For much of the past few years, conversations about employee benefits have been dominated by flexibility, hybrid working, wellbeing programmes and salary. But as workplaces enter another period of rapid change, a less fashionable benefit is moving back up the employee wish list: job security.

New findings from our 2026 Market Report suggest security has become one of the strongest factors influencing whether employees stay with an organisation.

Seventy-one per cent of employees identify job security as important to retention. That places it ahead of salary and bonuses at 57% and flexible working at 59%, and alongside management support and trust at 71%.

It is a notable shift in what employees appear to value from their employer.

The modern employee value proposition may increasingly be about more than what an organisation offers today. Employees also want greater confidence about what tomorrow might look like.

Security is no longer an old-fashioned expectation

Job security can sound like a concept from another era — a time when employees expected to spend decades with one organisation and career paths were relatively predictable.

That is not the workplace employees are asking for today.

Modern job security does not necessarily mean expecting a guaranteed job for life. Instead, it can mean confidence that an organisation has a plan, that employees understand how their role fits into it and that change will be communicated clearly.

This distinction matters as organisations introduce new technology, redesign roles, restructure teams and rethink the skills they need.

Our research found that 27% of employees believe their job could eventually be fully replaced by artificial intelligence, while a further 30% believe it could be partially replaced.

Against that backdrop, it is understandable that employees are paying closer attention to career stability.

The recruitment market is showing signs of the same caution. Thirty-six per cent of job seekers are now passively looking or hesitant to move, up 12 percentage points from 2025.

For employers, that creates a different talent challenge. An attractive salary may get somebody's attention, but it may not be enough to convince them that changing jobs is worth the risk.

The demand for stability crosses generations

It would be easy to assume that job security becomes important primarily later in somebody's career. The 2026 findings suggest otherwise.

Among Gen Z employees, job security is an important retention factor for 74%. For Millennials, it stands at 71%. It remains important to 64% of Gen X employees and rises to 79% among Baby Boomers.

The language around security may differ by generation, but the underlying need is remarkably broad.

For younger workers, security may mean seeing a genuine pathway to build experience and skills. Millennials may increasingly think about career stability alongside income growth and family commitments. More experienced employees may value clarity around organisational change, role longevity or opportunities to apply their expertise differently.

This makes job security less of a traditional "benefit" and more of an experience created through several parts of employment.

Employers cannot promise certainty — but they can provide clarity

Very few businesses can realistically guarantee that a role will never change.

Technology will continue to evolve. Customer expectations will shift. Economic conditions will change. New capabilities will become important and some existing responsibilities will be redesigned.

Trying to promise complete certainty would therefore be unrealistic.

What employers can offer is greater transparency.

Employees are more likely to feel secure when they understand where the organisation is heading, what is changing and what those changes mean for their role.

That can include communicating workforce plans earlier, being clearer about the capabilities the organisation expects to need in future and explaining why roles or structures are changing rather than allowing uncertainty to fill the information gap.

Security can also come through development.

An employee who believes their current task may eventually be automated could understandably feel vulnerable. An employee who is simultaneously being trained to work with that technology, develop adjacent skills or move towards another opportunity has a very different experience of the same change.

Job security, in other words, does not always come from preserving a role exactly as it exists. Increasingly, it may come from helping employees remain employable as their role evolves.

Recruitment messaging may need to change too

The renewed importance of stability also has implications for talent attraction.

Job advertisements and interviews traditionally spend significant time explaining responsibilities, salary, flexibility and benefits. Employers may now need to communicate more deliberately about the future of the opportunity.

Candidates increasingly have reason to ask: Why is the organisation hiring? Is the team growing? How has the role changed? What development is available? What does progression look like? How is technology likely to affect this position?

These questions are not necessarily signs that candidates lack ambition. They may reflect a more risk-conscious workforce.

That is especially important when approaching passive candidates who already have a secure role. Convincing somebody to move requires more than demonstrating that the new opportunity is attractive. Employers also need to demonstrate that the move makes sense for the candidate's longer-term career.

A different kind of employee benefit

The benefits employees value will continue to change with the market.

Flexibility remains important. Salary remains important. Career development and work-life balance continue to influence attraction and retention.

But our 2026 findings suggest employers should not underestimate something much more fundamental: employees want to feel that there is a future for them.

That does not require organisations to promise the impossible.

It means providing clarity where possible, communicating change well, investing in transferable skills and giving employees confidence that their employer is thinking about their future as well as today's workload.

In an uncertain workplace, that confidence may increasingly be one of the most valuable benefits an employer can provide.