With Christmas just around the corner, most of us have presents on the brain. The perfect novel for your Auntie Shirley, the mug that was made for your sister, or the token bits and pieces for the neighbours. But when it comes to business, we think that there are opportunities every single day of the year to give something thoughtful to your staff. We’ve looked at all the ‘presents’ staff appreciate the most, and found out the best business perks that people love – from unlimited holiday, regular educational or motivational sessions, to the Christmas party, there are hundreds of ways to provide an extra little something for your staff. Ultimately, a happy workforce isn’t always about how much staff are paid; culture and environment count a lot more than you might think.
What the experts say
Lots of companies compete for being lauded as one of the ‘best companies to work for’. It gives them immediate kudos and is a big tick for jobseekers. There are extensive surveys carried out to award this accolade annually. For the Sunday Times list, a company’s staff fill in a survey, covering everything from opinions on bosses, their working conditions and their employer’s values, and the results are compiled into a ranking. Glassdoor run a similar league table, based on the number of reviews posted, and the quality of those reviews. Glassdoor have collected so much data that they have produced ‘The DNA of the Best Places to Work’ – highlights include mission, culture, people and transparency. For example, OpenTable score highly for building an open kitchen at their company HQ where they host meetups, Waffle Wednesdays, and Bagel Mondays. As a company that’s all about food, this fits with the ethos of the company and the interests of those they employ.
Training
As we discussed a couple of weeks ago, providing training for your staff is a fantastic way to promote retention and develop skills. McDonald’s are well known for promoting internally following training, and as a result, a large number of the senior team started out behind the till. This training doesn’t necessarily have to be directly linked to their job role, and in the case of employees at cloud collaboration company Huddle, it’s encouraged to be something different. The Huddle Cuddle is worth £500 and is for employees to enjoy developing a passion they’ve got – anything from learning a language to becoming an expert at calligraphy. As long as it’s a skill you want to acquire, it’s yours to learn.
Parties and events
A more traditional expectation from staff is the office Christmas party. Formerly the stuff of cringeworthy legend, it has moved beyond photocopier fun and warm wine. Now, companies wanting to attract the best talent throw amazing parties. Google have hosted an Indiana Jones-themed party in Los Angeles, a Christmas event at a San Francisco winery and even built an entire fair (complete with Ferris Wheel) for their Dublin office. As well as parties, events throughout the year are crucial to making your staff feel valued and provided for. Many creative and advertising agencies regularly host events with prolific individuals in the field such as successful Vine influencers or well-known artists.
Unlimited holiday
Netflix came up with this idea for their staff. By not restricting the amount of holiday people can take, it gives employees more responsibility and flexibility. It’s proved so popular that Virgin have followed suit. Netflix say it’s reimagined the rules of hiring and firing, and that the unlimited holiday is one way of expressing this. However the policy has come under fire from some as putting more pressure on people to take less holiday for fear of how it will be perceived, i.e. if you can take a lot of holiday without your work suffering, are you doing enough work?
Other (more low-key) holiday policies include a day off on your birthday, to move house and to do your Christmas shopping. AirBnB take this one step further and give their staff an annual budget of £1300 to spend on travel, while We Are Social organise company ski trips.
Providing perks for your employees is not about buying a beanbag and a ping pong table for the communal areas, it’s much more subtle and nuanced. As long as you put thought into how they reflect your company mission, these kind of perks won’t just benefit your current employees, but will benefit your company in the long run and attract exactly the right future employees.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Kia Fleet sponsor of the Guardian Small Business Network Accessing Expertise hub.
