Alexandra Powell
Picture the ideal employee. You might think: super productive, endlessly positive, spreading cheer throughout the office – where of course they work every day. Brand champion outside of work, using and promoting your products everywhere, recruits the best people to work for you. So loyal, ambitious and always learning.
Now picture the opposite: An employee who accomplishes as little as possible, spreads gloom in the workplace, badmouths your brand and is forever on the verge of quitting.
Some employees may come by these characteristics naturally. But since nature always combines with nurture to shape our characters, employers have a great deal of opportunity to nurture engagement at work. What you give to employees for their time and efforts – beyond salary and bonuses – can make the difference between
fostering the ideal employee or creating the one you wish you’d never hired.
But how does an organization foster a collection of ideal employees? Employee needs vary – sometimes widely – from person to person, which makes finding the right mix of benefits increasingly difficult. Our newest report, An EVP that Drives Engagement: the power of benefits, recognition and appreciation, explores how 1,000 employees in organizations of all sizes across the U.S. are feeling about their employers and their benefits, alongside the role that recognition and appreciation play in their workplaces.
Read on to learn some high-level takeaways from the report, but download now (for free!) to get the full breakdown.
Part I: Benefits
77% of employees are satisfied or extremely satisfied with their current employers’ benefits.
That’s a pretty good sign for employers, overall, but there’s still plenty of room for growth. Especially when you start to break down that total into some demographic splits.
For example: Men (81%) are more likely than women (73%) to be satisfied with their benefits, and women are twice as likely as men (14% vs. 7%) to be dissatisfied with their benefits. Additionally, we find that employees in the Technology industry are the most satisfied at 87% – with Manufacturing (86%) and Financial Services (85%) right behind – but Healthcare employees are the most dissatisfied at 13%.
Benefits deep dive
“Benefits” is a broad category, it’s true – so we asked about eight specific categories:
- Insurance-related
- Financial-related
- Health and wellbeing–related
- Family-related
- Transportation-related
- Time off–related
- Growth-related
- Education-related
Of these categories, insurance was consistently the #1 most important, most sought-after, and most impactful on productivity, with financial-related benefits consistently right behind it. The other categories vary broadly by demographic – for example, family-related benefits are more appealing to Millennial (46%) and Gen Z (35%) than a 10% pay raise than it is for Gen X (29%) and older (17%) employees. Similarly, growth-related benefits are important for 33% of Gen Z and 30% of Millennial employees – i.e. those earlier in their career journeys – but less than 20% of both Gen X and older employees.
Download our report to read more about how employees are feeling about their benefits – with demographic breakdowns for gender, generation, industry and more – to help shape your benefits strategy moving into 2025.
Part II: Recognition
84% of employees surveyed feel more appreciated as a person when they receive customized recognition for their performance at work.
We’ve been talking about the importance of employee recognition and reward for years at Reward Gateway | Edenred (it’s kind of a big deal around here) and the data continues to support our focus.
When employees receive recognition in their preferred format, such as a personalized eCard, a gift certificate to their favorite shop or a gift item that screams “me,” they feel more connected to their workplace and less stressed. It’s a dopamine hit that says, “I’m seen.”
Across generational and personality-type (introvert vs. extrovert) boundaries, recognition programs also make 82% of employees feel more connected to their workplace – although extroverts feel it the most at 88%.
Part III: Appreciation
49% of employees regularly feel appreciated for being themselves at work.
Rather than look at this less-than-half number as a crisis and panic, let’s consider it an opportunity for growth – what are strategies your organization could deploy to improve the level of appreciation felt by its employees? Should you look into managerial training, L&D programming or new benefits?
The top 2 contributors to employee appreciation are strong communication with one’s manager (58%) and recognition of personal milestones (51%). Employees who aren't feeling appreciated at work are looking for benefits that matter to them (57%) and opportunities to learn and grow (37%).
It’s important to commune with your employees about their wants and needs to get a feel for what’s most important to them and potential future employees. Don’t be afraid to offer benefits that only serve portions of your population, as well; for example, we have our “Get Home Safely” benefit, which allows any Reward Gateway | Edenred employee to expense a taxi or rideshare out of unsafe situations. It is far from our most-used benefit (thankfully!), but it’s incredible value is proven every time someone does need to use it.
Read the report, but hungry for more details? Reach out to one of our friendly employee experience experts to learn how Reward Gateway | Edenred can help you make your corner of the world a better place to work.
