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Compensation: think beyond the mighty $!

If you look at your workforce demographics, what benefits would attract and retain your employees and top candidates? The benefits that you offer should be attractive and competitive. With low unemployment rates, companies are attracting jobseekers with healthy compensation packages and employee perks.

A well-balanced compensation package provides insight to potential employees of the company culture. When searching for a new job, a survey by Business News Daily suggested that 77% of respondents would consider a company’s culture before applying. Some jobseekers valued workplace culture a higher deciding factor when reviewing job offers.

Compensation is the combination of salaries, wages, and benefits that an employee receives in exchange for performing a particular job. It may include an annual salary or hourly wage combined with bonus payments, benefits, and incentives. Compensation consists of direct as well as indirect compensation. Both can either be monetary or have the value of money.

Direct compensation consists of hourly wages, salaries, bonuses, and commission.

Indirect compensation has monetary value but is in a non-monetary form. Examples of this would be employer sponsored health insurance, 401k retirement plan match, tuition assistance, or a company-paid gym membership.

There are also non-financial compensation factors to consider. At a time when employees are leaving jobs in search of opportunities that provide deeper fulfillment, these forms of compensation represent the ‘softer’ side of the equation.  In addition, these highly coveted items can really help organizations stand out as an employer of choice and help companies attract candidates with shared values.   These can include:

Paid Family Leave

Employees are looking for paid maternity as well as paternity leave to spend time and take care of newborns.

TurningPoint Executive Search reported that from 2016 to 2018, the percentage of employers offering paid maternity leave increased to 35% and paid paternity leave increased to 29%. Additionally, adoption, foster child, and surrogacy leave has also increased.

Flexible work schedules

Ability to accommodate work/life balance. Younger employees value flexibility highly. With the ability to connect remotely physically anywhere in the world with a wi-fi connection employees can travel and still complete their work responsibilities.  Some employers offer summer Fridays or four-day work weeks.

FlexJobs found that 30% of workers that left a job did so because it did not offer flexible work. And that same survey found that 80% of employees would be more loyal to their employers if they offered flexible work options. As if that weren’t enough, 69% of respondents said that flexible work was one of the most important factors they considered when evaluating a job offer.

Health and Wellness

Opportunities to maintain/improve one’s physical being provides the opportunity for one to destress and get some fresh air. Possibly even offering gym membership discounts.

Professional development

Offer unlimited learning or provide employees the opportunity to shadow peers in roles that they may be interested in. It also consists of coaching from their managers to improve in their roles.

Employees who feel valued will go the extra mile for their employer and it will be reflected in their individual performance as well as the organization’s overall performance. They are less likely to look for new opportunities and become valuable assets to the organization.

Learn more about how to streamline your compensation process.

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Sam Abraham is an Implementation Manager at TalentQuest. He strives to implement solutions in a timely manner while providing the education to promote use of the capabilities.

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