At The Motley Fool offices in Alexandria,Virginia, employees are free to spend part of their workday doing yoga in a conference room, playing board games in another and video games in a third. The employees of the online financial website enjoy unlimited paid and sick days, discounts for on-site massages, and are encouraged to join a company basketball team who meet in a gym the company rents every Thursday night. Such perks attract hundreds of employees for every job opening and job openings are rare indeed.
“It’s a very economic decision, says The Motley Fool CEO, Tom Gardner. “When people love their work, their productivity goes up.”
Though you might assume all these perks cost a lot of money, benefit costs at The Motley Fool are leaner than most: 25% of workers’ salary, as opposed to 33% at other similarly-sized companies.
It is well worth taking a look at some inexpensive job perks (as opposed to those budget busting bonuses) your company might offer prospective employees:
Frequent Flier Miles: Let your employees keep any miles they earn from traveling on company business and think about adding to their total with miles by purchasing and gifting the number they need to “put them over the top” to a resort destination. Or ask the CEO or other executives to donate part of their earned miles and buy a complete trip—hotel, food allowance, car rental and flights—to Vegas or the Caribbean. Cruises are also a dramatic gift and can be amazingly inexpensive (Visit www.vacationstogo.com to see deeply discounted cruises. Consider booking a group trip for your entire company or top performers.)
Amazon and Gift Cards: Keep several on hand to spread around for work well-done. These days you can find everything from jewelry to sports equipment on the Amazon site (www.amazon.com) allowing employees to pick out what they’d really like. Or stock up on nearby restaurant gift cards, buying lunch for a week for top employees. Or buy a gift card for two from that romantic place and let your worker take his/her spouse out for a dinner on the company.
Game/Movie Tickets: Sure, not every company can afford Superbowl tickets, but you can probably afford some good seats at your local ball field, hockey rink or stadium. No expensive company box is required, (bleacher seats will do) but do spring for beers and hot dogs (and maybe a “thank you” message to everybody on the Jumbo screen.) Or buy movie coupons and hand them out for date nights so your workers can take their whole family out to the local multiplex (include the soda and popcorn, too.)
Costco/Sam’s Club memberships: In these tough times, warehouse stores come in handy when trying to feed a family. Include memberships as part of the perks employees enjoy when working for your company (and invest in some gift cards here, too. Such cards take some of the sting out of feeding a family—especially around the holidays.)
Goof Off Days: Take regular full company field trips—to a pizza parlor or a BBQ in the park or stage an ice cream social in the conference room. Take a page from The Motley Fool’s playbook and let your employees decompress with some video or board games on-site or buy a ping pong or air hockey table for the lunch room. Hire a masseuse to come give chair massages once a month.
Advertise such perks as part of your job listings. Word will get around that you care about your staff—not just the bottom line–and the cream of the crop candidates will flock to your company. Let Arrow Staffing help you attract just such employees. Contact us today.