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Flexibility is the top benefit job seekers desire but the majority of companies don't offer this freedom, according a new survey from The Harris Poll commissioned by Express Employment Professionals.

“Benefits play an important part in a healthy and dedicated company culture, and even small offerings can go a long way toward recruiting and retention in this competitive environment.” - Express Employment International CEO Bill Stoller

Flexibility remains king for non-traditional benefits as American workers feel companies should offer employees more control over their work hours and location, but less than 50% of businesses do.

This is according to a survey from The Harris Poll commissioned by Express Employment Professionals.

Currently, U.S. hiring managers report their companies offer paid leave (59%)—including paid maternity (47%), paternity (33%), paid parental leave for parents fostering and/or adopting (24%) and/or paid caregiver leave such as for those caring for elderly parents (15%).

Other benefits offered to employees include flexible work hours (47%), flexible work location (40%), the ability to work part-time (40%) and/or unpaid parental leave (33%). However, there appears to be a gap between the benefits companies currently offer and those that are important to employees.

From an employee perspective, it is important that a company offers flexible work hours (62%), flexible work locations (51%), paid leave (48%) and shortened work weeks (36%)—yet less than half of hiring decision-makers report their companies do so (47%, 40%, 48% and 23%, respectively).
Traditional Benefits

Regarding traditional benefits companies offer, more than half of U.S. hiring managers (54%) anticipate these offerings will remain the same in 2023 as they were in 2022. Nearly 2 in 5 (37%) expect that the traditional benefits will increase this year—a significant drop since the first half of 2022 (50%).

Even though many companies don’t plan to make changes to their traditional benefits this year, nearly two-thirds of U.S. hiring managers (64%) say their company has modified benefits in the hopes of retaining current employees or attracting new ones—however, fewer are doing so than reported in the first half of 2022 (71%).

Around 3 in 10 say they have increased the amount of paid time off offered to employees (27%). Others report their company has offered additional healthcare incentives such as gym memberships or mental health resources (24%).
In the continued hope of retaining and attracting employees, companies may want to consider remote work options and/or commuter stipends as nearly two-thirds of employed Americans (63%) say they would quit their job and find one closer to where they live because of the current cost to commute.

“Finding qualified employees continues to be a challenge, and from these statistics, it’s clear job seekers value flexibility in their careers,” Express Employment International CEO Bill Stoller said. “Benefits play an important part in a healthy and dedicated company culture, and even small offerings can go a long way toward recruiting and retention in this competitive environment.”

Survey Methodology

The Job Insights survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals between Dec. 1 and Dec. 15, 2022, among 1,002 U.S. hiring decision-makers (defined as adults ages 18+ in the U.S. who are employed full-time or self-employed, work at companies with more than one employee, and have full/significant involvement in hiring decisions at their company). Data were weighted where necessary by company size to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 3.2 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest.

The omnibus survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals from Dec. 13-15, 2022, among 2,041 adults ages 18 and older. Data are weighted where necessary by age, gender, race/ethnicity, region, education, marital status, household size, household income and propensity to be online, to bring them in line with their actual proportions in the population. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 2.8 percentage points using a 95% confidence level.