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Do you offer your current and prospective employees benefits such as group health insurance? If not, you might want to start considering it. Even if the premiums seem high, the benefits you get back are more profitable than you’d think. Much of it has to do with how insurance affects your employees from the hiring process on to when they become full-time employees.

From a basic financial standpoint, keep in mind that when you obtain a health insurance policy for your employees, it’s considered tax deductible. Health Coverage Guide notes how health insurance is a full business expense, thus automatically saving you money on taxes.

Employees can also save tax money when you deduct the cost of the insurance premium off an employee’s paycheck. By doing so, you increase an employee’s monthly pay, plus help them pay less income tax later. And don’t forget about the tax benefits you get back from the Affordable Care Act.

Those are just a few ways health insurance helps you in working with your employees. So how does it help in the recruiting process, plus in maintaining employees for the long-term?

Recruiting Quality Employees

According to statistics from the aforementioned Health Coverage Guide, 75% of small businesses said having health insurance helped in employee recruitment. One reason is due to the same studies showing 62% of employees expect some form of health insurance from a prospective employer.

For your business, these are the best positive signs you need to obtain a health insurance policy. Consider the cost of training employees—you don’t want to lose them just because they figure it’s too risky or costly to stay on without health insurance.

Even more important is finding employees with the best talent. Locating talented employees is already hard enough, and losing them just because you think you can’t afford insurance can end up hurting how your business operates in the long run.

Your employees already realize any type of injury could occur, no matter what type of industry you’re in. Yet it’s easy to get complacent if you think your company is safe. Once someone gets injured, it could place you and an employee in financial jeopardy due to medical bills and endless litigation fees. Good health insurance, plus a solid workers’ comp policy, can help.

Reducing Absenteeism with Your Employees

When your employees know they have good health insurance to back them up, they won’t take risks with their health. If you don’t have insurance, employees may wait too long to seek medical treatment if an injury occurs on the job or if they get very sick. This can lead to serious complications that only brings the risk of more lost work time.

Health incentives are better put in place when you have health insurance so employees have better focus on maintaining their health. By that same token, employees can perform their jobs better knowing they have full coverage if something unfortunate does happen.

Bringing Better Morale to Your Company

Along with employees performing their jobs better above, health insurance provides a better retention rate with employees due to improved morale. You may discover some employees are willing to accept slightly lower wages just to have good health insurance. This proves how valuable health insurance is to most employees, especially those working in high-risk jobs.

When you have a better work atmosphere, you ultimately bring better productivity along the way. Without insurance, some employees may avoid certain work tasks because of injury fears, which can slow productivity to a crawl. They may also be more likely to defect to another company that is willing to offer them health insurance coverage.

In today’s more competitive business climate, such risks should be avoided—and taken care of with the right insurance coverage.