EXCLUSIVE: More than half (54%) of respondents offer flexible-working initiatives, according to the Employee Benefits/Xerox HR Services Benefits research 2016, published in June 2016.
Among the other lifestyle benefits offered by respondents’ organisations, 48% provide additional annual leave for life events or in recognition of long service, and 31% offer enhanced parental leave. However, just 11% of respondents offer emergency childcare, 8% provide emergency eldercare support, and only 1% of respondents provide non-emergency eldercare.
Discounts and offers are also a popular feature in employers’ benefit offerings, with 41% of respondents giving staff access to retail and leisure discounts, 28% to retail and leisure vouchers, and a third (34%) offering dining cards.
The number of respondents that include these benefits in their core benefits package for all staff has risen over the last two years; the Employee Benefits Benefits research 2014, published in May 2014, found that 26% of respondents provided retail and leisure discounts as a core benefit for all staff, and even fewer offered retail and leisure vouchers (11%) or dining cards (7%) as a core benefit for the whole workforce. This could perhaps reflect the growing popularity of benefits that can be used on a day-to-day basis, providing visible savings to staff while costing employers relatively little.
