11 of the Most Important Benefits for Millennials

Mil­len­ni­als are the most influ­en­tial and largest gen­er­a­tion in the work­force today. They are a tal­ent­ed demo­graph­ic, but it can be hard to keep them. In fact, 75% of mil­len­ni­als are open to find­ing a new gig.

Why? One of the top three rea­sons they change jobs is because they want bet­ter benefits.

They want ben­e­fits that meet their needs today and that can adapt as their lives change. In oth­er words, mil­len­ni­als don’t want to have ben­e­fits they can only use when they’re dis­abled, sick or dead. They want ben­e­fits they can use now.

So, what do these ben­e­fits look like? What types of ben­e­fits do mil­len­ni­als actu­al­ly want? 

The 11 Benefits Millennials Want

These eleven ben­e­fits are based on exten­sive research, analy­sis and feed­back from mil­len­ni­al employees. 

1. 401(K) Contributions and Financial Wellness Benefits

30% of mil­len­ni­als have less than $1,000 in sav­ings (24% have no sav­ings at all). This sta­tis­tic isn’t shock­ing when one con­sid­ers mil­len­ni­als became adults dur­ing a major finan­cial cri­sis and grad­u­at­ed col­lege into a strug­gling econ­o­my. As a whole, the gen­er­a­tion needs assis­tance nav­i­gat­ing a com­plex and ever-chang­ing eco­nom­ic land­scape, and an increas­ing num­ber want their employ­ers to play a role.

Finan­cial ben­e­fits like 401(k) con­tri­bu­tions, 401(k) match­ing, 1:1 finan­cial edu­ca­tion, on-site finan­cial sem­i­nars, com­pa­ny stock options and dis­count pro­grams are some exam­ples of finan­cial well­ness benefits. 

2. Comprehensive Medical Insurance Plans

One in five mil­len­ni­als can’t afford rou­tine health­care expens­es, so it’s no sur­prise that one-third of mil­len­ni­als list afford­able and com­pre­hen­sive med­ical insur­ance as their num­ber one desired benefit.

To show mil­len­ni­als they val­ue their health, com­pa­nies should incor­po­rate a com­plete­ly com­pre­hen­sive med­ical insur­ance plan that includes den­tal, vision, holis­tic prac­ti­tion­ers, telemed­i­cine, men­tal health care vis­its and more.

3. Paid Time Off

60% of mil­len­ni­als agree that work-life bal­ance is ​“very impor­tant” for a job. In fact, most mil­len­ni­als seek out com­pa­nies that pro­vide a good work-life bal­ance over those that offer more pay.

Most com­pa­nies offer ten paid days off, but orga­ni­za­tions that want to impress mil­len­ni­als should con­sid­er offer­ing more. Rad­i­cal approach­es like unlim­it­ed paid time off are becom­ing pro­gres­sive­ly preva­lent, too. 

4. Remote Working Options

79% of mil­len­ni­als report want­i­ng to work from home. If a full-time WFH option isn’t fea­si­ble, com­pa­nies should con­sid­er allow­ing employ­ees to take one remote day a week or con­sid­er offer­ing remote days peri­od­i­cal­ly to keep morale high.

5. Fitness Classes & Wellness Initiatives

Mil­len­ni­als are often also referred to as the ​“health-con­scious gen­er­a­tion.” And it’s true. 

Mil­len­ni­als care a great deal about their over­all health and well­ness. That’s why 73% of mil­len­ni­als look for well­ness ben­e­fits when look­ing for jobs.

Well­ness ini­tia­tives include things like gym mem­ber­ships, healthy snacks and on-site fit­ness classes. 

6. Public Transportation

Stud­ies show that mil­len­ni­als dri­ve less than past gen­er­a­tions. This trend is evi­dent by a poll show­ing mil­len­ni­als val­ue paid trans­port pass­es over access to park­ing from their employ­ers. If locat­ed in a city with an estab­lished pub­lic trans­porta­tion sys­tem, com­pa­nies should con­tem­plate comp­ing their employ­ees’ pub­lic transportation.

Com­pa­nies can offer oth­er trans­porta­tion ben­e­fits like month­ly gas, Uber and Lyft stipends or allowances for bicy­cle and scoot­er rentals, too. 

