Does your employer offer any unique benefits?

[DisneyFix321]

Flex-time, jeans day, or summer hours would be great!!

 

[Judy from Boise]

Not to be offensive to anyone, but i have to ask.....don't you think a free soda bar would contribute to your employees gaining weight and or developing diabetes? It seems like a horrible thing to do when you are also paying the health insurance premiums!

At my work we have exercise equipment people can use, and onsite yoga and (since we have a therapy pool) water aerobics. We also have a great wellness program where you can earn lots of GCs, and be entered into drawings.If you need outpatient therapy, they will waive the 20% not covered by insurance.

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

Not to be offensive to anyone, but i have to ask.....don't you think a free soda bar would contribute to your employees gaining weight and or developing diabetes? It seems like a horrible thing to do when you are also paying the health insurance premiums!

At my work we have exercise equipment people can use, and onsite yoga and (since we have a therapy pool) water aerobics. We also have a great wellness program where you can earn lots of GCs, and be entered into drawings.If you need outpatient therapy, they will waive the 20% not covered by insurance.

Dh's company does all the health stuff too (pool, outdoor basketball, beach volleyball, full gym with classes running all day, etc, etc. I didn't mention that stuff because it's pretty common/expected here. I work for a non-profit and even we partner with someone to offer a health/exercise program (they use our space to host classes, we get to exercise free).

Dh's company offers teas, etc in addition to sodas (although those are at the coffee shops, not as much in the break rooms. But I don't think there is anything inherently bad about companies providing free soda. Hopefully a company is employing people smart enough not to overdo it just because it's free. Although maybe not... dh did go on a bit of a latte binge when he started there and get his first taste of free latte's.

 

[WDWBarb]

Wow - these are some great benefits!! I can't really share any myself - we don't get any extra perks and we get very little paid time off.

But I still like my job.

 

[SDFgirl]

I used to work at a small company and here are some of the things they did:

Movie lunches on Fridays - on Friday we'd all pile into the conference room and watch a movie as we ate our lunches. Usually they'd bring cookies or popcorn or something for us too. We watched the whole movie so...it turned into a nice long lunch!!

Free soda fountain!

Pool table in break room.

DH's company has free continental breakfasts on Fridays, with a hot breakfast once a month.

They also (used to) pay for people's bus passes if they wanted to ride the bus to work. Very green, pretty cheap!

 

[LJC1861]

I work for a VERY small, VERY nonprofit residential agency serving teens and adults with Autism. We can't really do much in the way of special unique benefits, but our regular benefits package is excellent.

One little thing that we do have is something we call "magic money". Anyone at any time can go through their supervisor and nominate someone for "magic money". This is generally given when someone does something unexpected for someone else, or goes above and beyond in the call of duty. A note is written explaining why it is being awarded and that note is given to the person receiving the gift. Then a crisp clean $20 bill is presented along with the written note. Generally the person receiving the gift has no idea that they have even done something special! It is great to receive as well as to give, and generally the employees receiving the magic money are totally shocked.

Generally these gifts are given to our direct care staff by management, but occasionally it goes the other way. Yesterday in fact, one of my direct care staff asked if she could award magic money to our Executive director and her assistant for leading us brilliantly through a major audit. I went directly to the financial manager who dispenses magic money and we made it happen. Needless to say Chrissie and Gaby were speechless to get this award directly from the employee who suggested it.

We do have some limitations in that any employee may only receive magic money once each quarter, but still....it is a nice feel good thing that anyone can make happen.

Linda

 

[curlyjbs]

Father-in-law and Brother-in-law both work for Anheuser Busch. AB employees got 4 cases of beer per month and 12 tickets to all AB theme parks. Too bad AB sold and the new company only offers 50% off theme park tickets. ...not sure about the monthly beer allotment now

Definetely the BEST perks ever!!!!


I work for municipal govt and we are allowed to decline the medical benefits package (DH has a great plan!) and receive 1/2 the amount of Cobra back. For me that's $1000 per month.
~Connie

 

[curlyjbs]

OP - check out workingadvantage.com You can register your company at no charge and then your employees can take advantage of all the discounts they offer. travel, dining, shopping, movie tix, etc etc.... I work in HR and this is one of our favorites!

