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Offering perks to gain an advantage in the war for talent is nothing new. Google is famous for offering their workers a whole slew of elaborate perks, including: free gourmet lunches, free transportation to work, a pet friendly workplace, and office massages. Most startups don’t have the deep pockets that allow Google to shower their employees with such largess, but a survey from TechnologyAdvice suggests that many of the perks employees are looking for are downright cheap, and some could even save you some money.
A whopping 31.8 percent of respondents said the perk they valued most was the ability to have control over their schedule – which is, of course, absolutely free. All they wanted was to have flexible work hours, or the ability to work remotely. This sort of perk is incredibly valuable to parents, who are often faced with huge childcare costs when school is not in session. It might also be valuable to employees who live far from the office and want to avoid rush hour traffic.
Another 24.1 percent of respondents simply wanted a free gym membership, which at a negotiated rate certainly shouldn’t cost more than $100 a month, per employee. Of course employers also get the added benefit of having healthy employees who are blowing off steam at the gym, rather than in snarky emails.
According to the survey, you can make another 11.8 percent of people happy by simply allowing them to wear jeans and t-shirts to the office. It doesn't get much easier than that.
Surprisingly, very few respondents said they valued working in an office space crammed full of toys. Only 4.4 percent of respondents said it was important to them to work in a space with recreational games.
Besides simply making employees happy people, figuring out what sort of perks they value can have an effect on a company's bottom line – as well as the sort of talent you’re able to hire.
About 56 percent of people surveyed said perks are either moderately or very important to them when choosing a job. In fact, about the same number of people said they would rather have good perks than a raise.
Think about that for a second. If you can let an employee wear jeans and work from home on Friday instead of paying a raise, why not? Perhaps unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents who preferred perks to cold hard cash tended to be younger.
This particular study surveyed 500 workers between the ages of 25 and 54. Using it to extrapolate what perks your employees value may not be the best idea. But, it does seem to pretty clearly indicate that choosing the right perks for your company can have an outsized effect.
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