Nearly 41 per cent of workers said they were attracted to their current role for the work-life balance while 36 per cent cited salary, according to research from Aviva.
This is a change from pre-pandemic levels in 2019 when more workers, 41 per cent, cited salary as their primary motivator, closely followed by those who said work-life balance in second place.
More male employees, 43 per cent, said they were attracted to salary over work-life balance compared to 44 per cent of female employees who picked work-life balance over salary.
Nearly 88 per cent of workers said employment perks other than pay, increase their overall pleasure. This is a slight increase from the 86 per cent 2019 figure.
87 per cent of workers, up from 82 per cent in 2019, said they want to see improvements to their workplace benefits package over the upcoming 12 months.
But 53 per cent of businesses this year indicated they struggle to provide their employees with competitive workplace benefits. Nearly two-thirds of SME employers or 62 per cent, sized between 50 and 249 employees, are finding it a challenge. Employers still struggle to offer competitive workplace benefits as they did in 2019. The implementation costs were cited as the main cause.
Aviva head of client engagement Laura Stewart-Smith says: “Before the pandemic, it would have been difficult to imagine a time when employees would pick a role for the work-life balance over the salary. The pandemic seems to have shone a light on the importance of being able to juggle family-life, exercise-life, dog-life – whatever the lifestyle – with work-life. Getting this balance right for employees and employers is a tricky one but if successfully achieved it can often mean a happier and more productive workplace.”
Laura Stewart-Smith adds: “The workplace benefits package on offer and the level of employer pension contributions are clearly both still important to employees in a post-pandemic world. However, it is a tough time right now and it’s understandable that employers might be feeling like they struggle to provide a competitive package.
“Given the economic challenges, making the most of what already exists is important. Employers can only get the best return on investment if employees fully understand and utilise the benefits available to them and the key to achieving this is good engagement. It is important when communicating the workplace benefits package to be sensitive to the financial challenges people might be facing in the current climate and employee case studies of those who have benefitted may be a useful tool in bringing to life what a workplace benefits package can do for other colleagues.
“Employees may be able to help improve their situation by taking up the benefits which are on offer. It might be a surprise to somewhat their employer has on offer – for example, financial education seminars, salary sacrifice, higher pension contributions, low-cost loans, or childcare vouchers.”