My friend, Albert, moved from California to Idaho to seek a more manageable cost of living and employment opportunities. After a few years, he established himself as a plant manager for a tea company making 65K a year. During the recent Covid 19 economic downturn, Albert was grateful just to have a job. Today, Albert is contemplating leaving his current job after receiving job offers nearly double his current pay. The last time we spoke, he was interviewing for a position that was offering 120k to start.
Economic Employment Trends
Are you having trouble attracting and retaining talent? With the current unemployment rate at 5.2% nationally, there is a demand for skilled labor. According to an article written by Robert Half Talent Solutions, the top three hiring challenges are finding candidates with the right skills, hiring quickly enough to land the best talent, and finding candidates who complement the company culture. Most Senior managers are adding new permanent positions, filling vacated positions, or hiring back furloughed employees. The top industries hiring are Finance, Manufacturing, Technology, Construction, and Transportation.
Attracting and Retaining Employees
Onboarding and training new employees can be costly. Therefore, your company needs to come up with ways to attract and keep talent. One way of doing this is by offering better employee benefits. While providing “ping pong” perks, snacks, and happy hours might entice employees in the short term, candidates are evaluating long-term options and the company’s 401K offering. Founder of HR solutions company, Human Interest, CEO Robert Lee explains, “With a tight labor market and recent trends surrounding retirement concerns, offering a high-quality 401K plan is an essential tool to add to your HR toolbox (workforce.com).”
Employer Benefits
As an employer, you’re probably wondering how offering a 401K plan for employees can benefit your company. The first benefit is attracting top talent and building a high-performance team. According to Lee, 51% of employees joined their current employer simply because of its 401K offering. This shows potential candidates that your care about your employees’ financial well-being even into retirement. Hence, a good 401K offering will increase the credibility of your company. The second reason to offer a 401K is to win talent by tipping the balance in your company’s favor. Lee explained, “Top candidates will have multiple offers with fairly equivalent salaries. A topnotch 401K benefit can be a ‘tie breaker’ for these candidates. It will enforce a strong company culture around taking care of employees.” The third benefit is that offering a 401K will increase employee retention. As top employees get recruited by other firms, a 401K is a great safeguard. Therefore, offering a high-quality 401K plan with a strong match program is essential.
In conclusion, there has never been a better time to benefit from taking care of your employees. Offering a high-quality 401K plan can help your company retain the best talent so you can build better teams to drive growth. Not all retirement plans are equal, so please feel free to contact us at EmpiriKalpartners.com to help you navigate what offering would be best for your company.
Let us help you rather than going it alone. If you already have an investment advisor, congratulations. However, if you’d like to learn more about what investment advisors do for their clients, please feel free to reach out to me at empirKalpartners.com for an individual assessment.
About the Author
Edward Vela is an Investment Advisor and Estate Planning Specialist at empiriKal partners, llc©, with 13 years of wealth management experience. He earned a Journalism Certification from the University of Massachusetts, a BA in Political Science, a Financial Planning Certification at UCLA, and an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. You can contact Edward at 925-300-8805 or email edward@empiriKalpartners.com.