What kinds of benefits are popular with employees?

Kiwibank recently launched a ‘Love Your Perks’ package for employees which includes 1% off a number of mortgages – an attractive proposition at any time, but particularly while so many are feeling the squeeze of higher interest rates.

Benefits of this kind can attract talent – but there are other offerings that can resonate even more, according to academic Candice Harris.

“Opportunities for working flexibly seems to be all the rage and quite an important part of the EVP offered by many organisations these days,” says Harris, professor and head of the Department of Management at AUT.

She’d like to see more innovation in this space though.

“I heard of an international company that instead of talking about flexible work, ie what days are people at the office, they've introduced an idea of core weeks. What they’re saying to employees is, something like ‘In a typical month, these two weeks are core and everyone needs to be in the office for three days on these two weeks.’ So we're seeing a bit more innovation.”

Don’t oversell offerings

But Harris warns against overselling your offering if you can’t guarantee fulfilling employees’ expectations.

“I think the rubber can hit the road sometimes when an organisation promotes that they have amazing flexibility and then you don't really support employees, for example, during school holidays or for medical appointments they need to attend. That can get problematic if you've promised the earth and delivered little in terms of your EVP.”

It's also important for organisations to evaluate their ‘menu’ of perks and allowances regularly, she says. Ideally this would be annually.

“Employers need to see what’s being used. An employer saying to prospective and current employees ‘We’ve got all these great things’ but if they’re not being used, then clearly you haven’t quite got the right EVP.”

Knowing what it’s costing is something to keep an eye on too, in case there are perks that may have been too successful, she says, that the firm can barely afford to sustain.

What do employees value in benefits?

Further learning and development is also high up on the agenda for talent, says Harris, so emphasising opportunities for growth in terms of training and career and leadership development can be valuable assets in terms of an attractive EVP.

“Some people might be more interested in that than a subsidised gym membership,” she says.

“I like the idea of a menu of perks and benefits to choose from, according to your life. This is a bit rare in New Zealand, but some people might not want a gym membership because they’re already active but, conversely, might be interested in a couple of subsidised appointments with a nutritionist a year, or even a sleep consultant.”

Finding the sweet spot of what employees will really value means keeping in touch with their needs, says Harris.

“Often, senior leaders making the decisions about the EVP are on much higher salaries so it would be important to talk to people across the organization to ask what they feel will benefit them.”

This can really change by age, she says.

“What someone wants at 27 might be completely different to what someone wants at 54. Taking a broad and diverse approach is key to this, especially with job flexibility - it’s not just about doing things to support those with young children, it might also be something related to church commitments, elder care, or around cultural holidays. I think having that lens is increasingly important when you look at a diverse workforce.”

Messaging about your EVP

And employers should be mindful of getting the message out around an EVP to maximise its benefit, says Harris.

“I've noticed there’s a bit of a trend in that messages about the EVP are coming more into employment advertising. So it's not just about what the role is, it’s promoting ‘This is the experience that you'll have working for us’.

“Some advertisements even show some of the people that work at the organisation and things they’re interested in, or convey the message ‘This is how my employer supports me to have an active and full life’. It's trying to entice people with belonging and wellbeing. It's this idea of ‘Here's the value of coming to work with us, and here are the sort and range of people that we are’.”

Don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth recommendations, says Harris, in terms of employees spreading the news about the value of an organisation’s EVP.

“It's not just about what an organisation is offering,” she says. “This is also about how people are treated, and whether they feel aligned to your organizational culture.”

And while it's nice to have benefits and perks, they don't count so much if you still don't have good management, fair pay, decent work, or work that's meaningful, says Harris.

“A lot of studies show that people's relationship with their direct manager has a massive impact on their employment experience. So perhaps a firm is not going to have all these different things, but they're going to invest in really good leadership development. And that's going to add a lot of value to the organization.”