SHRM Survey Findings: State of Employee Benefits in the Workplace—Leveraging Benefits to Recruit Employees

December 18, 2013

State of Employee Benefits in the Workplace—Leveraging Benefits to Recruit Employees ©SHRM 2013 2

• This is part five of a series of SHRM survey findings examining employee benefits in the workplace.

• The following topics are included in the six-part series titled State of Employee Benefits in the Workplace:

» Part 1: Wellness initiatives » Part 2: Flexible work arrangements» Part 3: Health care» Part 4: Leveraging benefits to retain employees» Part 5: Leveraging benefits to recruit employees» Part 6: Communicating benefits

Introduction

State of Employee Benefits in the Workplace—Leveraging Benefits to Recruit Employees ©SHRM 2013 3

• For the purpose of this survey, highly skilled employees are defined as employees with skills that are critical to the short- and long-term success of their operating unit or the organization.

Definition

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Leveraging Benefits to Recruit Employees at All Levels of the Organization

• Do organizations leverage their benefits program to recruit employees? Approximately one-fourth (26%) of organizations reported leveraging their benefits program to recruit employees.

• What benefits offerings have been leveraged to recruit employees? Health care (81%) and retirement savings and planning (70%) still remain the top two benefits that organizations most frequently leverage to recruit employees. Compared to 2012, however, all benefits were leveraged more often in 2013, with the largest difference of 14 percentage points for leave benefits and professional and career development benefits.

• What benefits offerings will increase in importance to help recruit employees in the next three to five years? Organizations indicated that retirement savings and planning benefits (64%) and health care benefits (63%) were the benefits that would increase in importance the most with respect to recruiting employees.

Key Findings for Recruiting Employees at All Levels

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Leveraging Benefits to Recruit Highly Skilled Employees

• Are organizations leveraging their benefits program to recruit highly skilled employees? Although one-half (50%) of organizations indicated having difficulty in recruiting highly skilled employees, only 30% of organizations reported leveraging their benefits program to recruit these applicants.

• What benefits offerings have been leveraged to recruit highly skilled employees? Health care (70%) and retirement savings and planning (61%) were the benefits most frequently leveraged to recruit these employees. Compared to 2012, the largest increases in frequency were flexible working benefits (33% to 55%) and leave benefits (34% to 46%).

• In the next three to five years, what benefits offerings will increase in importance to help organizations recruit highly skilled employees? In 2013, HR professionals indicated that retirement savings and planning benefits (70%) would be the most important benefit to leverage during recruit. Health care dropped to the No. 2 position, falling from 75% to 66%.

Key Findings for Recruiting Highly Skilled Employees

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• About one in four (26%) HR professionals use benefits as a recruitment tool. Though not a significant number, many recruiters now advocate using a “total rewards” approach to attracting new employees, and they encourage leveraging an employer’s benefits package as part of that strategy. HR professionals cannot always use higher salaries as a draw for new talent because wage growth has been very weak in the post-recession economy.

• With medical costs on the rise and many workers unprepared financially for retirement, HR professionals should consider leveraging health care benefits and retirement savings and planning benefits as part of their recruitment strategy. Even with some uncertainty surrounding health care plans in connection with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, HR professionals should view this benefit, if offered at their employer, as a valuable tool for attracting workers.

• Several studies have shown that members of the Millennial generation, or those born between 1982 and 2002, place high value on flexible work schedules and managing their own time. Many HR professionals have recognized this trend: More than half of respondents (55%) leveraged flexible working benefits to highly skilled employees in 2013, compared with 33% a year ago. If this benefit is offered at their employer, HR professionals should highlight this aspect of their overall benefit plans as a tool to attract younger, talented workers to their organizations.

What do these findings mean for the HR profession?

7

Leveraging Benefits to Recruit Employees at All Levels of the

Organization

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Over the past 12 months, has your organization had difficulty recruiting employees at all levels of the organization?

Note: Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded for this analysis.

Yes

No

26%

74%

23%

77%

2012 (n = 394)

2013 (n = 351)

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Over the past 12 months, has your organization leveraged your benefits program to recruit employees at all levels of the organization?

Note: Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded from this analysis.

Yes

No

26%

74%

29%

71%

2012 (n = 377)

2013 (n = 341)

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Which of the following benefits has your organization leveraged to recruit employees at all levels within your organization?

Note: Only respondents whose organizations leveraged their benefits program to recruit employees at all levels within the organization were asked this question. Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded from this analysis. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.

Health care

Retirement savings and planning

Leave benefits

Professional and career development benefits

Flexible working benefits

Preventive health and wellness

Family-friendly benefits

Housing and relocation benefits

81%

70%

50%

45%

43%

33%

33%

24%

80%

63%

36%

31%

30%

29%

27%

19%

2012 (n = 108)2013 (n = 88)

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Within the next three to five years, what benefits offerings will increase, remain the same or decrease in importance in your organization’s efforts to recruit all levels of employees?

Note: n = 65-88. Only respondents whose organizations leveraged their benefits program to recruit employees at all levels within the organization were asked this question. Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded from this analysis. Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.

