Faced with a competitive job market and stagnant wages, more organizations are turning to their benefit offerings — healthcare coverage and retirement savings programs, among them — to help recruit and retain prized employees, according to the 2015 Strategic Benefits Survey released by Society for Human Resource Management.

The survey found 38% of respondents said their organization leveraged benefits to recruit employees at all levels during the past 12 months, a statistically significant increase from 26% in 2013 and 29% in 2012. More than half the respondents said their organizations had difficulty recruiting highly skilled employees, and 40% said their organizations used benefits to lure these hard-to-recruit employees during the past 12 months, an increase of 10 percentage points since 2013.

“While the competition for talented workers has heated up, there has been little change in base salaries. So HR has strategically turned to benefits to attract — and keep — skilled professionals,” said Evren Esen, director of SHRM’s survey programs. “From unlimited vacation to unusual perks such as electric car charging stations, companies are using benefits to set themselves apart from the competition.”

To retain employees at all levels of their organization, one-third of HR professionals looked to benefits in the past 12 months, up from 18% 2013 and 20% in 2012. 

In other findings, the survey results showed:

Healthcare

• 96% of organizations offered healthcare insurance plans.
• For plan year 2015, respondents said their organization is paying on average 76% of employees’ total healthcare costs.
• 46% of respondents said their organization increased the share employees pay for healthcare this plan year over last plan year.
• 72% had not considered providing subsidies to their employees to purchase healthcare insurance through a private exchange.
• “Healthcare is the benefit mostly highly valued by employees,” Esen said. “Maintaining coverage is an effective tool for recruitment and retention. In coming years, retirement savings, compensation, flexible work and career development also will play increasingly important roles in recruiting strategies.”

Wellness

• 69% said their organizations offered a wellness program, resource or service.
• 52% indicated employee participation in wellness programs increased year over year, as has been the case since 2012.

Flexible work arrangements

• 48% of HR professionals indicated their organization provided employees with the option to use flexible work arrangements.
• 29% of employers that do so reported an increase in employee participation over last year. 

Assessment and communication of benefits

• Few organizations use social media to communicate information about benefits to their employees. This may change, as 9% said they plan to start using social media as a benefits communication tool within the next 12 months.

The six-part 2015 Strategic Benefits Survey polled more than 460 randomly selected HR professionals in May and June 2015.