There is major competition in today’s digital world with thousands of digital agencies popping up from established names to startups how do you choose which one is best for you? Cash is not always king, and when it comes to choosing an employer it now comes down to attributes of the business, as well as the incentive and benefits packages on offer.
As part of our Digital Speak-Easy Series, we explored the motivations and gripes of over 500 digital professionals. In this particular article we compare Directors and Middleweights to see if there are differences. We asked, what makes a good employer? What are the top incentives and benefits that would attract you or retain you within a business?
Attributes
Out of a range of categories it was clear that ‘innovation’ was by far the most popular attribute of an agency/business for both levels of digital professional. It’s no surprise that these groups deem innovation so important, as passion in developing technologies and the evolving digital landscape is at the heart of what they do.
Both groups also showed favour to ‘fun’ employers, and those that were ‘hardworking’ were the second and third most important attributes of a good employer. Director level professionals also suggested that a ‘stimulating atmosphere’, and an ‘authentic business’ were important to becoming a great employer. Middleweight professionals added that a supportive and encouraging business was important to them.
Incentives
At middleweight level, ‘career progression’ is the biggest incentive to digital professionals. Pushing up the ladder to achieve a higher level or a more advanced job title is what is going to inspire this group, so introducing incentive schemes where they can reach certain career goals would be highly motivational.
Compare this to those professionals at Director level, and ‘financial incentives’ take the lead of most important incentive. This is less surprisingly as you would imagine at this level, finance comes over promotional incentives, however what was interesting is that the ‘career progression’ was the second highest incentive even at Director level, proving – no matter how senior your passion ‘career progression’ remains an important motivator.
Middleweights also commented that ‘additional holiday’ was an attractive incentive, as well as the ‘external company events’ and ‘free company refreshments’. They also added that freedom to work when they want would be top incentives.
For Director level digital professionals, ‘additional annual leave’ featured as a top incentive too, where as individual prizes and company events were low on the list. Director level candidates also commented that other incentives that would be appealing would be the ‘opportunity to gain shares in the business’, and ‘choosing your own work environment’ as well as ‘performance related’ bonus schemes.
Benefits
For digital professionals working at Middleweight level, the top benefit that they would love to receive is ‘flexible working’ hours. Many businesses do offer this to parents, but not necessarily for all. Flexi-time shows trust from an employer for the team to work on a time frame that suits them and it’s something that would appeal to this group of digitals. We also found Middleweights voted ‘pension’ followed by ‘private healthcare’ as excellent benefits. ‘Season tickets’ for travel and ‘gym membership’s were also positioned high-up the priority list for this group, but these are benefits that are not always offered as standard. Discounts on expenses that many middleweights class as necessary to their lifestyle, could be something that could entice top talent.
Director level digital professionals, placed ‘pension’ at the top of the board for benefits, it’s clear at a more senior level, ‘pension’ and financing for the future is something that’s considered more highly. However with this group what was interesting was the fairly even spread between ‘pension’, ‘flexible working’ and ‘private health care’, these are all benefits that are classed as important to this group, and luckily most of which are widely offered in today’s leading digital agencies. Though for this group ‘season ticket loans/travel discounts’ were the least attractive benefit – their preference is definitely for the more significant, larger benefits.
If you are feeling unmotivated in your current role, or want to find a company that offers some of the amazing incentives and benefits packages above, why not explore our current digital opportunities across the globe. Or if you want to hire some fresh talent to your team and boost morale and company ethos talk to our team today.
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