Why Benefits Matter: The Stats Behind Employees Who Stay Twice as Long

Key Takeaways

• Full-time employees with access to benefits stay an average of 30 months, compared with 14 months for those without, according to Decisely client data.
• The gap holds across high-turnover industries, from quick service restaurants to logistics, hospitality, and automotive repair.
• Replacing one employee can cost one-half to two times their annual salary, which makes every added month of tenure worth money to the business.
• Health insurance is the benefit workers cite most when deciding whether to stay or leave, yet only 59% of firms with 10 to 199 workers offer it.
• Pooled buying power and flexible funding options put competitive benefits within reach of small businesses, franchises, and association members.

Every small business owner knows what it takes to replace a good employee. There’s the job posting, the interviews, the weeks of training, and the stretch where everyone else covers the open shifts. Pay matters in keeping those people, and so does what comes with it. Decisely’s Benefits Matter white paper looked at what happens to tenure when employees have access to benefits, and the difference is large enough to change how a business thinks about its benefits budget.

Employees With Benefits Stay Twice as Long

Decisely analyzed client data on full-time employees in industries known for high turnover. Across that data, employees with access to benefits stayed with their employer an average of 30 months. Employees without benefits stayed 14 months.

The pattern repeated in each industry Decisely examined.

Quick Service Restaurants

Quick service restaurants depend on full-time managers and supervisors to keep each location running from one shift to the next, and those are the roles Decisely’s data focused on. Employees in those roles with benefits stayed 22 months longer than those without, close to two extra years of experience behind the counter.

Logistics and Transportation

Logistics runs on a transient workforce, even among full-time staff. Full-time employees with benefits stayed twice as long as those without, 20 months compared with 10.

Hospitality

Turnover in hospitality shows up quickly in guest experience and service consistency. Full-time hospitality employees with benefits stayed an average of 51 months, compared with 27 months for those without.

Automotive Repair

Auto shops face a shrinking pipeline of skilled workers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 66,200 openings a year for automotive service technicians and mechanics through 2035, many created by people leaving the field. In Decisely’s data, automotive employees with benefits stayed 20 months longer than those without, which keeps hard-won technical knowledge in the shop.

What Employee Turnover Costs a Small Business

Gallup estimates that replacing an employee can cost one-half to two times that person’s annual salary. For a $50,000 role, that’s $25,000 to $100,000.

Those costs come from four places.

• Recruiting and hiring takes time and money for job ads, screening, interviews, and sometimes recruiter or agency fees.
• Training and onboarding means a stretch of lower output while a new hire learns the role.
• Lost productivity follows when the remaining team absorbs an open role’s work, which strains schedules and morale.
• Lost institutional knowledge leaves with the departing employee, from customer relationships to the shortcuts that make a location run smoothly.

Small businesses feel each of these more sharply than large employers. When a team has 15 people, one departure redistributes work across everyone who’s left.

Why Health Benefits Matter to Employees

Health coverage carries more weight with employees than almost any other part of a compensation package. In the 2025 EBRI/Greenwald Workplace Wellness Survey, health insurance was the benefit workers cited most often (72%) when deciding whether to stay at a job or leave. Retirement plans came second at 62%.

Much of that comes down to financial security. Businessolver’s 2026 Benefits Insights Report found that 45% of employees would feel panicked by a $6,000 emergency room bill, and only 15% feel fully prepared to cover one. An employee who trusts their coverage to handle a hospital visit has one less reason to look elsewhere.

Why Small Businesses Struggle to Offer Benefits

Large employers spread health risk across thousands of employees, and many self-fund their plans, which gives them access to their own claims data. Small businesses buying traditional fully insured coverage usually get neither. Carriers have little data on a small group, so they price in the uncertainty, and the business ends up paying more for plans that deliver less.

The numbers show the gap. According to the KFF 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey, 97% of firms with 200 or more workers offer health benefits, compared with 59% of firms with 10 to 199 workers. Workers at those smaller firms who do have coverage face an average single deductible of $2,631, compared with $1,670 at larger firms.

High deductibles also chip away at how much employees value their plan. An employee who rarely needs more than a checkup or two may never meet a $2,631 deductible, so they pay premiums every month and still cover most of their own care. That’s how a plan can cost a business more every year while employees feel it covers less.

How a Benefit Program Helps Small Businesses Attract and Retain Employees

Decisely was built for small businesses, franchises, and associations, and its approach starts with the problem of scale. By pooling risk across association memberships, franchise networks, and industry verticals, Decisely gives smaller employers the kind of buying power that has usually been reserved for large companies. Carriers get a fuller picture of risk across a whole vertical, which supports more competitive pricing and better plan design.

That scale supports a range of ways to fund benefits, so a business can match its plan to its budget and its workforce:

• Group health plans give a team shared coverage. Decisely offers fully insured plans, level-funded plans (which charge a set monthly amount and can return unused claims dollars), and captive plans (where small employers share risk as one larger group).
• A CHOICE Arrangement (formerly ICHRA) is a modern alternative to traditional group health insurance. The employer sets a monthly allowance, and each employee uses it to choose the individual plan that fits them best.
• Voluntary benefits such as dental, vision, and life insurance round out a package at little added cost to the employer.

The right fit depends on headcount, budget, and what a team needs, so no one option is the default answer. Decisely’s HR tools bring payroll, benefits administration, onboarding, and compliance into one platform, so offering benefits doesn’t add a new layer of paperwork.

Business owners who’ve made the change see the results with candidates and current staff. “Once I tell them we offer healthcare, they are more likely to accept the position,” says Wanda G., a Decisely client. “Employees tend to stay longer on the job because they have benefits.”

Benefits Matter for Your Business

Benefits shape who accepts an offer and who stays for the long run. Decisely’s data shows employees with benefits staying more than twice as long, and every month of added tenure is a month without recruiting, retraining, or lost knowledge.

Download the full Benefits Matter white paper for the complete industry analysis and client feedback.

When you’re ready to see what benefits could look like for your team, contact Decisely. A licensed, US-based benefits advisor will talk through whether a group plan, a CHOICE Arrangement, or another option fits your business best.

About Decisely

Decisely is an all-in-one HR and benefits platform dedicated to empowering small and mid-sized businesses. By combining technology, service, and smarter insurance design, Decisely delivers choice, affordability, and compliance support to help employers attract and retain top talent.

Media Contact

Kevin Dunn
Chief Executive Officer, Decisely
kevin@decisely.com
678-516-5611
decisely.com