48% of London businesses have reported a growth in demand for employee perks, according to a new Business Census of business leaders’ expectations for the year ahead. This is a higher percentage than any other region.
The survey, conducted by global credit company Creditsafe and completed by 755 business leaders, revealed that nearly half of London business leaders perceive demand for perks to have grown in the last 5 years.
The sector where demand for benefits was reported to have grown the most is food & drink, where 52% of respondents reported an increase, followed by 50% in travel & tourism and 48% in technology.
Speaking of the results, Creditsafe’s UK CEO Chris Robertson said: “It’s been a memorable year for businesses in Britain, with Brexit dominating the media headlines and uncertainty around our role in the EU still rife.
“The Business Census is intended to provide a snapshot of the state of UK business based on experience, as opposed to just statistics. The impact of economic uncertainty on the optimism of business leaders for 2019 will undoubtedly gain the attention of business bodies and the government, who should take note of these less tangible, yet still important, impacts of their actions.”
Flexible working has been growing in popularity, with traditional working hours now only the norm for 6% of workers . In spite of this, actual practice of flexible working was split, with 52% of businesses stating they did not offer flexible working, to 48% who did.
