Employers are in a fierce battle for tech talent.

Tech employers are in the unique position of creating jobs at a faster rate than they can fill them. This means that recruiting and retaining human talent is the number one problem faced by most tech employers and non-tech employers with significant concentrations of tech professionals in their workforce.

The limited supply of tech talent requires tech employers to re-think their strategies around culture and workforce.

Providing benefits is the most pragmatic way that employers differentiate their culture from others. To attract the best-of-the-best, tech companies must provide richer and more unique benefits packages than employers in other industries.

So how does a tech talent shortage impact the benefits industry?

Mercer, the world’s largest human resource consulting firm, recently released its national benefits study providing insights, trends, and benchmarking for benefit practices in the technology industry.

Two key themes emerged from the study:

1. The tech industry offers a rich set of benefits when compared to other industries.
2. Non-traditional benefits are becoming more mainstream as tech employers refine their messaging and approach to cultivating their workforce.

The first theme is not news. Tech employers have traditionally invested significant dollars in employee benefits. What is news is how tech employers are innovating.

Non-traditional perks like use-as-you-go PTO policies, flexible work schedules, free food, parking, work-from-home schedules, and even high-end concierge services are becoming more common throughout the industry.

Although the Mercer study focuses on U.S. tech employers, this national practice is absolutely consistent with what we’re seeing in Washington State.

This is great news if you are tech professional and good news for us as a state.

As our state continues to emerge as a leading technology hub in the world, Washingtonians will realize a much different paradigm than those that came before them.

The tech sector is raising the benefits bar and will continue to innovate and become more employee-friendly as it grapples with its toughest challenge – human beings.