Over the past six years, there has been little change in the top benefits included in employers’ traditional core packages. Just as in 2004, this year, life assurance (also known as death-in-service) is the most commonly offered core benefit.
The growing prominence of total reward strategies has led to more incidences of training and development being included within employers’ employment package for staff. This follows many years of training and development being viewed as a separate HR strategy from benefits.
To reflect this shift, for the second year, we have included training and development as part of the reward proposition. This year, it falls in second place of the most commonly offered core benefits, having topped the list in 2009.
Apart from the switching of the benefits in first and second place, there has been little other change to employers’ top core benefits, with childcare vouchers and extra holidays for service remaining popular.
The percentage offering employee assistance programmes (EAPs) as a traditional core benefit has remained static year on year, but this follows a period of significant growth for the perk. In 2004, it was offered by just 30% of respondents, but this has now risen to 69% this year after reaching 60% in 2009.
This change may have been driven by a greater awareness of the issue of stress in the workplace, as well as employers’ desire to support staff during the economic downturn.
Read more articles from the Employee Benefits/Alexander Forbes Benefits Research 2010