Not Mentioning Employee Benefits – The Huge Mistake Recruiters keep Making

There are two facts that any company looking to recruit might want to consider – they demonstrate a key mistake that is being made time, and time again.
Fact number one is that potential employees place huge value on employee, workplace benefits.
Of course, this varies by individual, but repeated surveys in the past couple of years show that these benefits can actually be as much of a draw as the salary itself. That isn’t to say salary doesn’t matter, just that the ethos of the company and how they go above and beyond salary is a key determining factor.
Whether it is discounted memberships, cycle to work, or schemes such as an ability to buy or sell holiday, the benefits have moved beyond a nice to have to being essential.
The second fact is that most job listings fail to make any mention of the employee benefits the employer provides. The listing is sure to mention the role, key responsibilities and the company ethos.
It will make reference to the salary – even if only to say it will be based on experience. 
Too many still focus on the ‘what we expect of you’ side of the listing and not the why you should want to join us flip side.
The extent of this problem was uncovered by GRiD, a body for the group risk sector.

Staying Silent

They found that employee benefits are mentioned in just 22% of job advertisements. And, this only increases to 25% when we factor in all pre-joining correspondence.
This means that 75% of new recruits will start day one with no mention having been made of employee benefits.
There are two huge problems here – that a negative image of the business will be unintentionally created and also that a huge opportunity to attract quality new recruits is missed.
Failing to mention employee benefits can inadvertently create the impression that people aren’t really encouraged to use these benefits. They therefore become somewhat pointless.
We studied this in a recent blog post, looking at a Forbes article highlighting the pressures felt by working parents and the need they feel to be both a perfect employee and perfect parent.
Employee benefits can help them establish more of a healthy workalike balance, but they need to feel that the company actually wants them to take the benefits. Too often, they feel that if they sign up for benefits this creates an impression they are not suitably dedicated to their work.
For those looking to join, a huge differentiating factor is missed.
It is a generalisation, but true none the less that ever more people want that elusive work life balance. They want a job that is more than simply a source of income (welcome though that is).
Not only do most would-be employees want a range of work place benefits, they also aren’t seeing them mentioned by most of your rival companies.
By having a suite of benefits and then bothering to include examples in the job ad, you’ll be ahead of close to 80% of other businesses!
That the benefits should offer something to everyone is perhaps obvious – although it is fairly common for employers to make the mistake of having a suite of benefits that really only benefits a certain type of employee.
However, what is the point of the benefits if they are not providing some benefit?
They can be key to recruiting and then retaining a high quality of employee. They can help to maintain staff motivation. A benefit such as the Employee Assistance Programme can even help to address mental health concerns.
But. But but but!
You need to tell people about them – and that includes those people you hope to recruit.