Employees Favor Pay, Perks and Financial Benefits over Culture to Stay Back in a Company

According to a latest report, financial benefits are more important to employees than culture to stay back in their current roles. The pay, perk and financial benefits directly show how much importance organizations place on their current workforce, even if it means spending much more on learning and training now in the post-pandemic era. According to a study conducted by eLearning Industry, 49% say company leaders have created benefits/perks that aren’t competitive or exciting. Yet, 3 in 10 U.S. workers say good benefits / perks & bonuses are the most important aspect of company culture.

The Future of Work Report 2022 from eLearning Industry reveals what it takes to retain and engage today’s workers. Here are the key takeaways from the report:

• Half of working Americans believe execs don’t understand what constitutes a strong culture
• 53% say execs are out of touch with what employees want in company culture
• 45% think company leaders don’t understand what motivates them

Here’s a breakdown of findings with summary:

Lack of Competitive Compensation Package Hurting Workforce Retention

Aligning the compensation to current workplace culture is one of the biggest challenges for CHROs. Most of the dissatisfied and disengaged workers feel that they are either underpaid, face gender-based pay disparity or general inequality. Even with great culture at workplace, employees may not stick around for long if the compensation package is not aligned with culture and lifecycle.

Understanding Workplace Culture!

When it comes to understand the real working culture in an organization, there is a general understanding among employees that leadership wants them to work from office. 53% say that their leaders want them to work from office and that denotes the company culture. 48% of the workers think that getting job done anyhow is leadership and that reflects on a company culture!

Culture Changed During the Pandemic

A majority of the surveyed workers understood that the pandemic played a big role in transforming workplace culture. However, now the workers feel culture is no longer part of the culture race. In face, a large percentage of the workers feel there is missing context and connection between employer and culture at workplace.

Employees want to see more efforts from the employer in terms of flexibility, up-skilling, career mobility and competitive pay grade to meet new benchmarks in culture management.

Poor Participation and Representation

Only top management is taking decisions on how to change culture and impact the bottom-line with toothless strategies. 48 percent of the employees feel they are never represented or asked to participate in the meetings that discuss culture management in their current organization. The lack of feedback results in further isolation of disgruntled and dissatisfied employees from the culture locus. 46% of these employees start looking for new employment opportunities elsewhere.

Hybrid Working and Good Payment Enough to Sway Workers from Jumping Ships

Employers that pay well and offer a hybrid working model to their employees retain disgruntled ones from joining another company. 67% of the surveyed employees feel that culture is less about team building and collaboration and more about employee benefits and flexi-working options.

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Final Word

Pay, perks, financial benefits and financial goodwill can go a long way in transforming the way employers look at company culture. In the current times where employers have a hard time finding great talent and retaining their workforce, it should be CHROs’ roles in prioritizing how their organization shows and prioritizes support for employee health, financial well-being and upward career mobility.