A lot of factors play into what makes a job enjoyable and worthwhile. It’s no secret that a nice salary is a strong contender when it comes to employee satisfaction, but it looks like a stronger, newer player is stepping into the game and its name is benefits.
An online survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, which had 600 participants, found that overall benefits provided by their place of work was more important to employee job satisfaction than actual compensation in 2014. The SHRM also released a benefits report, including a sample 275,000 of individual members at the time the survey was conducted, explaining that within this past year, “the majority of organizations have offered the same amount (58 percent) of employer-sponsored benefits or have increased (35 percent) the number of benefits offered.”
Director of survey programs at the Society for Human Resource Management Semiha Evren Esen told Forbes, “We saw increases in paid sick leave plans, paid maternity leave, paid parental leave.”
One of the most important part of these benefits is wellness programs. These programs are offered by 70 percent of companies and eight percent have plans to offer them by next year. The survey found that compared with Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennial employees were more prone to view wellness programs as an important factor for job satisfaction.
Among healthcare benefits, 46 percent of companies surveyed said they offer health and lifestyle coaching, 34 percent have company fitness competitions, 25 percent have standing desks and 21 percent have a fitness centers for employees.
Esen said, “When people started doing wellness, it really was to hopefully have an impact on the bottom line of healthcare costs, but it’s lead to higher employee engagement and helped to reduce employee turnover.”
Five percent of companies said they offer gender reassignment surgery coverage, on-site stress reduction programs and on-site vegetable gardens. Two percent of companies even offer benefits for egg freezing for non-medical reasons and on-site nap rooms.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
So is the best thing about your job the salary or the cool benefits?
Photo: Flickr user Joe Loong
