Employee Benefits / Perks

diso

I'm interested in offering an employees benefits / perks system to my employees.

I've had a look online for a suitable platform, but every one that I find is geared towards much larger companies, or has significant costs attached.

So was hoping that someone on the MSE community might be able to point me in the right direction?

lincroft1710

Were I in work (retired for several years) the biggest benefit/perk would be

MORE MONEY

tizerbelle

Have you checked out PerkBox

iammumtoone

I have to agree with the above I wouldn't get too disheartened about offering anything.

There is a good 'perks' scheme where I work but I have never used it nor do I know any colleagues who have.

I would say the best perks you can offer staff is for example to be flexible if they want to come in a few hours late on the odd occasion, enable them to make up the time rather than forcing them to use up holiday, things like that in my opinion are worth more than money.

dacouch

A friend's company automatically gives employees their birthday (Or the day after if they prefer) as paid holiday.

paddyrg

I worked for a company who offered "flexible benefits" to their employees once. The calculation was that the benefit value was 14% of salary, and the benefit had to be selected from a range including childcare vouchers, high street vouchers, bikes under some cycle to work initiative (but from selected suppliers), etc. It generated a huge amount of work to keep track of this lot, and was surprisingly unpopular - people would rather the money. High street vouchers cost something like 95p/£ but had postage costs. Bikes only from Halfords full price range. Not everyone had kids to benefit from the tax break on childcare vouchers. They took the benefit for granted and were taxed on it.

It's a noble gesture, but a futile one. I think you're better off holding that cash in a separate pot for random surprises. For instance maybe it's possible for everyone to come into work as normal one day only to find coaches standing by to take them to the beach for a couple of hours, or maybe a lunchtime surprise restaurant visit, or whatever. Something irregular and different that they're not taxed on and that isn't taken for granted. Or just a summer bonus or... It's a nice thing to do for people but the value to management can be somewhat limited if it becomes expected.

diso

I think what your saying Paddy is spot on for the vast majority and that perhaps my view of employee perk schemes is through tinted glasses because I've always got more out of them by using the MSE mindset.

I did look at Perkbox, but it is more focused on larger companies.

What I had expected to find somewhere online was essentially something akin to a cashback website that you added your own company branding to. That is what many of the company perk provider websites I found online do, but with a large monthly charge on top. Alas not quite what I was after, perhaps I've found a gap in the market I can exploit.

To be honest, I was thinking less about giving my employees perks and more about teaching them some money saving methods so that I don't have to take up Lincroft's suggest and pay them more money

paddyrg

You could match pension contributions, or something similar, if you want people to save. But it will get taken for granted.

I've never understood why perks and benefits were always such awful value compared with doing a cash deal. Maybe do some reciprocal deals with local companies, or ask for 10% off for your employees "just because"...

Aquamania

diso wrote: »

I'm interested in offering an employees benefits / perks system to my employees.

I've had a look online for a suitable platform, but every one that I find is geared towards much larger companies, or has significant costs attached.

So was hoping that someone on the MSE community might be able to point me in the right direction?

You can offer your employees any benefits/perks you like (and can afford)

Why are you looking for any platform, presumably some kind of middleman that will also charge you??? :huh:

DigForVictory

The major perk in my job is flexible working hours. Being able to come & go pretty much as suits me so long as I do the total hours is blissful - it means I can rush off to my unstable epileptic son if he needs me without having to ask. I do as a courtesy, but as I explain who's covering & what, I'm wished well as I hurtle off. Once he's sorted, I come back & carry on.
Depending on how large your business is, that may not be a runner, but staff love it!