Page Personnel Logo

Main menu

  • Home
  • NEW - Timesheet
  • Jobs+

    Searching for a job?

    • Searching for a job?
    • Job search
    • Submit your CV
    • Salary Comparison Tool

    Job search advice

    • Job search advice
    • Looking for a job
    • The interview
    • Growing your career
    • Tips for temps

    Search for jobs

  • Career advice+

    Career advice

    • Career advice
    • Career Chats - Podcast
    • Growing your career
    • Inclusivity Mapper
    • Interview tips
    • Looking for a job
    • Tips for temps
    • Tomorrow's Talent

    Insights

    • Latest insights
    • Latest insights

    Popular articles

    • Popular articles
    • Competency based interview questions
    • The five WORST interview mistakes
    • How to conduct an effective appraisal

    Salary centre

    • Salary centre
    • Salary advice
    • Salary tools

    Skills centre

    • Skills centre
    • Top 100 skills eBook
    • Top 100 skills tool
    • Skills checker
  • Recruiting+

    Looking to hire?

    • Looking to hire?
    • Our recruitment process
    • Advertising for candidate attraction
    • Client testimonials
    • Request a call back
    • Salary benchmarking tool
    • Submit a job spec

    Insights

    • Webinars & events
    • Webinars & events
    • Market analysis

    Management advice

    • Management advice
    • Attracting candidates
    • Diversity and Inclusion Centre
    • Employee development and retention
    • Employer tools
    • IR35
    • Legal updates
    • Run your recruitment processes remotely
    • The interview

    Recruitment expertise

    • Recruitment expertise
    • Discipline expertise
    • Industry expertise

    Outsourcing/project recruitment

    • Outsourcing
    • Managed service provisions
    • Project solutions
    • Advisory
    • Outplacement/career transition

    Request a call back

  • Work for us+

    Work for us

    • Work for us
    • Why choose us?
    • Your role here
    • Use your skills
    • Apply now
  • About+

    About us

    • About us
    • About Page Personnel
    • Recruitment services
    • News and research
    • Client testimonials
    • Reviews
  • Contact+

    Contact us

    • Contact us
    • Find our offices
    • Request a call back
    • Submit a job spec
    • Submit your CV
    • Temp FAQs
    • Timesheet portal
    • Feedback
  • Job match
Register / Sign in
Saved jobs (0)
Saved jobs (0)
Register / Sign in
Login or Sign up
Search for a job

You are here

Home>Advice>Management advice>Attracting candidates>The Employee Benefits Battleground: Use your perks to attract the best talent

The Employee Benefits Battleground: Use your perks to attract the best talent

employee benefits battleground

According to candidate research conducted by PageGroup, 78% of Britons would be more likely to apply for a job if the advert mentioned the benefits on offer. Despite this fewer than half of job adverts (47%) were found to include any information on benefits whatsoever. In an increasingly competitive market companies need to do all they can to stand out from the competition – and benefits packages are becoming the battleground.

When considering similar positions with similar salaries, a candidate is going to look beyond the pay packet to the added extras, those things that make a company great to work for. This is where creating a compelling employee value proposition (EVP) and selling your benefits offering comes into play. In the same way that an excellent CV stands out and garners a lot of interest, a great job advert can really separate a company from its competition.

The five most wanted workplace benefits 

  • Flexible working hours (71%)
  • Work-from-home options (55%)
  • Unlimited paid holiday time (46%)
  • Company car or subsidised/free transportation (43%)
  • Weekly free lunches (41%)

The five most commonly offered workplace benefits

  • Flexible working hours (62%)
  • Higher/further education loan or paying for professional qualifications (56%)
  • Company device policies (e.g. mobile/tablet/BYOD) (52%)
  • Work-from-home options (49%)
  • Company car or subsidised/free transportation (45%)

What makes your company a great place to work? Your EVP and how benefits fit into this.

