Salaries and job security have overtaken effective leadership and ‘a good relationship with the boss’ as key priorities for employees in the last 12 months, according to a new survey by Capital Incentives & Motivation Ltd.

While ‘being treated fairly’ and ‘having good relationships with colleagues’ remain top priorities among the 1990 respondents who took part, the most notable changes are the importance of salaries, which rose from 47% to 57%, job security which increased from 42% to 52% and good benefits which rose in importance from 23% to 47%.

The results also show that the proportion of employees whose companies offer reward schemes increased significantly from 47% to 68%. However, only 22% of companies consult their employees about what type of reward they would like before finalising the scheme.

The proportion of companies offering cash as rewards has remained fairly static at 15% to 16% but the number of companies offering vouchers has increased from 31% to 48%.

A quarter of companies still give rewards to employees even if they have not achieved their target although 67% of companies do follow up with employees who are under performing.