Submitted by: Len Feltoon, Esq., President, Countrywide Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.

When the subject of compensation comes up, everyone knows the first subject that invariably comes up: salary. But salary isn’t the only factor in compensation. Your employees are well-aware that benefits are part of their compensation every time they go to the doctor or dentist.  The question is, are they cheering or grimacing when they make these visits?

You can pay your employees a fair or even above-average salary for their work, but without good benefits to back that salary up, many will grow dissatisfied with their compensation, especially when the time comes that they need to use those benefits. Alternatively, offering great benefits is a good way to compliment a merely-average salary.

Benefits don’t have to be just limited to medical and dental, however. The problem is that many companies – including, perhaps, yours – believe that they do. They don’t realize that there are valuable voluntary benefits such as Group Legal Service Plan and Identity Theft and Credit Monitoring Plans that can make a standard benefits package seem extraordinary, and turn an unhappy or indifferent employee into a satisfied one.

Often, adding extra benefits services is easy to do and doesn’t cost anything to the employer, but the result can yield a great pay-off.  Consider making sure that every employee has choices since most employers have a diverse workforce and each of their needs is different.  An employer can make legal services, identity theft and credit monitoring protection available by offering a group legal plan for any unexpected legal trouble which addresses decreased productivity, absenteeism and presenteeism in the workforce.  Add one or more of these plans, and you’ve just increased employee satisfaction – in some cases dramatically so – without having a single salary discussion or performance review.

Remember, as much as employees appreciate their salaries, they also appreciate the extras that come from working at your company. Sometimes there’s something they’d really like that they don’t even know you can offer which fills the gap in coverage.  You might be surprised at the employee participation and the value your company will receive by offering these plans and how easy they are to implement.

For more information on the voluntary plans call Countrywide Pre-Paid Legal Services at 1-800-550-5297 or visit www.countrywideppls.com