How small businesses can offer top-tier employee benefits
Nick Martin
Talent When That Here are four principles that we used to design a benefits Industry We We You We’ve Of course, you . (6)
wins the day. And when small business owners invest in talent through
top-tier benefits, they lay the groundwork for consistent, scalable
growth and stronger financial performance over the long haul.
you get past the 401k, employer-sponsored healthcare and PTO, does your
benefits package actually pass the smell test with today’s workforce?
According to a recent study by Prudential Financial, there’s a wide gulf
between what employees say they want from the workplace and what
employers are actually providing. While 86% of employers believe they
are offering modern benefits, only 59% of employees agree. And the gap is even wider with younger workers. Another survey from MetLife finds 89% of employees believe their organization could strengthen trust by improving their benefits packages.
all sounds great, but the biggest challenge small business owners face
is figuring out how to provide a robust and industry-leading set of
benefits without going out of business. When I launched Cyber Guardian
Consulting Group, a managed service provider that provides a full range
of cybersecurity services, I made employee benefits the cornerstone of
everything we were going to do. Our current menu at Cyber Guardian
includes:
paper or temporary parking spot, we provide PAMP Suisse 10 gram gold
bars to high-performing employees on a quarterly basis.
Whether a dip in the ice bath or a trip to the cryo-chamber, our
employees value this emerging wellness initiative that relieves pain,
reduces inflammation and boosts overall healing.
package that consistently beats market expectations without breaking the
bank:1. Budget with boldness
wisdom suggests allocating 25–28% of payroll toward benefits. That’s
fine if you want to compete on average. But if you want to win,
you need to invest like it. At Cyber Guardian, we’ve budgeted up to 45%
of payroll toward benefits. It’s a strategic investment in performance,
retention, and culture. We scrutinized every dollar and connected it to
a measurable impact. While it was difficult to sustain these benefits
in our early stages, we felt making a substantial investment upfront
would pay off in the long term. We had to stretch and get creative in
our budget, but the return we received in overall team talent,
stability, morale, and productivity made it well worth it in the long run. 2. Ask your people. Study your competitors.
didn’t guess what mattered. We asked. From early on, we surveyed our
team to find out what they truly value in their benefits. It was clear
the rising costs of homeownership were on the minds of many. As one of
our New York–based employees, Francisco Rosa IV, noted, “In a city where affordability feels out of reach for so many, reducing the burden of a mortgage resonates deeply.”
also studied our competitors—both current and aspirational. It wasn’t
enough to keep pace with others in cybersecurity. We looked at what
companies like Google and Meta were offering, then asked ourselves how
we could adapt those ideas to fit our size and budget. It’s amazing how
far creativity and listening can take you.3. Build the essentials first, then layer in high-impact extras
don’t need to go from zero to gold bars overnight. We started by
covering the core needs: healthcare, time off, flexibility. Then, we
layered in unique benefits over time as we grew and gained confidence in
what worked. Mortgage rate buydowns, Uber Eats credits, and lifestyle
perks came later as they only made sense after we had a solid
foundation. If you’re just getting started, focus on one or two
high-impact extras that align with your culture, then build from there.
4. Constantly test, refine, and improve
gone through more than 30 versions of our perks package over the last
few years. Some ideas didn’t take off right away and required some
fine-tuning, such as a pilot project where we provided weekend credits
for food delivery but needed to swap out vendors due to technical
difficulties and user feedback. But we treated the whole system like a
product: constantly refined, based on real user (employee) feedback.
Benefits should always be evolving. And if you create an open loop of
listening and tweaking, they’ll only get stronger.
have to be excelling in your core business activities to drive benefits
growth. But assuming you check that box, prioritizing people through
meaningful, evolving benefits is one of the smartest investments you can
make. That philosophy has helped us achieve a near 100% retention rate
over the last five years. You don’t need a mega-budget or corporate
backing to pull this off. You just need intentionality, creativity, and a
genuine commitment to improving your team’s day-to-day lives. Build
around your people—and they’ll build everything else.
