Unique Perks For Every Business

When it comes to creating powerful employee benefit programs, one size does not fit all.

Inspired by Outreach, a tech start up in Seattle who developed perks to help parents re-enter the workforce after their maternity/paternity leave, I decided to share some of the best employee benefit programs I’ve heard about!

The Miracle of Sleep

Most precious is the gift of sleep: Outreach will pay for a night nurse, Monday through Friday, for eight weeks following a parent’s return to work. It also will pick up the tab for dinner delivery, two nights per week for eight weeks. And during the eight-week, back-to-work transition time, new parents can split their time between working in the office and working at home.

“We want to empower people to do their best work. We’re going to surround them with benefits that are actually very practical,” says CEO Manny Medina. He’s one of the cofounders of Outreach, which has grown from six employees in 2014 to roughly 120 today and is expected to double in size in the coming year.

Without Your Health, You Have Nothing

LinkedIn offers a lot of the same benefits as other tech companies; employees enjoy free food, free healthcare, pet insurance and on-site fitness, and employees generally seem happy, with a 4.7 rating on Glassdoor. But LinkedIn takes its dedication to employee wellness even further by giving each worker $2,000 a year to be spent on wellness activities like massages or fitness classes. In addition to wellness activities, employees can also choose to spend the money on things like childcare.

The Gift of Giving

Salesforce isn't the first company to encourage its employees to give back to the community, but it is one of the few that pays its workers to do so. Employees at Salesforce get seven paid volunteer days off every year. For teams that want to volunteer together, the company also offers grants to help fund those initiatives.

Live and Breath Your Biz

Rated by Glassdoor as the best company to work for, AirBnB offers each employee a $2,000 yearly travel credit to use on AirBnB. Employees can enjoy the site they work for, using that allowance to stay in an AirBnB rental anywhere in the world.

These unique perks prove that knowing your HR and Employee Benefits philosophy allows you to develop strategies that genuinely reflect the core of your business from the inside out. When the heart of your business is about caring for your team, culture will improve, loyalty becomes unshakable and business thrives.

To find out how my team and I can help design bulletproof employee benefits for your business, let’s chat.