New data from Zest, an employee benefits technology provider, reveals that 76% of financial services employees feel their reward packages offer good value for money—higher than any other sector surveyed. Business services and IT follow closely, with 75% of staff in each industry expressing satisfaction with their workplace perks.
Lowest Satisfaction in Education and Healthcare
In contrast, value-for-money perceptions lag in education and healthcare. Only 42% of education employees and 48% of healthcare workers believe their benefits packages are worthwhile. Despite 39% of HR leaders in education reporting increased investment in rewards over the past year, 57% of education staff rate their packages as inadequate, and 37% say they’re considering leaving the sector due to poor benefits.
Underused and Irrelevant Perks
Across all industries, 58% of employees admit they don’t use most benefits available to them, and 47% find their offerings irrelevant to their personal needs. Although 37% of companies have boosted benefits spending recently, only 45% of workers feel their employer listens to their needs when designing packages.
Benefits vs. Salary Competition
With 19% of firms struggling to match competitors on pay and 58% of employees willing to switch jobs for better perks, benefits represent a cost-effective way to attract and retain talent beyond salary increases.
“Benefits are an effective approach to reward employees, but too many packages offer poor value for both employer and employee. Financial services firms are doing a better job than other sectors when it comes to understanding employee needs. Getting a benefits package right ensures that employees are fully supported, more empowered and more productive—key to meeting commercial targets and business growth plans. However, this research will make for painful reading for education businesses—the sector is the worst-performing in terms of value for money in the eyes of its employees. Leaders in this sector must pay greater attention to their rewards packages if they are to retain staff—many of whom are considering changing sectors in order to access the support they sorely need.”
— Matt Russell, CEO of Zest
Zest serves over 500 employers, including Hargreaves Lansdown, Taylor Wimpey, and Yahoo, and supports more than 300,000 employees through its award-winning flexible benefits platform.
Employers can assess potential savings on National Insurance contributions and strategies to reduce turnover using Zest’s ROI Calculator: https://www.zestbenefits.com/roi-calculator/.
