In the ever-evolving landscape of the modern tech startup, the concept of employee benefits is undergoing a transformative journey.

Employee priorities have shifted, and so have their expectations. A study found that just 58% of employees are satisfied with their current benefits package. The market’s top talent is increasingly looking beyond the traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ benefits package, an approach that's rapidly losing its touch in workplaces spanning generations, each with distinctive needs and circumstances.

So as we look to the future, what can we expect to see? We’re likely to see traditional work perks expand into a broader spectrum of benefits, aimed at creating a more holistic and employee-centric experience.

This creates an opportunity for fledging startups and scaleups to disrupt the predictable work perks proposition and deliver a new and innovative range of work-based benefits that are flexible, rather than static, and centred around choice.

Here’s what you need to consider.

Flexible working

Many of our future work perks will be driven by the values of the workforce – and more specifically, Millennials and Gen Z workers. Crucially, both these groups don’t view remote and flexible working as a perk (despite it being top of the benefits list for many businesses), but rather as a right, with work being something that can be done anywhere, rather than exclusively in a traditional office setting.

Further re-evaluation of the traditional work environment is a given. Increased investment in technology will ensure employees remain productive and connected, with businesses giving their workforce greater control with policies such as annualised hours, or by taking a boundaryless approach that allows employees to work anywhere, at any time.

Wellbeing benefits

Wellbeing benefits will expand - and not just mental health and wellbeing, but financial, social, physical and career wellbeing.

Future workplace benefits will likely include mental health programmes, access to counselling services and wellness apps, career coaching and a host of virtual workplace benefits (think virtual GP appointments, on-demand online fitness classes, virtual support groups). The key thing is that these benefits can be hyper-personalised and consumed in less traditional ways, according to the individual’s needs.

Diversity and inclusion benefits

It’s perhaps unsurprising that the future workplace benefits landscape with be increasingly shaped by a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Parental leave policies (beyond the minimum legal requirements), such as enhanced maternity and paternity leave, are already commonplace, but expect a greater shift to the opposite end of the spectrum to include policies around caring for elderly parents and relatives.

The reality is that it’s women who have the most to benefit from EDI (Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion), primarily because the burden of caring responsibilities falls disproportionately on women, despite huge societal shifts to the way in which we distribute childcare responsibilities.

There is now an expectation that modern tech firms will strive to create an inclusive environment and deliver benefits that address job market inequalities. Combine this with a positive drive for a more equilateral gender balance in the boardroom, and it’s clear that having robust and fair flexible working policies - policies that enable and support women to achieve in senior roles – will become increasingly important to both tech startups and scaleups in the UK.

Personalised benefits

A study found that the number one factor positively impacting employee experience is a personalised benefits package. Viva personalisation! Modern startups and scaleups are increasingly tailoring their benefits packages to the different life stages, rather than rolling them all up into a big benefits-shaped ball of perks.

For example, a working parent will be attracted by a benefits package that offers flexibility, childcare support, family-friendly policies. But this will have little appeal for a Gen-Z worker, fresh from the university campus, who will likely have a very different benefits wish list.

For someone just starting in their career, whose life plan isn’t to start a family (yet) but to buckle down, work hard, and focus on learning and personal development with a view to progressing their career over the next decade, their focus might be on fertility benefits. They’ll be attracted to a startup or scaleup with a comprehensive, inclusive and gender-neutral fertility policy that clearly outlines an employee’s entitlements to fertility support (think egg freezing and paid leave for IVF – both of which are increasingly standard in US tech startups) within a fertility-friendly environment.

And on the flipside, how about women going through the menopause? Possible benefits might include hormone therapy, access to virtual GPs and menopause specialists, occupational therapy for pelvic floor issues – and even menopause-specific paid leave. The list goes on.

Professional development benefits

For your tech startup to grow and develop, it’s important that you embrace a culture of continuous learning and skill development.

Professional development has evolved. Personalised professional development is the new buzzword on the block. Talent joining a forward-thinking startup or scaleup expect professional development opportunities - access to funded training, coaching and mentorship, work-based learning programmes - to ensure that they remain competitive in their careers.

To attract the market’s top talent, you’ll need to provide them with the tools and resources that are customised to their strengths, their interests, their aspirations. You need to help them design their own development journey, both professionally and personally.

So what does this mean for tech startups?

The challenge for you, as a startup founder, will be identifying what is important to staff and being able to tailor their benefits package according to their needs.

Mental health support, fertility planning, financial wellness… it can be overwhelming. And as an early-stage startup, it would be natural to question how you could compete based on your work perks. But even on a meagre budget, you can stay competitive by offering a flexible benefits package that allows your employees to select their benefits based on their own needs.

The important thing is that you don’t lose sight of YOUR biggest challenge, namely creating a valuable employee experience. You do this by building a culture of care, promoting work-life integration and by ensuring that inclusivity is built into the fabric of your business – and that you underpin this with a solid range of employee perks and benefits that are flexible, adaptable and valuable to your workforce, without being generic.

Get in touch

Modern employees are increasingly looking to their employer to cater to their diverse needs and preferences, with the flexibility to tailor their benefits according to their individual requirements.

If you would like to have a chat about the type of benefits that the market’s top talent is looking for, get in touch with our Co-founder & CEO, Alan Furley, on alan@isltalent.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.