Work Benefits Employees Actually Want

Originally Posted on Recruiter.com on August 14, 2013

Can we talk about benefits for a minute? I know that they (benefits) fall squarely under the purview of HR but as talent acquisition starts to broaden (in both word and deed) smart recruiters take the attraction pieces of the puzzle into account when planning their hiring strategy.

When we start talking about a trend, there are two things to consider (actually there are a lot more than two things but for the purposes of this article let’s say there are two):

Market Perception and Demand Changes

When the market starts to tell you that something is wrong with the products you’re giving them it does so in a myriad of ways. If you’re a blogger, as I am, you see it in press releases, vendor studies and think tank summaries. If you’re a practitioner in HR, you start to see a simple decline of interest in things that formerly were quite popular with new hires or employees. When it comes to benefits, what is changing (even more rapidly than our national healthcare laws) are the kinds of benefits people want and when they want them.

It’s easy enough to see how this could take place when you consider that the very nature of work is changing. Going through the cumbersome open enrollment process has little appeal when the average tenure at a position is 2-3 years. And while having your company match your 401K contributions seems silly when retirement age is far less assured than it was just ten years ago. In the simplest terms, benefit timing is changing because work is changing.

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Maren Hogan

Maren Hogan is CEO of Red Branch and general Bad@$$

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer and community builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. Maren started Red Branch Media and, before she hired all the smiling faces you see below, she ran it on her own. In marketing for over 15 years, she has deep experience in strategic campaigns and a long-term, results-based operational approach.