Student Loan Contributions as Employee Benefits

One Key Benefit That Could Revolutionize Your Millennial Recruitment Success

By SoFi General | Oct 26, 2016 | Career, Money | 3 Comments

A company’s success is partially driven by how well it anticipates the future. But even a top HR manager clinging to a Magic 8 Ball can’t foresee the next hot job trend. One thing is clear, though: as a generation of baby boomers readies to retire in the next 10 to 15 years, companies must not wait to attract top candidates who will grow into tomorrow’s top leaders.

Unique talent acquisition techniques are key for recruiting today’s sharpest millennial minds. While we don’t know what will entice job seekers in 2025, we do know that today they’re greatly focused on benefits packages.

SoFi’s 2016 Impact of Student Loan Benefits report, based on a survey of 1,000 working professionals throughout the U.S., revealed that 93% pay careful consideration to company benefits packages when weighing job offers. And nearly 60% said that benefits always influence their final decision.

High-tech behemoths, including Google, Facebook, and Microsoft, are enticing recent graduates with high-touch perks, such as free food, on-site massages, fitness centers, wellness programs, and/or generous parental leave policies. Microsoft even offers physician house calls in the Seattle area—a luxury that disappeared in the 1960s. But while those things are great, they’re not the benefits that matter most to millennials. Recent research by BambooHR indicates less than 1% of new hires care about such perks.

And that’s good news for you.

Because most companies can’t compete with the giants, you can focus on offering the benefits that bring in the recruiting tide.

You probably already provide the must-haves—health and dental insurance, vision care, and 401(k) plans—but to attract top young talent, you must offer innovative, forward-thinking perks.

The benefit millennials love

For college-educated recruits, the benefit that could distinguish your company from others is student loan repayment assistance. While health insurance is a key benefit for all job seekers, student loan repayment assistance is especially attractive to millennials because the relief is immediate. In other words, while paid doctor visits are important to young workers, those visits are few and far between for the healthy; financial assistance, on the other hand, is something they’ll see every month.

Student loan benefits will not only help employees with their debt burden, but also decrease turnover and enforce company loyalty. After all, an employee receiving loan payment assistance will be more committed to the success of the company and less likely to leave for another opportunity.

To this, SoFi’s findings speak volumes. When asked what the advantages of student loan assistance would mean:

94% of professionals said they would stay longer at a company.

49% of all employees, and 80% of employees currently paying student loans, said such loan benefits would make them more likely to recommend their employer to friends and acquaintances.

90% of current student debt holders said it would make them more willing to accept a job offer.

71% said that it would be the most or second-most meaningful benefit perk they could receive from an employer.

37% of employees said they would experience less stress.

29% said they would be more committed to their job.

Millennials also want help improving their financial behavior overall and dealing with the stress money issues can cause. According to the SoFi study:

70% of college-educated professionals want employers to help with financial wellness.

84% of professionals under age 30 with student debt want employers to provide resources to make them more fiscally fit.

61% of professionals with student loan debt say it’s among the top stressful financial burdens in their lives.

You don’t need a Magic 8 Ball to tell you that “signs point to yes” when it comes to using a student loan repayment benefit to attract the greatest young minds to your company. SoFi can help you get a student loan benefit up and running quickly—just in time for when student loan grace periods end.