What’s the one benefit you can’t live without?

Paid vacations, health insurance and retirement savings plans still top the list for most employees. Quickly climbing the charts, though, are non-traditional benefits — most notably, flexible work scheduling.

Bay Street Group’s Rick Telberg says flex time is particularly enticing in the dog-eat-dog world of CPA staffing. “Among the new breed of non-traditional benefits that practitioners like, flexible scheduling resonates across most sectors of the profession,” Telberg writes. “For example, a senior-level CPA in the government sector noted that ‘if you are counting on someone to be a professional, they should also be able to manage their busy and slow times while ensuring client satisfaction.'”

For other employees, the ability to live where they want to, regardless of where the job is located, can be a deal-maker (or -breaker) on the job interview circuit. Workforce Management’s Gina Ruiz calls it “extreme commuting” — traveling more than 90 minutes to and from work each day or flying into the office at least once a week.

Writes Ruiz: “The reluctance among candidates to relocate poses a competitive drawback for employers, many of whom are coming up empty searching for qualified talent.” Extreme commuting can, in some cases, help solve the problem.

Do you receive (or offer) any non-traditional benefits? Which ones?