EMPLOYERS motivate their employees to perform better in several ways. One is to provide benefits.
Since August 2007, more than 135,000 users have taken part in an internet poll about wages conducted by Merces.sk, part of Profesia. The poll looked at 14 of the most common benefits which employers offer employees. The responses suggest that the most frequently provided benefit is education for employees, while the least common benefit is a contribution to health insurance. One third of the respondents did not list any benefit.
In a short questionnaire, respondents provided data concerning their pay, ownership of their company, region, education, and employee benefits. According to the poll, employers most frequently provide education for their employees – more than 28 percent of respondents. The second most common benefit is drinks at the workplace (26 percent); 23 percent of respondents listed flexible working time. Only 5 percent of respondents mentioned a contribution towards health insurance as a benefit.
The poll suggested that Hungarian employers provide fewer extra incentives to their employees compared to their Slovak and Czech counterparts. In the Czech Republic, the most frequently provided benefit is extra leave – almost 30 percent, according to the Merces.cz poll stated. In Hungary, first place went to contributions to the cost of commuting to work – stated by 25 percent of the respondents on Merces.hu.
The biggest difference in providing benefits are in extra leave, which was mentioned by almost 10 times more Czechs than Hungarians. In Slovakia, this benefit was enjoyed by three times more respondents than in Hungary, according to the poll. Employee education was mentioned by half as many Hungarian employees when compared to Slovaks and Czechs.
The poll results suggest that there is a growing demand for workers’ qualifications, given the rising share of respondents listing as a benefit employee education. More than one half of software engineers stated that their employer offered them flexible working time. Education benefits are rendered by employers mainly to software engineers and chief accountants, and also to one third of accountants, marketing managers and salespeople. Employers provide a company car for private purposes to half of salespeople and managers. Almost every tenth storeman has his or her commuting costs covered.
The comparison of benefits rendered according to gender shows that only one benefit is enjoyed more by women than men: extra leave (11 percent of women, compared to 9 percent of men).
