Are your employees clamoring for naptime and pet health insurance as employee perks?  A recent SHRM survey shows that most employers are still focusing on the basics in their benefits plans. 

Many articles have been written lately about the new, cutting-edge benefits employers are offering to attract and retain employees, such as concierge services and take-home meals.  However, a recent survey answered by 606 human resources professionals for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) indicates that most employers still primarily provide traditional benefits such as health insurance and paid leave.  The survey respondents work at a wide variety of employers, including manufacturers, health services, financial institutions, and nonprofit organizations, which range in size from less than 100 employees to over 5000 employees.   

Health, Life Insurance Provided by Most Employers 

According to the survey, almost all of the respondents offer some sort of health insurance (99%), dental insurance (96%), and life insurance (95%).  Health screening and wellness programs also are popular, although the number of responding organizations offering these benefits dropped slightly since last year.  The number of employers offering health screening programs (such as cholesterol and blood pressure tests) declined from 48% in 1999 to 41% in 2000, while wellness programs suffered a dip from 56% of respondents in 1999 to 49% in 2000.  On-site flu vaccination programs, however, continued to gain in popularity and increased from 61% in 1999 to 65% in 2000. 

Family-Friendly Benefits Emphasize Flexible Scheduling 

Benefits that focus on flexibility for employees who want more family time are offered by most of the respondents.  Over half of the respondents (51%) offer flextime, while over a quarter allow different alternative work schedules, including compressed work weeks (27%), telecommuting (26%), and job sharing (22%).  However, both childcare and elder care benefits are relatively rare.  Only 6% of the respondents subsidize childcare costs, and 17% provide childcare referral services.  Elder care benefits fare even worse, with only 1% of respondents subsidizing the costs of elder care and 15% providing referral services. 

A surprising number of employers actually have decreased their paid time-off benefits.  Only 87% of the respondents offer vacation for 2000 (compared to 94% in 1999), and 41% provide paid personal days (down from 55% in 1999).  In addition, only 74% offer paid sick days for 2000.  These numbers are particularly confounding given the assumption that employers should offer more paid time off to attract new workers in the tight labor market.  The SHRM survey does not provide any satisfactory explanation for this result. 

Unusual Benefits Few and Far Between 

In spite of the media’s focus on the unusual, most employers do not offer the new personal “lifestyle” perks.  Only 10% of respondents offer dry cleaning services, while concierge services (where a hotel-type concierge arranges personal services like dinner reservations and personal shopping) are provided by 4%.  Pet health insurance (to cover Fido’s surgery), naptime (to rejuvenate the harried executive or shift worker), and prepared meals to take home are offered by only 1% of the organizations surveyed.

For more information: SHRM 2000 Benefits Survey, available for $39.95 for non-SHRM members by calling 1-800-444-5006.  SHRM members can access the full survey for free on the Internet at http://www.shrm.org/surveys/. 

Percent of Companies Surveyed Offering Traditional Benefits