Experienced HR Directors have long recognized that most employees have little interest in pension issues until late in their careers. Accordingly, recruiting managers viewed pension benefits as providing little “bang for the bucks” in attracting and retaining employees. 

 

This has changed dramatically in the last two years, based on a highly informal survey we performed among HR Directors in various U.S. markets. In 2003, HR Directors rated basic compensation package issues on their apparent importance in candidate’s consideration of job offers.

 

            High Competitive Importance

                        Salary

                        Bonus

                        Health Insurance cost (employee share)

                        Vacation

                        Parking and Transportation allowance

 

            Moderate Competitive Importance

                        Health Insurance benefits (co-pays, covered service, network)

                        Tuition reimbursement

                        Short term disability (sick leave)

                        Holidays

                        Maternity/Paternity policies

                       

            Low Competitive Importance

                        Pension employer (contribution, self direction and portability)

                        Long term disability

                        Life insurance

                        Credit union

                        Group purchasing programs

                        Employee assistance programs

                       

We conducted the same informal poll last month using, to the extent possible, the same people we talked to in 2005. The results showed increased importance of long term issues.          

 

                        Salary

                        Bonus

                        Health Insurance cost (employee share)

                        Health Insurance benefits (co-pays, covered service, network)

                        Maternity/Paternity policies

                       

                       

 

            Moderate Competitive Importance

                        Vacation

                        Parking and Transportation allowance

                        Tuition reimbursement

                        Employee assistance programs

                                               

            Low Competitive Importance

                        Long term disability

                        Life insurance

                        Credit union

                        Group purchasing programs

                        Short term disability (sick leave)

                        Holidays

 

We suspect the change in importance of pension issues is a direct result of the current high profile coverage of discussion of changes in social security and the continued aging of the work force. At the same time, the increased importance of maternity benefits may be the result of a wider difference in benefits among firms, particularly with salary continuation under FMLA and the availability of part-time, telecommuting and flexible hours work opportunities.

Law firm HR Directors and Recruiting Managers are actively seeking second language fluency as a major plus for candidates, particularly in New York City, California, Texas and Miami. The desire for language capability is not limited to Spanish, however. Among the most desired language capabilities among lawyers, secretaries and paralegals are Mandarin, Portuguese and Slavic languages.

The concept of signing bonuses, which used to be associated with high draft picks among professional athletes, is becoming routine in the recruitment of senior staff members. We are seeing bonuses of 10 to 20 percent given to newly recruited Director level employees as a means of meeting compensation demands without disrupting internal salary scales. Typically the bonuses are viewed as one-time payments which are not built into future percentage increases. By the same token, if the employee does not work out, the bonus is not part of a severance package.