Flexible working and wellbeing programmes are praised

The voluntary sector offers one of the most competitive employee benefit packages, outranking 24 other areas including legal and sales, according to new research.  

Overall, the charity sector scores 575 out of 2,000 in the Employee Benefits Index from sharetech platform Vestd, which looks at over 130,000 job listings and 20 employee benefits.  

Charity and voluntary organisations rank eighth highest out of 32 sectors, with 36% offering flexible working, cycle-to-work (12%) and health and wellbeing programmes (9%). 

It comes as UK charities face a skills shortage in fields such as digital services, which a competitive employee benefits package could help to plug. 

The motoring sector leads the way for employee benefits with a score of 704 – here, bonus schemes and flexible working are the most popular incentives. 

Customer service and hospitality rank as the second and third best sectors, with scores of 671 and 660, respectively. 

The research also looked at the sectors with the worst employee benefits packages. The scientific sector topped the list with a score of just 210 out of 2,000, followed by the media and education sectors

Ifty Nasir, founder and CEO of Vestd, said: “It is great to see the charity and voluntary sector using employee benefits to attract and retain specialist talent by successfully offering more progressive workplace perks.”