Perks At Work

What’s valued, what’s offered, and what’s changing?

Employee perks have been a hot topic of late, with some companies providing flashy offerings such as on-site concierge services, massage therapy, and even beer carts. However, do extravagant perks help employers attract, engage or retain employees? And more importantly, do these offerings provide real value to employees?

The right employee perquisites can help set an organization apart – both in terms of attracting top talent, and by contributing to employee engagement, productivity, and a positive organizational culture. When considering which perks to offer, employers will want to focus on what enhances the total rewards package for their employees, and what will provide true value to workers beyond what is simply seen as “fun”.

Here are three kinds of perks that may be particularly relevant for today’s workers:

1. Health and Wellness Related Perks
Offerings such as corporate gym memberships, health risk assessments (HRA)s, fitness subsidies, and even financial planning assistance offer great benefits to both the employee and employer. Mental and physical health and wellness are top priorities for Millennials and Gen Z, who are swiftly becoming the largest generations in the Canadian workforce. Employers benefit from a healthy workforce via decreased absenteeism and presenteeism, and may experience reductions in benefits costs.

2. Perks that Offer Increased Work-Life Balance
Many Canadians would choose an employer that offers opportunities for increased work-life balance over an offer for higher compensation but with less flexibility. This re-balancing of priorities may be related to the aging population in Canada, and the increasing need many Canadian face of having to care for aging parents, while also still caring for their children. Related perks may include on-site childcare, flexible work hours or locations, and sabbaticals.

3. Perks that Focus on Employee Learning and DevelopmentAnother top priority for Canadian workers when choosing an employer involves opportunities for learning and development. By providing perks such as employee education grants, professional membership reimbursements, and sabbaticals, employers can provide their workers with access to tools for personal and professional development, and will also reap the benefit of an increasingly skilled workforce.

The Conference Board of Canada recently surveyed 324 Canadian employers on their perquisite offerings, and the results outline the most common perquisite offerings, the financial value of perks for employees, and how these offerings may vary by industry or employee group.



The top perquisite offerings employers provide are professional membership reimbursement, mobile phones, and employee parking. Some perks, such as on-site child care, sabbaticals, and public transit passes are more often offered by public sector employers, while private sector organizations are more likely to offer fitness reimbursements, subsidized cafeteria offerings, and financial planning assistance.
 
The highest value perks organizations provide – on a per eligible employee basis – are perquisite allowances ($13,340 on average) and car allowances ($8,265). However, these high value perks are also the most likely not to be offered to all employees. In fact, such perks tend to be allocated to executives only, as well as to senior management in some cases.

The perks that are most often offered to all employee groups include access to on-site childcare or fitness centres (or corporate gym memberships), subsidized cafeterias, employee and dependent education grants, and public transit passes.

Organizations looking to make changes to their existing perks are exploring potential additions to their health and wellness related perquisite offerings (e.g. health risk assessments, fitness-subsidies, etc.). Some organizations are considering reducing or streamlining existing perks to build efficiencies and maximize impact.

A number of organizations that are considering changes to their offerings are conducting surveys to evaluate the quality and perceived value of existent offerings, in order to better tailor perks to employees’ needs. This focus on personalizing and fine-tuning perquisite offerings indicates a push to provide perks that don’t just look good on paper, but that provide real value for employees.

When it comes to attracting top talent, perks supplement compensation and benefits offerings to help an employer differentiate itself from competitors. They also encourage a positive, productive, and balanced employee experience—both for existing and potential employees.