Following this year’s Salary Guide, we've just published our Benefits Guide 2026 , and the insights are fascinating. An eye-watering 57% of corporate communications professionals are actively considering a job move in 2026, and secondly, each generation cares about different company benefits.
Dig into the responses behind that figure, and a pattern emerges that most employers aren't factoring into their company benefits. One Millennial Agency Director summed it up better than most. She isn't leaving for a promotion, she told us. She's leaving because she wants an employer who looks after her health, not just her output. She wants a life, not just a laptop.
On paper, that looks like a single retention problem. In reality, it's three different ones, layered on top of each other by generation.
The generation gap nobody's pricing in
Gen Z want freedom and flexibility. Millennials want practical support for the lives they're building. Gen X and the Boomers among them want real autonomy and a stronger financial safety net after decades in the industry. Ask each group what they wish their employer offered, and you get three different lists, in three different orders, for three different reasons.
That's the part employers keep missing. It's not that benefits don't matter, it's that they assume one package, well-pitched, will land the same way across a workforce spanning 1 to 21+ years' experience. It won't. And the cost of assuming otherwise is showing up in retention numbers that should worry every agency leader and in-house Head of Comms reading this.
Agencies are competing against the wrong opponent
Agency leaders don't realise they aren't really competing against other agencies for talent. They're competing against in-house teams. And right now, in-house is winning on the benefits that matter most once someone is a few years into their career, things like pension contributions, sick pay and life insurance. Our data shows agencies trailing meaningfully on every one of them.
The result is that 63% of agency professionals are considering a move, against 52% in-house. That gap is real, and it's widening.
But here's the more interesting finding, and the one we'd urge every agency MD to sit with. When we asked professionals what matters most when choosing an employer, benefits came out roughly equal across sectors, at around 43-44%. Salary matters equally too, at close to 90% for both. The real divergence is in culture and flexibility, where in-house professionals rate both significantly more highly than their agency counterparts do. Agencies do hold one genuine advantage of their own, in a specific area of team experience I'll leave you to read about in full.
That tells you something useful: professionals don't expect agencies to match in-house pound for pound. They expect agencies to be honest about where they can't compete, and deliberate about where they can.
What each generation is actually asking for
We asked each generational cohort to rank their own wish list, and the results should reshape how employers think about their offer entirely.
Gen Z, early in their careers, are prioritising things that give them money back or time back, more than long-term financial planning, which barely registers for them yet. Millennials are further along, building families and mortgages, and their list reflects it, with one particular benefit standing out as a genuine differentiator for this group in a way it doesn't for the other two. Gen X and the Boomers, meanwhile, are almost as likely to be looking as Gen Z are, at 60% versus 59%, which tells me this isn't dissatisfaction so much as a shortage of senior roles for people who've earned the right to move up and have nowhere obvious to go.
One quote from our Gen X and Boomer respondents stuck with us: “fully remote working, we did it during Covid, why are we going backwards now?” That frustration with the rollback of hybrid working runs right through the most experienced cohort in our survey, and it's a warning for any employer thinking five-days-in-office is a battle worth fighting.
What this means for you
If you lead an agency, the honest starting point isn't trying to match in-house benefit for benefit. Agency margins are under real pressure, and full parity isn't realistic. The better question is which two or three benefits would make the biggest difference to your specific team, because the answer will be different depending on whether your team skews Gen Z, Millennial or more experienced.
If you lead an in-house function, don't assume your stronger package means the conversation is won. Benefits get you in the room. Culture, career trajectory and the quality of leadership are what keep people in it, and more than half of in-house professionals are still weighing their options despite a materially better offer on paper.
Either way, the clock is the same for everyone. Over half the market is considering a move this year. The employers who hold onto their best people won't be the ones with the longest benefits list. They'll be the ones who worked out which three things their team actually wanted and delivered them properly.
The full Benefits Guide 2026 breaks down exactly what's on offer at agency and in-house level, benefit by benefit, generation by generation, along with the complete picture on what's driving people to stay or go. It's available to download for £79 at the-works.co.uk/salary-guide.
What would your team put at the top of their list? The answer might surprise you.
To download our full Annual Salary Guide 2026, click here.
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The Works Search: a search consultancy specialising in PR and corporate communications. We have unrivalled matching abilities and are known for finding the top 5% performers in the industry - the ones who deliver and make your reputation great. For more advice or market insights, do get in touch with us on 0207 903 9291 or email: sarah@the-works.co.uk.
