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employee perk flexible work
Work Life
March 30, 2023

10 Employee Perks for Better Work

Let office perks help your employees with their work! Employee satisfaction is extremely important in the workplace. It increases employee engagement, eases burn out, and improves general well-being.

Perks don't have to come just as cash bonuses. Here are 10 employee perks that will guarantee better work.

1. Butter Them Up With Free Food

The proof is in the pudding, literally. An easy employee perk is simply to provide free food! According to USA Today, the provision of free food can result in a 67% job satisfaction rate. Treats like chocolate are scientifically proven to be a mood booster and can be a much-needed sugar rush during lethargic noon hours. At suitable amounts, of course.

Ben & Jerry’s offer three pints of ice cream for employees to take home per day. Although your company doesn’t have to top that, free lunches are a great employee perk. Many companies like Yahoo and Panda Express provides free lunch. It saves time and can benefit employee’s productivity by minimising that worry.

Practically, providing a daily, $10 meal to an average salaried employee only costs around 15 minutes of their on-the-clock productivity. It is a very affordable benefit for its worth.

So there is such a thing as a free lunch, and it exists at the office.

For a behind-the-scenes take on one of the most famous office snacks provider, Buzzfeed, check out YB Chang's video below:

2. Healthcare Perks

This goes without saying, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, health is extremely important. By providing health insurance, employees benefit from a peace of mind. Employers can benefit from reduced sick leaves, as well as higher engagement from employees.

Steelcase has onsite health services at their offices where employees can get help from a registered nurse. Healthcare doesn’t have to revolve around physical health, it can also be on mental health. Capital One Financial provide employees with assistance programs and counselling services to improve people's mental well-being.

3. Creative Workspaces

Google's nature-themed Moscow office. (Source: Business Insider)

As odd as it may sound, Google’s famous wacky workplace designs promote productivity. So their jungle-themed office, beach-volleyball-themed office, and New York apartment styled conference room does have its benefits. Workspaces can be very specifically designed to stimulate creativity and productivity (check our blog post on the science behind office design to find out more).

Ever since WFH and WFA have become a norm, employees have been struggling with new problems. Buffer conducted surveys on the state of remote work, and here's what they found:

Source: Buffer

The issue with unplugging after work is exclusive to home workers since the line between their personal life and work-life is so blurred. Loneliness and struggles with collaboration stem from that too.

The good news is, these problems can be solved with flexible offices. Flexible spaces are made to help with team collaborations and socialization. They are creatively designed to stimulate productivity, and it's a short-term workspace people can use to create some distances from home distractions. BOOQED offers on-demand and curated workspaces to suit a variety of tastes - the perfect employee perk to book for your remote team.

4. Flexibility in Time and Place

As mentioned, balancing your personal life and professional life is hard. To ease that difficulty, allow employees to work flexibly. Trust is a two-way street; trusting your employees to work flexibly can lead to higher engagement as well as them trusting you back. It is also necessary for employees with families to have a flexible schedule, so they don’t have to sacrifice their prospects for their career, and vice versa.

Netflix is famous for its flexibility perk. Vacation days and work hours are not tracked, as long as the employees do their work. The California-based company “intermix[es] work and personal time quite a bit... taking off weekday afternoons for kids' games, etc.", as mentioned in their ‘culture’ section, along with their other fun values.

Netflix has an aesthetically pleasing and flexible office too. (Source: Netflix Jobs)

As the modern employee is increasingly adopting a flexible schedule, it makes sense for them to empower them to work from anywhere. No need to worry about employee’s productivity at home if they're offered the tools to be successfully remotely, such as access to coworking spaces as needed. It benefits the company too by helping them prepare for disruptions.

89% of Hong Kong employees surveyed have benefited from working from home in recent months - provided that the company has set up the right internal infrastructure so that work keeps going as usual (or even better than before). So even a workaholic city can make it work!

5. It’s Employee% Off!

Why not offer employee discounts for higher engagement? Many companies test their products internally, like how Apple, Google and Samsung beta test their devices with their employees. It kills two birds with one stone: employees can feel included and at the same time, the company can gain their first batch of feedback for product improvement.

