Employee perks are small but meaningful extras you can provide to your employees to enhance their work experience and satisfaction. They differ from employee benefits, which are more substantial and negotiable, such as health insurance, paid time off, and retirement plans. Employee perks are more like bonuses that can make your employees feel valued and appreciated. Employee perks can also improve your company culture, job satisfaction, and employee engagement. They can foster a sense of belonging, teamwork, and fun among your employees. They can also show that you care about your employees’ well-being, development, and happiness. However, experts say that there is a difference between perks and benefits. Namely, company benefits are offered within a total rewards package and can be negotiated. They are often substantial and include health insurance, paid time off, and 401k. On the other hand, employee perks are viewed more as smaller add-ons to attract employees more attracted to the company. However, they can still impact employees’ experience working in a company and can improve company culture in many ways. What Perks Do Employees Want? What are the best employee perk ideas to offer to your employees? How do you know what they want and need? It is tough to answer what perks employees want simply because employees are different! Some might want better office equipment, while others might want well-being perks. The best way to find out is to ask them directly. You can use an employee survey to gather feedback and suggestions from your employees. An interesting research published on National Library of Medicine shows that 37% of people have turned down a job because the company didn’t offer a wellness program. This is interesting data that highlights the significance of the advantages that companies offer. It also demonstrates that salary may not be the sole determining factor influencing candidates’ decisions about which company to work for. Candidates are willing to turn down a job even when perks are at stake. Best wellness perks Wellness Perks are employee recognition ideas that promote your employees’ physical and mental health. They can help your employees stay fit, reduce stress, and improve their quality of life. Some of the best wellness perks are: Gym Memberships or Fitness Reimbursement: Encourage a healthy lifestyle by reimbursing employees for gym memberships or fitness classes. Ideal for those who struggle to stay active due to long work hours. Yoga Classes: Offer in-office or virtual yoga sessions to help employees manage stress, improve flexibility, and enhance overall well-being. Spa Day Reimbursement: Pamper your team with spa day vouchers or discounts to help them recharge and feel refreshed. Meal Allowances: Provide weekly or monthly meal stipends to support healthy eating habits and save employees time on cooking. Free Coffee, Snacks, or Fruit: Keep energy levels high by offering complimentary, healthy snacks and beverages at the workplace. Health Trackers: Motivate employees to stay active with wearable fitness trackers, and boost engagement with wellness challenges and rewards. Nutritionist Services: Give access to professional nutrition advice to help employees meet personal health goals and build better eating habits. Psychological Therapy: Support mental health by providing access to licensed therapists, creating a safe space for emotional well-being. Hiking Trips: Promote fitness and team bonding with organized hikes, complete with fun challenges and group activities. Massage Therapist: Offer massage appointments as a wellness perk to reduce stress and show commitment to employee self-care. Office perks Office Perks Office perks improve your employees’ work environment and comfort. They can help your employees work more efficiently, comfortably, and creatively. Some of the best office perks are: Ergonomic Chairs: Support better posture and comfort by equipping workspaces with ergonomic chairs that help prevent back pain and reduce physical strain. Standing Desks: Improve energy, productivity, and circulation by offering adjustable standing desks to help employees avoid prolonged sitting. Casual Fridays: Promote a relaxed, fun culture by encouraging casual attire on Fridays, allowing employees to express their style. Game Rooms: Create an engaging space with activities like ping-pong, football, or video games where employees can unwind, connect, and recharge. Team Building: Boost collaboration and morale with team activities like escape rooms, scavenger hunts, or trivia nights to strengthen workplace bonds. Bring Your Pet to Work Days: Make the office more joyful by allowing pets on designated days, helping reduce stress and create a more welcoming atmosphere. Employee of the Month Program: Recognize standout performance with monthly awards or prizes to motivate and celebrate exceptional contributions. Birthday Cake: Acknowledge employee birthdays with a sweet treat and a moment of appreciation to celebrate personal milestones. Team Lunches: Encourage connection and healthy eating by organizing team lunches with nutritious food options and time to socialize. Happy Hours: Foster camaraderie with casual Friday afternoon hangouts where employees can relax and bond in a low-pressure setting. Movie Nights: Turn the conference room into a cozy theater for occasional movie nights, complete with popcorn and drinks, perfect for team bonding. Company Swag: Provide branded items like hoodies, notebooks, or stress balls, useful, fun perks that boost morale and company pride. Unlimited Vacation Days: Offer flexibility and support mental health by allowing employees to take the time they need, showing trust and prioritizing well-being. Remote work perks Remote work perks are employee perk ideas that support your employees’ work-from-home needs and preferences. They can help your remote workers work more comfortably, efficiently, and effectively. Some of the best remote work perks are: Flexible Schedules: Give employees the freedom to set their own working hours, helping them maintain a healthy work-life balance, reduce burnout, and boost overall productivity. Online Learning: Support continuous development by providing access to online courses, webinars, podcasts, and digital books, empowering employees to build new skills and grow their careers. Vacation Reimbursement: Encourage time off and exploration by offering partial or full reimbursement for travel expenses, helping employees relax, recharge, and discover new cultures. Work Equipment Reimbursement: Help remote employees create a functional home office by covering the cost of essential gear like laptops, monitors, keyboards, or webcams, ensuring comfort and professionalism wherever they work. Learning perks Learning perks are employee perk ideas that promote your employees’ professional development and career advancement. They can help your employees acquire new knowledge, skills, and credentials to benefit them and your company. Not only do training programs help remote employees develop their skills, but they also create a well-educated team for you. Tuition Reimbursement: Support employees in advancing their education by covering the cost of degrees, certifications, or courses, including tuition, books, and materials, helping them grow academically and professionally. Mentorship Program: Foster career development by pairing employees with experienced mentors who provide guidance, coaching, and support aligned with their goals and aspirations. Conference Tickets: Encourage learning and networking by