Top 4 Benefits Employees Love

Employee benefits table stakes have evolved far beyond the basic medical, vision, and dental. Here are the four most-desired benefits employers should be offering.

Businessolver’s 2023 State of Workplace Empathy found that 69% of employees highly value core benefits. But that’s just one small piece of the bigger picture of what employees want to see—and highly value—in their benefits packages.

Today’s workforce is more diverse than ever before, and that includes health and wellbeing needs.

Our Empathy data revealed where employees are putting the most stock and value into their benefits today—flexibility and mental wellbeing being ranked among the top for a majority of employees. But our data also found that there’s a 60-point disparity between what employees want and what employers actually offer.

Here are four of employees’ top-ranked empathetic benefits.

Flexibility

In our eight years of measuring workplace empathy, flexibility has consistently ranked as one of employees’ top-valued benefits. In 2023, our data found that employees view flexible work hours (96%) and flexible work location (93%) as two of the most empathetic benefits an employer can offer.

Flexibility can provide employees the freedom to create more balance between work and life. Today, flexibility is often boiled down to “remote work,” but it’s so much more than that. Here are a few examples of what flexibility in the workplace looks like, whether you have a remote workforce or not:

Allow employees to build their working hours around their productivity and time zones. For example, some people may feel more productive early in the morning or later in the evening, outside of the “standard” 9-5.
Help employees balance their schedule around appointments without requiring them to use up PTO.
Designate “quiet zones” in the office and no-meeting days
Encourage taking breaks away from the work environment

Mental health support

We can’t underscore this one enough. Mental health has long been a priority for employees and HR alike. This year, though, the data has underscored how critical these resources are for employee wellbeing AND retention. According to this year’s Empathy data, 51% of employees and 61% of HR said they’ve experienced a mental health issue in the past year.

With more employees reporting stress, anxiety, and depression at work, mental health benefits are becoming all the more important—not just for recruitment and retention, but for the long-term wellbeing of your people. Investing into mental wellness can pay dividends for the business as well, reducing absenteeism and improving overall productivity and satisfaction at work.

Among the top mental health benefits employees want to see in the workplace are:

Coverage for mental health benefits through core medical offerings
Employee assistance programs that provide referrals and counseling treatment services
Mental health vacation days
Access to online mental health providers, clinics, and resources

Family benefits

9 in 10 employees have consistently asked for family-related benefits options in their total rewards, but less than half have access to such benefits. These benefits can provide more than just a little bit of respite for expecting parents. They can build a culture of empathy and work-life balance for all employees, from parents to caregivers, with flexibility and support.

As one of the top-ranked empathetic benefits, employers have a big opportunity to support the diverse needs of their employees with family planning options. These could include:

Paid parental leave
Caregiver support and resources
Adoption and surrogacy assistance
IVF and fertility support
Flexible hours and work location
Caregiver and post-partum mental health resources

Financial security

Our 2023 Benefits Insights data underscored the value of financial support at work: 45% of employees said they would feel panicked about an unexpected medical expense. Additionally, our Empathy data shows that 68% of employees value employer contributions to financial plans (like a pre-tax health spending account).

Financial stability benefits go way beyond preparing for medical expenses, though. Planning for the future, including retirement, is quickly gaining popularity among all employees. In tandem with other benefits and lifestyle needs, like flexibility for travel or family planning, financial benefits can have a lasting impact on employees’ livelihoods.

Aside from just your standard 401k offering, though, consider:

Making matching contributions to retirement accounts and health spending accounts
Offering dependent care flexible spending accounts to support parents and caregivers
Providing educational resources and support for financial planning

At the end of the day, benefits are the number two reason employees will stay—or leave—their job. Benefits are also a great way for employers to truly show that they care about their people’s wellbeing in actions, not just words.

Check out our latest empathy reports to learn more about how your organization can build more empathy through benefits.