Employee recruitment and retention isn’t a new challenge, but it’s become harder to solve as the needs of the workforce continue to evolve. In order to recruit and retain top talent, one thing Austin employers can do is offer the benefits and perks that employees want.

Today’s candidates are focused more and more on securing health insurance through their employer — as many as 64% U.S. employees say they’d be willing to sacrifice some pay for better health insurance when looking for a new job. In addition, 63% say their company’s health insurance offerings impact how much they want to keep working there. With this in mind, employers should focus on ways to provide not only health insurance, but also resources that target mental health.

Mental health benefits & perks

Mental health isn’t just top of mind for employees. The agenda for the latest Austin Society for HR Association meeting included points on mental health and ways healthcare can help employees deal with stress and other challenges. It’s important to keep in mind that, even outside of the workplace, employees often struggle with issues that would benefit from mental health support. Providing employees with these types of resources not only helps them, but it can also help small businesses avoid costs associated with absenteeism and productivity.

It’s not always easy for small businesses to offer their employees quality benefits, including mental health support. With the time it takes to figure out your options, and the price of those options, it can be quite difficult to provide employees with what they deserve. That’s where Justworks comes in. As a nation-wide professional employer organization (PEO), we help small- and medium-sized businesses (and their employees) access benefits that are typically only offered by large companies.

In addition to quality medical, dental, and vision insurance, Justworks provides access to helpful mental health resources. Teletherapy services through Talkspace is one of them. Talkspace is a platform that combines a monthly video session with unlimited text, voice, and video messaging. This makes it easier for employees to stay in touch with their therapist on-the-go and get outcome-driven mental health support.

Justworks also provides access to Health Advocate’s employee assistance program (EAP), which can be really helpful for those who aren’t sure where to start when it comes to mental health support. Employees can work with Health Advocate to find a therapist, have insurance questions answered, get bills negotiated down on their behalf (if the cost is over $400), and get access to legal services, childcare and eldercare, and financial planning. With this type of support, employees have the chance to offload some stress, which can lead to an increase in work performance and overall satisfaction.

How Justworks can help

Justworks is a PEO, which means we can bundle payroll, compliance, HR, and benefits together under one roof. What’s more, our group buying power helps small business employers get access to health insurance and other perks at more competitive rates. When working with PEOs like Justworks, employee wellbeing and happiness improves, as seen through a 12-14% reduction in employee turnover rates from companies that use PEOs.

By helping employers take care of employee needs, Justworks allows small business owners to focus on what’s most important — to grow and scale their business while ensuring that employees are happy and well. Find out more about Justworks at https://www.justworks.com/.