Gen Z employees, who represent around half of the start-up workforce, are twice as likely as over 55s to say attractive perks are important when it comes to looking for and staying in a job. 

The poll by household money-saving tool Nous.co revealed a big generational gap in attitudes. Some 71% of Gen Z – those aged 27 and under – consider non-salary benefits to be important, compared to 36% of 55-64s. 

Greg Marsh, serial entrepreneur and investor, is the CEO and founder of Nous.co. Marsh regularly teaches classes on start-up hiring at Harvard Business School. He said: “Start-ups fail fast if they can’t attract & retain good people. 

“Our research confirms what savvy founders have long suspected: get benefits right to get exceptional people—particularly Gen Z. 

“People in this age bracket will move or disengage if they don’t feel their employer has their back. So the key thing is to prove that with the right benefits offering. 

“And for start-ups, getting benefits right is basically a hiring hack. With extremely high marginal tax rates for better paid engineering and product staff, It can be far cheaper to give benefits than just to ramp salaries—particularly if those benefits are thoughtfully designed from a tax perspective. 

“We launched Nous for business in response to demand from founders in our own network who were looking for ways to support their teams through the cost-of-living crisis. It’s essentially a cheap way for employers to save their teams a lot of money. Early feedback has been really strong.”