Whole benefits package crucial in competitive labor market

TOP TALENT—Whole benefits package crucial in competitive labor market

With low unemployment hovering at 4 percent, many companies face the recurring question of how to attract and retain top talent in a candidate-driven landscape. In order to remain competitive, it is essential for companies to focus on what they can do to raise wages or reevaluate their benefits packages to adequately compensate employees. This is according to a new survey from Adecco USA, which surveyed over 1,000 employed adults to provide insight on what companies can do to be an ideal employer.

“While unemployment rates have continued to steadily decline, we have yet to see that same kind of positive and progressive movement on wages, which could be why we are seeing an uptick in workers having more than one job to pay the bills,” said Federico Vione, CEO of Adecco, North America, UK and Ireland. “There is much evidence to suggest that companies need to start paying more attention to the benefits packages they are offering, including wages, if they want to be deemed a desirable place to work and remain competitive in this tight labor market.”

Nearly 25 percent of employees feel they are paid below industry average and nearly one third (29 percent) of temporary employees quit their last job due to poor wages. What’s more, most employed adults (70 percent) believe minimum wage should be raised (39 percent believe “minimally” and 31 percent feel it should be raise “significantly”). Apart from monetary compensation, alternative benefits like growth opportunities and flexible work arrangements also prove to be important to employees.

Key findings about benefits include:

• More than half of respondents (58 percent) said a pay raise would encourage them to stay at a job they were considering leaving;

• Almost half of those surveyed from the ages of 18 to 44 (45 percent), ranked professional development as “extremely important” in determining their happiness;

• Nearly one fifth (16 percent) of respondents left their job in 2017 due to a lack of growth opportunities; and

• Work life balance (20 percent) and positive workplace culture and working relationships with coworkers (a combined 24 percent) also topped the benefits lists.

Career satisfaction and professional growth. In addition to the compensation discussion, companies are falling behind when it comes to keeping their current employees happy. The 2018 US Workforce Report revealed that nearly one fourth (24 percent) of both male and female employees do not believe their current employer takes active steps to improve their happiness on-the-job.

“With waves of hiring surges bringing competition back to the job market, we continue to see employees change jobs for better benefits, career satisfaction and happiness,” said Joyce Russell, president, Adecco USA. “Employers must regularly take a hard look at their hiring process and what their current employees and future candidates are looking for in a job.”

Russell added, “In addition to fair pay as a key part of securing today’s ambitious workforce, it’s no surprise that over a quarter of workers also say opportunities for professional development are important to them. Top employers are realizing that providing opportunities for growth not only benefit their employees directly, but can also result in an upskilled workforce.”

Opportunities in new talent pools. The survey also suggests that employees who have been out of the labor pool for some time are interested in returning to work. According to the survey, 20 percent of workers returned to work during the past four years, after a period of not working for one year or more. Other non-traditional candidate pools include employees without degrees and part-time workers. The survey revealed that one in three employees have second jobs, apart from their day-to-day. These employees may need additional funds on top of their base salary or pay, to make up for the current wage push inflation.

“With the tight labor market, non-traditional talent pools are a great place for companies to turn to. We are seeing that companies are more willing to hire candidates without a degree, and our survey findings mirror that thought process; nearly 80 percent of employees hold the belief that experience is more important than a degree,” Russell said.

About the author, Rhamy

Rhamy grew up watching and working with his mother and grandmother in the senior insurance market. This familiarity with the struggles faced by people trying to navigate the incredibly complicated and heavily regulated healthcare market led him to start Poplar Financial while working on his degree at the University of Memphis. After completing his MBA and Bachelors in Finance and Economics, Rhamy guided Poplar Financial through the disruptive opportunity that is the Affordable Care Act. Since then Poplar Financial has received numerous awards from major insurance carriers and has completed its fourth year in a row of doubling in size. Now his team focuses on the processes around human resources and specializes in providing companies with between 20 and 1000 employees with the payroll, benefits, and HR needs.