Jessica O'ConnorThree quarters (76%) of financial services employees believe they get good value for money from their reward packages – the highest of all sectors surveyed, according to research from Zest.
Other sectors with high employee satisfaction in terms of value for money include business services and IT, which ranked a close second.
75% of employees in both industries believed their workplace perks offered good value for money.
Healthcare and education were the worst-performing sectors in terms of value for money.
Just four in 10 (42%) of education employees and half (48%) of those working in healthcare said they thought their reward packages offered good value.
Despite four in 10 (39%) HR leaders in education saying that they have increased investment in their benefits package in the past 12 months, six in 10 (57%) employees said their workplace benefits package is inadequate.
Four in 10 (37%) employees said that due to the benefits on offer being good enough, they want to leave the education sector.
Across all industries – six in 10 (58%) employees admitted they do not use most of the benefits currently available to them and half (47%) said they feel as though their benefits are irrelevant to their personal situation.
Although four in 10 (37%) of all businesses said they have increased investment in their benefits offering in the past 12 months, just 45% of employees felt as though their employer listens to their needs and responds through the benefits they offer.
Given 19% of firms reported that they are struggling to keep up with competitors who are raising salaries – and 58% of employees said that they’d leave their current job if another company offered them better perks.
Matt Russell, CEO of Zest, says: “Benefits are an effective approach to reward employees, but too many packages offer poor value for both employer and employee.
“Financial services firms are doing a better job than other sectors when it comes to understanding employee needs.
“Getting a benefits package right ensures that employees are fully supported, more empowered and more productive – key to meeting commercial targets and business growth plans.
“However, this research will make for painful reading for education businesses – the sector is the worst-performing in terms of value for money in the eyes of its employees.
“Leaders in this sector must pay greater attention to their rewards packages if they are to retain staff – many of whom are considering changing sectors in order to access the support they sorely need.”
