Companies try creative perks

Skip to the content

Companies try creative perks - My Essex Jobs

Job Search

search
by sector
by location

Quick Search

Keywords

Region

Location

Sector

Salary

Companies try creative perks - My Essex Jobs

Companies try creative perks to keep loyalty

On top of the traditional benefits such as pension plans and healthcare, other benefits such as subsidised beauty treatments, cappuccinos on demand, monthly massages and gym membership are becoming the norm in many large organisations.

Some employers are really playing Santa Claus and handing out bizarre extras such as drumming sessions or wish-granting cheques, where you are a given a sum of money to spend on something you have always dreamt of doing.

Employee perks aren't as common or lavish as several years ago when new Internet companies sought to lure talent with juicy stock options and workplaces that bordered on gymnasiums, but many companies still find that unusual extras help motivate and retain employees in an era marked by worker anxiety and sporadic job growth. Perks now range from pet insurance to tuition reimbursement to monthly manicures.

Steve Carter, managing director of Robert Half Finance & Accounting, says Flexible benefits, or 'menu' benefits, seem to be on the increase as companies seek more innovative ways to recruit and retain their staff. Putting a flexible-benefits scheme in place is intended to give employees a choice in selecting the benefits that will best suit their individual lifestyle.

œFlexible-benefits packages are about to become more common in the UK. If you are studying for a professional qualification, for example, it may well be beneficial to 'swap' your company car for extra study leave, course and exam fees, and then swap back once you have qualified.

Staff at Innocent, a UK drinks manufacturer, get free soft drinks, fruit, cereal and tea and coffee, so they don't have to think about breakfast. There's a flexible working policy so staff can work in the office, at home or in the park - wherever they work best. They each get a free massage once a month and once a year are taken abroad for a skiing weekend.

Employees can apply for an Innocent scholarship, which gives you £1,000 to do something you really want to do. One guy used the money to finish a record he was working on; another person took a cookery course in Tuscany. Rather than giving staff a big bonus once a year, Innocent gives us lots of little things that help us to feel good about our job, said a PR spokesperson for the company.

At a time when job satisfaction is especially low, employers say the perks help keep workers in their cubicles. To hang on to their workers, some companies provide on-site child care and others send employees home with prepared dinners. Motek Inc., a US software company, brings in lunch daily because its computer programmers and consultants never wanted to take a break to eat.

Figuring no one is productive when they're hungry, the company's chief executive began a programme where workers can have $15 deducted from their paycheck each week for lunch that is ordered from a different area restaurant every day.

Other perks that keep workers at Motek include five weeks paid holidays each year and a $5,000 annual bonus that the company requires to be spent on three consecutive weeks of holiday. For those who stay with the company for 10 years, Motek leases a car for them - a BMW, Lexus or Mercedes.

Service Net LLC in the US gives away ''fun money'' - $100 a year that each worker must use for fun, such as family trips to amusement parks - and offering chances to win cash prizes at company meetings. The company has made Fortune magazine's list of the ''100 Best Companies to Work For'' for the seventh year in a row. One Medical Centre in the US offers its nurses and pharmacists $5,000 to help with closing costs when they buy a home. The centre requests a two-year work commitment in exchange.

IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad recently marked the 55th anniversary of the Swedish home furnishings superstore with a profit-sharing programme unprecedented in the retail industry. The company gave away its gross global sales for one day to its 40,400 worldwide co-workers, divided equally including every level from janitor to president, to thank them for contributing to the company's success over the years.

As part of a thank you bonus, each co-worker received nearly $2,000 when the $80 million in gross sales for the day was divided among the company's workers. This is indicative of a corporate culture that tries to take care of the people who make up the company.

For many companies, gone are the heady days of high sign-on bonuses, stock option plans and company cars. Such benefits were cut during the economic slowdown in recent years. Now the recovery is bringing a resurgence of bonuses and perks. The trend in the past few years has been more creative benefits, a larger wealth of benefits and benefits tailored more specifically to what organisations' employees find important.

Related links:

More articles from the News Section
Want your CV reviewed by professionals for FREE? Click here
Click here to Search Jobs