Recruiters are operating in an incredibly tight labour market, with reports of candidates accepting interviews and even job offers and then ghosting the recruiting company by simply not showing up.
The future isn’t looking much brighter with McKinsey predicting that, in 2030, there will be 13.5 million fewer working-age people in Europe.
Adding to that, the make-up of the UK workforce is changing. Thanks to the pandemic, flexible, hybrid working is now the norm for millions of workers, millennials will represent over 70% of the workforce by 2025 and Gen Z will make up 27% of the workforce in OECD by 2025.
But what does this mean for HR directors? Well, it means that it may well be time to redefine your employee benefits and reward strategies, as 89% of 18–34-year-olds prefer benefits over a pay increase. Both millennials and Gen Z put sustainability at the forefront and recent FREE NOW for Business research showed that access to sustainability-oriented employee benefits is the number one priority of millennials.
Fewer people in these age groups, particularly from Gen Z, have a driving licence or consider car ownership because they don’t see this as the most convenient and ‘best’ transport mode to travel, particularly in cities. In fact, there’s a growing consciousness among all ages to avoid bringing more cars into city centres and that, coupled with the desire to work flexibly, means this new workforce is less willing to commute or travel for work purposes.
When they do commute, they want to do it in a cost-effective and sustainable way that gives them flexibility and freedom of choice and, as a result, we are seeing an increasing number of sustainable travel options that can be easily combined with public transport for a comfortable, easy and enjoyable experience, whether that’s a train journey with an eBike, or a taxi ride with an eScooter, for example.
Interestingly, a recent survey by FREE NOW for Business also revealed that 60% of employees would be more likely to go back to the office if they had a mobility budget.
All these trends explain why I so passionately believe that shared mobility is the way forward for organisations, and that HR directors need to start incorporating mobility budgets into their employee benefits and reward strategies to help them attract and retain the talent they so desperately covet now (particularly young and sustainably conscious professionals) and to make smart and cost-effective decisions that set them up for success during 2023 and in the years to come.
We know from the same FREE NOW for Business research that, in three years’ time, the most popular transport company benefit will be the mobility budget, which will be integrated into 52% of strategies, compared to 21% today, and that company cars will be integrated into just 37% of strategies compared to 90% today, so we know that many organisations are already heading down the right path.
If you’re not one of them and it’s because you’re not familiar with the concept of a mobility budget, let me explain. Put simply, they allow organisations to give individual employees – either daily, weekly or monthly – budget to spend on their preferred way of travelling around the city. This allows employees flexibility, comfort and enjoyment. With FREE NOW, they are able to choose from black cabs, private hire vehicles and micro-mobility options such as eBikes or eScooters and their trips are paid for out of their budget allocation in the app.
So, as well as a multitude of benefits for employees, mobility budgets can support organisations as they continue pursuing sustainability pledges, offer better employer branding, increased retention, a great perk to attract new talent and automate existing tasks for HR directors, reducing paperwork and leaving them with more time to focus on other issues.
https://www.free-now.com/business/discover-mobility-budget/
