I have daily conversations about workplace benefits. When you’re bringing employers and leadership talent together, that’s inevitable. But these conversations have changed over time. Once workplace benefits would be one of the last things candidates asked me about. Now they are often the first.
Attitudes and expectations towards working lives (indeed, life in general) have rapidly evolved in recent years, meaning attitudes towards benefits have changed too.
What was once a standard exchange about pensions, annual leave and a cycle to work scheme is now more nuanced, and more personal.
And I think employers can sometimes miss the mark.
Some employers still explain their reward and benefits package by listing standard options available to everyone. The candidate, meanwhile, is thinking about whether any of it will make a difference to their lives.
They’re looking at it personally.
benefits are individual.
When candidates think about rewards and benefits today, they’re not thinking about them in isolation, or just in connection to a far-off plan or potential future crisis. They’re looking at whether the benefits on offer will enhance their lives today and every day, in a way that’s practical and meaningful to them.
They’re thinking about funding their interests and ambitions. Having the time and energy to care for loved ones and spend time with friends. They’re thinking about how their wellbeing will be protected and enhanced.
For a long time, the ‘benefits’ generally on offer were really just the reward package. Even pension and annual leave allowance were (and in some cases still are!) offered as benefits, when they’re fundamental basics.
Then things evolved a little as competition for talent increased. Employers offering additional extras could stand out by mentioning discount schemes, an EAP or a wellbeing initiative such as a yoga class.
But now, benefits are seen through a very different lens.
They’re much more closely tied to how people experience work inside life itself, because people look carefully at how work fits into their lives. In fact, the phrase ‘work-life balance’ has lost some of its resonance because people don’t want a separate work life and ‘other’ life. They want ‘life balance’.
All this means that the benefits you offer will significantly impact not only attraction, but retention and delivery too. They’re bound up with the way people view and experience work every day.
what candidates are looking for.
There’s no one size fits all, that’s the main point. So, I’m always wary of suggesting what the ‘best’ benefits package might look like. It’s so individual.
What I can say is that the candidates I speak to are looking at variety and choice of benefits. Increasingly, they want to select and flexibly manage their benefits package so that it works for them.
But there are some areas to pay particular attention to.
Financial security remains incredibly important, although not always in the way employers might assume. People aren’t always chasing the highest salary. More often, they’re looking for financial stability, giving them confidence that they can manage both today’s plans and tomorrow’s challenges.
Time has also become increasingly valuable. In hospitality, flexibility means something different than in other sectors, but candidates regularly talk about wanting greater control over their working lives. That might mean more predictable, reasonable hours, the ability to flex around personal commitments, or the option to buy and sell annual leave. For many people, time carries as much value as money.
Career development continues to matter greatly. People want to know what their future career could look like if they stay with you. They want to understand whether they’ll be supported to learn, grow and progress. And they want to see evidence that you do what you say you will.
Wellbeing is no longer viewed as something to be addressed when it fails. Candidates have a very clear expectation that their wellbeing should be enhanced through work. It’s an everyday expectation, less about specific initiatives and more about an holistic approach to enabling people to operate and live at their best.
benefits in practice.
Whatever benefits you offer, ultimately what matters the most is whether people can actually use them.
A policy might offer flexibility, for example, but if the culture or the management approach makes someone reluctant to ask for it, then its value is limited. The same applies to wellbeing support, family-friendly policies or any benefit that requires people to understand how to access it and feel comfortable doing so.
The experience of the benefit matters as much as the benefit itself. And from a business perspective, benefits are most expensive when they’re not used.
So, ongoing communication of benefits and enabling access to them is key to retention and delivery. Your workplace benefits need to do what they say they will.
what does your benefits package say about you?
When candidates ask me about an employer’s approach to benefits, what they’re also asking is: what’s the culture there? What are their values? How do they see and treat their people?
Your benefits package tells a story about you as an employer. It’s an expression of your culture.
It can tell candidates whether you have listened to your people and thought about the different circumstances of your workforce. Whether you trust them to make choices and whether you’re prepared to invest in their lives as well as their work.
Done well, rewards and benefits reflect the lives of the people in your workforce. They become much more than an attraction or retention tool. They become a tangible expression of your workplace culture and values.
That’s why it’s such an important part of my conversation with any client I work with.