For years, Swiss employers have pitched remote work as their top recruitment perk, but a new study from ETH Zurich’s KOF Institute shows job seekers actually value a company car more. Candidates would give up slightly more than 10% of their salary for a company car, while remote work ranks a distant second at just over 8%.
Calculated on the median Swiss wage, that figure translates to roughly 640 francs a month—approximately the cost of a private lease with insurance and maintenance for a compact or mid-size car. Remote work, by contrast, is valued at about 510 francs per month.
Financial Perks Trump Symbolic Ones
Beyond the company car and telework, applicants also prize direct financial assistance such as employer contributions to childcare and guaranteed parking. Meanwhile, several benefits frequently advertised in job listings—canteens, meal subsidies, coaching, health promotion programs and flexible schedules—showed no measurable effect on whether candidates chose to apply.
When a Doctor in the Workplace Scares Applicants Away
One perk appeared to actively deter interest: job postings that mentioned an occupational physician registered significantly fewer clicks. Researchers suspect candidates associate the presence of a workplace doctor with a potentially unhealthy or stressful environment.
Inside a 12-Million-Click Experiment
The study stands out for its scale. Over three months, researchers tracked the behavior of around 265,000 people across 112 online job platforms, analyzing more than 12 million decisions from first click to final application. They enriched the ads with salary data and benefit details from the Kununu platform and compared the results with official statistics.
The conclusion for employers facing a labor shortage is clear: to attract qualified workers, they should focus on concrete financial benefits rather than symbolic gestures.
