Unpacking the myth of rich tech benefits 

Every quarter, Mercer brings together in-house experts, employee advocates and external thought leaders for an online discussion of the most pressing issues. The program is called #MercerChats and takes place entirely on Twitter, where individuals across the US engage with Mercer’s intellectual capital and other leading thought leadership to share insights and discuss the best solutions to help organizations thrive. Below is a summary of our October 2022 tweet chat, highlighting some of the key themes discussed and insights shared.

If you ask 100 people on the street which industry offers the best rewards packages, 90 of them would probably point to tech. But is that really true? Maybe, but it’s not all about the biggest paycheck.

That’s because while salary is important, it’s not the end-all-be-all of employee rewards packages. Mercer’s own research shows that 1 in 3 employees would sacrifice more pay for greater flexibility, and tech employers increasingly lead the way on bringing a total rewards approach to the employee experience and considering all parts of employee remuneration as part of their talent strategy.

To better understand why that’s the case – and what other employers can learn from this – we invited some of the country’s leading minds and experts to discuss total rewards solutions and the employee experience in a recent #MercerChats tweet chat. Below are some of the highlights from our conversation.

In a word, yes. Fierce competition for talent has forced tech employers into an arms race for compensation packages, and salaries have continued to skyrocket even in the face of economic uncertainty and volatile markets. As Kathleen Kruse shared during our chat, some in-demand tech salaries rose more than 20% this year, and leaders continue to demonstrate that they’re willing to invest in high-demand, future-focused skills.

But there’s more to it than that. Tech employers are also broadening their rewards packages to bring additional value to their workforce, whether through the commuter packages, wellness programs, and flex work arrangements that Donna K Lencki cited, or through greater investment in mental health benefits, which has become a growing priority coming out of the pandemic, as Amisha Gandhi noted. 

In the constant push to differentiate themselves from their competitors on the recruitment trail, tech organizations continue to innovate and expand their total rewards strategies, something that Tamara McCleary pointed out, and talent continues to reap the benefits.

In a talent market as competitive as tech, employers need to explore every avenue they can to attract and retain talent. This makes the tech industry a fascinating laboratory for progressive and experimental HR practices, some of which could catch on and become common practice across the board in the future of work.

Looking across the industry, you see a pattern of programs and policies that prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion among the workforce, and this clearly extends to rewards strategies. To begin, Tracy Watts pointed out that affordable health insurance helps to support broader health equity across a workforce and more adequately addresses all aspects of physical and mental health. One step further, Serafina Miller noted how family benefits can support a wide swath of the talent base, accommodating adoption or surrogacy costs for some colleagues and fertility programs for others. For employers who desperately wish to retain high-value, high-demand workers through the prime of their careers, a broader view of family benefits removes obstacles to their workforce’s career tracks and encourages them to stay with the organization.

Ultimately, though, it’s not always about the rewards packages that tech firms offer but the way in which they build and communicate them. Pay transparency efforts, such as those recently implemented in New York and California, go a long way in promoting pay equity, and as Tauseef Rahman shared, one third of Bay Area tech companies already have these programs in practice. To build truly valuable rewards programs, tech companies should continue to do what they do best: build, test, iterate. This collaborative approach to benefits packages based on user feedback, which Carrie Maslen advocated for, allows tech employers to build for what their employees really need and creates the customization that’s needed for an increasingly diverse workforce.