“Employers underestimate the urgent need for flexible remuneration,” according to a study by the RH Acerta human resources company.
In fact, 43% of employers said a “cateferia plan” was a priority for them, as against 70% of workers. In a “cafeteria plan”, workers can themselves compute part of their wage package (vacation, training, supplementary pension or company car).
The survey showed that 70.5% of employees felt it was important to be able to decide themselves on the contents of their wage package. Pensions, vacations and company cars were the three elements first quoted.
“Vacations have a greater importance to workers while the employer often thinks of scoring points with material elements (car, smart phone, tablet)", notes Acerta. "So employers still have room to be creative, for example with the holidays."
“If you authorise the saving of vacation days over many years, you will then be a modern employer encouraging professional savings. You can thus count on the fact that workers who can themselves save for a sabbatical holiday will be motivated in this way.”
On the other hand, training is an aspect that interests employers more than workers as a potential “cafeteria element”. In 2018, only 7% of workers raised that point as an interesting option, while 16% of employers felt their workers should find that option in a global package.
These statistics were drawn from the twice-yearly survey commissioned by HR Acerta and done by the Indiville consultancy among 569 employers, CEOs and Belgian management officials.
The Brussels Times