Penguin Random House has a free book programme, where employees can order books free of charge. Discounting is an attractive perk for people who are passionate about what they’re working for.

There are more than a hundred titles to choose from! (Source: Penguin Random House)

6. Workplace Wellness  

Over one in ten deaths are linked to sedentary office life. Increased heart disease, diabetes, and cancer are also associated with long periods of inactivity. A healthier lifestyle can ease those worries and increase productivity, so it is useful to implement a wellness program.

A company wellness program can make help employees make healthier lifestyle choices, according to this CareerBuilder survey. Wellness programs can include stress management activities like yoga, fitness perks like an in-office gym, and occasional health assessments. You can get other ideas for wellness perks for the workplace here.

Allowing employees to work from home (or anywhere!) can be helpful to their well-being as well.

7. Work hard, Play hard  

When you work hard, you deserve to play hard. Glassdoor’s survey showed that employees value vacation and/or paid time off over a salary raise. We’re back to the idea of trust, where an open vacation policy can show the employee the employer’s trust and mutual respect.

Metis Communications give staff members their birthdays off and the last week of December off. After five years of employment, employees can have Fridays off during the summer as well. Employees can free their mind and come back refreshed, ready to tackle any problems at hand.

8. Commuting is Exhausting

The average employee spends a lot of time commuting from home to office, and vice versa. In many major cities, commuting can add an extra 80 hours to an employee's work year.

Here are some more shocking commuting statistics:

  • Swedish researchers found that couples in which one partner has a commute for an extra 45 minutes are 40% more likely to divorce.
  • Forbes found out almost 50% of  employees say that their commute significantly affects how they feel about their job.

There's no question that we bring the negative effects of commuting on our work and home lives. The time we spend commuting is also time we can't get back. But companies can relieve employees of some of the burden by subsidizing commuting. They can provide rideshares, public transport passes and buses to save employee’s time and money.

To save them the hassle of commuting altogether, simply encourage remote working where employees can just work from home. Working from home can lead to a 13% performance increase, with 77% reporting to higher productivity. Companies can also subsidize flexible offices and meeting rooms for employees that are closer to their home, so they can have the best options to support their work-life balance. The Korean retail giant, Lotte, has started doing exactly that!

9. Office Parties

Who wouldn't be inspired by the parties held at Dunder Mifflin? (Source: The Office)

Smule, the music app developer, holds weekly jam sessions where employees can bring their instruments to the office and play together. Parties such as Halloween costume parties, Thanksgiving luncheon, karaoke parties and monthly birthday celebrations are all part of what makes Smule unique. These could also be counted as team building activities! Keeping employees happy at the office can increase engagement and job satisfaction as well.

10. Paid Sick Days

According to the National Partnership for Women and Families:

“People without paid sick days are 1.5 times more likely than those with paid sick days to report going to work with a contagious illness like the flu or a viral infection.”

Being sick is a normal human response to the changeable environment. Paying employees during sick days shows the company‘s appreciation for their work, as well as help prevent the spread of diseases (because they'll be okay with staying at home). Especially in a time where COVID-19 is widespread, employees should be working from home and meet only when necessary.

Here's a helpful guide on what to include in your sick day email. (Source: The Balance)

If you want to excuse yourself from organising paid sick leaves, having flexible working hours can save you from that worry altogether. Employees can decide when to work as long as the job gets done, so paid sick days are already integrated into the system.

A Little Goes A Long Way...

"Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers." - Stephen Covey

Loyal and motivated employees are hard to find. But once you have attracted talents and good employees, showing your appreciation through employee benefits can create a stronger bond within the company.

BOOQED Can Be Part of Your Perks Program

Coworking spaces are important when employees are working remotely. As mentioned in many employee perks, flexible spaces goes hand-in-hand with a lot of them.

Get your workspace with BOOQED. We can guarantee your team will work productively with our carefully designed workspaces. Ranging from meeting rooms to hot desks, we've got them all. Currently available in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shenzhen, and Shanghai.

Download our app now - available in Android and iOS.


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