When the „competitive salary” is no longer enough… What benefits can attract your candidates?
Whether the company is valued by the candidates and perceived as a good place for developing a career path is evidenced? Not only by remuneration. Employer involvement in social campaigns, caring for the well-being and balance between private and professional life, emphasis on creating a friendly work environment, benefits adjusted to the current needs and trends – all these factors affect the candidate’s decision to take up a job. The importance of non-wage benefits increased especially during the pandemic, when aspects related to health and safety became extremely important.
According to the CBRE report entitled ‘Wellness’. Experience the office future, 80% of employees admit that wellness strategy offered by the company will be a decisive factor in hiring and retaining them for the next 10 years.
Fruit Thursdays or gym cards have ceased to be of greater importance as a result of the pandemic. What do applicants and employees expect from their employers?
Working time organization – a benefit adjusted to the times
According to a survey conducted by HRK, currently 60% of survey participants work in a hybrid system. Ultimately, 78% of employees would like to work in such a system. Employers from the IT sector tend to guarantee their employees even greater flexibility. Asynchronous work – at your own pace, without the emphasis on availability 8.00-16.00 – turns out to be a trend that matches the specifics of the industry and remote mode.Advantages for employees? First of all, a greater sense of freedom and functioning in accordance with the idea of work-life balance. Asynchronicity is part of the specificity of design activities and work on software. It has also been practiced by international teams operating in different time zones for a long time.
Another novelty that appears more and more often even in public discussion, although in Poland it is practiced by several or a dozen companies from the IT industry, is:
• shorter working week
• unlimited, paid holidays
Of course, with full salary.
A company from the IT sector that has introduced unlimited holidays is SYZYGY Warsaw. Initially, it was supposed to be an experiment, but, according to the company’s representatives, it turned out to be a great success. The company limited the time for unnecessary bureaucracy: counting free days and controlling employees. Unlimited paid leaves have been introduced permanently.
Some companies, especially those from the IT sector, are also experimenting with the formula of Friday as a day dedicated to self-development, less formal meetings, or deep work. For example, Nozbe employees spend their Fridays summarizing their working week and planning the next one. After reviewing, everyone decides what they want to do. They can spend this time learning something new, working on an additional project, a new hobby or just quit and enjoy a longer weekend with loved ones.
These are still fresh and interesting ideas that are only just being tested on the Polish market. IT companies, which are particularly affected by the shortage of candidates, also offer their candidates relocation packages. Although, due to the increasing use of 100% remote work, less and less often. Even before the pandemic, an example of relocation actions was, for example, „Akcja Relokacja” at Capgemini, where the value of a one-time benefit, the purpose of which was to cover the costs of the removal, was PLN 10,000. Nokia offered an allowance of 7,000-10,000 if the employee moves with his family. Benefits related to a few additional hours off per year are much more eagerly used (e.g. the nationwide campaign for an hour for the family).
Healthcare
During the pandemic, private medical care offered to employees and their families was supplemented by, for example, free Covid tests or psychological, therapeutic support services, often provided in an online company. This is an effect of staying at home for long periods that negatively affects the mental health of employees. A completely new benefit are packages with healthy food and herbs, which some companies send to their sick employees.
companies send to their sick employees.
Physiotherapist and dietitian
Remote work and greater isolation have contributed to the fact that employees spend more time in front of the computer, and often have fewer opportunities to play sports.
Therefore, some companies organize, for example, webinars with physiotherapists showing how to organize the environment and rhythm of remote work. Other large organizations also introduced consultations with a dietitian to the benefit package. There are situations in which employers send employees gadgets to monitor physical activity, e.g. pedometers.
Education
According to the First Steps in IT report, over 82.23% of juniors decided that the development opportunity is the most important aspect of their work. Companies, especially those from the IT sector, care for the professional development of employees by providing:
• Budget for participation in conferences, trainings, hackathons
• Access to online courses or e-learning platforms (online libraries, etc.)
• Internal training
• Internal hackathons
• Language courses
The benefits companies eagerly reach for are mentoring and coaching programs for employees with the greatest development potential. These can be programs involving mentors from outside the organization, but also those that operate inside the organization, enabling employees to exchange knowledge and acquire new skills.
Cafeteria systems
Due to the pandemic, even the cafeteria, i.e. a set of benefits to be chosen by employees themselves (e.g. myBenefit), is gaining an importance. Among the available options, the number of remotely available services has increased significantly – the packages include, among others access to online libraries, but also, for example, access to VoD platforms (Netflix, HBO).
Employers also offer vouchers for selected stores or e-stores, to equip your home workplace.
Least desirable
In the eyes of the research (the Benefits related to working time report), the benefits that are least popular among candidates include:
• additional parental leave,
• the ability to work 100% remotely,
• health leave – sabbatical.
An industry that is ahead of all others
A lot of the benefits presented above are introduced to the market by the IT industry. Because the competition for a candidate is extremely strong here, many things simply happen faster, giving the opportunity to implement new ideas and solutions. It all boils down to the fact that efficient and economically operating, motivated teams simply bring tangible benefits to employers.
The standards emerging here should also have other employers on their radar if they want to keep up with the advancing market of the candidate.
