More Ways to Keep Good Workers

Knowledge resource 1597 views 6 replies

Aisha

Finance Professional

8849 Points Joined October 2007

How can you help make your workplace fun and productive for your employees and yourself? Treating your employees to special perks will help them feel glad they work for you and can improve retention as well.

Here's how to perk up your workplace with no- or low-cost benefits. (And we don't mean just donuts.) Plus share a client-friendly version of this article with your own clients.

Perks Count

Even if you have a limited benefits budget, you can add lots of perks that will help your employees feel satisfied and recognized. Perk up your workplace with these no- or low-cost benefits.

Note: Unless otherwise noted, statistics are from the 2007 Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) Benefits Survey. While the survey is available to members only, this site offers useful news stories and other information to nonmembers.

Compressed workweek. Allow employees to work longer days and let them take half-days or full days off. One-third of small businesses (defined as companies with less than 100 employees) and over half of firms in the financial industry implement this perk.
Social activities. Go beyond the traditional holiday party and company picnic. For the cost of a DVD and popcorn, Sue Murray, President of EduCorp Training and Consulting, Inc. of Irving, Texas, holds movie night for her employees. The employees select the DVD, get comfortable in one of the firm's newly decorated training rooms, and enjoy their peanuts, popcorn, and a little camaraderie while watching the big screen.
Telecommute part-time. Let employees work from home for part of the workweek. Fifty-six percent of financial firms and 28 percent of small firms offer this perk. Only 15 percent of small firms allow telecommuting on a full time basis.
Customized recognition. Tim Durkin, a Dallas-based professional speaker, worked for a hospital in Atlanta that asked each employee how they'd like to be recognized for good work: gift certificates, time off, sports event tickets, cash, or publicity, for example. When the time comes, the firm honors the employee in their special way, knowing that each person has different feelings and tastes about the way they'd like to be recognized.
Bring child to work in case of emergency. An employee whose child care just evaporated will appreciate this benefit; 43 percent of small firms allow this perk. Some firms provide childcare referral services and eldercare referral services.
Classes. In addition to on-the-job cross-training and professional development through continuing education and conference, topics cover self-defense training (offered by three percent of small firms), on-site fitness yoga (five percent), English as a second language, a foreign language, and CPR first aid training.
Stress reduction techniques. Ten percent of small firms hold stress reduction classes and eleven percent offer massage therapy. Cindy Hampson, RMT (Registered Massage Therapist), MMP (Medical Massage Practitioner), of Frisco, Texas frequently serves corporate accounts in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area. She sets up a chair in an empty office or conference room, adds candles, music, and aromatherapy, and performs 10-minute shoulder and neck massages. Not only is it a nice perk, massage serves a medical purpose by moving toxins through the body that are not otherwise eliminated, Cindy says.
Casual dress one day per week. Sixty-seven percent of small firms offer this relaxing benefit, while 44 percent of small firms allow casual dress every day.
Postal services for employees. Over a quarter of small firms provide this low-cost convenience. Other errand-reducing perks include dry cleaning services, concierge services, photo developing drop-off/pick-up service, prepared take home meals, and vaccinations on-site according to the 2007 SHRM Benefits Survey. Other ideas include a free car wash and lawn mowing. You can easily set these up by partnering with small businesses that offer these services and negotiate a quantity discount for the bulk purchase.
Transportation subsidies. Some companies offer a carpooling subsidy, a parking subsidy, or a transit subsidy. One large bank offers a reimbursement for purchasing a hybrid car, according to a careerbuilder.com article. (Some of these ideas come from CareerBuilder.com's advice for employers)
Employee discounts on services or merchandise. One Fort Worth media consultant receives 50 percent discount on merchandise at her new workplace. She has also received a subsidy on hairstyling services from the cable TV company she previously worked for. Consider giving your employees a discount on your services or products or the related services or products that they need to do their jobs.
Time off. Besides the traditional time off for holidays, vacation, and sick leave, five percent of small companies give employees a paid day off on their birthdays. Nine percent of small firms allow employees to volunteer during paid work hours.
Create a culture where employees thrive. Jeannie Ebbighausen, Customer Service Instructor of Southwest Airlines Co. in Dallas, Texas, says the culture at Southwest is a perk in and of itself. "There is a mindset of respect and value for every employee, especially the ones on the front lines," says Jeannie. For Southwest employees, coming to work is like coming home to family. Individuals get to know each other, celebrate each others' successes constantly, develop deep relationships, and rally around each other in time of need.

Benchmarking Your Level of Spending. From a statistical overview, companies spent 38 percent of payroll on benefits: Twenty percent were mandatory costs, and 18 percent were voluntary, according to the 2007 SHRM Benefits Survey. Your individual situation will vary.

Let Employees Choose

Here's one last idea to leave with you: take this list to your employees, and let them pick which perks they like the best. Then implement the top one or two most popular perks to make your workplace a little bit brighter.

