The Most Important Employee Benefits Based on Different Generations – 2019

If you offer benefits or considering offering benefits to your employees, this study is very insightful both from a generation perspective and overall perspective of what employees perceive as more important in terms of job benefits. While each individual may have their own preferences, this study has interesting findings to each generation group.

Besides paying your employees a competitive salary, here are some areas you can look into to holistically provide a working experience that is in line with your business’ core vision.

The following are results from a study by Benify in 2019 for “Employee Happiness”. 19,100 participants from 61 organizations participated in the study.

Generation Definitions

• Baby Boomer – Born 1945-1965 (Aged 50’s to 70’s)
• Generation X – Born 1965-1980 (Aged 30’s to 50’s)
• Generation Y (Millenial) – Born 1981-1994 (Middle 20’s to 30)
• Generation Z – Born 1995 or later (Aged 20’s and younger)

Baby Boomers

1. Pension
2. Working hours and leave
3. Healthcare
4. Health and wellness
5. Insurance

Generation X

1. Working hours and leave
2. Health and wellness
3. Pension
4. Skills development
5. Healthcare

Generation Y (Millenials)

1. Working hours and leave
2. Health and wellness
3. Skills development
4. Pension
5. Healthcare

Generation Z

1. Working hours and leave
2. Health and wellness
3. Skills development
4. Healthcare
5. Pension

All Aged Groups

1. Working hours and leave
2. Health and wellness
3. Pension
4. Healthcare
5. Skills developmment
6. Work-life balance
7. Insurance
8. Financial benefits
9. Food and beverages
10. Mobility (Transportation)

Discussion

An area of opportunity that is important to consider is the health and wellness of your employees. The OTPF-4 has adopted health management as an occupation and other organizations internationally are placing an increased emphasis in this area, such as with the Triple Aim/Quadruple Aim. Improving the health and wellness of your employees has many benefits including mental health, improved fitness to perform job duties and decreased risk for injury, and potentially overall job satisfaction. Some examples are offering gym discounts, health incentives, friendly fitness competitions, give-aways, and so on.

While this is nothing new as some employers have offered incentives tied to outcomes such as non-smoking or healthy lab values, there are many new exciting technologies to integrate and offer. Some examples include wellness apps and fitness trackers. This area is well within the occupational therapy entrepreneur’s wheelhouse as health and wellness align with the occupational therapy profession and likely the entrepreneur’s vision and goals for their business.

Another area of opportunity to provide benefits is skill development. There are many new technologies to provide these benefits as well. Occupational therapists are required to continue their education with CEUs. Why not offer this to your employees? Many of these educational platforms offer group discounts as well. These days, they can all be completed online from a desktop or even mobile.

Mentorship also falls into this category. Oftentimes, mentorship is informal compared to when a student completes fieldwork. Why not make it more tangible and structured for new grads who are eager to lear?n You can offer incentives to both the mentor and mentee – and everyone benefits from collaboration, skill development, and improved team building.

Traditional methods still work quite well such as in-services from other therapists, vendors, or resources that may be helpful. This helps to get your team on the same page, inform them of the latest technology and resources in your area, and could potentially cut down on costs related to inefficiencies, outdated technologies, or wasted time due to resources no longer being available, or not being covered in the first place. If you have high turnover or a large number of staff, this is worthwhile to look into because while an added expenses, it may save you in both the short and long-term for your bottom line due to improved employee satisfaction, competencies, productivity, and team communication/collaboration.

What other benefits can you look into “revamping” or providing to your employees besides increased salary and bonuses?