Time is the Best Perk to Attract New Talent

Nearly every company needs to find ways to attract and retain good talent. One of the best assets that you can offer is time. Companies are shifting their focus to valuing employees’ and candidates’ time as much as their productivity. Businesses are seeing the long-term value in a hybrid workplace, and are implementing “no-meeting days” in an employee's week. Companies are also offering more paid time off, as a survey by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that 23% of U.S. employers expanded their PTO benefits.

Employees are latching on to these new practices, and appreciate the healthy work/life balance it brings. This raises candidates’ expectations, as they are in search of employers who value their time. People want to work with employers who value their well-being, not just how much work they can get done in 8 hours. 

Candidates are looking for companies to embrace this flexibility, and companies need to jump on board to both attract and maintain employees. By offering perks that value your employee’s time, and creating the fastest interview process with on-demand interviews, you can attract new talent, while saving recruiters time.

Time Off

Whether you're working as a salaried engineer or you’re making lattes down at the local coffee shop, paid time off (PTO) is a must-have today. People are reevaluating their relationships with their employers and reassessing their priorities. Employees are finding that having more hours to devote to their families or personal matters is their number one priority. In fact, 62% of employees would choose a position with lower wages, for better benefits. 

With this priority shift in mind, businesses are needing to make changes in their time off offerings to continue attracting new employees (and retain their current ones). Here are some of the most notable steps being taken worldwide to offer employees more time off:

• Businesses are offering unlimited PTO as a benefit - MetLife's Employee Benefits Trends found that unlimited PTO was the top emerging benefit in 2019. 
• Many countries are introducing the 4-day work-week.
• In California, Rep. Takano has introduced legislation that reduces the standard workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours.

As companies introduce unlimited PTO, they also need to emphasize employees truly taking their time off work. In fact, 29% of Americans with unlimited paid time off policies work on every vacation, according to INSIDER. Respecting an employee’s time on and off the clock is the best way to help employees fully take time away from their work.

Respect The “Do Not Disturb” Sign

Employees (and employers) can’t be working all of the time. Scheduling time for yourself or even the entire company that is designated “do not disturb” can be an incredibly helpful way of reducing fatigue and burnout.

Maybe that means having “no meeting Thursday” as we do at Qualifi. Maybe that means joining Nike, LinkedIn, Bumble, and other companies in implementing a company-wide shutdown where everyone can unplug at the same time. 

Another way to help reduce fatigue is to replace meetings with an asynchronous communication method — for example, email, Slack, or other messaging tools. This allows employees to create and respect their own “do not disturb” times and answer messages on their time. By using an asynchronous interview scheduling tool you can show prospective employees that you respect their time and their schedules before they’re even on the team!