why an increasing number of startups are starting to support their workforce with day-to-day childcare responsibilities—whether that’s by connecting them to vetted sitters,tutoring services, or even a marketplace of daycare centers and schools. Below are companies you can work with to offer these types of services:?
Financial benefits
Financial benefits are another popular expansion benefit—and it’s no surprise why. Between the financial impact of the pandemic and more general economic instability, 95% of employers now feel a sense of responsibility for the financial wellness of their employees. Here are a few different offerings to consider:?
Financial wellness and education tools
When asked what causes them the most stress, employees cite financial matters more than any other life stressors combined. By empowering workers to make better-informed financial decisions, companies can help significantly reduce their financial burden. Financial wellness platforms, like the ones below, are the perfect tool to help with this.?
Student loan repayment and refinancing programs
Another financial benefit that’s starting to gain more attention is student loan repayment and refinancing programs. If this is an offering you want to consider, consider one of these vendors:?
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Flexible spending
Startups are also giving employees stipends as a method of financial support. For instance, fitness, learning and development, and home office stipends are common. Alternatively, some companies—like Shopify— have chosen to give employees more flexible funds in the form of a “Lifestyle Spending Account,” which enables employees to spend this budget in any way that improves their quality of life - from enhanced home office to meal subsidies or a gym membership and beyond.?
Companies often start flexible spending benefits manually, having employees submit receipts for gym, work-from-home lunches, and beyond, and asking payroll or HR to manage the program. That does not scale and quickly gets out of hand from an administrative perspective, so moving to a platform provides both a better employee experience & easier administration. Consider several vendors:
Expanded healthcare & wellness benefits
Comprehensive health is becoming increasingly important to employees. They don’t just want to go in for an annual checkup—they also want to be proactive about their health, receive personalized guidance, and take better care of their minds and bodies. Here are some wellness-focused expansion benefits to consider:?
Concierge and on-demand medicine services
This is a new model of care that gives patients access to same-day appointments, personalized care, and more face time with providers. Employers can support employees by paying for the associated membership fees for these platforms.?
Mental health?
32% of employers have made significant investments in mental health resources since the start of the pandemic—whether that’s giving employees access to meditation apps or connecting them to therapy or behavioral coaching. If you’re planning to do the same, here are some popular mental health vendors to consider:?
Enhanced paid time off?
As we mentioned in our prior post, giving employees flexible or accrued paid time off is essential. But there are other ways, aside from standard vacation and sick days, to give employees a break from work. Here are a few ideas that are common among startups:?
Paid sabbaticals
At startups that offer sabbaticals, employees receive additional paid time off every few years. Basecamp, for instance, gives a 30-day paid sabbatical to employees every three years. This program is a great way to give your employees a longer recharging break from work, and also celebrate their tenure at your organization.?
Office-wide closures
One pain point many employees feel when taking vacation is coming back to a mountain of unread emails, messages, and unfinished projects. To address this issue, many startups have added all-office closures, such as a week during the December holiday season, a week during a slower summer month, or the first Friday of every month off. This ensures everyone is off work at the same time and allows all employees to fully unplug.
Conclusion
“Expansion benefits” are an important enhancement to help stand out in the competitive talent market, and they are a compelling way to show (versus tell) all about your organization’s values, as you craft a benefits strategy that is mission and values aligned. Now that we’ve handed you all this benefits information, it’s time to take action. In the final post of our series, we’ll explore a few key tenets to help you guide your benefits strategy. If you haven’t already, don’t forget to review Part 1 here. Any comments or questions, please reach out!
*Please note that I am an advisor to Level.
Continue reading the series here:
Part 1 -?The 4 Core Benefits Every Startup Needs
Part 3 - Key Tenets to Guide Your Company’s Benefits Strategy
Hi Susan Alban we couldn’t agree with you more! Traditional benefits, or as you describe them "strong core benefits", like healthcare benefits, 401K, etc are now table stakes. The way Sparrow refers to the new ecosystem of companies similar to your groupings are, “employee care management or solutions”. The employers that recognize the need for them will not only help their people enrich their lives, but will also create positive business outcomes.
Thank you Susan Alban for fighting the good fight! #paidleaveforall #giveleavesomelove
Head of Global Marketing & Sales Operations @ WES
2 年What a great piece Susan, and a great capture of the importance of your awesome term, ‘expansion benefits'. What we’ve seen from the pandemic is that childcare is not just a family issue, it is a business issue. At SitterStream we?love to support companies of all sizes, but especially start-ups and growing brands who may have limited time and resources, which is why we have a start-up rate to make it easy and affordable to offer virtual on-demand childcare, eldercare, and wellness. Thanks so much for including us!