7 ways to maximise your employees’ benefits!

An article by Mathias    No Comments

Putting it simply, in order to increase your networth, you either have to increase your income, or you cut down on your expenditure. Here, I want to share with you on how you can cut down on your cash outflow by tapping onto a much overlooked source: employees’ benefits.

I can safely say that most employers provide some form of benefits for their employees, with some being more generous than others. These benefits, while seemingly minor, would eventually add up and make a difference to your expenses. As such, you should take the sum of all your benefits together with your salary into consideration when you evaluate a potential employer.

Some of the common employees’ benefits are as follows:
Insurance for Employees
There is usually some form of death/total permanent disability & accident coverage. Companies usually buy this in bulk, and thus get it cheaper. The coverage amount can either be fixed, or be dependent on your pay grade in the company. (Side note: While this is useful, do note that you should not be over reliant on this as your only insurance coverage. Once you leave the company, you will no longer be covered so its important that you purchase your own coverage outside of what your company provides.)

Education Sponsorship
As part of staying relevant, companies often send their employees to courses to upgrade their skill sets. These could be short courses, or a full formal education in external schools. Even when your employer is not activly sending you to courses, you should still keep a lookout for useful courses that you are interested in, and nominate yourself for it. Companies usually sponsor 100% of the course fees for short courses, but employees may have to serve some form of bond or co pay for courses that exceed a certain amount. For example, I am in the process of applying for study sponsorship for my Masters in Applied Finance. The cost fee is about $32,000 and if granted, I would have to serve 1 year bond with the company upon the completion of my masters. There is no downside to me as I intend to stay with the company in the foreseeable future anyway.

Mobile Phone & Bill Subsidy
If your job requires you to be contactable at all times, or if you have the need to use your mobile phone for work purposes, sometimes you can apply for a subsidy amount for your mobile phone, and your monthly mobile bills. This varies, but you could be receiving a small sum of allowance to purchase a mobile phone once every one or two years, and/or have an allowance amount credited to your salary each month to offset your monthly bills. Alternatively, some employers prefer to receive the bills directly. So if you are entitled, do apply!

Car & Petrol Subsidy
If your job requires to you to travel often, such as events planning, you could be eligible for a fixed sum of car & petrol allowance each month. This amount could be quite substantial, and as a result, even those employees who do not own a vehicle prior to the job would consider getting one, and then top up the difference each month.

Medical Coverage
Its a common practise for large employers to cover the medical bills of their employees. This can be implemented in many ways. Some employers only cover the medical bills for a list of approved panel clinics. Some require that you co pay the bills by paying a small sum. Some only cover a fixed sum of the bill and require you to pay the rest. In addition, your company may also cover you for specialist consultations which is really useful because these visits are usually more expensive. Overall, this is probably the most useful employees’ benefit that you should look out for.

Childcare Benefits
Have kids? Then you will be entitled to additional child care leave! This could range anything from 1 to 3 additional days per child for the first x number of children. Once you have registered your children as your dependents in your company, you could also claim medical coverage for them. We know that kids tend to fall ill easily when they are young, so this can help save you a substantial amount.

Corporate Discounts & Membership
Going to places of attraction? Find out from your company’s human resource department if they have any arrangements to give employees special privileges. You could have corporate discounts in eateries near your companies, or free entry passes to popular places of attractions such the Zoo. For example, my company has got the Zoo pass which allows free entry of up to 4 person (worth $80!).

Share with me how else you are maximising your employees’ benefits!

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