My business is in transition content page

Your business is firmly established and moving into the phase where you are looking for ways to reward loyal employees and attract the new workers required to maintain the success you’ve created. Forty-four per cent of Canadian businesses with a workplace savings plan said they first offered the plan when the company was an average of 10 years old and employed 15 people.1 However, the earlier a plan can be offered, the more influence it can have on employee morale.

In addition to making your business an attractive place to work by helping employees attain a more secure retirement, there are tax advantages to be gained. A qualified advisor can help you determine the workplace retirement plan that will best help you look after the people who look after your customers.

Perhaps you enjoyed the advantages of a group benefits program in a previous job. Or maybe your spouse has a plan, or had one in the past. If so, you already understand how important group benefits can be to a company and its employees. You’re not alone: 73 per cent of owners and managers say, “Having a company health benefits plan is as much for my own peace of mind as for my employees.”1

Your advisor can help you tailor a group health benefits program that achieves the goals of your business while meeting the health care needs of you and your employees.

Building a culture of success inside your company often involves helping your employees deal with the day-to-day challenges that can carry over and affect their job performance – including financial planning.

Employees feeling the stress of their personal financial situations are twice as likely to report being distracted at work; those who feel financially prepared are up to 22 per cent more engaged on the job.1

Helping improve your staff’s financial literacy can contribute to improved workplace productivity and satisfaction. Coupled with a retirement savings plan or other incentives, financial planning can help your employees achieve their own financial goals – while helping you achieve yours.

Ask your advisor for ways to offer financial training, tools, and resources to your staff members.

Banking decisions made early on in the life of your company can have
long-term implications. When starting out, many business owners have an established personal relationship with a bank. In fact, half of all small business owners in Canada use the same financial institution for their business banking as they use for their personal banking.1

As your company grows and moves from one business phase to the next, your advisor can help you assess whether that relationship is working, and whether you are getting all the benefits available. Are you earning all the interest you could? Are there savings to be found on the fees you pay? How well does your bank understand your industry and the unique issues you face?

The truth is, you’d step back from the business and take more time for yourself and your family if only you could find good people to run the company. The answer might be a group benefits program.

In a survey1 conducted by Manulife in 2012, the top reason that owners and managers gave for offering an employee benefits plan was to attract and keep employees. In a similar survey a year later, companies with health benefits were asked if their plans were achieving the goals that they were originally intended to accomplish. Seventy-nine per cent of those owners and managers surveyed said “yes” (34 per cent were definitely satisfied with the plan and 45 per cent were mostly satisfied).2

Ask your advisor how a group health benefits program can help take your business to the next level by attracting top performers who share your vision and passion.

It can be a dilemma: you might not see it as your responsibility to help employees save for retirement. Yet, at the same time, you see the financial security of retiring employees as a reflection on you and your company. The answer: implement a plan that makes sense for your business.

A pension plan or other form of retirement savings program can establish you as an employer of choice while also achieving many valuable business goals.