As we always say, employees are the heart of every company! Treating them fairly and ensuring their happiness is vital to a business’s success. Having perks and benefits that your employees appreciate and are motivated by can contribute hugely to how hard they work and how they treat your customers. Making sure your employees are happy and giving them a great work environment will likely have a positive impact on employee retention.
It may seem like an easy thing to introduce some perks and benefits, but this list of companies really do go the extra mile to create a pleasant work environment and outside-of-work-life for their employees. I’m sure you’ve already heard of some of them, but have a read anyway and let us know if you know of or work with any companies who take care of their employees like these do!
1. Facebook
Facebook is very well known for taking exceptional care of their employees. They offer them a huge amount of perks and benefits which include free breakfast, lunch and dinner and an unlimited amount of drinks and snacks in case you feel peckish in between! Their headquarters in California is the absolute dream – it has its own gym, barbershop, bike repair shop, clothes store, restaurants, video arcade and so much more so it’s no wonder that their employees are so happy to come to work every day!
Although all of the above are luxuries and do make employees very happy, Facebook doesn’t stop there. They look after their employees when it comes to personal matters which usually mean a lot more, such as giving parents with newborn babies a pretty large sum of money – also known as ‘baby cash’.
2. Microsoft
Microsoft is another company who offer some great perks and benefits to their employees. They give their Irish employees the choice to work from home one day per week, family days, funding towards further education, an on-site dry cleaner, and a nail bar! (pretty sound, eh?) Unfortunately, their Irish offices don’t have quite as many cool facilities as their offices in the US – such as a sports fields for the fitness enthusiasts, a choice of 11 restaurants so you never get bored of the same old food, and many other great facilities that we are extremely jealous of!
In relation to benefits concerning health care, maternity, and parental leave, they give 8 weeks of paid leave and 2 weeks in advance of their due date. They offer a 24-hour health line, free on-campus health screenings, and flu shots just to name a few.
3. Netflix
Netflix certainly makes it a priority to look after employees who are new parents by offering a whopping one year paid maternity and paternity leave. Parents then have the choice to return part-time or full-time after their year of leave and can take extra time off whenever they need it. Not a new parent? well, don’t worry because Netflix allows all employees to take time off when they wish without tracking it. They only measure the work that gets done rather than the hours put in – finished your work for the day at 2 pm? Then you’re free to go home!
4. GoogleÂ
Google really do want the best for their employees and will go the extra mile to ensure their health and happiness. In some of their locations, they offer massage services, physicians, physical therapy, fitness centers, and classes. For example, below is an image of the fitness center in their Dublin offices which looks very nice and spacious!
Google encourages their employees to give back by donating to charities of their choice. They then match those donations and add more for whatever hours those employees work as volunteers – we are very impressed! They have a lot more great benefits and perks but we’d be here all day if we listed them all!
5. Virgin
Virgin is another large company who truly care about their employees. They have all of their employees covered by health plans for themselves, spouse or partner and children. They also offer a dental and vision plan if employees wish to avail of them.
Now to get to the good stuff – Virgin employees are given free flights for themselves, family and friends on Virgin America! If they don’t fly to where you’re looking to go on holiday, don’t worry! They offer discounts to all other airlines too.
6. John Lewis
John Lewis has an endless list of perks and benefits for their employees (or ‘partners’ as they refer to them as). The top of the list has to be their hotels which are just for their employees to use whenever they please at a discounted rate. Employees also enjoy large discounts on shopping at John Lewis and Waitrose for themselves and their families.
What a wonderful example these companies are for taking care of their employees. We are a much smaller company here at Bizimply, but are expanding fast! We strive to create a productive and enjoyable environment for our employees and plan to grow our list of benefits as the company grows. Our staff are a happy bunch, and we are always looking for great additions! Click here to check out our list of job openings. If you’re interested in finding out what a typical day looks like working for us you can check out our current blog series!
