'You Day' to gym reimbursements: Jobseekers make most of sellers' market

Recruiters say recruits are leveraging talent crunch to demand flexible work and high salaries

From giving a ‘You Day’ off once a month to reimbursing gym memberships, employers are heeding job aspirants’ preferences as they look to lure them amid the current talent crunch.

Be it work from home (WFH), hybrid remote work or a five-day work week, recruiters say job-seekers are increasingly looking for a balanced life, demanding such benefits during hiring.

Hiring experts and job sites alike believe the trend is here to stay as long as the current sellers’ market reigns.

“Today, we are in a jobseekers’ market and many of them and employees prefer to work in a way that brings work-life balance. As a result, progressive companies, including Indeed, are offering benefits even as post-pandemic work-life balance has become a continuum in the last couple of years,” said Sashi Kumar, leading job site Indeed India’s head of sales.

According to Kumar, employees are increasingly showing a preference for organisations that value their time, have an inclusive work environment, and prioritise initiatives such as diversity and sustainability.

“The pandemic has changed the way organisations look at employee benefits. In order to better protect and support employees both now and after the pandemic, companies have taken progressive initiatives. We are already seeing benefits like paid time off, advanced mental health support, maternity and paternity holidays, ESOPs, childcare/crèche facilities as well as new-age workplace perks like sleep pods gaining momentum,” Kumar added.

Neeti Sharma, president and co-founder TeamLease Edtech, and senior vice president, TeamLease Service, echoed Kumar’s views on jobseekers’ increased emphasis on work-life balance.

“Employees are asking for employers to bring in a balance. Nobody saw much output despite working a lot during the pandemic. But now knowledge workers have gotten used to WFH. What companies are doing is hybrid work, two or three days of working from the office, said Sharma, adding that the four-five-day workweek is still in the discussion stage in India.

However, she said employers are providing workers flexibility in terms of choosing the days they wish to go to office and the number of hours they need to spend in the office.

According to Kumar, several companies on the job site as well as Indeed as an organisation are offering what is being called a ‘You Day’, where employees get one working day off to focus on themselves.

“Many companies are investing in wellness programmes, setting up mental health help lines, providing additional time-off and even providing access to recreational activities like foosball and gym membership reimbursements to attract talent,” Kumar added.

Lakshmi M Kodali, hiring consultant and founder and chief executive officer of OptimHire, pointed out that an increasing number of jobseekers are asking for increased health benefits. “In the past couple of years almost everybody used up their mediclaim. So, they are now asking for higher coverage of at least Rs 5 lakh,” he added.

In terms of work location, while some non-tech sectors like hospitality still require people’s physical presence at the workplace, given the nature of the industry, in sectors where remote work is possible firms have largely evolved to cater to jobseekers’ preferences.

“Jobseekers have realised the advantages of remote work. These not only include saving on time and money on commuting but also on how organisations have also moved to measuring output more than how or when employees do it,” says hiring consultant and founder CEO of OptimHire Lakshmi M Kodali.

Moreover, one of the biggest changes in jobseekers’ preferences has been remuneration packages.

“Salary expectations have gone through the roof, with some even seeking and bagging 100-200 per cent jumps. Some companies are adding varied benefits as perks to salaries. However, these are all short term and not scalable. Once we are out of this current talent crunch, things should slow down,” says Sharma.

Meanwhile, the current talent crunch has also made tier-2 and -3 towns more attractive for recruiters, say experts.

Citing research conducted by Indeed, Kumar said cities like Coimbatore, Kochi, and Jaipur, which used to form less than 0.1 per cent of job openings before 2019 now account for over one per cent because of hybrid and remote work.

Dictating terms

1. ‘You Day’, one working day off to focus on self
2. Remote or at least hybrid work
3. More health benefits, especially mental health
4. Recreation benefits such as reimbursement of gym memberships, Fussball table
5. Big jumps in salary going as high as 100-200%