Unusual benefits boost morale
By Stephanie Armour
USA Today
At Chipotle Mexican Grill's corporate headquarters in Denver, dogs sometimes wander in during meetings because employees can bring them to work.
In November, employees at San Antonio Community Hospital in Upland, Calif., got a new benefit service. Employees can drop off packages for shipping, pick up DVDs and drop off laundry at a location on site.
And Malvern, Pa.-based Analytical Graphics Inc. gives its employees free holiday gift-wrapping, an on-site washer and dryer so employees can do laundry while working, and free catered breakfasts, such as oatmeal and custom omelets.
The sluggish economy has caused many companies to scale back such benefits as healthcare coverage. But many new-style perks that flourished in the dot-com era — such as pet insurance, concierge service and on-site massage — are surviving the odds, with a number of companies maintaining or expanding their voluntary benefits.
It's a counterintuitive move with a dual purpose. Some companies are maintaining nontraditional benefits to maintain morale, boost productivity and lessen turnover when fast-paced hiring resumes.
But others are trying to roll out lower-cost perks because they're taking away more substantial and costly benefits, such as health-care options. Enhancing fringe benefits is one way to soften the blow as employees absorb more costs for medical insurance co-payments and deductibles. In many cases voluntary perks are paid for by employees, so they cost little of companies.
"It's become an ease-their-pain strategy," says David Albertson in Washington, D.C., editorial director of Employee Benefit News. "As healthcare costs have increased, they're looking for something else to offer, and these don't cost the employer much."
But the shift has some benefit experts concerned.
"It's smoke and mirrors," says Barrie Peterson, director of the Institute on Work at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. "Employees will say, 'What I really need is health insurance.' "
About 60 percent of employees buy voluntary benefits at work, according to a 2002 survey by insurance provider MetLife, and three in five are interested in having their employer provide a wider array of such offerings.
Studies show that voluntary benefits do have an impact. Of those employees who are highly satisfied with their benefits, roughly two-thirds say their benefits are an important reason they stay with their company, says a separate 2003 MetLife poll.
Many of the voluntary benefits aren't as extreme as they were in the dot-com era.
But the perks have hardly withered away. Chipotle Mexican Grill gives restaurant managers with four years' experience a leased car. Based on employee surveys, managers can choose from such options as a Mustang convertible, a PT Cruiser or a Mazda Miata.
At North Carolina-based SAS Institute, a privately held software company, employees have private offices, on-site childcare, a gym — and low turnover.
Voluntary perks that are on the rise include weight-loss programs (24 percent this year, from 22 percent in 2002); postal services (29 percent this year, from 21 percent last); and pet insurance (3 percent today, from 1 percent of companies in 2000), according to the Society for Human Resource Management.
But at the same time, research shows that companies are dropping some of their programs designed to help balance work and family. And the number of firms offering health-insurance coverage is lower than the pre-recession high of 69 percent in 2000.
Still, such perks are surviving. "Companies like to be able to offer some good news," says Tom Billet, in Stamford, Conn., at benefits consultants Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
Advertiser staff contributed to this report.
