7 must-have perks to keep employees on board
August 14, 2008 by Shane BorerPosted in: "Seemed like a good idea at the time", Special report
On-site gym access? Check. Pizza lunches on Friday? Check. Cold beer at 4 o’clock? Maybe that’s a step too far.
Competitive salaries and opportunities for advancement still rank high on what the best employees are looking for, but special perks are becoming more and more important to attracting — and keeping — top talent.
Extra vacation days, company conventions, gourmet cafeterias and free concierge services are common at a growing number of companies, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s a list from CNN and CareerBuilder of how seven companies are keeping employees motivated — from the incredibly lavish to the downright unfair:
- Digitas Health; Philadelphia — Good thing these workers have free gym memberships, lunchtime yoga classes and summer hours on Fridays — they’ll need all that exercise to work off the “Free Beer Fridays” they have during the winter.
- SAS; Cary, NC — Amenities abound at this company. Employees have free use of an on-site hair salon, massage therapist and auto detailer, as well as an on-site healthcare center, complete with doctors, nurses and nutritionists.
- Homestead Technologies; Menlo Park, CA — These employees get so much time off, it’s a wonder they get anything done: They earn paid winter breaks from Christmas to New Year’s Day, paid days off every birthday, unlimited paid sick leave, and after five years with the company, a four-week paid sabbatical.
- Creative Business Resources; Phoenix — Employees at the HR outsourcing company receive a $150 holiday shopping spree, but with a catch: They have to come back with receipts and explain how they spent the money on themselves.
- KPMG; New York — Many companies give workers Independence Day off, but they do one better here: Everyone gets to bring home a “BBQ Bonanza” of steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers and chicken to enjoy.
- Adams & Knight; Avon, CT — This advertising agency knows how to wow. The center of its building is a full-scale 1950’s diner, complete with booths, jukeboxes and free retro-styled bottles of Coke.
- Google, Inc.; Mountain View, CA — These employees have far too many perks to list. Among them: 25 days of paid-time-off per year (after six years with the company), free oil changes, car washes, hair cuts, access to laundry washers and dryers and three gourmet meals per day. All that’s on top of up to $8,000 per year in tuition reimbursement.
Full-blown theme restaurants and daily massages are nice and all, but what incentives has your company offered to boost motivation? Share your stories — or any perks you’d love to see in your office — in the comments section below.
Tags: CareerBuilder, Employee perks, Google, Gym membership, KPMG, Motivation, Top talent
August 15th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Not only not impressive, but it seems like mostly self-indulgent excersise of management trying to pretend they are hip. Wow, take home a bag of hot dogs for July 4 or go to an on-site mediocre food restaurant that only has a silly facade that impresses goobers and corporate weinie brown-nosers? I think you need to raise your standards and maybe get a real life so you can appreciate real benefits. Homestead looks like the best and most beneficial of the bunch though.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Ted, you’ve got a point. But in case you haven’t realized, this is a humor Web site, and I’m not suggesting companies go out and do some of these things — especially the more outlandish ones.
Nothing can replace standard benefits, kitschy restaurants or otherwise. A lot of these go way too far, and I wonder what the work situation must be like at the companies for them to offer such off-the-wall benefits. The perks might be the only thing the employees have going for them.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Got to tell you I would happy with anything. I work for a company with no sick pay, no medical and limited time off (six holidays, 1 week vaction after a year). They won’t even pay for the coffee!
August 15th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Sounds great, but aren’t a lot of these taxable fringe benefits?
August 15th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
It seems those companies have more money than they know what to do with. I think I would avoid buying anything from them, because they must make too much profit. I wonder if their shareholders could vote, how they would feel about these benefits.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
hey, if the employees like the perk, isn’t that all that matters - if they like the free hot dogs, so be it! We allow employees to use the locked shred bins for the stuff they accumulate at home - simple and maybe even silly, but it’s appreciated and that’s what counts. Of course we also have standard benes + flex schedules, work from home, summer hours..( and coffee)
August 15th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
I work for a company in the lumber manufacturing industry, where EVERYONE wears jeans all the time except for our company; and we NEVER have visitors. I can’t get the owner to even allow jeans on Friday’s. When asked, he replied “what is in it for me?” Can you believe it? I was so floored with his response, I didn’t come back with “perhaps a happier workforce at no cost to you.”
August 15th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Happy employees equal happy customers, it’s been proven for years. While some of these may seem outlandish and extravagant, if it motivates their employees, and allows them to put in extra hours when needed, I don’t see the problem with it. Maybe they have so much money to spend, because they have happy and loyal customers.
I’ll bet they have a very low turnover rate, which also helps the bottom line significantly.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
sick the fancy fridge benefits and just pay me more. That will work fine for me.
August 16th, 2008 at 1:07 am
aw man, all that sounds good, but you know, there is alway one bad apple in the bunch that somehow will abuse the luxuries and somehow will take it past the limit. I know, we have one at work, and then there is the one in the bunch that is constantly yeh-yehing about who did what and how long they were gone, so everybody is whispering about everybody about who did what; I know that because i work with one like that too. sad part is that she forgets how many times she would have manicures/pedicures, haircuts, leave early (like 1:30 & not come back) to meet the pest man, the cable guy, pick up diapers “so you wouldn’t have to do it after work on her way home”. SO THE MORALE REALLY sucs and is shot down so bad that the “perks” aren’t fair. Joke? No. The only part is don’t understand is they obviously don’t have work to do. Bottom line, four people out of twelve do the work, I’m for getting rid of the other eight, paying us four more, by goodness, we could manage the workload and “perks” very well.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:21 am
I would just be happy with a DECENT raise and a little appreciation! I wouldn’t mind Homesteads benny’s either!!
August 18th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I think it’s all great if the company can afford it AND the employees are paid well with a good benefits package. Sure some of the above are kind of cutsey, but the mental and physical health benefits of an onsite gym, massage therapist, healthcare center and yoga classes will pay off big time in the long run with higher morale, healthier employees, and less sick leave taken. What’s being communicated by these companies to their employees is, in my opinion at least, that they appreciate their employees and like someone else said these companies probably have very low turnover which saves a ton of money. Mega kudos to these companies!
August 18th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Flex time is the best benefit I’ve had - worked at a company that was casual dress, lots of vacation, sick & holidays, but the main reason for the super-low turnover, was the flex-time. It also greatly reduced overtime, as when an employee reached 40 hours for the week - be it on Wednesday or Thursday - they got to go home for the weekend. A benefit that made employees very happy and saved the company money.. talk about a win-win! Don’t know why other companies don’t take advantage of this. (except, for obvious reasons, call centers and the like where structured hours are a necessity)
August 19th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
[...] in that late Gen Y/early Gen X set, what would you prefer: a solid paycheck or some fancy perks? Click here for the story. Posted in Trends [...]
August 19th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Perks are great, don’t knock them. If the employees feel that there is something else they would benefit from more than the perks they are given, then those employees should suggest alternative perks. If the company is willing to spend the money on them, why not let them, but allow the employees to suggest alternatives that may benefit all even more.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
I like the ideas and I have great employees that I would love to be able to offer some of these kinds of perks. But back to the question above - aren’t these considered taxable fringe benefits & then what responsibility falls back on me to track that type of benefit?
August 25th, 2008 at 11:52 am
It would be nice to just be appreciated for the work you do from your supervisor. A raise would not hurt either.