More than three in five (63 per cent) employers have watched a candidate accept a job despite a salary shortfall, purely on the strength of the benefits on offer.

Wage growth is struggling to keep pace with the cost of living, and employers are having to compete on more than pay alone.

For HR leaders, the benefits conversation has moved from a nice-to-have to a core part of the employee value proposition, but only when what's on offer is relevant, not just plentiful.

Lauren Waddell, HR manager at global visual effects house Framestore, has built her benefits strategy around exactly that principle. "Benefits is such an interesting space because it's almost like an economic indicator sometimes to tell you what's actually happening in workplaces," she said.

"Certainly since COVID it's changed a lot, because some of the things that were benefits pre-COVID are now just a given. Flexible work or remote working, we used to pitch those as something we offer that other places don't. Now they're a standard, and we've had to go out and find new things, in quite a tight economic environment."

Legacy perks give way to smarter benefits spending

Waddell points to employee assistance programs (EAPs) as the clearest example of a benefit that has been overtaken by expectation. "EAPs used to be something we'd pitch as a really exciting benefit," she said.

"Now, with [new workplace health and safety obligations], it's compulsory. You pretty much have to have an EAP. So all of these things that used to be exciting are now offered as standard, and we have to refresh our whole mindset of what's the next benefit that can come through."

She includes office perks such as kitchen food and workplace design in the same category: "Those things are just standard and part of what people expect now."

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