Benefits Trends by Kris Fell Illustrations by Leslie Cober-Gentry Today's tight job market puts the employee in the driver's seat as never before. More and more, the demographics of the work force mirror the demographics of society at large, and employers are going all out to meet the needs of this increasingly diverse pool of workers. But even as employers are paying more to attract and retain, employees are jumping ship at record rates. We conducted several employee-attitude surveys, and found that employees in their first year and employees age 55 and older are often the happiest. It's the employees with two to 10 years of service who feel ignored by most organizations.
Pay remains employees' primary concern.
People need to know that their compensation, including bonus programs, is in line with the market price for comparable jobs. And they want firms to walk the talk. And with good reason. So companies are taking a good hard look at their human-resources departments, and often rethinking strategy. At the same time, however, employers are less willing to pay to keep their work force healthy.