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Employees Want Financial Stability Perks Over Wellbeing Benefits, Study Finds
Gartner data reveals 55 percent of employees face severe financial anxiety, driving a major shift toward medical, job security, and income-focused perks over traditional wellness offerings
Aug 28, 2026
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U.S. employers spend billions of dollars each year underwriting benefits designed to support workers beyond their monthly paychecks. But if companies want to get the biggest, most productive bang from those bucks, they’d be wise to heed data showing how employee preferences and priorities for workplace perks have shifted
Two separate studies have identified both the broad and granular ways that employees now find company-provided benefits the most useful to their lives. That reflects many workers now wanting their employers to take into account how pressures across the workforce have grown in recent years, while also being attuned to major changes in individual staffers’ personal lives
Responding to that will require flexibility as companies fine tune their menu of perks, rather than completely overhauling them
Less wellbeing, more financial and job stability
The more macro aspect of that evolution was uncovered by business research and advisory company Gartner, which surveyed 10,055 employees about the kinds of perks they consider most important. Responses reflected findings from earlier polls showing 55 percent of workers now suffer from considerable financial anxieties, with 57 percent feeling pessimistic about how those pressures will progress. As a result, people participating in Gartner’s inquiry said they valued workplace benefits that helped provide greater stability in their economic affairs, as well measures improving job security like upskilling.But as those priorities surged to the fore, previous employees demands for greater work-life balance, remote flexibilities, paid time off, and many wellbeing perks have significantly weakened.“As workforce needs shift, and become more fragmented, medical benefits, long-term incentives, and flexible financial benefits have become more important,” said Augustus Vickery, director analyst of Gartner’s HR practice in a brief about the findings. “In today’s uncertain business environment, organizations must reset their (total rewards) strategies to attract and retain critical talent while optimizing costs.”
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Company-provided medical insurance plans were among the highest valued perk. Those were credited with making long-term healthcare costs more predictable and manageable, while limiting potentials for huge expenses from sudden illness
Other increasingly prized benefits were those supporting efforts to generate more employee income over the longer term. Among those were programs creating clear pathways toward attaining professional goals and improving worker productivity, which often leads to pay raises and bonuses
Employees also appreciated long term incentive plans—including coordinated timetables on vesting stock options—and programs like Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSA) that help workers balance their income and personal costs better. As employers add those financial investment and management perks, they can weed out wellbeing benefits staffs aren’t as keen on anymore, recouping costs
