It’s a perfect, sunny day, but you’re sitting inside at work. The ping of an incoming email jolts you from your daydream afternoon on the beach. However, when you see the subject line – “Surf ‘s up” – your sigh turns to a smile. The reception desk says that high tide is in half an hour, so you and just about everyone else in the office grab your boards and rush out to the ocean.
Still daydreaming? Not if you work for California based Patagonia. The company encourages employees to catch the waves while they’re good, even in the middle of a work day. Of course, in most of Canada this would translate into months away from our desks tobogganing on snowy hills or playing shinny on frozen ponds.
Today’s employers are pushing the envelope on dazzling workplace perks to recruit and retain great employees. Apple and Facebook recently announced they’ll help pay to freeze female employees’ eggs so they can have more choice over when to start a family.
Virgin and Netflix offer unlimited vacation as long as your work is done and the Toronto office of software developer SAP Canada has a professional-grade putting green and paid resort holidays for outstanding performance.
But before you head up to the executive suite and propose installing a pool table and tiki bar in the staff lounge, let’s consider more subtle changes to your workplace that would truly make you a better, more motivated, more I’m-pumpedto-go-to-work employee – because that’s what your employer really wants.
Countless studies show that more engaged workers mean higher sales, stronger customer loyalty and bigger profits for less investment than increasing wages. But how do you motivate a Canadian beyond a putting green?
A smart starting point would be perks that optimize potential for productivity – shower facilities so employees can cycle to work or take part in other performance-enhancing exercise over breaks; healthy snacks or lunches to feed the working brain; or yoga classes and stretch breaks to boost energy and get good ideas flowing.
The chance to “move on up” is important, too – at least one survey found that most of us would take less pay for a job with more career potential.
Many Canadian employers offer tuition reimbursement for relevant professional development and others like BlackBerry have learning portals to enhance skills and knowledge. Employees at Winnipeg’s Birchwood Automotive Group get in-house management training and a lunch date with a senior executive on their 90th day of work.
Our favourite perks are those that make employees proud of the place they work. One recent survey found that more than half of Canadians would take a pay cut or demotion to work for a company that is considered ethically, environmentally and socially responsible.
Engaging staff in charitable and community work pays all sorts of dividends – companies bolster their reputation and relationship with the community, employees get that “helper’s high” – and often a new skill set that may be valuable at work. Meanwhile non-profits get teams of talented, reliable and satisfied volunteers.
Employer-supported volunteering can include flexible work hours or paid time off to volunteer. Like Microsoft, several Canadian companies also offer donations to charities where their employees volunteer – RBC’s Employee Volunteer Grants Program, for example, has given over 24,500 grants worth more than $12 million to organizations where retired and current employees volunteer.
Employers increasingly merge good deeds with team building. Vancouver-based multinational software designer iQmetrix has free fitness classes and beer taps in every office, but it also adds a volunteering component to its annual staff getaway to warmer climates – this winter it’s school-building in Nicaragua.
So on your next job search – or even when scrutinizing your current workplace – look beyond your salary and bonus because there are likely other rewards that will help you bounce out of bed on Monday mornings – and not just for the possibility of a company wide snow day.
From: Leader-Post