When working for an organization, every employee has their own needs but, most of the organizations have been offering a pre-structured benefits plan that is meant to take care of certain generic requirements. While it consists of a health and medical insurance plan, it does not cater to the unique requirements of each employee on a personal front. Summing, they are neither privileged nor specialized. Addressing to this generic turbulence, organizations have understood the need to devise the much coined, flexible benefits' plans.

A flexible benefits plan allows an employee to mix, match, and choose the plans that best suit their needs. An employee’s flexible benefits plan may include health insurance, encashing reward points against wellness packages, food coupons, or it may stretch towards covering the medical expenses only. These plans allow employees to choose exactly what they need, in turn helping them to live their lives in a holistically better and stress-free way.

Providing an employee with Flexible Benefits plans has hidden advantages to the employers as well.

1. Catering to Employee Needs

All companies strive for a diverse workforce that is advantageous to them. With a diverse profile of employees, the needs of each of these employees are also different. It is when the employer makes an effort to meet the needs of their employees that there is an evident boost in morale among employees, their productivity increases, stress, and worry are reduced, and it overall helps them in leading a healthier, happier life.

2. Employment and Retention of Employees

• Among individuals who are potential employees of a company, 74% of them are attracted to joining the company or organization after viewing their benefit plans.
• Companies also manage to retain 57% or more of their employees based on the health benefit plan that they offer.
• Nearly 68% of employees are likely to stay with the company based on the insurance benefit plan, the Flexi rewards plan, and the work from home plans that are satisfactory to them.
• About 55% of employees are likely to recommend others to join their organization based on the maternity/paternity benefits, the performance bonus, and the stock options availability.

A business setup that can accommodate the diverse needs of its employees is one that is likely to attract a better workforce and get more recognition. These businesses are the ones that are likely to thrive in areas like employee satisfaction, recruitment, and retention. It is through Flexible Benefits plans that both employers and employees can reap benefits. Working together, on a common group to meet goals and targets in a healthy environment is what businesses can achieve through Flexi plans.

There are several plans in the market today that are catering to the needs and requirements of their employees. The subsequent points show how choosing a flexible benefits plan is more advantageous as compared to other normal plans.

1. Flexibility to Choose Your Plan

Having a flexible benefits plan, as mentioned above, gives employees the control to choose the benefits plan that best suits them and which best matches their requirements. In choosing the right plan for themselves and their family, employees feel that their personal needs are satisfied.

For example, if an employee has taken the health insurance plan under their long list of flexible management plans, they can choose to be the only individual insured under the plan, or they can choose to insure their family and have multiple dependents in the plan. In this way, the plan can be altered accordingly.

2. Extra Cash in Hand

When employees opt for a flexible benefits plan, the employer regularly deducts the cost of the plan from the employee’s paycheque. This reduction in one’s salary regularly is to cover the costs of the benefits program. It should also be noted that this deduction is taken out before the employees’ income tax is calculated. This means that employees save money on tax and they get to take home a larger amount in terms of salary.

3. Opting for a Flex plan for a Better Life

Employees are mostly stressed in how they can save money to provide for themselves, their families, and secure their futures. With the introduction of Flexible Benefits plans, employees no longer have to deal with the stress of managing, paying, and keeping up with different plans that are meant to provide different benefits. Since most of the basic needs and requirements of an employee are met through their employer, their quality of work becomes better and they are more motivated to work.

There are some private and public sector companies and businesses in India that are offering their employees a variety of Flexible Benefits plans. Though several plans are offered to employees, a consensus was taken of the most preferred aspects of the plan as compared to others.

According to a consensus of employees who were offered the Flexible Benefits plan, 43% of them chose professional development and educational benefits as their most important benefit. The second most preferred, at 26% was the benefit of a Pay Raise. The other preferred benefits include opting for a healthcare plan, a performance plan, vacation plan, and the plan for maternity, paternity, and adoption leave.

In a company environment, it is commonly noted that more than 80% of the staff will opt for personalized healthcare and insurance plans. While more than 60% of employees also opted for career advancement opportunities.

The soul of a company is the workforce that works together to complete the day-to-day tasks. Employees feel more comfortable working for an employer who takes care of their basic needs and understands their requirements. Presenting a flexible benefits plan is meant to give employees the freedom to choose and compose a plan that best suits them. In doing so, employee satisfaction is guaranteed.

When looking for a job, employees are always searching for those companies that have an array of benefits to offer. The benefits offered by a company adds to its popularity, thus ensuring that the best candidates are attracted and employed under them. Keeping up with the changing needs and requirements of the workforce has also become a necessity that companies have to follow today.

MyBenefits360 is a fully integrated, flexible benefits SaaS platform for employee engagement, wellness, fitness and benefits administration. We make it easy for employees to enroll in benefits, excite them with savings on wellness services and engage with fitness gamification. With built in analytics and AI powered dashboards, we simplify your benefits administration process, reduce risk and save costs. Whether you have 10 employees or 10,000, with our SaaS platform, we guarantee to onboard your organization in less than one hour, no matter how complex the underwriting.