Why Companies Should Offer Short Term Disability Insurance

As your company grows, it makes sense to re-assess your employees’ compensation packages. Now that your company is more established, you may want to start thinking about offering more extensive benefits. One benefit your employees may appreciate is short-term disability insurance.
Here’s what you need to know about this valuable benefit.
How This Insurance Works
No one wants to get ill or injured, but sometimes it happens. In this situation, employees may become temporarily unable to work. While they’re recovering at home, they won’t have any income coming in. This can add stress at an already difficult time.
Short-term disability insurance helps protect employees in this situation. When employees become unable to perform their job duties,
they can receive weekly payments (based on their pre-disability salaries) to help them cover their expenses. The benefit usually starts three to seven days after the employee last worked, explains Benefits Consultant.
Employers and insurance companies provide return-to-work plans to help injured or ill employees eventually get back to work.
If possible, they’ll return to their original jobs. If that’s not possible, they could take modified or different jobs in the same workplace. Some employees won’t be able to return to work.
Why Companies Should Offer Short-Term Disability Insurance
Offering this type of insurance has obvious benefits for your employees. If employees become ill or injured and can’t come to work for weeks or months, they’ll receive a portion of their incomes while they recover. This helps them focus on their recoveries and feel less stressed.
Employees don’t have to actually get ill or injured to benefit from this coverage. Just knowing the coverage is there if they ever need it can provide valuable peace of mind. Instead of worrying about what would happen if they ever got seriously injured, they can simply know they’ll be taken care of.
By offering short-term disability insurance as part of your compensation package, you can increase total compensation. Higher total compensation helps you stay competitive since it can encourage top job candidates to choose your company over your competitors.
When to Start Offering Short-Term Disability
Insurance
As a small business owner, you may be wondering if your company is large enough to be able to offer this insurance. The good news is that companies of any size can offer this type benefit.
This type of insurance doesn’t have to cost your company any money at all. Employees can pay the entirety of the premiums on their own through payroll deductions. This means you won’t have any extra costs. Since short-term disability benefits aren’t taxable when employees pay all the premiums, this arrangement is beneficial for your employees, too.
Administration can be simple, too. You can use technology like a human resource information system (HRIS) to administer the plan. Some of these systems even offer connectivity with carriers, so you can easily send up-to-date information about employees’ salaries to your insurance company.
If you’re not sure how to start offering short-term disability insurance, or if you’re not sure it’s right for your company, you don’t have to decide on your own. Many small business owners don’t have insurance backgrounds, and making these types of decisions can be hard. To get more information, you can talk to a compensation consultant. These experts can help you understand the benefit, as well as other types of benefits you might want to offer so you can make smart decisions.
Offering short-term disability insurance helps protect your employees, but it can also help strengthen your business. Companies of all sizes can benefit from making this type of insurance available.