Navigating the benefits landscape

Choosing a job is an important decision. Often, the first thing we look at is the salary, but that's just part of the picture. Benefits - the extra advantages provided by a job - should also play a significant role in our decision. These hidden elements could enrich your work experience, reduce expenses and even improve your lifestyle.

Benefits from a job are usually divided into two categories: hard and soft benefits.

Hard benefits are concrete, like health insurance or contributions to your retirement plan. They can be counted in hard dollars.

Soft benefits are things that make your job nicer or easier, but are not related to money directly. Examples of soft benefits are: flexible work hours, working from home, or training opportunities. Both are important and should be considered.

Hard benefits are a major part of what makes a job offer enticing. But what exactly are they? Imagine all the things from your job that can be counted in actual dollars or that you can touch physically. These are your hard benefits. They're like the ingredients in a recipe that you can tally up and measure.

Most common hard benefit is health insurance. This means that your employer helps pay for your medical costs. For instance, if you get sick and have to go to the hospital, health insurance can cover a big part, or sometimes all, of the bill. This can save you a lot of money and can also help you afford regular check-ups to stay healthy.

Jobs sometimes offer other types of insurance too, like life insurance and disability insurance. These are like safety nets. If something really serious happens to you, like a severe illness or injury that stops you from working, disability insurance can provide money to help cover your living costs. Life insurance works similarly, but it provides money to your family if you were to die unexpectedly. Your employer is the one who pays for these insurances, and you only have to pay a small portion, or no portion at all.

Another type of hard benefit is retirement contributions through 401(k), IRA, or pension plans. These contributions are payments that are put aside to ensure you have money when you decide to stop working in your older years. Your job might offer a plan where they match the money you decide to save each month, making your retirement fund grow even faster.

This is a benefit that's kind of a hard and soft benefit. PTO is a hard benefit because it directly involves money. When you take PTO if you are sick or going on vacation, you are still being paid by your company. So, if you usually work $5$‍ days a week, and you take a week off, you would still be paid for that week as if you had been working.

There are many more hard benefits, but they all ultimately come down to numbers and physical services. Hard benefits directly impact your wallet and can save you money, but also prevent you from dipping into savings or going into debt during emergencies or in your future years. They are a critical part of your total compensation and should be factored in when deciding on a job.

Soft benefits are perks or advantages at your job that don't involve money directly but still improve your work experience. Here are some examples:

This means you're allowed to choose your own work hours. You could probably choose to start early if you're a morning person, or start later if you prefer afternoons. Either way, this perk lets you pick what works best for you.

Some jobs let you either work from your house or use a mix of home and office work, called a hybrid method. This means you don't have to be in the office every day but can choose to work some days from home and some days in the office. Both of these ways allow you to save time on traveling and enjoy a balance between your home and office life.

At the same time of being considered a hard benefit, PTO is also considered a soft benefit. It doesn't have to do with the actual amount of money you're earning, but rather your quality of life. PTO gives you the chance to take a break and relax, spend time with family or friends or travel. Essentially, it helps to improve your work-life balance, which impacts your overall happiness and satisfaction with your job.

There are many soft benefits available, from casual dress code, employee discounts, memberships, or assistance programs. Soft benefits can be just as important as the hard benefits when you're considering a job offer because they can help you be happier and less stressed at work. Most of the time you can't put a price tag on that.

Choosing the most important part of a job is not an easy task, but there are scenarios that make it easier to decide. For example, someone with a young family might prioritize a flexible schedule, a soft benefit, to manage family responsibilities alongside work. Others might focus more on hard benefits such as a health insurance plan, especially if they have ongoing medical needs. Then again, another person might look for a strong retirement plan to kickstart their future financial security.

The deciding factor really depends on individual needs and life stage. It's all about figuring out what matters most to you.