Firms' freebies help perk up employee retention
Workers at Microsoft get grocery delivery. And valet parking. Free.
Employees at Anheuser-Busch enjoy a monthly two-case beer allowance. No charge.
The folks at Google get homemade French toast in the morning with ginger-infused maple syrup and caramelized apples. Gratis.
Workbytes could go on, but we already know what you're saying. And it likely includes the word "squat."
That's because most of us will never see the kind of perks that are handed out at some U.S. companies in the name of employee retention.
Each year, Fortune magazine comes out with a list of the best places to work. Each year, most of the companies on the list offer extras that go beyond free coffee and complimentary fanny packs emblazoned with the company logo.
Some of the examples will make you spit your Cheerios (or other leading brand):
- Blockbuster offers health insurance for employees' pets.
- Amgen Biotechnology Co. has a staff florist.
- Sun Microsystems has lactation rooms for nursing mothers.
- The Container Store in Dallas has a staff yoga instructor.
The experts say such benefits help achieve something called "work/life balance."
A healthy work/life balance, it seems, will lower a company's turnover rate and save money that would otherwise be spent to recruit, relocate and train new workers.
The phrase dates back to 2005, when Spherion Corp., a Florida staffing and recruiting company, did a huge study that focused on the "troubling gap" between what workers want and what bosses think they want.
Employers that blow off work/life balance issues "expose themselves to a greater chance of employee burnout, lower productivity and eventual turnover," Spherion Chief Executive Officer Roy Krause said.
That's probably why S.C. Johnson & Son - No. 7 on the Fortune list - built an employee recreation complex and opened a child care center where photos of the kids are e-mailed to the parents throughout the workday.
Workbytes' new friend, Chason Hecht, said the quest for work/life balance represents a "social evolution," especially among young workers who "don't view their jobs as a way to simply put food on the table."
Hecht is president of Retensa, a New York City firm that helps clients hang on to their best workers.
"Work is no longer a way to sustain yourself or your family," he explained. "It's all about personal fulfillment now."
That's why Workbytes set out to find the biggest bennie, the greatest gob of gravy, the most perfect perk in all of Perkland.
We found it at U.S. Cellular, where a honcho banned the use of interoffice e-mail on Fridays to combat what he called "cyber indigestion."
Jodi Valenta, who works in the company's Cedar Rapids, Iowa, office, told the Associated Press that she loves the new policy and that Fridays have become the most productive day of the week: "I can go out of the office and spend my time visiting associates across Iowa and not worry about my e-mail backing up."
Think about it for a moment. No e-mail at work.
No more missives from human resources about "how to assess support measures for the development of integration skills."
No more chain letters from your sister-in-law warning about parking lot attackers.
No more lengthy announcements about how Donna, whose dad, Bob, is the head of purchasing, finally had her baby (and it has a "thick head of black hair, just like his Grandpa!")
No more spam-resistant offers for, ahem, enhancement-based products.
No more corrupt attachments. No more ccs. No more exiled Costa Ricans with caches of hidden gold.
And, most important, no more of that guy in every office who sends an e-mail and then immediately walks across the room to ask the recipient: "Did you get my message?"
Workbytes knows nothing about communication technology (it takes us 25 minutes to erase a text message), but when we heard about U.S. Cellular's policy, we were tempted to dust off the ol' resume.
Hecht told us to think again.
"You don't choose a company to work for just because they have weekly ice cream socials. And such perks don't convince you to stay, either," he said.
"They can make a good workplace better, but they can't make a bad one good. You have to like what you do," he added.
To which we replied: "Ice cream? Where?
"And how come we didn't get an e-mail on it?"
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