Retirement savings and planning

Health care

Preventive health and wellness

Flexible working benefits

Professional and career development benefits

Family-friendly benefits

Leave benefits

Housing and relocation benefits

64%

63%

59%

56%

52%

50%

30%

11%

35%

37%

39%

40%

47%

49%

67%

71%

1%

0%

2%

4%

1%

1%

4%

18%

Increase in importance Remain the same Decrease in importance

12

Leveraging Benefits to Recruit Highly Skilled Employees

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Over the past 12 months, has your organization had difficulty recruiting highly skilled employees?

Note: Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded for this analysis. Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.

Yes

No

50%

50%

49%

52%

2012 (n = 400)

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Over the past 12 months, has your organization leveraged your benefits program to recruit highly skilled employees?

Note: Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded for this analysis.

Yes

No

30%

70%

31%

69%

2012 (n = 379)

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Health care

Retirement savings and planning

Flexible working benefits

Leave benefits

Professional and career development benefits

Family-friendly benefits

Housing and relocation benefits

Preventive health and wellness

70%

61%

55%

46%

41%

35%

33%

25%

75%

58%

33%

34%

41%

28%

23%

24%

2012 (n = 116)2013 (n = 104)

Which of the following benefits has your organization leveraged to recruit highly skilled employees?

Note: Only respondents whose organizations leveraged their benefits program to recruit highly skilled employees were asked this question. Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded from this analysis. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.

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Within the next three to five years, what benefits offerings will increase, remain the same or decrease in importance in your organization’s efforts to recruit highly skilled employees?

Note: n = 77-100. Only respondents whose organizations leveraged their benefits program to recruit highly skilled employees were asked this question. Respondents who answered “not sure” were excluded from this analysis.

Retirement savings and planning

Health care

Flexible working benefits

Professional and career development benefits

Family-friendly benefits

Preventive health and wellness

Leave benefits

Housing and relocation benefits

70%

66%

65%

56%

55%

47%

38%

12%

30%

33%

33%

43%

45%

51%

61%

75%

0%

1%

2%

1%

0%

2%

1%

13%

Increase in importance Remain the same Decrease in importance

17

Organization Demographics

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Demographics: Organization Staff Size

n = 363

1 to 99 em-ployees

100 to 499 employees

500 to 2,499 employees

2,500 to 24,999 employees

25,000 or more employees

33%

32%

17%

12%

6%

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Demographics: Organization Sector

n = 377

Privately owned for-profit

Nonprofit organization

Publicly owned for-profit

Government sector

Other

51%

24%

12%

11%

2%

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PercentageProfessional, scientific and technical services 21%Health care and social assistance 17%Manufacturing 15%Government agencies 12%Finance and insurance 10%Educational services 9%Religious, grantmaking, civic, professional and similar organizations 5%Accommodation and food services 4%Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services 4%Construction 4%Mining 4%Transportation and warehousing 4%Arts, entertainment and recreation 3%Information 3%Retail trade 3%Real estate and rental and leasing 2%Repair and maintenance 2%Utilities 2%Whole trade 2%Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting 1%Personal and laundry services 1%Other 7%

Demographics: Organization Industry

Note: n = 375. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.

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Demographics: Other

U.S.-based operations only 80%

Multinational operations 20%

Single-unit organization: An organization in which the location and the organization are one and the same.

39%

Multi-unit organization: An organization that has more than one location.

61%

Multi-unit headquarters determines HR policies and practices.

59%

Each work location determines HR policies and practices.

4%

A combination of both the work location and the multi-unit headquarters determines HR policies and practices.

37%

Is your organization a single-unit organization or a multi-unit organization?

For multi-unit organizations, are HR policies and practices determined by the multi-unit headquarters, by each work location or by both?

Does your organization have U.S.-based operations (business units) only, or does it operate multinationally?

n = 381n = 381

n = 244

Corporate (company-wide) 73%

Business unit/division 16%

Facility/location 11%

n = 244

What is the HR department/function for which you responded throughout this survey?

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SHRM Survey Findings: State of Employee Benefits in the Workplace—Leveraging Benefits to Recruit Employees

• Response rate = 11%• 441 HR professional respondents from a randomly selected sample of SHRM’s

membership participated in this survey• Margin of error +/- 5%• Survey fielded May 3-22, 2013

Survey Methodology

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• SHRM Survey Findings: The Ongoing Impact of the Recession—Global Competition and Hiring Strategies

• SHRM Survey Findings: The Ongoing Impact of the Recession—Recruiting and Skill Gaps

• SHRM Labor Market & Economic Data: SHRM Economic and Employment Reports

• Staffing Management Resource Page

• Recruiting Internally and Externally Toolkit

Additional SHRM Resources

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For more survey/poll findings, visit www.shrm.org/surveys.

For more information about SHRM’s Customized Research Services, visit www.shrm.org/customizedresearch.

Follow us on Twitter @SHRM_Research.

About SHRM Research

Project leaders:Christina Lee, researcher, SHRM Research

Project contributors:Alexander Alonso, Ph.D., SPHR, vice president, SHRM ResearchEvren Esen, manager, Survey Research Center, SHRM Research

Copy editor:Katya Scanlan, SHRM Knowledge Center

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The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the world’s largest association devoted to human resource management. Representing more than 250,000 members in over 140 countries, the Society serves the needs of HR professionals and advances the interests of the HR profession. Founded in 1948, SHRM has more than 575 affiliated chapters within the United States and subsidiary offices in China, India and United Arab Emirates.

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