Google’s lavish employee perks – free gourmet lunches, on-site dry cleaning, access to a fleet of electric cars – are mentioned whenever the topic of work perks comes up. But what are businesses with more modest means to do with that information? The Wall Street Journallisted some extras that are trending among small businesses:
Dog days
VoIP Supply, a seller of voice over Internet protocol equipment, allows employees to bring pets into the office occasionally. (There have also been fish and one associate had two talking birds.)
Pull up a couch
Econohomes, an Austin, Texas, company that assists with the purchase, sale and financing of homes, hired a pastor/life coach. “We know we can’t achieve our company goals without a solid team, so investing in their happiness communicates that we genuinely value them as part of the team,” says Jeff Ball, President and CEO.
Time for thoseless fortunate
At NextStepU.com, a college counseling provider, employees are offered apaid week off to volunteer. ShopVisible, an Atlanta e-commerce platform provider, gives employees four paid days off each year to participate in causes.
Keeping kids busy
Employees’ sons and daughters are offered summer internships and jobs over spring break at ExecutivePerils Inc., an insurance brokerage firm in Los Angeles. Peter Taffae, Managing Director, says it’s fun to have the energy and new ideas the interns bring, and it lets them see their parents’ work ethic.
Meanwhile, management guru Jody Thompson, co-designer of Best Buy’s famously liberal and now defunct results-only work environment (ROWE) flexible work policy, says the Google-like perks aren’t great for employers or employees. The knee-jerk reaction is to look at the all-encompassing Google campus and exclaim, “Look how progressive they are!” What they’re doing is making it even more difficult for people to leave the office, Thompson told Business Insider (BusinessInsider.com).
“They’re getting further away from measurable results and more and more about, ‘How can we keep people here more?’ It looks like they’re doing nice things for you, but they’re wasting a lot of money in my opinion,” says Thompson.
