One of the most challenging aspects to building a modern workplace that attracts and retains top talent is coming up with a personalized mix of benefits that really speaks to employees.

As we’ve written before, a balanced culture of benefits is important, particularly when catering to today’s workforce.

The trick lies in realizing that it’s not just about how lavish they are, but in how well they demonstrate your understanding of—and support for—the things in life that matter most to your employees…..but just how many variables should you consider?

Individualized benefits convey extra valuethat can’t be measured strictly in dollars. Here are a few examples of what I mean

• New healthcare options that reflect the new shape of families.Partner coverage is the alternative take on spousal coverage, reflecting the changing profile of modern domestic arrangements. Most healthcare insurance providers offer multiple options that you can extend to your employees. While the idea of partner coverage is not new, it’s gained a lot of traction in recent years and is often more noteworthy in its absence than in its presence.

• Shifting the 401(k) to pay off your B.A. Young employees’ greatest financial burden is student debt. The result is that in the critical early years of employment, student loan payments steal away income that could—and should—be moved into 401(k) plans.

  Some progressive companies now offer to put funds against the employee’s student debt. According to Peanut Butter,a firm specializing in running such programs, 85 percent of Millennials would accept a job where such a benefit is offered.

• Paid paternal leave to help make sure they come back. A vast body of research shows that paid paternal leave is great for families and particularly children. But another benefit is that the time spent away from the job is less stressful and the return is much easier—a real advantage when you consider how common it is for a new mothers and fathers to re-evaluate their career paths.

The days of employers choosing the best one or two health insurance plans from which employees choose are dying. Large employers have found, whether through private exchanges or other technology, that increasing the number of health insurance choices from which an employee can choose greatly increases their satisfaction. In fact, using decision support tools in conjunction with multiple plan choices allows employees to better match their needs with the cost and coverage-level of their health insurance options. Interestingly, when such arrangements are undertaken, 66% of employees “buy-down” their coverage. Said another way, they opt to reduce their coverage in favor of a smaller cost per pay period – the result…. an employee who feels appropriately covered and with a little more money in their paycheck!

While larger employers can easily manage multiple benefit offerings, one of the biggest challenges to offering the perfect mix of personalized benefits is the administrative overhead it requires. Obviously, it takes more work to manage six health insurance plans than two and it takes specific technology to run a standout personalized benefits program—technology small businesses generally don’t have, and don’t have time to run.

Rather than assume the responsibility and cost on your own, HR partners like Emphas!sHR are equipped, staffed and experienced to help you offer the right mix to employees, without the cost and time of running it all yourself. After all, you still have a business to run.