Benefits and Job Perks
What Benefits Are Important to Tech Professionals?
The benefits that tech professionals value most haven’t changed significantly year over year, but unfortunately, neither have the gaps between what they want and what they’re getting from their organizations. That means there is still an incredible opportunity for companies to set themselves apart by offering recruitment packages that combine a competitive salary and traditional benefits (healthcare, paid time off, etc.) with the things that technology professionals continue to care about.
The three key benefits showing the largest gaps between importance to technology professionals and what they’re currently receiving are work-from-home stipends, training and education, and stock programs. All were identified as the top gaps last year, and in each case, the gap widened between 2021 and 2022: WFH stipend (from 24% to 35%), training and education (from 24% to 26%) and stock programs (from 22% to 28%). While all require an additional outlay of compensation, the budget pales in comparison to salary or bonuses, and yet could be a differentiator for companies if offered to candidates in the right way.
Benefits That Are Important to Tech Professionals
The Benefit Gap
The Benefits Employees Have vs. Those They Find Important
Other areas where the expectation gap widened included gym/fitness center reimbursement (42% consider it important vs. 21% who receive it) and commuter reimbursement (37% find it important vs. only 14% who receive it). Opportunities also continue to exist in areas where progress has been made, but gaps remain. Examples include paid sick days (75% find it important vs. 66% who receive it), remote schedule options (76% find important vs. 70% who receive it) and flexible schedule (74% find important vs. 60% who receive it).
In some good news, organizations were able to close gaps in critical areas in 2022. Most notably, the gap between importance and receipt for paid vacation days fell from 7% to 3%, and the gap for maternity/paternity leave dropped from 8% to 4% (now, 46% who consider it important, and 42% are receiving the benefit).
Another data-supported trend is tech professionals’ continued gravitation toward actions and choices that support healthy work-life balance. This year, respondents increased the level of importance they place on wellness programs (including behavioral and mental health) to 58% (from 49% in 2021). This focus on wellbeing is not new, but the importance placed on it in the context of employers creating a healthy environment and a culture supportive of optimized work-life balance is gaining traction. In the next section, you’ll see that data on the amount of vacation days tech professionals plan to use also supports this shift in professionals’ minds about how employers can help them make choices — in a work context and in their personal lives.
Vacation
Between 2021 and 2022, organizations didn’t make many adjustments to their respective paid-vacation plans. Relatively few (10%) offered their tech employees “unlimited vacation time,” opting instead for between one to five weeks of paid vacation. (Some 14% of tech professionals reported receiving no vacation days, but we assume many of these are contractors or gig workers.)
Whatever organizations offered in terms of vacation time, some 45% of tech professionals said they took it all (up significantly from 39% who responded this way in 2021), while 27% took more than half, but not quite all. Only 16% took less than half, and 12% were unsure. Vacation time is clearly a desirable perk, and tech professionals in search of work-life balance will use as much of it as they can. For organizations wrestling with budget issues, offering more vacation time in lieu of a substantial raise or other perks could be a solution.
How much vacation is available to you?
How much vacation do you plan to take this year?
Bonuses
Throughout 2022, many organizations tightened their budgets in the face of economic uncertainty, even curtailing bonuses. This could be a key reason why fewer technology professionals reported receiving a bonus in 2022 (38%) compared to 2021 (41%).
However, among those companies still funding this particular incentive, bonuses were larger on average, rising year over year from $12,665 to $13,794. For these organizations, larger bonuses might serve as an important way to attract and retain top talent, especially given the intense demand for tech professionals with certain kinds of skills.
For organizations that depend on highly specialized tech talent to grow and survive, the pressure to continue paying bonuses is enormous. Tech professionals with skills in “hot” arenas such as cloud architecture and machine learning know that rivals will be only too happy to offer bonuses and other perks to entice them. Managers may need to press their leadership to keep a bonus program going — or risk losing talent at a crucial moment.