Cost-of-living crunch prompts legal sector workers to seek employer aid

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New research by employee benefits technology provider Zest showed employees in the UK legal sector were leading calls for greater financial support, with private medical insurance the most in-demand benefit among law firm employees.

According to the research:

• three-quarters of employees at law firms want support with energy bills or discount vouchers for food shopping as part of workplace benefits (compared to 68% across all sectors);
• nearly 60% of legal employees said that benefits are the most important thing they look for; and
• six in 10 employees in the legal sector said they’d switch roles for a better benefits package elsewhere.

Any firms not prioritising these needs and translating them in their reward strategies would be at risk of losing talent. Although most legal organisations want to make their benefit packages more personalised, 85% said that they find this difficult. In addition, one-quarter of law firms also said they can’t afford to raise salaries in line with inflation, leaving 22% to admit to missing out on talent as a result. CEO of Zest, Matt Russell, said “it’s vital that law firms continue to invest in their benefits packages” to retain talent.

However, despite such a high employee demand for benefits, 56% of employees said they didn’t use most of their benefits and half (52%) believed that what was on offer was inadequate, according to Zest.

Russell added: “Even lawyers are feeling the pressure of continued high living costs – employees at law firms are demanding greater support with essential costs such as energy bills and supermarket vouchers.

“Legal employees are calling on their employer to step up investment in reward packages and aren’t afraid to head to rival firms to get what they want.”