Employee Perks...
Discussion
Using this account in case some things don't come to fruition and I'm tracked down and nailed to the cross for it...
We're a small tech company and looking to expand. Most of our workforce are contractors. We're looking to start growing along side this with perm employees.
There are currently, 4 perm employees. Two of the directors, myself, and one of the directors family who works for us part time. We've all been quite clear in what we wanted, so the 'employee package' was easy.
We want to use this recruitment as an opportunity to get more diversity in the company - so instead of just listing what perks we'd like - thus risking recruiting more clones - we thought it would be useful to try and see what people really want.
So far I've listed things like:
Salary - We'll list it on every advert and we'll look to pay a fair market rate
Pension - it will be 5% employee, 10% employer
Salary Sacrifice - Specifically for EV's and Cycle to work
Leave - 25 days a year, rise to 30 after say 5/10 years (we need to work out which).. I'm not sure if birthday off too is a bit of a gimmick..
Perks - We don't really have a product that people can get a discount and feel happy about (like say Apple or whatever) but we'd considered something like Perkbox (other suggestions appreciated) that gives employees discounts at a wide range of leading retailers/cinemas/restaurants/etc.
One thing that is difficult because of the specifics of our services, is work from home/flexible working. I know this is a hot topic, so we're trying to see what we can do to have the best offering within our limitations. We're thinking the best we can offer whilst still having a viable business is allowing work from home on a set day of the week (so, everyone could do it that day) ... and then looking to offer people "Flexi Time" where people can build up hours above their contract to a cap (of say 2 days?) so they can easily take afternoons off and not erode their leave. We're wondering if then we have like a 'core hours' in the office, people can have flexibility around that to do school runs/whatever.
We'll get people decent IT (Macbook/whatever...) Decent office environment with nice chairs..... Tea and Coffee, Snack bowls of fruit or whatever in the office....
Personal development is really important to us, so we'll be looking to ensure there are good - funded - training pathways to get people through industry certs... and we'll look to reward them when they are achieved.
What am I missing that people really rate? We know our people will be our most important asset, so keen to get some good suggestions please
We're a small tech company and looking to expand. Most of our workforce are contractors. We're looking to start growing along side this with perm employees.
There are currently, 4 perm employees. Two of the directors, myself, and one of the directors family who works for us part time. We've all been quite clear in what we wanted, so the 'employee package' was easy.
We want to use this recruitment as an opportunity to get more diversity in the company - so instead of just listing what perks we'd like - thus risking recruiting more clones - we thought it would be useful to try and see what people really want.
So far I've listed things like:
Salary - We'll list it on every advert and we'll look to pay a fair market rate
Pension - it will be 5% employee, 10% employer
Salary Sacrifice - Specifically for EV's and Cycle to work
Leave - 25 days a year, rise to 30 after say 5/10 years (we need to work out which).. I'm not sure if birthday off too is a bit of a gimmick..
Perks - We don't really have a product that people can get a discount and feel happy about (like say Apple or whatever) but we'd considered something like Perkbox (other suggestions appreciated) that gives employees discounts at a wide range of leading retailers/cinemas/restaurants/etc.
One thing that is difficult because of the specifics of our services, is work from home/flexible working. I know this is a hot topic, so we're trying to see what we can do to have the best offering within our limitations. We're thinking the best we can offer whilst still having a viable business is allowing work from home on a set day of the week (so, everyone could do it that day) ... and then looking to offer people "Flexi Time" where people can build up hours above their contract to a cap (of say 2 days?) so they can easily take afternoons off and not erode their leave. We're wondering if then we have like a 'core hours' in the office, people can have flexibility around that to do school runs/whatever.
We'll get people decent IT (Macbook/whatever...) Decent office environment with nice chairs..... Tea and Coffee, Snack bowls of fruit or whatever in the office....
Personal development is really important to us, so we'll be looking to ensure there are good - funded - training pathways to get people through industry certs... and we'll look to reward them when they are achieved.
What am I missing that people really rate? We know our people will be our most important asset, so keen to get some good suggestions please
Why are you only considering wfh one day a week? Several top companies I know only have team days for 2/3 days of the week and in our team we are fully flexible with some clear 'collab' days
How about offering half day Fridays with the hours made up during the week or every other friday off? Did something not work so well during full wfh with covid? (and/or some sort of flexible working scheme)I am a firm believer that very little gets done on a Friday PM anyway.
The other stuff sounds like you have put reasonable thought into it. Pension is decent but plenty offer better.
How about offering half day Fridays with the hours made up during the week or every other friday off? Did something not work so well during full wfh with covid? (and/or some sort of flexible working scheme)I am a firm believer that very little gets done on a Friday PM anyway.
The other stuff sounds like you have put reasonable thought into it. Pension is decent but plenty offer better.
Edited by simonw67 on Sunday 31st October 18:50
simonw67 said:
Why are you only considering wfh one day a week? Several top companies I know only have team days for 2/3 days of the week and in our team we are fully flexible with some clear 'collab' days
How about offering half day Fridays with the hours made up during the week or every other Friday off? Did something not work so well during full wfh with covid? (and/or some sort of flexible working scheme)I am a firm believer that very little gets done on a Friday PM anyway.
It'll be impossible to explain here, but simply, the work doesn't allow it. We would love to if we could.How about offering half day Fridays with the hours made up during the week or every other Friday off? Did something not work so well during full wfh with covid? (and/or some sort of flexible working scheme)I am a firm believer that very little gets done on a Friday PM anyway.