7. Pet Benefits

70% of mil­len­ni­als own a pet, and 68% of them say they would take leave from their job to take care of a new pet if their job offered it. Many com­pa­nies pro­vide an array of pet ben­e­fits, includ­ing pet leave, which allows pet own­ers time to take care of their new animals.

Oth­er pet-cen­tric ben­e­fits include pet bereave­ment, dog-friend­ly cam­pus­es, paid dog care, comped dog walk­ing and pet health insurance. 

8. Student Loan Repayment

69% of mil­len­ni­als have stu­dent loan debt and owe on aver­age upwards of $35,000. Con­se­quent­ly, many com­pa­nies have added stu­dent loan repay­ment pro­grams as part of their ben­e­fits pack­age. One exam­ple is SoFi, which pays $200 per month towards their employ­ees’ stu­dent loans. Oth­er com­pa­nies aren’t pay­ing down the debt but are help­ing with edu­ca­tion or tech­nol­o­gy to make man­ag­ing and nav­i­gat­ing the debt more manageable.

So far, mil­len­ni­als are respond­ing pos­i­tive­ly to this type of ben­e­fit. 76% of younger work­ers say they’d be more like­ly to choose a com­pa­ny that offers a ben­e­fit like this than one that doesn’t.

9. Flexible Schedules

77% of mil­len­ni­als agree that a flex­i­ble work sched­ule would increase their pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and hap­pi­ness. Com­pa­nies like Duck­Duck­Go and Zapi­er proud­ly allow their peo­ple to work when­ev­er and wher­ev­er they want, as long as they get the work done.

While all com­pa­nies can’t be this flex­i­ble, there are many ways to increase flex­i­bil­i­ty, includ­ing remote options, allow­ing employ­ees to occa­sion­al­ly come in lat­er or ear­li­er, or let­ting employ­ees leave to pick up kids from school. Flex­i­bil­i­ty doesn’t just apply to sched­ul­ing either. Com­pa­nies that allow ben­e­fits like flex­i­ble wardrobe, work­flow and work­sta­tion also appeal to mil­len­ni­al employees. 

10. Mental Health & Well-Being Benefits

Numer­ous stud­ies show mil­len­ni­als suf­fer from high­er depres­sion rates and have high­er burnout rates. As a result, more com­pa­nies are work­ing to improve their men­tal health and well-being sup­port benefits.

These ben­e­fits include offer­ing sub­scrip­tions to pre­mi­um med­i­ta­tion apps (like Head­space), self-care bud­gets, meal deliv­ery ser­vices, tele­health coun­selors (or a sub­scrip­tion to Talk Space), on-site yoga, month­ly mas­sages and more to ensure their team feels men­tal­ly well and emo­tion­al­ly invest­ed in by the company. 

11. Experiences

72% of mil­len­ni­als pre­fer to spend their mon­ey on expe­ri­ences rather than mate­r­i­al items. In oth­er words, they aren’t as impressed by mate­ri­al­is­tic ben­e­fits as they are by expe­ri­enc­ing some­thing new or exciting.

As a result, com­pa­nies can please their mil­len­ni­al employ­ees by offer­ing expe­ri­en­tial ben­e­fits, like trav­el stipends, event tick­ets, paid trips, in-office con­certs, amuse­ment park tick­ets and more.

What Millennials Want Most: Customization

Mil­len­ni­als are a demo­graph­ic of hard-work­ers and inno­v­a­tive thinkers who want to work for com­pa­nies that invest in their intrin­sic val­ues. They’re also a gen­er­a­tion that admires individuality. 

As a result, 73% of mil­len­ni­als say they want the abil­i­ty to cus­tomize their own ben­e­fits to fit their unique needs. Com­pa­nies who want to ensure their mil­len­ni­al employ­ees feel heard and val­ued should think about offer­ing cus­tomized ben­e­fits pack­ages, so mil­len­ni­als can tru­ly get the ben­e­fits that are most impor­tant to them.

Fringe’s lifestyle ben­e­fits plat­form offers com­plete­ly cus­tomized lifestyle ben­e­fits to ensure your mil­len­ni­al employ­ees feel hap­py, engaged and sup­port­ed. Talk to our team to sched­ule a free demo today!