The idea of job security now is a fleeting notion, unfortunately. It seems that with the increase in competition for job roles, combined with the high amounts of people going for freelance or self-employed contracts, more people are looking after themselves in order to provide some sort of financial security.

There aren’t that many organizations that provide on the job perks anymore, or is this not true? When people go for a full-time, permanent job, the first thing that people think of is the salary that comes with it.

But, is this the be-all and end-all of job security? When we think of job security now, we need to think about, not just the amount of pay that we take home at the end of every working month, but we should be thinking about the perks the organization can offer us.

So, which is better, the perks, or the salary? Let’s try and answer the question.

Does A Well Paid Job Support Us Even If There Are No Perks?

For those that are fresh out of college, and they are doing their best to make smart financial decisions, it always makes sense to go for a well-paid job. But when going for a job that pays well, this is to the detriment of many other things. That age-old debate about getting a job that pays well, despite how unhappy it makes you, is still a message that people are communicating across the world.

And now, with the various amounts of self-employment in the world, people look at a full-time job, regardless of how little it pays, as a security blanket. Actually, those people who are looking to have the pay package, they are doing it from the perspective that the more money they get, the more things they can buy.

But, for anybody that has a sudden rise in pay, it’s not the fact that they will be able to buy more things, but the lifestyle changes with it. This means that with the change in lifestyle, the same financial trappings they had before the rise in pay still apply, it’s just now they are buying more expensive versions of the things they used to buy.

But with the so-called job security many organizations provide, the contracts are on an annual basis, meaning that whatever security you may have right now may not be in place in a year’s time. This encourages us to put away money for savings rather than enjoying the benefits of job security. This is why, if you are looking at an organization where there are various perks, you need to look at the overall ethos of the company.

Picking The Perks

It’s never a particularly sexy topic, but some organizations offer various perks, despite the pay package not being as fruitful as another organization that offers minimal perks. But it seems there is a direct correlation between the stress of the job and the perks they offer. For roles in the medical profession, there are sites like www.insurestat.com/ that offer disability insurance, but this only applies if you are a position.

Granted, this isn’t always the case. The UK based insurance company Admiral do their utmost to offer, not just workplace perks, but also invest in their staff by offering shares in the company.

The most prominent example of Admiral’s investment in their staff is back in 2016, the boss Henry Engelhardt, prior to his retirement, offered a £1,000 bonus to each staff member that had stayed with the company for at least a year.

That’s not to say that those that would brand new at the time received nothing, the rest received £500! That is a very good example of picking the perks of a job. In addition to this, that company grows in stature with every passing year.

A company with a bonus package as well as offering the likes of health insurance should be a priority over pay. But there is also another thing that you should bear in mind when it comes to working for a specific organization.

The Work-Life Balance Ethos

For all the perks, or excellent salary that an organization can offer you, do they expect you to sell your soul in the process? It seems that now, with the penny pinching that organizations need to implement, it results in people doing more work for the same, or even less, money. And so, when you are looking at a career and weighing up the perks versus the salary, you should look at how they treat you as a person.

The work-life balance is something that is either not focused on the employee at all, leaving you to find your own balance, or it’s a fundamental part of their entire outlook on employee wellness.

You can certainly find your own tips on sites like www.theguardian.com/, but if the company has their own ideas on how would employ you should enjoy their downtime, and implement approaches like flexi-time, in addition to the regular breaks, but also have additional perks like your birthday off as well as a workplace culture where the balance is in favor of the worker as opposed to the product, the perks will definitely outweigh the salary in this respect.

There are many examples of people who have left a high powered, high paid, and therefore, high stressed job and they said that they never felt better. It goes to show that money isn’t everything!

Picking a career where the focus is on money means that there will be a lot more anxiety with it. Picking a job when the salary is average, but the perks are many, is a rarity now. And only you can decide which is more important to you. But if you were to pick a job with an average salary but looked after your well-being, you will feel the benefits of this more than a job where the salary is fantastic, but you haven’t got the opportunity to spend it.