Employee benefits 101: why it's good practice to offer health insurance and other benefits to foster a healthy and vibrant workforce.

• Author: Rogers, Melinda
• Position: TIMEOUT FOR HEALTH

For some business owners, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act brings up new questions about offering health insurance as a benefit to employees. Why pay for employees' health insurance when you can potentially increase their salaries slightly and send them to a health insurance marketplace where they can individually choose the plans that are the best fit for them, right?

Not-so-fast, say Utah business leaders Mark Miller and David Entwistle. While you might look at dropping health insurance as a way to reduce costs during a lingering recession and think you might be helping your employees by giving them greater options, your decision could have the opposite effect--leaving you to watch your best employees walk out the door for better benefits packages elsewhere.

So what are the best practices when it comes to offering employee benefits, particularly health insurance? Here are some key points from Miller, leader of the Mark Miller Auto Group, and Entwistle, CEO of University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics.

What do I need to offer?

First things first. There are certain benefits that business leaders are required by law to give their employees. These benefits include allowing employees time off to vote, engage in military service and serve on jury duty; complying with the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and honoring workers' compensation requirements.

Some states also require businesses to pitch in to short-term disability programs designed to help workers. And companies are responsible to pay state and federal unemployment taxes as a measure to provide for those who are unemployed. Businesses must withhold FICA taxes from employees' wages as a measure to provide for retirement and disability programs.

Outside of those mandates, however, companies have a choice on whether to offer retirement, life insurance, paid vacations and holidays as well as health care, including dental and vision.

Why are good benefits important?

It's a no-brainer: talent retention.

Miller notes that at his company, he looks to hire people interested in building a career over taking a short-term job. The people with the kind of characteristics he'd like to move into a leadership role within the company one day are the same kind of people who know what makes a good job--and to most people that means taking a job with full-benefits, including health insurance.

While offering employees a higher wage with the assumption that they'll put the money...