offering free or discounted access to industry conferences, workshops, or seminars, keeping employees inspired and informed. Online Subscriptions: Boost productivity and skill-building by providing access to online tools, platforms, or resources employees need to succeed in their roles. Charity perks Charity perks are employee perk ideas that encourage your employees to give back to their community and support a good cause. Donating to charity can also boost employee morale and sense of purpose, as they feel they are making a difference and contributing to society. Some of the best charity perks are: Company Fun Runs: Promote health, team spirit, and giving back by organizing fun runs with a charitable twist, including challenges and prizes to keep things exciting while raising money for a good cause. Matching Employee Donations: Amplify your team’s generosity by matching their charitable contributions, either fully or partially, up to a set limit, doubling the impact of their donations. Volunteering Time Off: Encourage community involvement by offering paid time off for volunteering, allowing employees to support causes they care about without sacrificing work hours. Other Charity Events: Support a culture of giving by organizing events like bake sales, raffles, or clothing drives. Let employees help choose the causes and activities to increase engagement and participation. Family-oriented employee perks One of the types of employee perks that you can offer to your employees is family-oriented perks. They can help your employees balance their work and family life, support their loved ones, and enjoy quality time together. Some of the best family-oriented perks are: On-Site Daycare: Support working parents by offering on-site childcare, reducing commute stress, and allowing them to stay close to their children throughout the day. Day Off for Kids’ First Day of School: Give parents the chance to be present for their child’s milestones by offering paid time off for the first day of school. Birthday Day Off: Celebrate employees by giving them their birthday off to relax and spend time with loved ones. Elder Care Support: Help employees caring for aging family members by offering resources or benefits that ease the stress of elder care responsibilities. Employee Discounts: Provide access to exclusive group discounts for retail, services, or entertainment, adding value to everyday purchases. Pet Insurance: Show support for pet-owning employees by offering pet insurance options that help with veterinary costs and pet wellness. Paid Paternity Leave: Stand out as a supportive employer by offering paid paternity leave, giving new fathers time to bond with their newborns. Nursing Rooms: Ensure a comfortable and private space for nursing mothers, supporting their return to work and ongoing family care. College Scholarship Program: Help employees plan for their children’s education by offering scholarships or tuition assistance for dependents. Tickets to Family Parks: Create memorable moments by offering tickets to amusement or family parks, perfect for team appreciation or family bonding. Bring Your Child to Work Days: Let children experience their parents’ workplace and strengthen the connection between work and family. Theater Tickets: Provide access to movie or theater tickets to help employees enjoy leisure time and plan outings with their families. Paid Parental Leave: Offer paid leave for new parents to care for their child or support a partner, promoting work-life balance and family bonding. Sick Days: Ensure health and financial security by offering paid sick leave so employees can recover without stress or lost wages. What Are the Benefits of Employee Perks? Employee perks are benefits employers offer their employees in addition to their regular salary. Some of the best employee perk ideas are flexible work arrangements, wellness programs, learning and development opportunities, recognition and rewards, and employee discounts. When offering perks to your employees, you are making sure that your employees feel supported and taken care of. Simple gestures like team lunches, cakes for their birthdays, and meal discounts in nearby restaurants can contribute to the feeling of value and respect. In addition, perks make employees feel included, and they help employers foster a sense of belonging. As a result, employees who feel like they are part of a unit and have a sense of security will be more productive and happy in the workplace. Additionally, these perks can help employees achieve a better work-life balance, improve their health and well-being, enhance their skills and knowledge, feel valued and appreciated, and save money on various products and services. Employee perks are useful tools to make employees feel valued. However, employers must remember that perks must stay just that – perks! For them to have any effect on employees’ engagement and satisfaction, perks must be offered as an addition to a fair compensation and benefits bundle. Employee perks can have many benefits for both the employees and the employers, such as: 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 the 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, well-being perks can help employees relieve stress and be more productive. Moreover, better chairs might help employees concentrate on their tasks better. Employee engagement is crucial to the company’s success, as workers who are enthusiastic and passionate about their jobs are also more productive and efficient. Perks are not only a way to attract top talent, but it’s also a form of mechanism to nurture your employees’ mental health by providing a conducive working environment. Improved company culture The company culture is a reflection of your values, beliefs, and goals. That’s why employee perks and the ways you show appreciation to your employees are crucial parts of how the company culture will be perceived by your employees. Employee perks that can be enjoyed jointly, like free coffee or a 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 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. Additionally, satisfied employees will talk and share their experience with your company on their LinkedIn profiles contributing to the positive branding. Word of mouth is another way your company can achieve a good reputation amongst talented candidates. When employees feel content and satisfied they will gladly spread the word about their positive experience with the company. 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 a poor workplace culture. However, workforce 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 a position where they can achieve a good work-life balance, where their work is recognized and meaningful, and where they can develop their careers. Offering the 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. Final Thoughts Employee perks are not just nice-to-have extras but essential elements of a positive employee experience. They can help you attract and retain the best talent, boost your employee engagement and productivity, and improve your company culture and reputation. By offering some of the best employee perks ideas from our list, you can show your employees that you care about their well-being, happiness, and development. You can also create a more diverse, inclusive, and fun workplace that fosters collaboration and innovation. Employee perks are a win-win for both you and your employees. Recognize and reward employees with JobPts Reward With Meaningful Gifts. Every Employee. On any Location. Start today
