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Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

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21–30 of 59 posts

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#21

- Free Drinks / Snacks / Lunches - 20% Time - Music/Stereo System in the office - Work from Home Days (where everyone does)

I'm not convinced by the music thing. We have music at our office but in practice it rapidly trends towards whatever offends the least people which is normally some kind of "easy listening" dreck. This doesn't seem to work for most people, given that a fair number of us still listen to our own music on ipods or whatever. I suppose it would be a nice little benefit if the music played was interesting and cool, but I'm…

IME, that works a lot better in smaller offices. When there's only a handful of folks among whose musical tastes we needed to coordinate, it was a lot easier. More than that, and I'd just fall back to headphones.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#22
Between my experiences at several jobs:

  -In office music
  -In office shower. Somewhere to store extra clothes and items
  -In office kitchen (and a good one at that)
  -Bike rack
  -Basic bike tools on-hand at office
  -Easily accessible set of basic hand and small power tools in office. Stuff happens. You need them. 
  -Motorcycle parking
  -Chair budget. Get what you want/need to work best
  -I liked Pixar's office/cube budget, although I've never worked for them, search for it. 
  -Ability to have whatever keyboard/mouse/display/computer best suited me. Don't make me use the shitty company's logo mousepad if I want something else. Don't force an IDE on me. If I use textmate, allow me to use that. If I'm a vim or emacs guy, allow that. Results matter- not my IDE. 
  -Give me a software budget, or better yet no budget at all. If I want software that is tangentially related to my work, I should be able to get it
  -Massive company library. Geeks love books/knowledge. Being able to take these home is good. Being able to order anything and add to it is even better. 
  -Food and drinks available. 
  -Cabs home if needed- no questions asked. 
  -Ability for me to receive packages at work (that may not be work related). When I have an office I *always* ship my packages there as to not miss them. 
  -I loved being able to do laundry at betahouse. 
  -Encourage and pay for employees going to social events, even if they aren't 100% tied to their daily work functions. Social employees are worth much more.
  -A 'quiet room' where someone can work/study/sleep without being bothered. A nap/dark room is a good idea too if you can fit it space-wise. 
  -Your office layout matters. Think how you position people and how the arrangement of power sits. I liked sitting right beside the CEO at my first startup (and we were 20 people, so this wasn't a given). I count him as a good friend because of this. 
But also, don't skimp on basic benefits either. Make sure everyone is financially sound. If someone has something they need bailed out of, let them know you are there. The last thing you want is some employee worrying about the bills from replacing a major appliance that blew up at home. Issue small loans, or better yet, convenient bonuses on a need-only basis. Make sure your employees are healthy. Find out what they actually feel about their health insurance. Most younger employees will not care, but a few will. Listen to them. You want them healthy and happy- their families too. Most companies these days skimp on partner healthcare and no longer support the needs of a family.

Other small things that we miss now in society do matter to people.

  -Anniversaries, birthdays and important dates to that person. Doing more that just posting to facebook is a way to show thoughtfulness. This can just be a card. 
  -Even in politically correct 2010 and with many of us working at home, we do have holidays that we appreciate having noticed. Small gifts are very noticed.
  -Just as you want your employee to go above and beyond, think about how you can go above and beyond for them. This will come back to you.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#23
post #10
post #7

Free food is the best. It's actually a really strong incentive to get employees to stay at work longer, and who doesn't like free food? Now it is becoming more and more of a standard perk at startups which is a great thing!

I don't like free food. In most cases, it isn't the food that I'd pick myself and it often leads to weight gain.

We have fairly healthy food. The signs are all labeled green, yellow, or red to indicate healthfulness and there's salad and vegetables every day. Of course no one is going to stop you from going up for seconds if that's what you want to do, but I've found I eat much healthier at work because it's difficult and time consuming to prepare that variety of food and vegetables for a single person. One of my coworkers lost 60 pounds since starting.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#24
post #6

As a software developer, it means a lot to be working on a powerful machine with at least two large screens, my choice of OS if possible , and a generally nice desk. Most companies provide decent machines, but every place I've worked at required me to run their stock Windows XP (now 7) with Outlook. The worst part of my day, every day, is managing windows (the application windows) in Windows (the OS). It's terrible.…

Along with your comment about a powerful machine and choice of OS, I'd like to add root access.

I don't have root access on my current computer, and it's a royal pain. For some boneheaded reason, no idea why, svn wasn't installed on it. I had to bother IT for three days to get it installed.

Thankfully, I'm about to get a new box on which I have been promised root. :)

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#25

I spent 2 months last year working in China consulting for "the Facebook of China" (not actually Facebook). One thing that I loved about the office - every day at 6pm, caterers would come round with lunch boxes for everyone. Plus soup, plus drink, plus fruit. And every day it was different! (and delicious) Sure it's a far cry from Google's 5-star catering with 10 page menu or whatever, but I remember feeling super ha…

You ate at 6 pm and then went back to work? How long was the workday?

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#26
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like free food. In most cases, it isn't the food that I'd pick myself and it often leads to weight gain.

We have fairly healthy food. The signs are all labeled green, yellow, or red to indicate healthfulness and there's salad and vegetables every day. Of course no one is going to stop you from going up for seconds if that's what you want to do, but I've found I eat much healthier at work because it's difficult and time consuming to prepare that variety of food and vegetables for a single person. One of my coworkers lost…

Which company are you talking about, if you don't mind?

EDIT: Oh, Google. Funny, I just applied for a job there not ten minutes ago, partly because of things like that.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#27
post #8

One of my favorite non-cash benefits is the ability to use the shipping department for my outgoing packages. (I assume that everyone allows delivery at work.) It's really nice to be able to take your outgoing packages to the shipping folks, give them some money, and have them take care of fedex/ups. It's much better than leaving work to go to fedex, ups, what have you. Most large companies already have shipping depar…

> I assume that everyone allows delivery at work.

Not a safe assumption, unfortunately. I had to make a huge stink to not get this taken away last year.

Re: Ask HN: what are the best non-cash employment benefits you've heard of?

#30

Allowing employees to donate 10% of their work time to nonprofits of their choice. Employees feel like their company gives a crap and helps them feel like they're a part of something bigger than themselves.

This is good, but these kinds of deals are almost always more of a gimmick than anything else. If I work 36 hours and volunteer 4 hours, chances are I'll probably still be given 40 hours of work rather than 36.
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