In these times of furloughs and pay cuts, the company’s benefits roster is an easy target for cost-cutting. But some organizations are going the extra mile to retain quality workers.

One retention tool: pet health insurance.

Surprising, we know. But the number of companies offering pet insurance as a voluntary benefit has doubled since 2004, according to the Society of Human Resources Management’s Employee Benefits Survey.

Reason: Most pet owners think of their pet as a family member, and employers want to show they care about employees’ entire families.

In total, 7% of all the HR managers surveyed said they offer pet insurance.

Of the companies that said they offer pet coverage:

• 5% are small (1-99 employees)
• 4% are medium-sized (100-499 employees), and
• 10% are large (500+ employees).

Tags: Employee Benefits Survey, pet health insurance, Society of Human Resources Management