Benefits March 5, 2001

Graduates, Employers Share Benefit Priorities

March 5, 2001 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Recent college graduates are paying more attention to benefits in their first job. Fortunately for employers, they seem to be interested in the same ones, according to a recent survey.
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In fact, more than 95% of employer respondents offer the five benefits new graduates are looking for, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employees (NACE) Job Outlook 2001 and 2000 Graduating Student & Alumni Surveys.

The top valued benefit of recent graduates was medical insurance, rated 4.61 on a 5 point scale – and offered by 99.8% of surveyed employers.

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The rest of the top five includes:

  • 401(k) plan, rated 4.16 and offered by 97.7% of employers
  • annual salary increases, rated 3.96, offered by 97.3% of employers
  • life insurance, rated 3.93, offered by 99.1%
  • dental insurance, rated 3.83, offered by 95.7%

Other important benefits cited were pension plans, tuition reimbursement, flextime, frequent performance reviews, and family-friendly benefits.

Number 8 on the list was starting out with two weeks of vacation – but less than half (44.7%) of employers were that “generous”.

The lowest item on the list was a company car – and a good thing, too, since just 6% of employers offered that to new hires.

There’s more information at http://www.naceweb.org .

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