A healthy work-life balance has risen to the top of employees’ wish list, ahead of salary, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, new research from Aviva has shown.
According to Aviva, more female employees picked work-life balance (44%) over salary (33%), while salary continued to rank higher among male employees, with 43% attracted to a pay packet over work-life balance (34%).
Overall, 41% of employees surveyed said they were attracted to their current role for the work-life balance, ahead of those attracted by salary (36%). This is a switch in rankings compared to 2019, when 41% of workers valued salary compared to 40% who opted for their role for the work-life balance.
In addition, the overwhelming majority of employees (88%) said workplace benefits improve their overall happiness, up from 86% before the pandemic.
Laura Stewart-Smith, head of client engagement at Aviva, said: “Before the pandemic, it would have been difficult to imagine a time when employees would pick a role for the work-life balance over the salary. The pandemic seems to have shone a light on the importance of being able to juggle family-life, exercise-life, dog-life – whatever the lifestyle – with work-life.
“Getting this balance right for employees and employers is a tricky one but if successfully achieved it can often mean a happier and more productive workplace.”
Aviva said nearly nine in 10 employees (87%) would like to see improvements to their workplace benefits package over the next 12 months. However, 53% of employers said they would struggle to offer competitive workplace benefits to their employees, up from 42% in 2019.
Stewart-Smith added: “The workplace benefits package on offer and the level of employer pension contributions are clearly both still important to employees in a post-pandemic world. However, it is a tough time right now and it’s understandable that employers might be feeling like they struggle to provide a competitive package.
“Given the economic challenges, making the most of what already exists is important. Employers can only get the best return on investment if employees fully understand and utilise the benefits available to them and key to achieving this is good engagement.
“It is important when communicating the workplace benefits package to be sensitive to the financial challenges people might be facing in the current climate and employee case studies of those who have benefitted may be a useful tool in bringing to life what a workplace benefits package can do for other colleagues.”
