‘Soft’ options aren’t enough

Soft benefits like dressing down policies fail to persuade employees to stick with companies – they want hard cash incentives.

The findings come in a survey by NOP commissioned by newmonday.com, a pan-European on-line career management and recruitment service launched last week.

The NOP survey was conducted on 1,000 people at random in Britain between the ages of 24 to 55.

As well as looking for traditional benefits such as pensions and healthcare, employees want share options, overtime and bonuses.

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Six out of 10 felt their salary and benefits package was not enough. The highest proportion of those surveyed (71 per cent) wanted paid travel to and from work. Also popular was profit-related pay (50 per cent). Nearly four out of 10 wanted shares in their firm, a view held most strongly by men. Respondents also voted for a PC or laptop for use at home and for payment for voluntary overtime.

Only 16 per cent were highly interested in a dressing down policy. Flexible hours appealed to 48 per cent, with 22 per cent attracted by working from home.