The war for talent persists. Employers still find it hard to keep their most talented employees, and struggle to fill all their open positions with high-quality candidates. Because of this, they are coming up with new employee perks to offer to workers.

More often than not, employee perks are just one part of the new approach to employee experience that organizations are adopting. In general, companies are devising holistic plans to address their employees’ engagement and performance. Moreover, these plans help to retain employees for longer.

⚡ Learn more about how you can design and implement employee recognition programs that will have lasting impact on your employees’ happiness. After that, let us learn more about employee perks, their importance, and best examples.

What Are Employee Perks

Employee perks is a term that is interchangeably used with employee benefits. However, experts say that there is a difference. Namely, employee benefits are offered within a total rewards package and can be negotiated. They are often substantial in nature and include health insurance, paid time off, and 401k.

On the other hand, employee perks are viewed more as smaller add-ons to make employees more attracted to the company. They can, however, still impact employees’ experience working in a company, and they can improve company culture in many ways.

What Perks Do Employees Really Want?

It is very hard to answer what perks do employees really want, simply because employees are different! Some might want better office equipment, while others would want wellbeing perks. In any case, the right way to do it is to ask your employees themselves. Conduct an employee survey and find out what are the most popular options according to your employees!

Have a look at some of our ideas for different kinds of employee perks.

Best Wellness Perks

• Gym or fitness reimbursement. Although this is one of the classic perks to offer, it is still very effective! Staying active is important to employees’ wellbeing and health.

• Yoga classes. Yoga can help employees learn how to relieve stress, thus making it a very useful employee perk.

• Spa day reimbursement. This could be a very attractive employee perk for individuals that rarely take time for themselves.

• Meal allowances. Assist employees to cook less, and provide reimbursement or discounts in restaurants offering healthy food. 

• Free coffee, snacks, or fruit at work. Offer healthy snacks and fruit while creating opportunities for employees to meet each other better.

• Health trackers. Get your employees’ health trackers and create a friendly competition between teams. Who will have more steps at the end of the month and win a prize?

• Nutritionist services. Some people may need professional help with regaining their health. Why not offer it to them?

• Psychological therapy. Therapy might prove to be one of the best employee perks you can offer. Besides, it shows that your company values mental health.

• Hiking trips. They can be a fun way for employees to blow some steam while hanging out with each other on one or two-day trips.

Office Perks

• Ergonomic chairs. If they were to sit at their desks for hours every day, the chairs might as well be comfortable!

• Standing desks. This popular employee perk is one of the trendiest in the last couple of years!

• Casual Fridays. Create a more relaxed office atmosphere by allowing employees to dress casually once per week.

• Game room. Create a way for employees to hang out more by offering table tennis, fussball, or billiards tables.

• Team building. This is one of the employee perks that everybody looks forward to! Make sure you don’t skip it.

• Bring your pet to work days. Pet owners will be very happy about this employee perk!

• Employee of the month program. Offer prizes to employees that went over the board to achieve results this month.

• Birthday cake. Celebrate your employees’ special days with this token of appreciation.

• Team lunches. Offer healthy food options and allow teams to socialize.

• Happy hours. Let your employees spend Friday afternoons hanging out with their colleagues in a relaxed atmosphere.

• Movie nights. Book your biggest conference room, bring popcorn and drinks, and create your own movie theater for the night. 

Remote Work Perks

• Flexible schedule. Flexibility is certainly one of the most popular employee perks at the moment. Do not miss on the many benefits it could bring you!

• Online learning. Many employees want to improve their knowledge of their field or learn a new skill. Help them do it!

• Vacation reimbursement. Younger generations like Gen Z and Millennials want to travel more. Show them that you will chip in to help them travel more!

• Work equipment reimbursement. It is important for employees that work remotely to have equipment they would have in the office.

Charity Perks

• Company fun runs. Besides making it a fun day and promoting healthy behavior, you can have fun runs with a charitable cause.

• Matching the employees’ donations. Let your employees know that you will match all the donations they make to charities!

• Volunteering time off. Help your employees give back by offering time off when volunteering.

• Other charity events. Have fundraisers for causes dear to your employees’ hearts and support your employees’ giving nature.

Family-oriented Employee Perks

• On-site daycare. Allow parents in your organization to cut their commute and have more control over their children while working.

• Day off for kids’ first day of school. This employee perk allows parents to be there for their children’s big days.

• Day off for your birthday. Let employees spend their birthdays with friends and family!

• Elder care. Taking care of ageing parents can be extremely stressful, so why not support your colleagues with this useful employee perk?

• Discounts. As an organization, you should have access to group discounts for different kinds of stores.

• Pet insurance. Pet owners only want the best for their pets! 

• Paid paternity leave. As it is not yet a standard in the US, paid paternity leave can prove to be a competitive advantage when it comes to employee perks programs.

• Nursing rooms. Help women in your company that are still nursing do it in a peaceful and safe environment.

• College scholarship program. Allow parents in your organization to plan their children’s future with your help.

• Tickets to family parks. This unusual employee perk can turn out to be something that entire families will remember!

• Bring your child to work days. Let your employees’ children learn what their parents do and where they spend their days.

• Theater tickets. Offering movie or theater tickets are a great way to assist employees in planning quality time with their families.

Benefits of Employee Perks

Employee perks are useful tools to total rewards package that organizations offer. However, employers must remember that perks must stay just that – perks! In order for them to have any effect on employees’ engagement, satisfaction, and other, they must be offered as an addition to a fair compensation and benefits bundle.

Here are some of the benefits that organizations can observe after implementing desirable employee perks.

Increased employee engagement

According to Gallup, disengaged employees cost companies $3,400 for every $10,000 they pay them. Since employee engagement is directly correlated to employee performance – and company’s success – employers are doing everything to keep their employees invested in their work.

Employee perks can significantly add to those efforts. For example, wellbeing perks can help employees relieve stress and be more productive. Moreover, better chairs might help employees concentrate on their tasks better. 

Improved company culture

Employee perks that can be enjoyed jointly, like free coffee or lunch area, can create appropriate occasions for employees to talk, hang out, and get to know each other better. After all, research suggests that half of the positive changes in communication patterns between colleagues happen due to social interaction. 

In sum, this can improve company culture and make employees feel like they belong to the organization. Moreover, it can improve work relationships between employees, helping them to more easily collaborate in the future.

Optimized employer branding

Happy employees themselves make the best employer branding. By offering competitive perks, you can stand out from your competitors and attract more talent to your organization. Since 75% of candidates are researching a company’s reputation when applying for a job, make sure to display the perks you offer clearly on your company website.

Higher employee retention

The ultimate goal of a rich employee perks portfolio is to increase employee retention. Besides being costly, high employee turnover slows down companies in achieving their success, and creates poor workplace culture.

However, employee retention cannot be achieved by offering competitive employee perks only. Nowadays, employees are looking for much more in a workplace: they want to be in the position where they can achieve good work-life balance, where their work is recognized and meaningful, and where they can develop their careers.

Offering best employee experience in enterprise organizations can be a challenging task; therefore, get in touch with our experts and find out how our employee experience products can help you tackle the challenges in your workplace.