We didn't - and couldn't wfh for covid for large parts of work.
If specific packages of work allowed it, we'd allow it. The challenge then is 'But X can work from home'
simonw67 said:
The other stuff sounds like you have put reasonable thought into it. Pension is decent but plenty offer better.
I think I'll take decent considering we aren't a £500 million a year turnover company. We're very much a small business. Decent sounds like we're in the right ballpark. Thanks for your feedback
Alexandra said:
Salary, equity, responsibility, training and good leadership.
Fruit bowls, slides, pool tables etc. make for a nice environment but will not be a deciding factor.
Equity feels like an interesting pandoras box to open. We've not gone near it as the amount we'd be able to offer would be so small it could seem insulting.Fruit bowls, slides, pool tables etc. make for a nice environment but will not be a deciding factor.
Is it more the principal rather than the quantity?
Alexandra said:
Salary, equity, responsibility, training and good leadership.
Fruit bowls, slides, pool tables etc. make for a nice environment but will not be a deciding factor.
Very good point. The quality of your management skills as a director cannot be under estimated. How you behave, what you say, how you mentor and invest in their on the job improvement (includes responsibility) as well as courses.Fruit bowls, slides, pool tables etc. make for a nice environment but will not be a deciding factor.
Death in Service, say 4 times annual salary is a great perk, because it sounds generous but isn't expensive, as it rarely pays out. Most people don't die before retirement, and many of those that do do so of stuff like cancer or whatever after a couple of years of illness, and have been let go long before death.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
Death in Service, say 4 times annual salary is a great perk, because it sounds generous but isn't expensive, as it rarely pays out. Most people don't die before retirement, and many of those that do do so of stuff like cancer or whatever after a couple of years of illness, and have been let go long before death.
Not sure I share your phrasing but noted that it could be useful. I think if we had someone who was an employee we'd want to stand by them as long as possible if they'd just had a terminal diagnosis. brickwall said:
The point about the equity is that “we all share in our success”. It serves two purposes
a) Shows that management care about staff and will cut them in on any riches (I.e. that management aren’t going to take advantage of staff)
b) Provides a real incentive that there might be a lot of money on the table one day
I know of one company where they agreed with investors to allocate 5% of the increase from today’s valuation to a group of c.50-100 key staff.
The company increased in value by about 20 times or £500m…those key employees shared a pot worth £25m…a few became millionaires and a lot of people got a few hundred thousand.
This sounds quite a cool way to do it. Be part of what you help add. a) Shows that management care about staff and will cut them in on any riches (I.e. that management aren’t going to take advantage of staff)
b) Provides a real incentive that there might be a lot of money on the table one day
I know of one company where they agreed with investors to allocate 5% of the increase from today’s valuation to a group of c.50-100 key staff.
The company increased in value by about 20 times or £500m…those key employees shared a pot worth £25m…a few became millionaires and a lot of people got a few hundred thousand.
namechange said:
Not sure I share your phrasing but noted that it could be useful. I think if we had someone who was an employee we'd want to stand by them as long as possible if they'd just had a terminal diagnosis.
In which case critical illness insurance is another one to look at - off sick for 6 months & you transfer over to the insurance provider who pay something like 75% for life.Alexandra said:
Salary, equity, responsibility, training and good leadership.
Fruit bowls, slides, pool tables etc. make for a nice environment but will not be a deciding factor.
Slides? What on earth is happening to the workplace. What fully grown adult in a professional job wants to go down a slide during the working day? Fruit bowls, slides, pool tables etc. make for a nice environment but will not be a deciding factor.
Maybe once on a Friday afternoon 'for a laugh' and then never again.
Your other points however I agree with.
Recognition being another important one.
Company Bonus based on performance of the company and performance of the individual, and be clear about what is needed for it to pay out. Don't just like to to company profit margin, as you could have the scenario where your staff work their socks off but because of market forces outside of your control you dont meet the company targets and then don't pay the bonus out.
I had one company where we could buy shares at a set rate, then we could hold them for 3 or 5 years and then have the option at the end of the term so sell them or keep them, but it also had a guarantee that if the share value dropped below what the shares were originally bought for you, you sold them for that so you were guaranteed to get your money back
25 Days Holiday, is that 25 Days holiday + Bank Holidays or including ?
Private Health care that covers the employee and their immediate family, I have colleagues that really value this.
Death in Service Payment as has been mentioned.
my last thing is Company Culture you could have an amazing benefits package / salary, but if your office culture is Toxic nobody is going to hang about long, so you wont be able to build / grow, this is hard to define what "good" looks like and every company is different, but I have left places before where the salary and package was competitive, but the office culture was completely toxic and you could have paid me 10 times my salary and I'd have not stayed there..
I had one company where we could buy shares at a set rate, then we could hold them for 3 or 5 years and then have the option at the end of the term so sell them or keep them, but it also had a guarantee that if the share value dropped below what the shares were originally bought for you, you sold them for that so you were guaranteed to get your money back
25 Days Holiday, is that 25 Days holiday + Bank Holidays or including ?
Private Health care that covers the employee and their immediate family, I have colleagues that really value this.
Death in Service Payment as has been mentioned.
my last thing is Company Culture you could have an amazing benefits package / salary, but if your office culture is Toxic nobody is going to hang about long, so you wont be able to build / grow, this is hard to define what "good" looks like and every company is different, but I have left places before where the salary and package was competitive, but the office culture was completely toxic and you could have paid me 10 times my salary and I'd have not stayed there..
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