Employee benefits have become just as important as pay when trying to recruit or retain the most skilled workforce. In this month's Workforce Wednesday, hear tips from talent acquisition and Human Resources leaders at Minnesota companies known for being among the best places to work.

One size doesn't fit all employers or all employees! Learn how a range of employee benefits are critical in building employees' mental, physical, emotional and financial health and in return, how companies are rewarded with employee engagement, loyalty and retention.

"Our culture starts from the moment that anybody first interviews with Marvin and that extends all the way until the day they retire. We try to build in moments to celebrate our employees and teams through all of their milestones and their careers with Marvin, from parties to extra PTO," said Michelle Grimm, Senior Manager of Human Resources at Marvin, based in Warroad. Marvin was just recognized as one of the top 20 Best Large Employers in America, in a Forbes magazine ranking of the nation's top places to work. "Our CEO, Paul Marvin, really said it best when he said that it's essential that our people and culture come first, because that's how we ended up on that list."

"From a recruiting standpoint, a lot of people will say 'you're on the Star Tribune list of top workplaces. That's what drew me to take a look at UCare' and at least gets them to your page and then from there it's up to you to keep them engaged and really get them through the rest of the process," said Kate Ingber, Talent Acquisition Manager at UCare, based in Minneapolis, about making the Star Tribune Top Workplaces listing for 14 years in a row.

One size does not fit all when it comes to benefits:

"What I've noticed as far as when I'm recruiting, people of different generations ask about different benefits," said Veronica Powell, Talent Acquisition Executive Recruiter at Caribou Coffee, based in Brooklyn Center. And even within generations, some employees might place more emphasis on health insurance benefits versus retirement plans versus scheduling flexibility. "So really, making sure we have that wide variety to offer people and not just focus on what we think one select group might want, but what the whole group might want, to make sure that we're catering to each generation and to each individual person as they grow with our company."

"All of our benefits fit into these five different buckets, but they're different for everybody," said Grimm from Marvin, describing the five areas. "Engaging in life, feeling happy and healthy, feeling fulfilled at work, thriving financially and growing as a person."

Some benefits of note that companies offer or have added:

"We've always offered tuition reimbursements and we added pet insurance. That was one that was important to people," said Ingber from UCare, which carries out an annual employee engagement survey which helps surface feedback about benefits, along with other topics. "We've increased PTO options too. We added birthday PTO. We've also added business volunteer time off and volunteer time off and that is reflective of our culture and values."

"We've created spaces for our employees to be able to have virtual therapy appointments within the plant so that they don't have to take that time away from work," said Grimm from Marvin, which conducts an annual survey to gauge employee interest in benefits and many other topics. "It's paid time, so it's a way for them to be able to take care of themselves and continue to work."

Something to remember when adding new benefits or enhancing existing ones – you need to consistently communicate about the changes:

"When we launched the mental health online services, we saw a very low engagement rate at first. We're like 'everyone wanted this. What's going on?'" said Powell about the benefit many employees had requested but weren't utilizing. "And then we realized nobody knew it was there."

Powell and others at Caribou turned that lack of awareness around with a concerted effort at in-person leadership meetings, in employee communications, on employee backroom posters and in other ways to make sure people were aware of the benefit and knew how to use it.

This is just a sampling of the wide-ranging discussion on April's Workforce Wednesday session. You can watch a recording of the session for more. And be sure to check out a schedule of upcoming Workforce Wednesday sessions, resources from past sessions and more on CareerForceMN.com.