What Employee Benefits Do Staff Want?
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Sigmar surveyed 2,657 employees in Ireland on their attitude towards benefits. The research indicates that the most significant benefits to employees are: Private Health Insurance (84%), Pension (82%), Paid Sick Days (81%), Educational Support (79%) and Flexi-Time (75%).
“This is a particularly interesting time to examine the subject of employee benefits in Ireland,” says Sigmar HR Manager Jennifer Ward. “The need to keep costs low in recent years resulted in many companies reducing the number of employee benefits offered. However with the recent economic recovery many companies, particularly in the areas of multilingual, IT, pharmaceuticals and finance now face talent shortages and struggle to attract, motivate and retain staff.”
While employee benefits programmes are a significant investment for employers Ward believes they also provide an opportunity to establish a competitive advantage for their brand as an employer. “The challenge is to balance the goal of controlling costs, while at the same time providing a benefits package attractive enough to help attract and retain the highest calibre employees over the long-term.”
Ward is not surprised at some of the results. “There has been a palpable shift in employee expectations over the last number of years, and while a company car may have been of much higher significance during the boom, we are now returning to the staples of health care and pension, both of which many employees see as basics rather than benefits. What is surprising though, it that these benefits were important across all ages and not just for the older employees.”
With 75% of those surveyed rating flexible working hours as a significant benefit only 31% are in receipt of this benefit. Ward believes that this is an area that is very likely to become more topical in Ireland particularly in light of the controversial new rights to flexible working hours introduced to the UK’s 30-million strong workforce this week. She says, “employers are becoming increasingly under pressure to respect the personal demands on the employee whether it is for childcare or other personal reasons.”
