According to a recent survey, about 45% of American workers consider their commute to and from work to be the worst part of their days. These people can’t stand the fact that they have to devote hours every week to commuting.
One of the ways that your company might be able to make this issue more manageable for your employees is by offering them commuter benefits. Employee commuter benefits are a great way to help those who work for you to save some money every year on their commutes.
But before you decide to extend commuter benefits to your employees, you should make sure you know the answer to the question, “What are commuter benefits?” You should also learn all about the advantages of commuter benefits, both for you and, more importantly, for your employees.
Discover more about commuter benefits below. It’ll help you come up with a definitive answer to the question, “Should you offer commuter benefits?”, once and for all.
What Are Commuter Benefits?
Thinking about the possibility of extending commuter benefits to your employees? Make sure you’re familiar with what they are before doing anything else. Many employers are often confused about what commuter benefits are and how they work.
When you offer commuter benefits to your employees, you’re not actually going to be paying for them to commute to and from work. Instead, you’re going to be providing them with the opportunity to allocate a portion of their paychecks to their commuter expenses prior to any taxes being taken out of them.
Many employers have started to offer commuter benefits to their employees because of all the benefits that come along with them. Let’s move on to discussing some of these benefits that both you and your employees will enjoy.
What Are the Advantages of Commuter Benefits?
Now that you know what commuter benefits are, it should be pretty easy for you to figure out the advantages of commuter benefits.
These benefits are going to help your employees save money over time. They’ll also make their commutes slightly less stressful than they would be under normal circumstances.
But these are far from the only advantages that you and your employees will get when it comes to commuter benefits. There are so many other great benefits that you’ll both get once you put commuter benefits into place.
For example, your employees will appreciate that they aren’t going to have to do much to take advantage of commuter benefits. All they’ll have to do is sign up for them and they’ll see a portion of their paychecks set aside for commuting-related expenses every pay period.
And as for your company, you’ll appreciate the fact that you’ll be able to use commuter benefits as an enticing perk for both your current employees and those employees that you’re looking to hire in the future. You’ll be able to make the positions within your company look more attractive to job applicants thanks to perks like commuter benefits.
As an added bonus, your company might also be able to save some money yourselves by offering commuter benefits. In certain instances, you may find that your payroll taxes will be lower than they would be otherwise when you extend commuter benefits to your employees.
What Are the Disadvantages of Commuter Benefits?
After hearing about the advantages of commuter benefits, you’re probably wondering if there are any disadvantages that go along with them. The easy answer is no.
You will have to go through the process of enrolling your employees in your commuter benefits program if you decide to offer them. Your human resources department may have to overextend themselves for a few weeks to get your employees signed up for these benefits.
But once that’s all done, there isn’t much work that you’ll have to do to take advantage of commuter benefits. You’ll be glad that you took the leap of faith and started offering them to your employees.
Should You Offer Commuter Benefits to Your Employees?
After learning about the pros and cons of commuter benefits, it should be clear that offering these benefits to your employees is a great idea. It’s also something that could keep your company in accordance with the law depending on where your headquarters are located.
There are many cities throughout the country that have started to mandate commuter benefits. If you own a company that operates out of a place like New York City, Washington, D.C., or Seattle, you won’t have any other choice but to offer commuter benefits to your employees.
What Other Benefits Should You Extend to Your Employees?
Offering commuter benefits to your employees is great. But they obviously shouldn’t be the only benefits you extend to them.
This post on employee benefits sheds some light on the other benefits that you should consider offering to those who work for you. They include:
- Health benefits
- Workers’ compensation benefits
- Retirement benefits
- And more
You shouldn’t hesitate to offer as many benefits as your company can afford to your employees. You’ll attract the best possible people to work for you when you’re able to set them up with excellent benefits.
Consider Offering Commuter Benefits to Your Employees Today
If you’re not offering commuter benefits to your employees at the moment, you should ask yourself, “Why not?” These benefits aren’t going to cost you much, if anything, and they’ll work wonders for the morale in your office.
Consider offering commuter benefits to your employees from now on. You’ll get a great response from them when you do and you’ll wonder why you didn’t think to start offering them so much sooner. It’ll be one of the smartest decisions that your company ever makes.
Want to find out some of the other ways in which you can keep your company’s employees happy? Read through the rest of the articles on our blog to find great suggestions.
