Benefits Help Attract the Best People

RCS Influencer Mandy McIntyre says that offering healthcare legitimizes your business.

We have always been big advocates of providing healthcare. A lot of smaller roofing companies or smaller contractors don’t offer this, but we feel that offering health care coverage legitimizes your business. You are providing a career for your employees, not just a job. Medical benefits extend beyond just what the team members do every day on the job, it extends to their personal lives, into their homes and families.  

We contribute 50% of the premium for the employee only, but also offer full medical benefits for their families and dependents. A majority of our employees take advantage of the medical benefits package.

One of the things we implemented recently that we think is unique in the industry is that we now pro-rate our seasonal workers health insurance premium so they don’t have to pay anything in the off season when they are not working. Rather than starting back up in March with a large debt of insurance premiums due, we can spread the 12 months’ worth of premiums over the months where they are working. It is somewhat of a gamble on our part if someone wouldn’t come back in the spring, but we really believe it’s the right thing to do. We want the team to think of their positions as a true career and not just a job.

Our benefits go far beyond healthcare. We offer vision and dental insurance, as well as a 401K with a company match. We are always trying to grow our offerings and last year we implemented a profit-sharing plan. We have an ongoing wish list and one of the items we hope to add soon is life insurance.

We think that we have a very well-rounded benefits package, which helps us attract the best people. Another thing we do is allow team members to begin accruing their paid time off hours from their first day on the job. That way, by the time their 90-day probationary period is up, they have some time available if they would need it.  

Our team also gets paid training. We host monthly lunch and learns where they learn about life skills and wellness. We’ve had sessions on budgeting, on mortgages and when we can get back together again, we plan to do some mental health topics this year because it’s so important and so overlooked.

As a certified yoga instructor, I was offering a weekly yoga class for free at our office. That’s been a great way for the team to stretch their bodies and it also helps calm their mind by learning breathing and grounding techniques.

Building a benefits program doesn’t happen overnight but look for organizations in your area that can be a resource to help you get started. When we first added medical, we went through the Councils of Small Business Enterprises in Cleveland, Ohio that helped us get a better group rate. As we’ve grown, we’ve since moved away from that plan but it provided a great steppingstone for us.

See Mandy's full bio here.