Persuading quality employees to remain with your company, or persuading prospective new recruits to consider taking up a position, is often a matter of offering the right perks. While the promise of a healthy paycheck might be enticing, it isn’t the only thing that workers are worried about, and in many cases, the right perk can be much more persuasive than a salary rise of equivalent value.
But exactly which perks are employees actually interested in? Let’s take a look at a trio of popular options.
Company Cars
If a position involves putting in a lot of miles, then a company car might be enticing. It makes life much easier for the employee in question since it’s the company that will be responsible for keeping the car on the road, and for selling it at the end of its natural life.
You can think of a fleet of company cars as a means for employees to pool their purchasing power when it comes to motoring and benefit from economies of scale. It’s more cost-effective for a single organisation to buy ten cars than it is for ten individuals to buy them at full retail price. On top of every practical consideration, there’s the emotional impact: a company car will tend to signal that you’re willing to invest in an individual, which can only be encouraging for the individual concerned. When you’re buying in bulk, replacement parts, like tyres, can be bought online at significant savings.
Flexible Working Hours
For most modern professionals, a balance between work-related commitments and personal ones is hugely desirable. If the kids are getting out of school at 4 pm, then it pays to be able to leave the office at 3 – even if it means making up the hours later in the week. By the same token, a worker that doesn’t have to worry about looking after children might want to come into the office early (and leave early) in order to avoid the morning rush on the train.
Where it’s reasonably practicable, it’s a good idea to let workers pick hours that suit them. In certain industries, this will actually cost the employer very little, while conferring a significant upside to the employee in question.
Additional Holiday Time
You can think of additional holiday time as an investment in your worker’s productivity in the long term. When workers are at the grindstone for months on end, the quality of their output tends to decline. A single summer holiday might not be enough to recharge the batteries. Moreover, your company might find that there are certain times of the year when demand is low, and additional holiday time can be easily granted without productivity suffering. In these cases, it’s a good idea to dispense the extra holiday time accordingly.