Replies (6)

Krunal Raichura

Financial Advisory

2134 Points Joined September 2007

Barriers to Organizational Communication A person cannot be social and professional at the same time. If he does so then it would be unprofessional and it would disorganize the communication systems. Let us study in detail as to how socio-professionalism is a sin. These days in most of the large organizations, people (refers to those who are working for the company) make social groups among themselves. Such social groups go a long way in achieving overall employee satisfaction and keeping up high motivational levels among everybody. These social groups do a range of activities that include sports and recreational activities after office hours by way of outings, or picnics. However, these social groups have a darker side as well. Let us consider the example of Mr. A, Mr. B and Mr. C who are at the same organizational hierarchy and are a social group. A series of observations and information about the employees with seniors show that even in the office, Mr. A, B and C are always together sitting in a group and discussing unnecessary stuff. Therefore, during a training session, a very nice initiative was taken by the organization which was intended to have flexible communication among all. It was decided that Mr. A, B and C would sit in three different corners of the training hall with different people. However, even when they were made to sit differently they made it a point to be social, to be together. So they decided to keep chatting through the office messenger. During the training session, instead of talking to the people on the table and discussing the tasks with them, they instead decided to talk their friends only and thus used the office messenger and kept chatting as much as possible throughout the training. This friendship must be appreciated; however, it has to be kept outside the organization. This was the case not with Mr. A, B and C’s group, but it was the case with all the social groups. The organization seemed to be divided in many social groups, who were made to sit away from each other with different people, with those who are not their friends, but are colleagues. The result of such behavior was as follows- 1. During the session, had a third person been observing the whole scene, it looked like it was a get together and not a training event. 2. Moreover, it looked as if one is sitting in a restaurant or a college. Although the organization ensured that Mr. A, B and C don’t sit together, the technology, the close attachment and the socio-professionalism made all the three keep their friendship alive. This was the case with all groups because of which they seemed to be “social groups” and not really “professional groups”. 3. A communication gap has definitely been created between Mr. A and the people on his table, Mr. B and the people on his table and in between Mr. C and the people on his table. The communication hasn’t been effective among all as all the communication that took place, was only among the existing social groups. 4. Those people who were new to the organization had a lot of difficulty in understanding the training and communicating with others. The golden chance to communicate with others was over lunch and breakfast, however, during that time, the social groups didn’t find any time and interest to bother about the new joiner’s. 5. The organizational communication in the above case would be only limited among themselves (people who are a part of their respective social groups). Thus, when an organization is divided among many such social groups, a communication gap is created between these social groups because the social group 1 will not get any time and interest to communicate with social group 2 and vice versa and so on. 6. Moreover, it becomes extremely difficult for a new employee to communicate when most of the people are busy among their social groups. Over a period of time, if this person would be a part of such social groups in his organization then it’s all right, but if he doesn’t then this communication gap will keep widening. Further, 1. If Mr. A, Mr. B and Mr. C would decide to talk only among themselves outside the office and inside the office as well, the communication gaps would keep widening. When the organization would be divided in many such social groups there will be even more gaps. These gaps wouldn’t be limited to inter-departments, but they would go further and would exist among the social groups falling under one particular department. 2. In case of such a socio-professional culture, it is very likely that a person may not really know his firm well. His knowledge would be limited to the happenings in his department and his social group. He may not be aware of new people, of the other departments and the services they provide. 3. He may miss out a lot of opportunities to learn during such training sessions, during office hours when he can work hard; improve his communication skills by having effective communication with all. 4. A person who has had effective communication in the organization and who has been professional in behavior and communication is more likely to know his firm better. Through the awareness of the various departments existing in his organization, the activities these departments do and the way they do it, this person would be in a position to assist such firms/individuals who are in need of particular type of service by referring them to his firm. 5. Anyone would be able to do so, only if he is aware that his firm has a necessary infrastructure/expertise /workforce to provide a particular service. However, if a person’s knowledge is limited only to the happenings in his department and his social group, he wouldn’t be in a position to really do any good to his firm. It will take no time for such a person to pull down the pride of his organization in any seminar, meetings etc as it is very likely that the other party knows his organization and the organizational people much better than this person who works for it. Further, such a person wouldn’t be in a position to assist anyone who is in need of a service which his firm provides. This is because he wouldn’t be aware of the other departments, business, activities his firm is involved into. 6. Socio-Professional people in a long run would spoil the organization’s professionalism. They would negatively change the definition of a professional organization. Effective communication is the lifeblood of an organization. An organization must have effective communication systems, and there should be effective communication at all levels, it should be in all directions and among everybody. If an organization would be divided among many such small social groups, one could really be questioning the existence of these social groups as professional groups. In all the organizational activities, the atmosphere is more likely to be social than professional, which has its own pros and cons. Effective communication offers many advantages to the organization and its people as well. It offers better relationships which are not limited to two or three individuals a particular department/interest but is wide-spread across hierarchies, departments, interests etc. This results in better information, more knowledge and awareness. I believe that the problem possibly could be the incapability of these social groups in balancing social and professional side.