Compared to just a few years ago, the job market is tighter for employers. We are finding it more difficult to attract good people and we’re constantly looking for ways to keep our best employees happy, productive and working for us. People have more choices and are looking to the companies that offer the best compensation and benefits.
The good news for employers is that there are new tools that your employees will love. In turn, these tools will help small companies like mine keep our people happy. Here are three great services that you should be considering.
- Glint. Glint is offering a new and better way to engage employees using an old idea: surveys. No, this is not a glorified Survey Monkey. It’s a cloud-based engagement tool where employees are consistently asked to respond to questions delivered as “pulses” on topics ranging from whether they’re receiving the right amount of feedback to open-ended suggestions for making the company better. Everyone gets to be heard, gets to make an impact, gets to provide feedback. The questions are delivered on demand and to whatever device the employee is using. Confidential and secure feedback is then provided using the product’s dashboard and analytics tools so that management can instantly be aware of issues and gauge satisfaction. Management can even get alerts if employees’ responses warrant immediate attention.
- AnyPerk. Want to offer a benefits package like the big guys? Want to give your employees access to discounts for gym time, Budget rental cars, or AMC movie tickets? Since 2012, AnyPerk has cobbled together more than 850 partners to offer discounts, programs and other goodies to the employees of companies that subscribe to its service. And your employees will love this: Employers can recognize employee achievement by sending them additional rewards through
a special portal and can get real- time analytics on usage and engagement. - Honest Dollar. No one loves paying taxes, and as a CPA, tax issues are near and dear to my heart. And let’s face it: The past few years have not exactly been a period of decreasing taxes. But one beacon of light remains in a very dark tax environment: the tax-deferred benefits of retirement plans. Tens of millions of people in this country still go without retirement savings and Honest Dollar is trying to change that. The Austin, Texas-based company has created a platform to enable small employers to easily and affordably offer retirement plans to their employees. Focusing primarily on Simple IRAs, rather than 401(k)s, Honest Dollar’s service promises to let you set up a retirement plan for your people for only $10 per person per month, with no setup fees.
According to a report from TechCrunch, users can “simply connect their payroll system to the platform, and Honest Dollar extracts the employee information it needs to set up retirement plans for them.”
The unemployment rate. Labor participation. Job openings. Whatever metric you use, there’s still one undeniable fact: The job market has tightened over the past few years. Small businesses are challenged more than ever to find ways to attract good people and keep their best people happy and productive. And startups like these are helping us to do that.
Besides Accounting Today, Gene Marks writes for The New York Times, Forbes and Inc.com. A version of this column previously appeared on Forbes.com.
