Benefits overview

Core health benefits

Medical insurance is the most sought-after perk by employees – and for good reason. There are also a bunch of other core benefit options most employees have come to expect from their employer, like dental, vision, life insurance, and disability coverage.

Medical

Below are some details to cover regarding the medical coverage you offer your employees: 

• Network
• Types/names of plans
• Deductible
• Whether or not they need a referral for specialists
• Premiums and what percentage you cover for employees and dependents 
• Main differentiator between plans
• Timeline for activation (i.e. will they get coverage right away or after a certain number of days?)
• Deadline to enroll 
• The amount of money you’re willing to offer to your employees who want to waive your company’s health insurance plans and get coverage on their own (e.g. $300/month)

Additional Healthcare Plans

For additional healthcare plans like dental, vision, life insurance, and disability, there are a lot of bases to cover, so consider giving your new hire a link to a one-pager that clearly outlines each plan’s features. These are typically given to you by the providers, so extra work shouldn’t be created on that front. 

Healthcare Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

A healthcare FSA is a savings account your employees can stash pre-tax dollars in to pay for eligible out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. 

In this section of your benefits overview, be sure to cover:

• Eligible health expenses, such as co-pays, prescriptions, etc. 
• List of eligible and ineligible items (e.g. ointment, massage guns, breast pumps, etc.)
• Eligible spending period (e.g. December 1, 2022 - November 30, 2023)
• The platform used to manage FSA accounts, login information, and whether your new hire will receive a physical card 
• Maximum annual contribution amount (e.g. $3,050 per plan year) - remember, these are tax-free dollars, so they’re going to be limited
• Claim submission deadline (e.g. February 28, 2023)
• Rollover limit (e.g. $610 per year) or grace period to use left over funds (e.g. 2.5 months)

Dependent Care FSA

A dependent care FSA, or “DCFSA”, is similar to a regular FSA (a savings account you can stash pre-tax dollars in) but this one is used to pay for eligible dependent care services, such as child care or elder care. It’s only available to your employees who fall under the category of “caretaker”.

In this section of your benefits overview, be sure to cover everything you’d cover for the FSA, just in relation to their DCFSA, which could differ. Make sure to confirm all details with your new hire to avoid any confusion.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

An employee assistance program, or “EAP”, provides consultative services with subject matter experts in areas like family and caregiving, health and wellness, and emotional well-being, daily living, and work-life balance.

There are EAPs that offer a set number of counseling sessions per year. They can also provide consultative services on things like college planning, legal matters, financial affairs, ID theft resolution, trust and will preparation, bereavement support, and tobacco cessation.

In this section of your benefits overview, be sure to cover: 

• Who is eligible to enroll (e.g. anyone enrolled into your benefits)
• How to access your EAP’s platform
• Which services your EAP provides

"Fringe" benefits

Under the umbrella of fringe benefits are additional perks that make your employees’ personal lives easier -like saving for retirement, taking care of a newborn child, working remotely, commuting to work, and mental health treatment.

401(k)

A 401(k) is an employer-sponsored investment account where employees place pre-tax dollars from their salary to save for retirement. Employers often also contribute to employee 401(k) accounts as an added benefit to working for their company. For example, some employers might offer a 6% contribution match (with limits up to a certain amount) to what their employees contribute.

In this section of your benefits overview, be sure to cover: 

• Which platform you use to manage your employees’ 401(k)
• How a new hire can enroll into their 401(k)
• Whether your company offers their own contribution to their employees’ 401(k) and how much it is (e.g. % of salary or a % match to their contribution)
• How to roll over a 401(k) from a previous employer into their new 401(k)

Parental leave

Parental leave is time off your company offers to employees who become new parents caring for newborns, surrogacy, newly adopted children, or newly placed foster children.

For example, at Sora, we offer 16 weeks of fully-paid (100% of salary) parental leave to all new parents - regardless of role - with an option to take an additional 4 weeks at 25% salary (without any prerequisite for time worked at our company).

Parental leave has long been a hot topic in the professional world. This is often one of the largest reasons working parents will choose to stay or leave (or join in the first place) a company - and many companies, sadly, are still in need of a parental leave policy revamp to truly support new parents. 

In this section of your benefits overview, be sure to cover:

• Who is eligible for parental leave (e.g. all full-time employees)
• The amount of parental leave your company offers (e.g. 100% pay for 16 weeks and 25% pay for weeks 17 - 20). 
• Whether you offer different amounts of paid leave to mothers (maternity leave) and fathers (paternity leave). 

Remote work reimbursement

A remote working reimbursement is a stipend for any equipment or bills which your employees spend their own money on. Companies set parameters for what’s included in the reimbursement categories as well as a monthly or quarterly spending limit.

In this section of your benefits overview, be sure to cover:

• The amount of money your company is willing to reimburse to your employees (e.g. $300 per month)
• The categories of equipment and bills that are eligible for the reimbursement (e.g. co-working space, home office equipment, internet bill)
• How to expense these costs (e.g. an expense tool like Expensify)

Mental health

Mental health benefits are any platform-based or in-person therapy services that your company offers to your employees for free. 

In this section of your benefits overview, be sure to cover:

• Which platform-based or in-person services your company offers (e.g. Ginger, Headspace, Maven)
• What features of the services they have access to
• How the services work

Commuter benefit

Commuter benefits give employees a way to save pre-tax dollars, taken directly from their paycheck, to pay for things like transit and parking costs.

In this section of your benefits overview, be sure to cover:

• Maximum contribution (e.g. $280 per month)
• How employees access these funds (e.g. debit card, benefits card)
• Qualified expenses for transit (e.g. trains, subway, bus) and parking (e.g. lots, meters, garages)
• How to enroll, along with the cut-off date for enrollment each month (Psst! This is a great employee reminder to automate with Sora)
• How to make changes to and  cancel contributions, along with the cut-off date each month
• What happens to unused funds (e.g. unused funds rollover each month, but you can only spend a maximum of $270 per month, even if the funds exceeds that amount)
• The timeframe employees have to spend any unused funds after commuter benefits are terminated or if they leave the company