by Dan Nicholls.

Survival tips for the current staff shortage crisis.

If you’re one of many employers experiencing the pains of the staff shortage crisis, we hear you and we see you. This is most likely a pain point that you are trying to treat through job advertising, networking and private recruiters. While employers have previously been able to offer lucrative opportunities to the right candidates, inflation has sent salary expectations skyrocketing.

So how can you find a way to attract and retain staff in the highly competitive recruitment marketplace of 2022? By offering an attractive package. A salary package. Better yet, outsource to a provider that won’t charge you for the privilege. Outsourcing salary packaging and novated leasing could be the smartest non-investment you’ll ever make for your business.

Salary packaging encourages the three R’s – Recruit, Reward and Retain. By outsourcing to an expert supplier that your staff can trust for helpful advice, especially one that saves them money, you’ll be regarded as an employer who rewards them. An employer that rewards their employees is proven to have higher retention rates.

Cost-free Carrots

You’ll need some seriously tasty carrots to dangle if you want to attract and retain good people. As an employer, you already know that you need to offer more than just employment if you want to attract the best staff for the job. Unfortunately, recruitment carrots don’t always come cheap, with employers often forking out extra incentives that ultimately hit the bottom line.

If you’re an employer in healthcare, education or the not-for-profit industries, your staff will enjoy the rewards and benefits of saving on a range of expenses. Even if you aren’t an employer in these industries, there are still plenty of other available benefits, so don’t miss out on the opportunity!

Here are some of expenses your employees will save on:

• Rental Payments
• Mortgage Repayments
• Childcare Payments
• Energy and Utility Bills
• Loans
• Aged care
• Property Rates
• Insurance
• Self-education
• Memberships
• Holiday Accommodation
• Meals & Entertainment

Drive Their Ambition

If you are an employer with even just one employee, no matter your industry, attract them with a shiny new car. By offering novated leasing as part of your onboarding incentives, you’ll be seen as a more generous prospective employer. Your employee will save GST on the vehicle purchase as well as running costs amounting to thousands of savings annually. There’s also no extra work in it for your payroll department when you outsource to a reliable salary packaging provider.

Your new employee will enjoy choosing the vehicle they have always wanted, and you may be able to claim a GST credit for the GST included in the lease charges. Set up correctly by your salary packaging provider, your FBT liability will not cost you extra when post-tax contributions are made. It’s genius, and perfectly legal.

Supercharge Their Super

We’re always being told to boost our supers by our fund of choice, but few of us find the time or extra cash to do it. As an employer, you can help your staff give their super a cost-effective boost by accessing their pre-tax salary. Put simply, employees can nominate extra payments into their chosen super fund as concessional contributions.

This way they can top up their super over and above the super guarantee, and reduce the tax on their take-home pay. Plus, if they pay more of their salary into their super, it will lower their taxable income for the financial year.

Save Time and Money

You don’t pay anything when you offer salary packaging. For every employee that salary packages, the administration fee is paid by them – not you. Plus, when you use salary packaging experts, you’re assured of complete taxation compliance that mitigates risk to you or your employees. If you manage your salary packaging benefits in-house, that’s more time spent by your payroll and/or finance departments and potentially the need to hire extra staff – especially if you are a large organisation. Outsourcing negates the need for you to spend your own resources or dedicate a department to salary packaging. Best of all, experts who know everything there is to know about salary packaging might even find ways to save you money.

FBT Reporting

Depending on your financial status as an employer, you may need regular reporting to ensure full compliance with all areas of Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) legislation and regulations. Charities and NFP organisations have legislative advantages for items that can be paid as a benefit, with exemption from fringe benefits tax up to a certain limit per employee. Whatever your FBT status, a salary packaging product delivered by a reputable supplier will help you deliver a great program to your employees without exposure to FBT risk.

With thanks to our guest author:

Dan Nicholls is a Director and Customer Experience Manager and the ‘face’ of the Salary Packaging People, always helping new and existing customers understand the many benefits of salary packaging. His is on a mission is to ensure employees have the opportunity to save as much money as possible, minimising the administrative burden on the payroll function and potential financial risk to the employer. If you want to be an employer of choice, the Salary Packaging People can help you attract and retain the staff you need with a range of salary packaging and novated leasing solutions for employers and employees.  Contact them here or call 03 5229 4200 t0 talk to someone today.