Employee benefits: What you need to know

 24th Feb 2023

Whether you’re providing them as an employer or receiving them as an employee, benefits can be a great way to ensure a happy and productive workforce.

According to recent candidate research from Page Group, 78% of Brits would be more likely to apply for a job if the advert mentioned the benefits on offer. Despite this fewer than half of job adverts (47%) were found to include any information on benefits whatsoever.

Offering and advertising decent incentives can be a differentiator when securing top talent and the right candidates for your business – even more so at the moment with the recruitment market being so candidate driven.

What are benefits?

Employee benefits are extra incentives provided by employers, in addition to legal requirements such as salary, basic pension, income protection and holiday allowance. Generally speaking, they can be divided into different employee benefit types. This is what they could include:

Financial Benefits

• Genuinely competitive salaries
• Bonuses
• Extended holiday entitlement e.g. birthdays off, unlimited holidays
• Enhanced pensions
• Generous maternity/paternity leave
• Extra holiday buying schemes
• Company car

Health and well-being benefits

• Health insurance
• Cycle to work scheme
• Gym membership
• Access to counselling and well-being experts
• Mental health or duvet days
• Menopause leave
• Ergonomic office equipment to support employees working from home
• Access to networks and groups – for instance LGBTQ+, Females in leadership, religious etc.

L&D Benefits

• External training opportunities
• Funding for professional qualifications

Perks

Corporate perks are above-and-beyond offerings that may sway an employee to value one employer over another. Think of them as icing on the cake. However, some companies fall into the trap of prioritising ‘fun’ perks over genuinely useful benefits – make sure you take care of the fundamentals before adding these in.

Examples of perks

• Company days out for team-building activities or volunteering
• Social events and staff parties
• Complimentary food and drinks
• Pet-friendly office
• Games rooms

Flexible & Hybrid Working

There has been much debate as to whether flexible and hybrid working should be described as a benefit or should be commonly expected.

Hybrid working has become the norm amongst businesses and most candidates will now expect this as a standard – we recommend explaining your home vs office split in job descriptions as focusing on it as a primary benefit may come across old fashioned.

Flexible working is a little more subjective, the majority of candidates will expect some form of it especially surrounding childcare and appointments. However, if your business can offer true flexibility, make sure to feature it as an added benefit and detail the specifics (e.g. earlier / later starts, split hours and condensed hours).

Relevance to employees

Employees will get the most out of staff incentives if they are relevant, or have meaning, to them specifically. A business owner should seek to find out what kinds of incentives each person would benefit from most, according to their individual circumstances and preferences.

Indeed, customising benefits to each individual increases loyalty for 72% of staff, according to research conducted by Glassdoor. It also means that businesses get the best outcomes from the money they spend on staff incentives.

Enquiring about employee benefits as a candidate

As discussed above, hopefully, many employers will state a list of benefits in the job description, however, it might not always be clear from the outset what’s on offer.

Asking a potential employer to confirm the benefits they offer is absolutely essential before accepting any job. Not only could it help influence your decision, but it may also give you the opportunity to negotiate the package you receive.

You can find out by asking the recruiter you’re working with, asking the HR coordinator / hiring manager, looking at the company website or reading your contract.

If you would like any further advice on benefits, please get in touch by contacting us here.