~Connie

 

[barkley]

it originaly started as a cost cutting measure for the employer but ended up being perceived as a popular benefit for staff-VTO (voluntary time off). the way it worked was (if your job task was suited to it) you could reduce your hours on a regular basis, and while your pay was reduced similarly your benefits (insurance and such) and time off accruals continued at full time rate. additionaly, your retirement (own and employer) contributions continued at 100% and if you retired your full time salary was still used as the basis for computing your pension. you still were responsible for doing 100% of your job duties-but they had to be accomplished in your reduced schedual (and with few exceptions most staff had no problem doing so).

it might not seem like a 'benefit'-but many people like myself had our cpa's crunch the numbers and found that even with cutting our salaries by up to 25% we ended up, between taxes and reduced daycare expenses with a larger net income each month.

the employer also offered flex time-9/80's and 4/10's-as well as if you could provide proof that you were covered under a spouses medical program you received the employer contribution for health care kicked back each month.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Oh I forgot to add we do get a Christmas bonus which is equal to half a month's salary and a very nice catered dinner at the owner's house. We also close for two hours every month to have a big birthday lunch for whoever's birthday falls in that month. At our monthly staff meetings (that usually run 4-5 hours) we have catered breakfast. We get free tickets to the LPGA tour (when it was in Williamsburg).

We have a free soda bar (in my first post on the first page) but hardly anyone drinks more than a soda a day and those that do drink diet. Everyone I work with (10-12 people) is pretty healthy and in excellent shape. Also, I think the free coffee is lost on us as maybe one person actually drinks coffee in our office. I used to drink soda like crazy (diet) but since it's ALWAYS available I've found I hardly drink it anymore. I used to work at a job that had all you can eat fresh baked chocolate chip cookies all day and everyone I told thought it would be the most amazing thing but after a week we were all sick of the smell and taste of chocolate chip cookies.

Oh and my retired Dad works (very) part time for Busch Gardens and I get a free season pass to all Anheuser Busch owned parks and 30% off of food and merchandise. Which came in handy when I went to Seaworld twice last year and Busch Gardens in Tampa.

 

[Pin Wizard]

OP - check out workingadvantage.com You can register your company at no charge and then your employees can take advantage of all the discounts they offer. travel, dining, shopping, movie tix, etc etc.... I work in HR and this is one of our favorites!

~Connie

Our company also participates in this. I haven't found a deal worth it yet though. Was looking over Rosetta Stone CDs this morning. Uh...still too expensive! We'll be checking out the library to see if they have them to lend.

We also have discounted tickets to area attractions, ie, Water Country and Busch Gardens available to us. Again, $5 less isn't a huge thing to me. But the discounted tickets to area movie theaters are worth it!

Just this week I had a pension kick in. I just wish I had started working for this company 10 years ago! Sadly, this is the only company I've ever worked for that's had a pension!!!!!!!!!

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

Here are my office's unique benefits:

We ----

--- can bring our pets to work. We have about 60 employees and I'd say each day there are at least 3 dogs at the office. (We also have an office cat)

--- can bring our kids to work

--- have a popcorn machine that makes popcorn just like the movie theaters

--- have a breakroom with large leather recliners, a big-screen TV w/Direct TV and a Wii with games.

--- have a ping-pong table

--- have lots of pitch-ins, cookouts, parties, etc

--- get great Christmas gifts - a few years ago I got a nice printer/copier/ scanner. This was on top of the cash bonus they give us

And not that it's unique, but, we only work 35 hours/week with a Flex Schedule. I have every Friday off which I LOVE!

Oh, and our CEO is really good about giving surprise time off. For example, in the spring when the weather just starts to get nice if we have an unusually warm day she'll let everyone leave early to enjoy the day.

 

[golfgal]

If you want "benefits" in the HR sense try giving your employees Long Term Care Insurance. They might not think much of it now but it is a HUGE benefit for them in the future and if you are a C-Corp you the premiums you pay are 100% tax deductible for employees and SPOUSES or other dependents. You can also offer this to say people that have been there 10 years or more, you don't have to give it to everyone.

One benefit that DH's old company had for hourly workers and salaried workers under a certain pay scale was every quarter they had an incentive program that if you got a compliment letter/email/phone call from a customer or fellow co-worker it would qualify you for "money". The money was banked and each quarter they took you shopping and you could spend your money. They always planned one of the shopping trips for early December so a lot of people did their Christmas shopping that way. Good employees generally earned around $4000/year this way, typically people got about $2000. You could scale that to fit your budget.

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

I work at a university (private) and after 5 years of service, my children get free tuition to the university where I work and after 7 years, my children can get up to 50% of my university's current tuition to apply toward tuition and fees at any other accredited institution in the world! We call it the golden handcuffs!

(Oh, and by the way 1/2 of my university's undergrad tuition...as of next year...is $18,900!)

I only have one child and I am constantly asked by friends and relatives to "adopt" their children !

