Recruitment: when wages aren’t enough, can benefits close the deal?

That finding carries significant implications for 2026. According to the Robert Half 2026 Canada Salary Guide, 44 per cent of Canadian professionals plan to look for a new job in the second half of 2026 – up sharply from 26 per cent just 12 months prior – with better benefits and perks (38 per cent) tied with career advancement opportunities as the top reason. Organizations that focus on actual turnover as their retention metric may be dramatically underestimating the drag on their productivity. “Some organizations say, ‘Yes, that might be the case, but we don’t have a whole lot of turnover,’” says Allen. “It might be a unique industry, you might have a good pension plan, but you’re still losing productivity.” 

The right balance between benefits and salary to drive recruitment 

Neither Allen nor Sanzgiri argues that benefits can simply replace competitive base pay, but both are clear that the additive value of well-designed benefits significantly outpaces what an equivalent salary increase delivers over time. This becomes more crucial given that projected average salary increases in Canada have remained flat in 2026, according to Normandin Beaudry’s 2026 Salary Increase Survey. 

“The increase of salary is great – I think we all would like higher salaries – but the benefit of that goes away pretty quickly,” says Allen. “So it might feel great and then it becomes kind of your norm, but the purpose of benefits is to improve health and to improve engagement by showing that you care about people’s wellbeing, to reduce disability.” 

Sanzgiri holds the same view on balance: “Yes, we need to maintain a base salary, but benefits may work well because that’s something that employees are really valuing,” she says. “I do believe that in the long run employees feel it’s the right balance – it’s not that one can supersede the other.” 

A broad, flexible scope to target talent 

When it comes to particular types of benefits that may better close the deal in recruiting, Allen leans towards broader flexibility over narrow focus. “What’s the most attractive is where there’s a broad scope with those foundational things like dental and drug benefits – those don’t differentiate that much anymore unless you have a particular need,” she says. “If you have that broad scope of benefits, think about the message that it’s sending – it’s saying, ‘I want to meet you where you are, and I want to make sure that as your needs develop and change over time, we’ll look at your preferences and goals are in terms of your health, and I’m there as an employer to support you.’”