8 Unique Job Perks To Keep Employees Happy
I wanted to share some unique ways to keep your employees happy. At a time when we are all under a lot of extra stress, I thought these ideas might be something that could shed a little light in your work environment.
Employee satisfaction is essential to a company’s overall success, which is why it’s crucial to establish a positive company culture, and offer incentives and job perks that excite and inspire staff as well as attract top talent to the recruiting process.
While every employee loves a salary increase, there are other ways to reward workers besides offering more money.
Here are 8 impressive employee perks offered by large and small businesses.
1. Massages and yoga
If your office environment and company culture is designed to support employees’ mental and emotional well-being, then this is a great perk to offer. Weekly massages and yoga classes available during work hours can help to ensure that everyone feels comfortable, happy, and creative throughout the workday.
2. Free books
Employees who love free books will be drawn to a Free Book Program. You can create a list of book titles that employees can order multiple books and e-books from, free of charge. You can update the list throughout the year. Employees can also join or form book clubs with their colleagues to discuss plots and practice team building.
3. No official work hours
Companies like Netflix’s job perks include the ultimate take on flexible hours and a fair work-life balance, placing them among the household-name companies with the best employee benefits. At Netflix’s California headquarters, vacation days and work hours aren’t tracked. The company only measures what people get done; if employees do their work, it doesn’t matter when or for how long they’re in the office.
The company encourages employees of all levels to take time off, including new parents, whom the company claims often take four to eight months off, even though the company doesn’t have formal parental leave policies in place. However, that vacation time might not be completely off the clock. They intermix work and personal time quite a bit, doing email at odd hours, taking off weekday afternoons for kids’ games, etc.
4. Plenty of time off
When you work hard, it’s nice to have an employer who lets you play hard, too. Some companies offer staff member’s birthdays off and a bonus vacation week during the last week of December in addition to three weeks vacation time. Perks like this really make for a proper work-life balance.
5. Focus on family
When this pandemic hit, I think we all realized that we need to focus on family a lot more. Offering perks that are focused on parents and parents-to-be is crucial to allow both moms and dads to bond with new babies after birth or adoption. Adding another perk of allowing this leave to be used to care for a spouse, domestic partner, child, sibling or parent with a serious health condition is definitely a plus.
6. Mental health support
Mental health support needs are on the rise. As business owners we need to make sure we are taking care of our workers’ well-being, including their mental health. Offering an employee assistance program that provides counseling services, either in person or by phone, as well as informational services to help with big changes like moving, having a baby or a global pandemic will help your employees with those needs.
7. Giving back
Multiple studies have shown that workers, especially those in the millennial generation, value brands and employers that emphasize doing good in the world. A perk I came across during my research that I thought was really cool is matching your employees’ monetary charitable contributions, or for every five hours of volunteered time, you can donate $50 to that nonprofit.
8. A pet-friendly environment
Love your four-legged friend like a child? I know I do! Offering perks such as free or discounted training classes, doggie daycare or vet services is a great way to show your employees that you care about their fur babies too. An inexpensive perk to offer in this category is a “bring your pets to work” day.
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