Employee Benefits Could Help Retain Top Performers, Aflac Finds
Posted by Mary Ellen Slayter
Nearly half of U.S. workers are at least somewhat likely to look for a job this year, bucking common assumptions about the employment market, according to the 2012 Aflac WorkForces Report, a national study analyzing forces driving the trends, attitudes and use of employee benefits.
The Aflac study found that those employees who are extremely or very likely to look for a new job in 2012 say the following qualities describe them fairly or extremely well:
- Hard worker, 90 percent.
- High achiever at work, 79 percent.
- Highly educated, 73 percent.
- Ambitious; someone who strives to get ahead, 64 percent.
What Would Make Them Stay?
Employee benefits appear to be a factor in workers; assessment of whether an employer is taking care of them. Workers who are extremely or very satisfied with their employee benefits program are far more likely to stay with their employer than those workers who are dissatisfied with their benefits program, the study found. In fact, 76 percent of employees believe they’d be at least somewhat likely to accept a job with a more robust employee benefits package but lower compensation.
“Employers should be concerned that after several years of recession and a very slow recovery, their top talent has a pent-up desire to leave for what they believe to be greener pastures,” said Audrey Boone Tillman, executive vice president of Corporate Services at Aflac. “Our study also sheds light on some of the reasons employees consider leaving and what employers can do to keep them.”
Other highlights from the Aflac report:
- 84 percent of workers say employee benefits are at least somewhat important in the decision to leave a current employer, and 50 percent say they’re very or extremely influential.
- 35 percent of workers who don’t believe their company has a reputation as a great place to work say they are extremely likely to leave in the next 12 months.
- One-third of workers who don’t believe retaining employees is an important priority for their employer say they are likely to leave.
- Workers who said they are stressed out are nearly twice as likely (43 percent vs. 25 percent) to leave their job compared to workers who are not stressed. Another 28 percent of employees who are extremely likely to leave their job in the next 12 months say they don’t have peace of mind.
The 2012 Aflac WorkForces Report is an online survey of nearly 1,900 benefits decision-makers and more than 6,100 U.S. workers, conducted in January and February 2012 by Research Now and released by Aflac, the No. 1 provider of supplemental and guaranteed-renewable insurance in the United States.
Download the full report at AflacWorkForcesReport.com.
Wed, Jun 13, 2012
Talent Strategies