An employee value proposition (EVP) is the unique set of benefits which an employee receives in return for the skills, capabilities and experience they bring to a company. Your EVP is about defining the essence of your company - how you are unique and what you stand for. It should encompass the central reasons that people are proud and motivated to work there and can be a very powerful motivator for prospective new employees.

When integrated into all aspects of a business, a strong EVP will help to retain top performers and attract the best external talent. Furthermore consistently communicating a compelling EVP through branding, public relations and marketing will also help the passive labour market form a positive perception about the value of working for your company. Creating an excellent EVP should be at the heart of any organisation’s recruitment strategy and their benefits offering will form a large part of it.

How can you boost your job adverts with your benefits package?

As previously mentioned, almost half of job adverts fail to mention benefits. Many job adverts are simply a list of requirements and demands made of the applicant and can often turn people away rather than enticing them, particularly in competitive markets where the best talent has multiple roles to choose from. Organisations need to do more to attract talent from the very first interaction they have with candidates, this being the job advert. 

As well as including a job description, the role responsibilities and a breakdown of the kind of individual that would be successful, a job advert should include information about your company, what you stand for and how you create an environment in which your employees can flourish. 

Do you offer flexible working? Operate a working from home policy? Do you pay for training or professional qualifications? Whatever it is that you do to improve the working lives and conditions for your employees can be included in a job advert to entice applications. Our research showed that over half of employers do offer each of these perks.

According to a 2017 survey by Aon Consulting, 96% of employees underestimate the amount their employer spends on their benefits – with four in 10 (42%) believing it is around 5% or less of employees’ salary when, in fact, it is typically between 20 and 40%. It is clear that while candidates place a lot of value on benefits, employers are not doing enough to leverage their offering.

There is a disconnect between both the type of benefits offered and the value these benefits hold; even among existing employees over a third (37%) did not know what their benefits package comprised. In many cases an organisation is already offering a wide array of benefits which are likely to attract candidates, the issue is that they are not communicating that clearly enough in job adverts or throughout their recruitment and on-boarding processes.

By investing time and effort into defining your EVP and placing your benefits offering at the heart of it you can ensure that you are in place to win the battle for the most in demand talent from the moment they read your job advert.

Previous article
References: the importance in the recruitment process
References: their importance in the recruitment process
Read article
Next article
Five ways to make employee benefits work for you
Five ways to make employee benefits work for you
Read article

Get in touch

Get in touch

If you would like to talk to us about your current recruitment needs, fill in the form below and one of our consultants will call you back.
 

Topics

  • Career advice
  • Insights
  • Management advice
  • Salary centre

Tags

Benefits
Employee value proposition
Finding talent
Hiring
Recruitment

Tweets @michaelpagefr

 

Download your free guide

Page Personnel Logo
  • Follow us on FacebookFollow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on LinkedInFollow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on TwitterFollow us on Twitter
  • Watch us on YouTubeWatch us on YouTube

Useful links

  • Site map
  • Site terms
  • Accessibility
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Cookies
  • Complaints policy
  • Privacy policy
  • Feedback
  • Copyright notice
  • Employee rights
  • Modern Slavery Statement
  • Country/Region

About Michael Page

  • Corporate site
  • Investors site
  • Page Executive
  • Michael Page
  • Page Talent
  • Page Outsourcing

Search for jobs

  • Business Support
  • Construction
  • Contact Centre & Customer Service
  • Engineering & Manufacturing
  • Facilities Management
  • Finance
  • Financial Services
  • Human Resources
  • Logistics
  • Not for Profit
  • Paralegal
  • Property
  • Public Sector
  • Sales
  • Supply Chain
  • Technology

Mobile applications

Download from Google Play

Apple store logo

Employer Centre

  • Submit a job spec
  • Request a call back

Reviews

 

Awards

Accreditations

Page Personnel is part of PageGroup. Page Personnel is a trading name of Michael Page International Recruitment Limited. Registered in England No. 04130921 Registered Office:
Page House, 1 Dashwood Lang Road, Addlestone, Weybridge, KT15 2QW