How to Build a Competitive Employee Benefits Package

Offering a benefits package doesn’t guarantee your employees will see value in it. Many companies fall short of aligning their benefits packages with what employees truly want for their company benefit plan. 

A 2025 study found that 52% of employees felt their employers’ mental health support was lacking, and a 2023 study found that only 40% felt time off was genuinely respected. At Google, a widely criticized all-hands meeting revealed employee frustration over reduced raises and stock grants, despite the company’s strong financials. 

These examples highlight a common gap and an opportunity that companies like yours can fulfill. By giving employees access to competitive benefits packages, you can boost retention, morale, and loyalty. 

An Overview of Canadian Workplace Benefits

Employee benefits packages can be categorized as mandatory benefits, enhanced mandatory benefits, and optional or additional benefits (i.e. perks). Familiarize yourselves with the various types of benefits to build an employee benefit plan that satisfies your unique workforce. 

Mandatory Benefits (Statutory Benefits)

Also known as statutory benefits, mandatory benefits are ones you’re legally required to provide to your employees. These include provisions that offer financial security and stability. In Canada, mandatory benefits include the following: 

• Minimum wage
• Provincial healthcare insurance
• Pension contributions
• Survivor’s pension 
• Workers’ comp insurance
• Medical/maternal/parental leave

When creating your employee benefits plan, start with these benefits you’re required by law to provide.

Enhanced Benefits

Enhanced mandatory benefits are extensions of mandatory ones. They offer additional advantages to must-have offerings that aren’t required by law, but are highly attractive to talent and significantly boost the employee experience. They’re difference-makers, helping retain talent and creating a unique workplace culture. 

These additional benefits include:

• Health and Wellness Packages that can shoulder medical expenses, including private health insurance, emergency medical care, or specialized healthcare coverage (e.g., vision care, holistic medicine, dental benefits).
• Paid Time Off (PTO), including extra vacation days, paid volunteer leave, or paid leave for special milestones.
• Family Benefits Plans include enhanced parental leave, support for adoption or fertility treatments, and other childcare benefits. Life insurance benefitting eligible dependents in case of accidental death can also be included.
• Financial Security, such as stock options and other investments.
• Learning Development Programs include stipends for employees to enroll in supplementary job training, tuition reimbursements, and even personal development.
  
• Flexible Work Schedules, such as hybrid work models (some days in the office, some at home), 4-day workweeks, and home office stipends. 

Optional Benefits (Perks)

The third category in most benefit plans is optional or additional benefits. These perks are non-essential, yet attractive offerings that can be a deciding factor for prospective employees choosing whether to work for one company versus another. These nice-to-haves can increase job satisfaction, employee engagement, and overall morale, making them worth consideration. 

They include provisions such as:

• Gym memberships
• Waiving commuter costs 
• Dog- and pet-friendly office spaces
• On-side daycare
• Team sports opportunities 

Again, these benefits are entirely optional. But if your competitors are offering them and it’s within your capacity to deliver them, adding them might be worthwhile to retain employees.

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8 Steps to Developing Competitive Employee Benefits Packages

Now it’s time to build your employee benefits package. There are a few steps to help mould your plan into an actual program that employees can benefit from. Let’s get into the details and how you can implement them from start to finish. 

1. Define Objectives

Before picking the benefits you’ll include in corporate employee plans, define your objectives first. What do you want to achieve with them? Ideally, the benefits you choose will reinforce your company's values, goals, and culture. 

Consider the following:

• What role do particular benefits play in our compensation philosophy and strategy?
• How does a particular benefit align with our company values? (i.e., if you’re a health-focused company, will you offer fitness/gym memberships?)
• Are you looking to maintain and foster employee mental health, family support, or financial growth?
• Do you want to prioritize your competitive advantage by offering unique benefits that other companies in your industry don’t? 

Answering these questions will help you quickly determine whether certain benefits will be a good fit for your workplace culture. 

2. Set a Budget

Next, figure out how much money you should invest in your employee benefits program. This will ensure you spend on perks that will bolster engagement and satisfaction, and avoid overspending on benefits they won’t use.

The most common way to calculate a benefit plan budget is to base the costs on a percentage of your employees’ base salary. For example, you might allocate 20-25% of an employee's base wage toward your benefits budget (a number recommended by some experts). So if you’re paying $3 million per year for employee salaries and dedicate 20% of that sum to your benefit payouts, you’d have a budget of $600,000. 

Another option is to set a predetermined amount on your budget, and then divide that amount at a set cost per employee. 

3. Familiarize Yourself With Legal Obligations

Remember, you must offer mandatory employee benefits—legal requirements that may be set at the federal, provincial, or municipal level. Review these benefits and include them in your corporate employee plans to ensure you’re free from liability issues. 

4. Benchmark Against Industry Standards

Your industry heavily influences the types of benefits you should offer your employees. To ensure they’re competitive and aligned with employee needs, compare your current benefits against industry benchmarks. This can help you determine whether your benefit plan suits your workforce and keeps pace with companies of similar size, growth stage, and market size.

For example, if data suggests that 75% of companies in your industry provide employee wellness benefits, including mental health resources, and yours doesn’t, then you’re selling yourself short to prospective employees. 

