Both workers and employers are placing a higher priority on financial employee benefits, including access to a financial planner, retirement preparation assistance and goals-based retirement investment planning, according to a Morgan Stanley survey.

In fact, 63% of employees said retirement planning assistance from a professional is a top or high priority when choosing where to work, the firm's annual State of the Workplace Financial Benefits study found.

And employees are being backed in this by human resources leaders—87% now believe that financial benefits are a key motivator for either staying with an employer or leaving for a new one, an increase of 8% since 2021, the survey said. Meanwhile, 91% of employees indicated they would be interested in taking a new job that provided the benefits they wanted.

“Since we first fielded this study in 2021, each year has seen employees and employers face dramatic shifts in economic climate,” said Scott Whatley, head of Morgan Stanley at Work, a provider of workplace financial benefits and fielder of the survey. “Yet a clear constant throughout our research has been the theme that financial benefits are a strategic priority.”

More than 80% of employees feel that employers should be more involved in helping them through specific financial troubles, the survey found, with 37% saying they have been struggling with personal and household budgeting in the last year, 35% saying they’re dealing with retirement planning, 32% dealing with debt reduction, 31% building emergency and short-term savings and 29% focusing on financial goal setting.

The survey also found that employees are continuing to scale back their contributions to various workplace benefit accounts, even as inflation has cooled. Among boomers, contributions to these accounts have dropped 41%, while among Gen Z they’ve dropped 77%. Gen X and Millennials fall in the middle.

Men have been more willing to pare back and have reduced contributions to their company 401(k) plan by 40% compared with women scaling back 30%. Other areas where men have pared back more than women are long-term savings, emergency and short-term savings, and health savings accounts.

For executives and highly valuable employees, equity compensation has remained the most effective way to keep employees motivated and engaged, and now 76% of companies offer some kind of equity compensation benefit, an increase of 4% over last year and 12% since 2021.

“Companies now recognize assistance with financial planning as essential to help employees plan for their financial goals,” the report said. “Finding the right balance of digital and in-person solutions to support employees as they navigate their financial needs will empower workplaces to continue to attract, engage and retain top talent.”

The online survey was conducted among 1,000 U.S.-employed adults and 600 human resources leaders in February by Wakefield Research.