Employment benefits packages offered in most jobs didn’t used to be such a big deal, but employers have realised that to attract and retain the best talent, a package of benefits is necessary. The salary alone isn’t always the deciding factor to potential employees either. For instance, for a few people, transport-related benefits might be preferable over a pay increase. It’s also very industry specific as to what benefits are attractive too.
As we’ll see, the employee benefits that are most attractive are slanted towards the relevant age group and stage in life, rather then usually appealing to all. Here are the top five employee benefits sought-after by employees.
Housing Contribution
A housing contribution package as part of their renumeration is something that is more attractive to millennials keen to get on the property ladder than it is for Generation X who often have already made that leap. The same goes for baby boomers who are nearer retirement age.
Flexible Working, Longer Holidays, or a Sabbatical
The desire for flexible working hours for both part-time and full-time workers is a high priority for many workers across the board. Whether that’s younger people in a first job, working mothers, or people who just wish to avoid the rush hour.
Whilst four-weeks paid holiday time is better than across the pond, UK employees now look for companies willing to offer longer holidays. Many find that with occasional days off to create long weekends or week-long city breaks abroad, it leaves less time available to take an extended break. Unpaid sick leave can also bite into a holiday allowance when employees are able to use that instead of losing pay.
The idea of a sabbatical – an extended break from work where the job is still there to return to later – is growing in popularity too.
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Health Insurance and Death Benefits
For baby boomers and Generation X often with family or worries about getting older and how it may affect their health and working life, private health insurance and dental care are a high priority.
Millennials in their 20s and early 30s aren’t yet too concerned with private health care having had few, if any, health scares. They’re also more likely to go on adventure holidays for the experience than worry about death benefits. Older workers look for death benefits to protect their family whereas Millennials are less often already married.
Wellness/Health
Employees are more focused on wellness and overall health than ever before. They realise that they spend many of their best hours on the job and if they don’t take care of their health, the good times won’t last forever.
Benefits such as gym passes, massages, yoga classes, and generous maternity or paternity leave all sit high on the list of benefits that employees consider important. For pet owners, being able to bring their dog to work is another fun perk. With more people adopting pets than ever before, offering pet health insurance for employees’ furry family members is an increasingly popular and affordable benefit.
For companies with a diverse list of benefits to manage, it can be too much. However, the employee benefits software from Zest makes it far easier to organize benefits and present them to employees. Zest can also recommend the right benefits to offer based on their client’s type of business.
Employee Discounts
Employees are often offered discounts from their employer, more often than not for their goods and services. This is reasonably popular, but not everyone has a need for what their company offers. Business would do better to negotiate discounts with consumer-focused companies that employees buy from regularly, even if the discount is less.
Whilst we’ve outlined some of the most popular employee discounts in the UK, they don’t all measure up the same. Some are popular with the younger set whereas others are heavily skewed in popularity to the older age groups. There are also benefits that are popular across the board.