Announcing The Perk That Matters
Benefits has become a hot topic lately thanks to a shrinking unemployment rate and the obvious outcome of that number: competition. For awhile, the conversation was all about the really outrageous perks. The trip to anywhere in the world with a 5 month paid sabbatical. Frose on tap. Helicopters that take you to work.
I’m making that last one up, but you get the point.
It’s kind of ridiculous. You’re getting paid to work and now a company has to persuade you with booze and a travel budget just to make you happy? Or at least that’s what the company thinks they’re doing.
It’s really too bad no one cares about your perks. A new LinkedIn survey of over 3,000 full-time U.S. workers confirms what we’ve suspected for years: Those funky perks employers tout as supposed emblems of a great work culture are actually empty totems that employees don’t really care about.
When I tweeted this article, Animal – the beloved antagonist – asked why free beer and food wouldn’t matter? Of course I want my free snacks.
Sure, but would you trade it for the autonomy of working from home? Nope.
My point: If you really want to attract and retain great people, invest in the profoundly uncool things they actually want.
But I couldn’t trust my instinct alone, nor do I try to pretend my opinion is the end-all-be-all, so I did a quick poll on Twitter and here’s what I found out.
Drum roll please.
The #1 perk is… not a surprise at all.
52% of the people who responded to my flash poll said working from home was the ultimate perk.
So what’s your excuse? If you’re going all in on perks, why have you started offering (at least partial) work from home?
Recruitment Marketing Advice Workplace Trends benefits employee perks working from home
Kat Kibben View All →
Kat Kibben [they/them] is a keynote speaker, writing expert, and LGBTQIA+ advocate who teaches hiring teams how to write inclusive job postings that will get the right person to apply faster.
Before founding Three Ears Media, Katrina was a CMO, Technical Copywriter, and Managing Editor for leading companies like Monster, Care.com, and Randstad Worldwide. With 15+ years of recruitment marketing and training experience, Katrina knows how to turn talented recruiting teams into talented writers who write for people, not about work.
Today, Katrina is frequently featured as an HR and recruiting expert in publications like The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Forbes. They’ve been named to numerous lists, including LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Job Search & Careers. When not speaking, writing, or training, you’ll find Katrina traveling the country in their van or spending some much needed downtime with the dogs that inspired the name Three Ears Media.
Hot take: I really wonder how many people who think working from home is amazing have actually done it. Or done it for several years. It’s not for everyone.
No commute, no dry cleaning bill and endless flexibility can turn into isolation, no innovation and an inability to ever fully disengage from work in a quick hurry. There are things that can mitigate this but it takes a lot of discipline. Working from home sounds way more glamorous than it actually is.
In an ideal world, I’d want to go to an office about two days a week. Helps preventing turning into a socially awkward outcast! :)
I also agree with Dominique. People who don’t work from home don’t always appreciate the challenges of doing so. It’s just as easy to get distracted as it is to overwork oneself.
Nonetheless, if I HAD to choose between working full-time from home vs in an office, i’d choose the former.