David Cummings on Startups

Non-Standard Employee Benefits

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David Cummings

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Massage in Frankfurt, Germany
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When talking about employee benefits most people think of common things like health, dental, and 401k benefits. Lately, we’ve been talking internally about what other benefits we can provide to our team to make our environment and company that much better. Here are some of the non-standard employee benefits we already have:

  • Free food and drinks (the regular stuff plus nice coffees, teas, fruit juices, energy drinks, and more)
  • Catered lunches every Friday
  • Short term and long term disability with no co-pay
  • 1% of time paid for non-profit work
  • Quarterly off-site celebrations with food and drink

Here are some ideas we’re thinking about:

  • Company-sponsored personal financial education to help team members interested in things like paying off debt, buying a house, and planning for retirement
  • Massages and personal wellness clinics
  • More frequent catered lunches as well as breakfasts
  • More frequent Friday afternoon happy hours

What else? What are some other non-standard employee benefits that you like?

Comments

5 responses to “Non-Standard Employee Benefits”

  1. Dave Williams Avatar
    Dave Williams

    Fully paid gym memberships and benefits for being environmentally friendly (biking, walking or taking public transportation, or work from home privileges). We pay for two gym memberships 1-la fitness, 2-x3 sports, 3 pay for use of alternate transportations or incentives, and 4- offer flexible work from home options for workers that qualify. Finally, things like a decent computer, nice chair, and multiple monitors are also great work benefits. These are some additional ideas.

    Reply
  2. Ted Jenkin Avatar
    Ted Jenkin

    David,

    Great article! Studies have proven that providing ongoing financial education workshops on basic personal finance topices increase morale and productivity while decreasing overall absenteeism of employees. In addition, providing basic financial planning services at the executive level has also been shown to increase retention at managerial and executive levels. Boy, but some free food sure sounds good!

    At oXYGen Financial, we do provide free drinks from YooHoo to Mello Yello as well as some other cool freebies that have given us almost 100% employee retention in the past year.

    Ted Jenkin

    Reply
  3. Donna Wise Avatar
    Donna Wise

    The massages worked well when I was with an ad agency. We would schedule the massages mid-morning with important meetings afterward to ensure that everyone was clear minded and stress-free.

    Other unique perks include company-sponsored childcare (especially on-site) and company subsidized wardrobe and makeovers to assist new hires in presenting themselves on equal footing with more seasoned employees.

    Reply
  4. Ashley U. Avatar
    Ashley U.

    I can highly recommend Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace for the Workplace curriculum in guiding employees on personal financial matters. Dramatic results personally as well as for my peers…

    I’d be happy to pass along the account rep’s info if you’d like.

    Reply
  5. Ethan K Avatar
    Ethan K

    Earlier this year, I treated my production staff by getting each of their cars detailed while they were at work. There was a nice break in the weather and it was sunny for about 10 days straight. So they enjoyed their shiny cars for a good while. They seemed to really appreciate it!

    Reply

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