As the labour shortage begins to spread across Canada, employers are considering how to tackle the issue of too many jobs and not enough workers. One possible solution is to hire more part-time employees, tapping into a pool of workers who, due to commitments or preference, have decided that, at least for the moment, full-time employment is not what they’re looking for.
The challenge for employers, however, is to make the employment deal sufficiently alluring to persuade stay-at-home parents, retirees, students and others to return to the workforce. That same offer may appeal to current employees, especially retirement-eligible baby boomers, so that they are convinced to remain on the job on a part-time basis, rather than leave completely. Once part-time employees are on board, organizations must ensure that they continue to provide competitive compensation and work opportunities so that they retain their part-time workers.
Benefits currently offered to part-time employees
Part-time workers are generally not entitled to benefits. However, a number of employers make benefits available to some or all of their part-timers, depending on the number of hours they work.
Hewitt Associates conducted one of its regular Rapid Response surveys—a short, online poll of Canadian employers—on benefits for part-time employees in March. The results indicate that most part-time workers are receiving some level of benefit coverage. Only 9% of the 259 organizations that responded to the survey don’t offer any benefits to part-timers.
That doesn’t mean that the other 91% of companies provide all part-time employees with all benefits:
• While 45% of respondents require part-time workers to work at least 60% of full-time hours to be entitled to benefits, 39% require them to work only 40% to 59% of full-time hours
• Eight percent of employers offer part-timers benefits even if they work less than 20 percent of full-time hours
• Employee population size, industry and location don’t seem to impact whether an organization is likely to provide benefits for part-timers Coverage for part-timers
While two-thirds of respondents provide the same health and/or dental coverage to part-timers as they do to full-time employees, that number drops to 42% for life and/or accidental death and dismemberment insurance, and further to one-third when it comes to each of short- and long-term disability coverage.
In order to make the same level of coverage available to full-time and part-time workers alike, 10% of employers require part-time employees to pay a higher percentage of benefit plan costs than full-time employees. Sixty-five percent of organizations have the same cost-sharing arrangements for all employees.
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Some of the survey respondents are considering or already offer flexible benefits as a means to provide coverage to part-time employees affordably. Flex “dollars” or credits are allocated according to the numbers of hours worked, so that part-timers have less to spend than full-time workers. However, they can choose the benefits that are best suited to their particular needs.
Future benefits for part-time workers
However, if part-time work is becoming increasingly prevalent as a means to fill the labour shortage, perhaps changes to benefit coverage for part-timers will follow suit.
The survey data indicates that, while the majority of Canadian employers (64%) have no plans to alter their benefit coverage for part-time employees, almost a quarter of them (23%) are on the fence, without a clear idea of whether or not to make changes.
Organizations that appear most frequently on the list of those that are not yet sure of whether to amend benefit programs for part-time workers include those from government/Crown corporations, manufacturing, retail, and the food and beverage industry. These industries either typically have a large part-time employee population or may be facing a mass exodus of baby boomers from their workforce. Offering part-time work, along with benefits, may be a way to convince some workers to delay retirement or encourage younger people to come on board to fill depleted ranks.
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