Using Benefits & Perks to Attract Candidates

 It can be very difficult to attract and retain talent in a competitive market, particularly within the transactional side of Accountancy & Finance. There are lots of firms vying for the attention of the brightest and best. Many companies struggle to differentiate themselves from the competition and can lose out on great candidates for a number of reasons. Increasingly, many candidates are opting not to go to certain firms for one simple reason: They have nothing to offer beyond a salary. Many candidates, particularly in the Millennial generation of workers, expect a benefits package to accompany their take home pay. This could include perks such as a parking space, childcare vouchers or a discounted gym membership. In not offering any additional benefits, many firms will, ultimately, find themselves losing out on candidates to companies who do. In the US, the New York Post published an article to say that a 66% of employees are looking for meaningful perks alongside their salary. That’s a sizeable chunk of the workforce. Further to this, a Yoh survey revealed that 50% of employees would leave their job for better benefits elsewhere. Perks such as extra annual leave, health and wellbeing care or annual bonuses are seen as lucrative and appealing. Additional benefits such as professional development are also deemed important, whilst flexitime being the most sought after perk. Candidates now expect the vast majority of these ‘extras’ as standard. If candidates don’t see what they are looking for with your business, they will look elsewhere. My advice would be to formulate a reasonable benefits package and advertise it clearly during your interview process. Be open to negotiating certain perks with senior level candidates, who are more likely to be offered attractive extras elsewhere. Research has also suggested that offering employee benefits can decrease your turnover rate, improve staff morale and, ultimately, generate a better performance from employees who feel valued for their contribution. Offering something in return will demonstrate to your employees (existing and potential) that you are happy to reward hard work and willing to invest in someone as an individual. If your benefits genuinely feel useful to employees, it could potentially create greater feelings of loyalty towards your company. It really is the little things that can make the difference. Put simply, if a candidate had two job offers on the table (with the same salary and hours etc) and one offered a few extra perks and one didn’t … Guess which offer they’re going to take? Whilst it could, perhaps, be difficult for smaller firms to compete on the same level as The Big 4, a small show of flexibility or growth when it comes to negotiating a contract will go a long way to attracting high calibre candidates. If you would like to discuss your recruitment needs within the Accountancy and Finance market, I would happy to help you source great talent. Click here to see my details.