The employee benefits landscape is ever-changing as the needs and wants of our workforce change. But for many organizations their benefits haven’t adapted to the current workforce’s expectations. The COVID-19 pandemic and the “Great Resignation” prompted employers to evaluate their employee benefits strategies to help attract and retain talent, but what about now? Are employee expectations still the same? Are more changes necessary? Let’s look at some data for these answers.
Per the 2023 SHRM Employee Benefits survey, the following outlines the importance of benefit categories:
As shown below, the 2023 SHRM Employee Benefits survey results show an increase in importance for the highest rated benefit categories from the pre-pandemic 2019 results. Despite the increase in corporate commitments to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) and the growing acceptance in society of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual people (collectively known as LGBTQIA+), according to the Human Rights Campaign, 46 percent of LGBTQ individuals remain closeted at work.
The main reasons LGBTQIA+ people choose to remain silent is due to:
Progress over the last two decades has been made but it is still an ongoing challenge. According to a recent report by the Human Rights Campaign, they counted 842 employers who achieved a perfect score and 1,271 companies who are actively participating in its 2022 corporate equality index, which benchmarks participants on their LGBTQ-inclusive benefits, policies, and practices. This is compared to 300 total participants and 13 organizations receiving top scores when the report was launched in 2002. There is a growing need for businesses to review their practices, policies, and benefit offerings concerning their mental health strategy. Even with the abundance of resources surrounding mental health, in a recent SHRM Foundation survey, one-in-three workers stated they would sacrifice higher pay for a workplace that provides increased mental health benefits. In that same study, 86 percent of HR professionals in the US stated that employee retention can be improved by offering mental health resources.
Each business and even departments within the business are unique in their size, structure, products, services, offerings, and the type of employees it takes to support the objectives. It can become an overwhelming task for HR to understand all the nuances within each aspect of the business and the needs of the employee population to craft a strategy. Here are some ways to help get the process started. 1. Defining Goals, Roles, and Players
There is a growing need for companies to re-evaluate their hiring practices when it comes to ensuring candidates have the proper skills and aptitude for the role. Traditionally, hiring processes primarily included reviewing the candidate’s resume, previous experience and education, to help determine if that candidate is a good fit.
Today, more employers are looking to evaluate candidates based on their skills, abilities, and potential in addition to their work history. This new perspective will help businesses with:
There are challenges to incorporating a new skills-based approach into the hiring practice. Companies will need to shift their practices from where candidates are being “screened out” to candidates being “screened in.” This will require many businesses to:
There have been reoccurring conversations about the disparity in pay between men and women, but do you know about the other gender inequalities that plague our workplaces? It’s true…there are others that exist outside of the gender pay gap that we need to bring to light. And as the data shows, many of these inequalities are quite concerning. For example, a 2022 McKinsey & Company report explored gender inequality at work and factors that influence it:
The challenges that women face at work, and particularly women of color, isn’t getting better but is getting worse than what we’ve seen in the past. The gap is widening beyond pay inequality, meaning that organizations aren’t doing a good job in addressing such issues. While many might say this is a DEI issue, and it is, it is more of a human issue—ensuring that all people have/get the same opportunities to excel and recognizing where equitable business practices need to be implemented. So, what does an organization do to address this? Well, that’s a great question. Here are some tips on how to improve gender equality in the workplace: |
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