Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals
When it comes to benefits offered by employers, students place the highest importance on financial and insurance benefits, according to results of the NACE 2021 Student Survey.
The highest percentages of responding students value 401K and tuition reimbursement programs, and medical, life, and dental insurance. (See Figure 1.)
These are the same benefits that made up the five most important benefits in the NACE 2020 Student Survey.
What is very different—and illustrates the effect the pandemic has had on how students view the world of work—is the jump in interest in working remotely. More than half of graduating seniors identified the ability to telecommute, i.e., to work remotely, as very or extremely important, up from about a quarter of Class of 2019 graduating seniors who said the same.
The NACE 2021 Student Survey was conducted February 17, 2021, to May 14, 2021, through college career centers that hold membership in NACE. More than 15,000 students at the bachelor’s degree level and above responded. Analysis into the survey’s data is also available through two special reports: NACE Brief: Virtual Recruiting and NACE Brief: Inequity in Internships. Each includes recommendations for acting on the findings. Members can access the 2021 NACE Student Survey Report and both briefs through MyNACE >Research Reports. Additional information about the NACE 2021 Student Survey can be found at www.naceweb.org/studentsurvey.
Figure 1: Percent of respondents indicating job benefit as either very or extremely important
| Job Benefit |
Percent |
| 401K |
73.1% |
| 100% medical insurance |
68.6% |
| Tuition reimbursement |
67.2% |
| Life insurance |
63.4% |
| Dental |
60.0% |
| Family friendly |
57.5% |
| Ability to telecommute |
55.5% |
| More than 2 weeks of vacation in first year |
55.4% |
| Flextime |
48.8% |
| Frequent performance review |
37.3% |
Source: NACE 2021 Student Survey, National Association of Colleges and Employers.