Total Rewards
Leveraging Your Benefits Package to Win the War on Talent
As the competition for talent continues to grow, employers turn to their benefits packages to attract and retain top talent. In the last 12 months, one third of organizations increased their overall benefits offerings according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s 2017 Employee Benefits Survey. The survey of 3,227 human resource professionals revealed that employers are increasing their benefits packages in the following areas:
- Wellness (24%)
- Health Related Benefits (22%)
- Career Development (16%)
- Employee Programs and Services (15%)
- Flexible Working (14%)
- Retirement Savings and Planning (13%)
- Leave (12%)
- Family-friendly Benefits (11%)
- Housing and Relocation (4%)
- Business Travel (2%)
The author of the study shares, “You can leverage your benefits package to help with common recruiting strategies such as increasing retention efforts, expanding training programs to help improve skills of new hires, using/enhancing an employee referral program, offering more flexible work arrangements, providing monetary incentives to candidates (e.g., signing bonus) and offering new job perks. Of these strategies, HR professionals indicated that offering more flexible work arrangements was the most effective.”
As the war for talent continues to grow, you must evaluate your total rewards strategy to ensure it fits your organizations culture and goals. Creating a 2-3 year benefits strategy with your benefit consultant is a good first step in developing a total rewards offering that can be used as differentiator to recruit and retain the talent your organization needs.
While a majority of employers in this study increased their offering, only 6 percent decreased their benefits overall. Large organizations (12 percent) are three times more likely than midsize organizations (4 percent) to have decreased overall benefits offerings in the past 12 months. The most common reason for decreasing benefits was due to financial struggles, mergers, or poor organizational performance.
Looking to get a leg up on your benefits packages? Check out the Most Desirable Employee Benefits Packages.
As benefit consultants, Exude works with our clients to develop a strategy that is aligned with a clients culture and business goals which results in a benefit offering that helps you accomplish your business goals.
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