New research by Invest Lithuania has revealed that companies based in Vilnius can save hundreds of thousands of Euros every year on their employee benefits packages compared to those based in London or Amsterdam. According to the research, the annual cost of employee benefits for a team of 50 full time employees in Vilnius is over €250,000 lower than in London, and more than €125,000 lower than in Amsterdam. These costs include training, mobile phone packages, healthcare and pension contributions, coffee and weekly lunches, gym subscriptions and more.
In recent years, employer branding has become an increasingly important part of a company’s HR activities. Furthermore, efforts to retain and nurture talents within companies have intensified. And one very effective way of addressing both of these issues is to put together an attractive employee benefits package. Unfortunately, in many locations the costs of providing these packages can be prohibitively high.
With this in mind, analysts from Invest Lithuania decided to audit the various costs a company might incur when creating their employee benefits package in three different cities: London, Amsterdam and Vilnius. They based their analysis on the costs of a range of benefits for a company in the IT sector with 50 full time employees. Their findings were conclusive in showing that across a wide range of areas Vilnius is a highly cost competitive location.
Take training, one of the most important areas for any company in terms of nurturing and developing its talent. In this area, the difference in costs between these three cities is striking. In Vilnius the total cost per employee for 4 days of accredited Project Management Professional (PMP) training plus certificate is €1,355. By contrast, the same training would cost a company €2,492 in London and €2,625 in Amsterdam.
Then there is private healthcare and support with pensions, two benefits employees value highly. Companies in Vilnius can expect to save €200 per employee on annual private healthcare compared to companies in London. Likewise, an annual pension contribution of 5% of an employee’s salary would amount to €984 per employee in Vilnius. In Amsterdam, the same benefit would set a company back €2,445 and in London the cost would be €2,464.
In terms of additional perks, Vilnius is also a very attractive alternative to Amsterdam or London. Daily free snacks, free coffee, catered lunches once per week, gym subscriptions and cinema tickets are all considerably cheaper than in London or Amsterdam. This enables companies based in the Lithuanian capital to keep their teams healthy and motivated at considerably lower costs.
For a full break down of the audit’s results, and a detailed description of exactly which costs have been calculated, download the pdf here.
