4 reasons your awesome company should offer dental benefits

You’re a founder, CEO, human resources professional, or other benefits decision-maker at a small to midsize business. You care deeply about your employees and see the team as the key to success. Maybe your company has a young, millennial workforce and you want to show them you’re invested in them as people. You probably have some traditional benefits for the team (medical, retirement), and maybe even some unique or innovative perks (free lunch, anyone?). You may or may not have dental benefits. But you probably should, and here’s why.

Competition for talent (bonus: increased loyalty)

If you’re in a hot market competing for engineers, designers, and executives, one simple way to differentiate is offering a better benefits stack. You should not only evaluate the quantity and quality of benefits, but it should fit into your company culture.

In other words, you want to extend benefits to the team and communicate the value to future and existing team members. Show employees that what you offer will make a substantial difference in their lives (and your company a better place to work). It’s well-known that benefits are an important tool in attracting and retaining talent — a complete benefits package shows the team that you’re investing in them as the future of your business. You may think you already have a great benefits package, but according to a Fractl survey, 88% of job seekers give consideration to better benefits.¹ Within benefits packages as a whole, dental coverage is often overlooked, as it has the reputation for being mundane and expensive (though it doesn’t have to be that way).

What you have is a workforce that wants better benefits, which in return increases loyalty. And within the library of benefits options, there’s a high value placed on dental benefits. Seems like a good reason to offer dental benefits to the team, right? Moreover, dental benefits have a particular impact in showing employees that you’re investing in their well-being with something highly visible: their smiles.

Low cost way to go “above and beyond”

Don’t assume dental coverage is expensive. Relative to salary and some other benefits, there are plenty of affordable dental benefits plans available; you don’t need to add the best dental plan available (What does "best" mean anyway?). Adding an affordable dental plan to your benefits stack can be a manageable expense, especially if you go with a simple, preventive-focused dental plan (perfect for a young, millennial team). If you prefer, dental benefits can typically be offered as a voluntary plan and cost the company nothing.

Prevention is king

This one is simple. People without dental insurance don’t go for regular checkups and preventive care as often as those with insurance.² More than a quarter of adults have untreated tooth decay and without benefits, they may delay proper care.³ The longer you wait, the worse it gets, the more it costs, and the more your employee has to pay. That’s no fun for anyone. Moreover, some dental benefits today aren’t just insurance, but rather focus on preventive care at home like BokaBox, Bristle, or our Beam Perks* wellness plan. These unique plans make it super simple and affordable for employees to always have what they need to brush at home. Who knew there were box services for dental goods?

Employees will work more

Well, indirectly at least. A Surgeon General report showed that employed adults lose more than 164 million hours of work each year due to dental disease or dental visits.⁴ By offering dental benefits, you’re encouraging proper preventive and diagnostic care (services typically covered at 100% so people are incentivized to go regularly). As a result, the number of serious issues can be reduced and since preventative visits often take less time than other services, your employees will be back to the office in no time. Plus, people are all rainbows and smiles in the office after a teeth cleaning.

Dental benefits are a highly valued perk by employees and definitely worth considering. If you want to learn more, subscribe or check out our posts on buying group dental insurance.

• The beginner's guide to group dental insurance‍
• 5 considerations (beyond network and price) when buying group dental plans‍
• How much should group dental insurance cost?

References

¹ SHRM: What Employees Want, https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/what-employees-want.aspx

² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Regional Variation in Private Dental Coverage and Care Among Dentate Adults Aged 18-64 in the United States, 2014-2017, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db336.htm

³ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/oralhealth/basics/adult-oral-health/index.html

⁴ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Hours Lost to Planned and Unplanned Dental Visits Among US Adults, https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2018/17_0225.htm