Remember, having competitive benefits can attract top talent, just as lacking them can repel prospects.

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5. Select a Comprehensive Mix of Benefits

Now comes the biggest moment—selecting coverage for your employee benefits plan. To make an informed decision, revisit the four key factors: your company values, budget, legal obligations, and competitor offerings. Your ideal benefits package strikes a balance among these considerations. Here’s how to start:

• Identify benefits aligned with your company values that would genuinely appeal to your employees. 
• Use legal requirements as a baseline to ensure compliance. 
• Narrow down your options by evaluating your budget and analyzing what competing companies are missing out on or already providing. 

6. Gather Feedback from Staff

Knowing what your employees want in flexible benefits can simplify the decision-making process. Use tools like polls, surveys, and one-on-one interviews to gather insight from your team. These methods help you tailor your offerings to better match their expectations and needs.

Remember, even if there are industry standards to follow, your workforce is ultimately unique and may have specific needs. 

7. Plan for Ongoing Communication and Implementation

HR teams often fail to properly educate their workforce about their available benefits. As a result, employees remain unaware, leading to frustration, confusion, or even job dissatisfaction that may drive them to look elsewhere.

That’s why it’s essential to go beyond a one-time onboarding overview. Establish clear, ongoing communication that reminds employees of their benefits and explains exactly what each one includes.

Consider setting up an intranet or dedicated app where employees can view their wellness benefits, track balances, and find claim instructions. Alternatively, use internal newsletters, Slack channels, or email updates to regularly share benefit-related news and updates.

8. Review and Revise Annually

Benefit plans aren’t meant to be inscribed on stone—they can (and should) change where needed. Shifts in global workplace culture, market trends, current events, and other factors can render some benefits less valuable and suddenly make others highly desirable. 

Consider what’s happened in the last 15 years: recovery from a worldwide recession, social upheavals related to racial tension, gender equality, and identity politics, and a global pandemic. These changes have shifted our relationship to our careers, making certain wellness benefits and financial incentives paramount. 

You’ll also want to consider generational needs in your workforce:

• Gen Xers, who may be inching closer to retirement, will wish to have financial options to help them save for a post-career life. 
• Millennials are in the prime of their lives, raising young families or undertaking new opportunities that may require flexible working schedules. 
• Gen Z are the new torchbearers looking to navigate their way through the workforce, perhaps needing guidance and development. 

You’ll have to assess the current market and how that may affect job stability, liveability, and decision-making, and what resources you can offer to help them. 

To make this happen, you’ll want to take a few steps. 

1. Assess the market to see what employees in your industry actively seek. 
2. Ask for employee feedback to see what benefits they’re using, not using, or would like to use. 

The more you keep your eyes and ears on the pulse of what makes your employees tick in real time, the better your sense of what employee benefits plans matter right now. 

Corporate Employee Benefits Examples

If you’re new to developing an employee benefit program or revising an existing one, you don’t have to create it in a vacuum. A little inspiration goes a long way. 

Plenty of companies, ranging from fledgling startups to global enterprises, have developed corporate employee plans you can learn from. That rings true whether you’re trying to offer a small business employee benefits package, wellness benefits, or some other group benefits offering.

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Samsung

The Korean tech giant, founded in 1938, has been named the World’s Best Employer, largely due to its robust and all-encompassing benefits. Just take a look at their offerings:

• Medical, vision, and dental insurance coverage 
• FlexTime and FlexPlace
• PTO (20 Days), which increases with tenure 
• Student loan and tuition support
• Support for breastfeeding mothers who are away on business to ship their breast milk to their children

Starbucks

With locations in virtually every major city, Starbucks is the world’s favourite coffeehouse not just for its selection of lattes, blends, and frappes but also for its employee benefit programs. 

• Employee wellness benefits and health insurance
• Family expansion reimbursement program
• Tuition reimbursements
• Complimentary dry-cleaning services
• Free Spotify subscriptions

J.Crew

Established in 1983, J.Crew is a fashion juggernaut that supplies closets with everything from swimwear to sweaters. Due to its benefit plans, the company has also earned a reputation as a great place to work. 

• Medical insurance and health savings accounts
• Life insurance
• Tuition reimbursement
• Paid time off and parental leave
• Flexible spending accounts
  

Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods is a perfect example of a company that aligns its values with its employee benefits packages. The grocery giant offers wellness benefits that match their health-focused ethos, with offerings such as: 

• Fitness classes and gym memberships
• Yoga instruction and massage therapy
• Part-time office durations
• Working from home (for suitable positions)
  

Build a Competitive Benefit Plan with KASE Insurance 

No single employee benefit plan works for all businesses or industries. What could light up employees' eyes at a multinational corporation may not have much holding power for a small business employee benefits package. What truly matters are the benefits your specific workforce will use based on their needs and your values. 

Here’s where an expert benefits broker like KASE Insurance makes a difference. Trusted businesses across Ontario, we help you choose the right benefits package tailored to your employees’ unique needs. As your strategic partner, we’re here to help you negotiate with service providers, customize policy options, and stay on top of regulations. 

Are you looking to design and launch your employee benefits program? Contact KASE Insurance to help you find the best insurance provider for your business and employees.

Build Your Benefits Package Today!