Employee benefits are a necessary component of any successful business. Without a robust benefits package, it’s unlikely your organization will be able to attract and retain top talent. Your employment benefits are often the difference between a recruit accepting or declining a job offer.
How Important are Your Employment Benefits?
You might have read the previous paragraph with extreme doubt. Sure, everyone wants employee benefits, but how important are they really? Isn’t salary always the most important factor for employees and recruits?
As a 2015 Glassdoor survey discovered, employee benefits can be even more important than a salary increase to many employees. This survey found 79 percent of respondents would prefer new or additional benefits/perks over a pay increase.
So yes, salary is important. To many individuals, it is the most important factor when considering a job offer. Yet for many more (about 4 out of every 5, according to the survey), your company benefits take the highest priority.
Which Employee Benefits are Most Valued?
Staffing firm Accountemps recently released a survey of 2,700 workers across America. This survey asked participants to rank employee benefits (not including salary) by importance. These are the results:
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1. Vacation Time/ PTO
More vacation time or PTO is a win-win for employees and employers. It’s an employment benefit that can provide greater creativity, engagement, recruiting, retention, satisfaction, and even productivity. There’s also been a link between increased time off and positive thinking. Positively thinking, in turn, improves productivity by 31 percent and increases sales by 37 percent.
Learn more about the importance of time off.
2. Culture/Work Environment
Your organization’s culture is everything. It sets the tone for what your organization does and how it does it. Creating a positive and supportive work environment is necessary to any successful business.
3. Career Advancement
No employee wants to work in a dead-end job. In fact, a SHRM survey found just how important career advancement is to your employees. Nearly one-third of respondents (29 percent) cited a lack of career advancement opportunities as the most important factor that would influence them to change employers.
Read about how to start a mentorship program and how it can help your business.
4. Work-From-Home Options
Working from home is a perk that offers your company more benefits than you may believe. Still, only 30 percent of companies offer telecommuting as a benefit. The 70 percent of employers not offering this benefit are missing out on a greener business, improved recruiting, better retention, healthier employees, and better productivity.
Learn more about the benefits of flexible work.
5. Professional Development
Professional development was the fifth most desired company benefit according to the survey. A 2013 study done by MicroMentor found that mentored businesses increased their revenue by 83 percent while non-mentored businesses increased their revenue by only 16 percent.
Read more about how to start a mentorship program.
The Wrap
What employment benefits your organization ultimately uses should depend upon your workforce. Still, this study is a good jumping off point for designing an employee benefits package of your own.