From Flavored Air to Freshcut Hair
By Erin Douglass
Attracting talented workers in today's tight job market is akin to putting the Titanic in drydock: almost impossible unless you dedicate a wellheeled, stronghearted team to the task. Yet it's a chore that employers of all shapes and sizes must face or risk workplace stagnation and productivity slumps.
To bring the cream in the door, many companies have turned to an old standby: benefits. But with more and more employers serving up 401(k) and PDO plans, it's harder to stand out in the hiring crowd. As a result, benefits packages swell with new choices, lavish services and all the selection of a 40 foot buffet.
Traditional workplaces clearly have gotten on the benefits bandwagon. But it's the dotcom companies that may teach everyone a thing or two about how to keep workers smiling—and how to keep them put.
Benefits 2000
A benefits survey conducted by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) in 2000 unearthed some of the more unusual perqs proffered by companies—the majority of which described themselves as manufacturing (29%) and financial, insurance or real estate (11%), as opposed to high technology or computers (4%).
Of the 606 survey respondents:
- 24% said their companies offer subsidized gym or health club memberships
- 11% provide onsite dry cleaners
- 8% roll out massage services
- 1% allow workday naps, and
- 1% dish up takehome meals for their exhausted employees.
The SHRM Benefits Survey also found that 41% of respondents say their companies buy employee tickets for sporting or cultural events, 36% stated that their organizations host Halloween parties and 32% throw ice cream socials.
It's a Dotcom, Dotcom, Dotcom, Dotcom World
Dotcom companies have more than ice cream socials on their calendars. Often startup companies with business plans and several hundred square feet to their names, dotcoms are high tech, service and e-commerce companies that conduct most of their business on the Internet. With almost a quarter of all dotcoms based in California, according to The Standard's State of the Startup 2000 study, these companies often operate cheek by jowl in a volatile, undefined and competitive industry. And they want highly skilled workers willing to work long hours.
To accomplish that, they often have to try harder. Dotcoms extend an eclectic bag of benefits. And as the pool of talented workers shrinks, the offerings keep getting stranger—and more compelling to some.
Internet business incubator Campsix installed an oxygen bar in the lounge of its well-appointed San Francisco office. Employees who want to read or relax plunk down in comfortable chairs and hook nostrils up to the air-filled box, which features scents such as Geranium and Peppermint. This smelly boon, along with shoeshines, weekly massages and daily, catered lunches, provides "the icing on the cake," according to Vice President of People David Bellshaw. "We don't want to keep people chained to their desks. There's just nowhere to go in our area." These perqs seem to keep everyone happy—and loyal. "We're able to say no to employees before they say no to us."
Blocks away, Metrius, a design firm for online businesses, sets up a free hair stylist in the restroom every two weeks to keep its 100 employees shorn and smiling. According to web developer Melanie Archer, many on staff take advantage of the costfree clipping, "But I'm one of the few women who do it. The guys are more trusting."
Internet monolith Netscape/AOL provides a cadre of onsite perqs for employees at its Mountain View, California campus. Weekly beer bashes, a farmer's market, as well as services from oil changes and film development, to dry cleaning, dental work, massages and a florist are "very popular," according to HR Director Angelo Ioffreda.
Content deliverer iSyndicate, in addition to offering paid time off, transportation reimbursements and a flexible spending program, schedules Friday beer swills and getaways to Tahoe to keep employees grinning; while Cisco, which specializes in networking on the Internet, staffs an onsite stationery store as one of its many benefits.
Perhaps the easiest and most affordable benefit to implement comes from online network College Club in San Diego. Pictured on the career page of its website is a photograph of a sunset at the beach.