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What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

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Re: What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

#11

Post by jeffool »

tptacek wrote: post #10

The scotch library is pretty silly. 1/2 day on Halloween is a great idea. I am not a fan of company-sponsored lunch; it sends a message that you're expected to be working constantly. Many of the big finance companies do it, and the employees are clear about why. Books are so cheap relative to FTE cost, I don't know why you'd even come up with a "training policy" for them. We just give everyone an Amazon account and s…

I think you raise a good point about company lunches. It depends on if it's "grab some food on us and go eat at your desk," or "put out tables and sit beside people you don't know" kind of lunch.

Re: What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

#12

Post by kabdib »

Quiet hours, especially in a cube farm.

Free soda, coffee, tea. (I'm a little negative on free snacks, but if that works for you, okay).

Subsidize access to things like the ACM portal, or other subscription journals. Buy technical books for people.

A shooting range in the basement. ("Let's go think about this problem over a few rounds" has a different flavor). While zoning and other laws would make this impractical, some of the groups I've been in have had "range days," and they've all been a lot of fun, even -- or maybe especially -- for the newbies.

Re: What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

#13

Post by pagekalisedown »

wgx wrote: post #2

Treats. Free donuts, coffee, pizza, beers, etc. That kind of thing is low-cost and highly appreciated. Plus there's the communal, social factor of all eating/drinking together as a team.

Only if you throw some fruits in there.

As a health-conscious (non-preachy) vegan, I feel left-out otherwise.

Re: What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

#14

Post by DaniFong »

tptacek wrote: post #9
bugsy wrote: post #4

1. Respect 2. Autonomy 3. Control None of those cost money yet so few workplaces value them since disrespect, micromanagement, and industrial era style division of labor are addictions of the corporate management crowd. It's gospel to Ivy League educated and Old Money. As a separate issue, "As startups, we can't really offer top-dollar salaries to our employees." is complete nonsense. First of all, "we don't pay top…

This is not a helpful comment. It only sounds like one. In fact: since nobody on HN would sponsor a "respect-free" or "autonomy-free" or "control-free" work environment, it actually doesn't say anything at all. This is frustrating because there are probably a million things we could do for (e.g.) Matasano team members without having to restructure the business, and I'd love some more ideas.

We are exploring an alternate mode of vacation (one might say, the French model, although not because it is not national) -- in which the company essentially shuts down august till labor day, on top of a couple weeks of ordinary flexible paid time off. We hope that this will enable people to take real vacations (without worries that something really important is happening around the lab), and the lab isn't hamstrung when missing someone important. Plus, a month of free time allows people to take a serious sabbatical and do something really substantial outside of work.

Those we around a month of productivity, we think that people will end up being more than 10% more productive/happy/creativity, and the people we can attract may be 10% better suited to our work. We think it's a perk hardly any other american company can match; great hackers value their time.

More than any of these, philosophically, we want to allow our colleagues to experience the world. We want them to experience freedom.

Re: What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

#15

Post by rdouble »

Proscribed fun is hard. I can think of about 20 great engineers who would be turned off by a scotch library and free trips to the driving range (is it software for country clubs?) Substitute any of foosball, ping-pong, beer kegs, red-bull, razor scooters and whatnot. You're only going to please half the people, half the time, and probably the wrong people, because who really ever liked razor scooters and nerf guns, anyway?

Career and skill development is a perk that is really overlooked. It's a start to offer unlimited Amazon books. However, companies could go much further and offer seminars and full blown courses. It doesn't even have to be expensive corporate training. You could pay a grad student to teach a full blown machine learning course for less than half the cost of a weekend long training seminar.

Re: What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

#16

Post by jontsai »

I would have couches and sleep/napping areas--a lot of them.

I think the best and most essential things to quality of life are: air, water/food/drink, exercise, sleep. I find that there is an unsurprising correlation that when I am healthy and fit, I am also able to perform my best at the computer.

Re: What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

#17

Post by [deleted] »

kanamekun wrote: post #7
bugsy wrote: post #4

1. Respect 2. Autonomy 3. Control None of those cost money yet so few workplaces value them since disrespect, micromanagement, and industrial era style division of labor are addictions of the corporate management crowd. It's gospel to Ivy League educated and Old Money. As a separate issue, "As startups, we can't really offer top-dollar salaries to our employees." is complete nonsense. First of all, "we don't pay top…

"If you can't at the absolute minimum pay market rate for the level of talent you require you shouldn't be in business. End of story." One of the key pillars of the startup ecosystem is that you can offer someone equity in exchange for significantly "below market rate" wages. In some or even many cases, this will be below the "the absolute minimum pay market rate for the level of talent ... require[d]." If you view t…

[deleted]

Re: What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

#18

Post by [deleted] »

pagekalisedown wrote: post #13
wgx wrote: post #2

Treats. Free donuts, coffee, pizza, beers, etc. That kind of thing is low-cost and highly appreciated. Plus there's the communal, social factor of all eating/drinking together as a team.

Only if you throw some fruits in there. As a health-conscious (non-preachy) vegan, I feel left-out otherwise.

[deleted]

Re: What fun and low-cost fringe benefits/perks would you offer to employees?

#19

Post by elemeno »

jeffool wrote: post #6

Depending on your business and your employees? Equipment. I recently worked at a TV station and regularly asked my boss if I could do things like borrow a camera on a weekend, or installed a single game for some of us to play after hours when no one was working. The answer was always "no". That was unfortunate. The camera I kinda get; it could break. But using my computer at work, when no one else is? Seemed relative…

It's less harmless than it than it looks.

No is the only sensible answer to both of those questions, purely for liability reasons.

If the camera gets damaged while you're out doing a personal project, is it still covered by the station's insurance? Quite possibly not if it's not being used for work purposes.

If you download a game it turns out to have a virus in it, where does the liability for that fall?

If he'd said no to things like "Would the company pay for a Wii for the team to use in it's off hours", or something like that and he said no, then it might seem more churlish - but your request just don't seem like ones he can easily say yes to to begin with.

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