K

 

[PrincessKitty1]

My company offers a fitness program that is NOT free (it costs $45 dollars a month), but is majorly awesome. For $45 a month you work out with athletic trainers in a small gym and do circuit training.

The gym is very small, only has about 8 treadmills, 5 exercise bikes, and maybe 20 machines, but you have a scheduled appointment for a class before or after work that lasts for 45 minutes. There are only about 10 people scheduled for each class so the class is never crowded. They have different circuit training programs for each day so you can go 5 days a week without overtraining any of your muscles.

The gym is right in the building so no excuses for missing a session!

 

[PrincessKitty1]

it originaly started as a cost cutting measure for the employer but ended up being perceived as a popular benefit for staff-VTO (voluntary time off). the way it worked was (if your job task was suited to it) you could reduce your hours on a regular basis, and while your pay was reduced similarly your benefits (insurance and such) and time off accruals continued at full time rate. additionaly, your retirement (own and employer) contributions continued at 100% and if you retired your full time salary was still used as the basis for computing your pension. you still were responsible for doing 100% of your job duties-but they had to be accomplished in your reduced schedual (and with few exceptions most staff had no problem doing so).

it might not seem like a 'benefit'-but many people like myself had our cpa's crunch the numbers and found that even with cutting our salaries by up to 25% we ended up, between taxes and reduced daycare expenses with a larger net income each month.

the employer also offered flex time-9/80's and 4/10's-as well as if you could provide proof that you were covered under a spouses medical program you received the employer contribution for health care kicked back each month.

I would happily cut my salary by 20% to have every Friday off, if it didn't mean a cut in my benefits! If I dropped to 32 hours a week now, my health insurance would also go up to $250 biweekly (instead of $80 biweekly).

Even better, I would love to work 4/10s.

 

[TwingleMum]

I heard Ben & Jerrys lets each employee take ice cream home Good thing I don't work for them. I hope they have a gym!!

 

[Pin Wizard]

I would happily cut my salary by 20% to have every Friday off, if it didn't mean a cut in my benefits! If I dropped to 32 hours a week now, my health insurance would also go up to $250 biweekly (instead of $80 biweekly).

Even better, I would love to work 4/10s.

Ditto! We'd even settle for the hours of a coworker's son. He's still in community college but is working a full-time job now...6 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Six a.m. until 10:00 a.m. on Fridays! How does a college kid get this schedule when we've been trying to get a good schedule for years! It's not fair.

 

[Inigo]

At our department (county government), we have flex time, and I love it. Most employees work the standard 8:30 to 4:30, with an hour off for lunch, but there are several of us that come in early or late. I prefer to come in later and stay later in the late afternoon for appointments with my probation clients. (If they are scary clients, I always have their appointments when their are other officers in the office.) As long as we get 35 hours in on the clock, we're good. I'm actually going in tomorrow to finish a few reports since the office will be quiet, and I won't be bothered by phone calls.

We sometimes go on home visits during the evenings and weekends, which allows us to take time off during the week, if we need to. We can bank our extra hours too.

I work extra hours Monday through Thursday so I can usually take Fridays off.

The county is redoing budgets right now, and they're considering offering one day off per 2-week pay period without pay but without a reduction in benefits. I've already signed up for that if they decide to offer it.

One of my judges brings Kerry, his black lab, to work with him every day. She's really good, and stays in his office when he's in the Courtroom.

We have a staff development day every fall at a local state park. Each sub-department within our probation department takes a turn at planning it. Last year we juvenile officers were in charge, and we had a blast planning games and team-building exercises, and everyone said they had a blast doing our activities. (We had a jack o'lantern contest, but provided no tools for cutting the pumpkin. They had to improvise with items in the bags from another activity--boat building with junk we filled bags with. They had to use every item in the bag. We had things like egg cartons, cereal boxes, dental floss, etc. They we had a boat race in the creek.) This year the admin assistants are planning the day, and I can't wait to see what they come up with to top our day. The whole idea is to have fun and to get to know each other in a fun way outside of the office.

 

[Russian-in-Kansas]

We get 1 hour for excercise a day ,every day, sometimes we get to play team games or go to the pool.
Lunch break for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Free medical and dental coverage including free Lasik and even tattoo removal.
One month paid vacation a year, plus three and four day weekends for holidays and just training holidays.
Day off for birthday or anniversary.

Pretty much unlimited paid sick leave.
During Christmas for 2 weeks we work 1/2 days.
Discounts for almost everything you can think of- this year free Disney and universal tickets.
Tuition assistance for self and even family.
Employee-only resorts in places like Hawaii and Germany.
Fully paid vacations with bonuses for a year to exotic places like Iraq or Afghanistan.