One of the big factors in considering whether to accept a job is the benefits package that goes with it.
But once they take the job, it doesn’t necessarily follow that employees are satisfied with the benefits they’re getting—and if they’re not happy, they probably won’t hang around.
That’s according to research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, which reported that more than a third—36 percent—of workers say that the benefits package at work is extremely important, while 41 percent say it’s very important.
“In fact,” EBRI said in its report, “22 percent of workers report they have accepted, quit, or changed jobs because of the benefits, other than salary or wage level, that an employer offered or failed to offer.”
But just 14 percent of workers say they’re extremely satisfied with those benefits, and 37 percent very satisfied—barely over half the workers surveyed.
Another 30 percent are only somewhat satisfied; the rest are not too satisfied (11 percent) or not at all satisfied (9 percent).
If that’s not a big enough alarm for employers, research also found that job satisfaction and worker morale are strongly correlated with benefits satisfaction.
EBRI said that 54 percent of those who are extremely satisfied with their benefits are also extremely satisfied with their current job, compared with only 20 percent of those who are very satisfied.
Just 10 percent of those who are at most somewhat satisfied with their benefits say they are extremely satisfied with their job.
The highest-ranked benefits are health insurance (88 percent of workers said it was extremely or very important), a retirement plan (75 percent of workers classed it as extremely or very important) and dental or vision insurance (70 percent said those were extremely or very important).
But when it comes to retirement, 50 percent of workers say a traditional pension or defined benefit plan is extremely or very important. Yet it’s something just 31 percent of employers in the study provide.
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