Benefits vs Salary Increases

Checking to see if anyone is open for discussion on this topic. 

Hi! we started to offer a 401K program with a max of 3% match, however it has turned out mega expensive.

The admin fees are a fortune, employees use it as a ‘loan’ system and the match is costing more than we anticipated. I believe the employees would prefer a increase on their hourly rate.

We’re in the same boat with 401k. The fees and matching get pretty costly but mostly we have it in place because I wanted a retirement plan. At this point we are too far in to make any changes on the 401k. The health benefits would be easier to cancel. 

I’ve offered benefits and the techs didn’t want to pay their portion, but it was and is offered.  I do think it's something that is needed and should be discussed with your team.  Your team should be worth this extra expense and you should be able to offer this kind of package to them.  Otherwise, why would they continue to stay with you long-term?  How are you going to compete later with companies like Pool Troopers that offer all of this and a larger starting rate?  

Just my thought but most of the folks I meet out here in my area “running” their own company seem to care more about their pockets than taking care of their people.  If you can’t afford to do these things I suggest looking at your service rates and cost of doing business.  The cost of doing business has increased year over year for the last 3 years plus, did you make the needed adjustments to remain profitable and offer more to your team?  You can figure all of this into your rates and you can also put together a detailed letter explaining why you are increasing rates including paying your staff a “livable wage in this economy” We are a trade and should be charging enough to sustain these things.  My message for growth has always been the same we are looking for our customer base and not every customer is our customer.  I have no desire to take on the person looking for the “discounted” pool service.  Those folks are for the $120-$140 per month guys running around out here not us.  My techs make more than these guys do without all the liability and headaches of running their own company.   

Again just my outlook but not offering things like this seems like a path for unhappy team members that will jump ship at the next better opportunity.  Sorry for this being a bit of a rant but I get so tired of hearing what we can’t afford when 90% of the time it's service rate related. 

My post wasn’t about not being able to afford it. We can afford it and have been offering benefits and 401k matching for years. You say we should be offering it to keep long term employees and that’s why we do it. At the end of the day the workforce filling these technician roles do not care about these benefits because most of them are young with no families. They are always looking for an extra dollar and not an extra benefit. In our experience the workforce does not see the full picture of a compensation package. They only see the bottom dollar on their check and that’s all they care about. I would guess that if there was a poll for technicians across the country they would choose a bump in pay over benefits. 

In your case yes but others started talking price and how expensive it was so hence my rant. 

As long as we offer and are willing to give benefits or more money and let the techs choose that is the best-case scenario for both parties.  Unlike most, we have a variety of age ranges and backgrounds in our company.  We have some from big box management, executive chefs, and some younger that are looking for a career path.  In our experience, it's a mixture of both some want more money and others want benefits and that is all built into their package and thoroughly explained in either case.  There is never going to be a one-size-fits-all but we offer options which is all we can do.         

My company offers a whole slue of benefits for our team. It’s really helped maintain staff and also acquire better quality staff. I would stick to benefits versus better pay because YOU get to benefit from the same benefits. For instance, we offer health/dental/vision and for my wife and I our company covers 100% of the costs. Also, we participate in a safe harbor 401K, which essentially allows us as owners to max out the 401K each year regardless of how much the staff contributes. Things like that add up for you being the business owner. At any rate,  here’s a list of what we do:

1. $20/Hr starting
2. Various commissionable opportunities on top of starting/weekly pay
3. 401K with 4% match
4. PPO medical
5. PPO dental
6. Vision
7. Life insurance
8. Company gym membership
9. Company phone
10. PTO accrual
11. (2) Paid weeks off (Thanksgiving Week and Christmas/New Years)
12. Company pays to acquire CPO certification along with other training opportunities 
13. Monthly raffles
14. Attempt to do quarterly outings (sport events/dinner) but it’s hard to get everyone together
15. All Uniforms/cold weather gear/rain gear/etc
16. Take home truck with other small things like company card, etc. 

Could we remove some benefits to offer better pay? For sure, but there's a lot my wife and I would be missing out on PLUS I believe there needs to be a ceiling to what each position can make. So sprinkling in benefits adds to what they make. I had a tech (no longer with us) tell me he should make $80K a year for what he does. Say what? haha.

Our package is very similar to Chlorine King with a few additions such as AAA membership for each tech/family, a uniform reimbursement plan and we are about to roll out a quality of life package to reimburse a certain amount per month to be used for either housekeeping, lawncare, laundry or car washing services. We did notice that these benefits were not being utilized so we started reminded team members every few months how much $ they are leaving on the table by not taking advantage of what is being offered. In many cases they are leaving $2500-$5000 unused each year and we remind them that that money is part of their compensation package whether it is utilized or not because it is so easy to forget about it esp when they focus more on the net total of their paycheck only.