The employment perks that work (and the ones that don’t)

Founder and chief executive Josh Foreman says giving employees the freedom to work from home or the office, with no restrictions, and to work outside prescribed hours is critical to keeping and attracting employees. The policy covers about 90 per cent of staff and Foreman says without those two key flexibility measures, InDebted would be in danger of losing staff.

If we asked everyone to come to the office it would be incredibly detrimental, Foreman says.

After flexibility, the entrepreneur says the four-day week is highly valued by staff.

If we withdrew that, the impact would be significant, close to the [impact] of cutting flexible work arrangements. It is a big thing for us. It gives people extra time, he says.

On the other hand, Foreman says a policy allowing staff to work from anywhere in the world is less critical on a company-wide basis because it is used by far fewer people. The proportion of staff who have leveraged the policy is in the single digits, although Foreman expects the figure to rise over time.

Another perk at InDebted, which in July axed 15 percent of its staff, mainly in the sales and marketing area, has been scaled back because it wasn’t being fully utilized by employees. Indebted used to pay a Quarterly stipend of $1200 to compensate for office-related costs, such as equipment for a home office and Renting meeting rooms in shared offices. But the sum has been lowered. Employees receive $1000 in the first three months after joining the company and $500 each quarter thereafter.

I don’t think its mission critical, Foreman says. As for Unlimited leave, the InDebted founder says it is important to give staff the ability to take holidays as needed, but in practice most take between four and six weeks a year.

Business operations platform operator SafetyCulture offers staff prepared breakfasts, lunches and snacks, pet-friendly offices, flexible working and a calendar of social events such as cocktail hours, wood-fired pizzas, DJs and karaoke. There are opportunities to participate in community Volunteer programs and a range of leave types.

But both SafetyCulture and InDebted agree that the most important tool for attracting and retaining staff is creating a positive culture, where staff feel aligned with the Company’s vision and mission.

The perks reinforce the culture and the vision and the mission, Foreman says.

For us, it is ensuring that people have a sense of purpose that ensures their work feels truly meaningful to them, says Anna Wenngren, chief people officer at SafetyCulture.

We compete on that sense of purpose. It gives staff a sense of pride because they feel they are contributing positively to the world. We also give staff a sense that they are being cared for as human beings.

If you are competing on perks alone, people will job hop, Wenngren warns.

The SafetyCulture executive says perks such as table tennis, a bar and free food work because they create a sense of fun and engagement and are a complement to the sense of purpose. Eating lunch together creates a sense of community, while allowing staff to bring pets to work can lift the mood of the office.

Everyone wants to give a puppy a pat, Wenngren says.

NAB has developed three concepts for hiring and retaining staff following its extensive survey. Staff, says chief people officer Susan Ferrier, want the ability to perform their role in a variety of business units inside the bank. Next, they want to feel that the bank is making a difference towards society.

They want to be able to see that by coming to an organization they get to make a difference in the world and that they get to work on the biggest challenges in society, Ferrier says.

Third, they want to work for a company that has a level of authenticity so that they can bring themselves to work.

Ferrier notes that none of the three concepts are about perks.

While I think thoughtful perks are helpful for culture and engagement, I don’t think your attraction settings need to be about whether or not you get a table tennis table when you come to NAB, which you do. Its not something that we would sell as part of the proposition for coming to NAB, Ferrier says.

Apart from the three concepts, Ferrier says NAB employees value flexible work arrangements, generous leave policies and the banks investment in skills. As part of the latter, the bank runs a skills program, which is designed to lift the professional and ethical standards of its Bankers over three years, and a leadership program,

Were one of the best banks in the world where you can learn cloud, Ferrier says.

Everyone wants to give a puppy a pat.

Anna Wenngren

As for free yoga classes and free food, Ferrier says: I think that the Pandemic has shown us that it’s not actually the free food that differentiates whether or not someone comes to work for you or not, it’s about other things.

I think the way that colleagues now view work has really substantially shifted in the last few years. Work doesn’t need to be a place where you have a table tennis table and free food.

I think in many large organizations work needs to be about the content of what you are working on, and for whom. Thats become much more important in our organization in the last few years.

Ferrier concedes that the size of a company may play a role in what it offers in terms of perks. Smaller companies, she says, may not be able to offer staff the ability to play as big a role in society so may need to pull other levers to compensate.

You probably don’t have the scale of impact that sometimes larger companies do across society. And so therefore you probably need to provide things that do set you apart, she says.

Rhonda Brighton-Hall, HR specialist and founder of Making Work Absolutely Human, points to four key tools that are critical for a company’s ability to attract and retain staff.

They are giving employees responsibility and accountability so they have a sense of being answered upon, having a purpose so employees feel like their actions are worthwhile, cultivating connections and strong relationships among employees and offering flexibility.

These make people feel they belong to something, Brighton Hall says. Any perks need to complement them.

Giving staff the ability to volunteer during office hours can be attractive because it gives staff the ability to do something that matters to them.

Four-day weeks can work, but many people prefer flexibility over Shorter working weeks because it gives them greater freedom and control over their time. Free yoga and gym classes can work, but companies should bear in mind that they are likely to be attractive to only a small group of employees.

If companies are going to provide food, it should be good food in line with a desire by many people to eat healthily and look after themselves. Whether it is free, is secondary.

Free Uber Eats should be struck off the perks list, Brighton-Hall recommends. It ends up as a festival of working long hours and eating badly.