What’s better than a salad with crispy, dark green lettuce and fresh croutons, or a club sandwich piled high with turkey, bacon, and perfectly ripe tomatoes? A free salad and a free club sandwich.
Yes, there is such a thing as a free lunch, and it can be found at companies large and small throughout the country.
Why do business owners offer food perks? Two reasons:
- Many believe well-fed workers are happier, more loyal and more productive. Business owners consider the cost of food and drink an investment in their employees and in their companies.
- Let’s face it. Some companies aren't interested in happy employees per se. They believe if their employees don’t have to leave the office to find lunch, they’ll end up spending more time at their desks—and thus be more productive.
Either way, business owners, regardless of their level of compassion toward their employees, wouldn’t offer food perks if they didn’t think it would benefit their companies.
Wall Street firms have been doing this for years, and Silicon Valley companies have followed their lead.
Google provides lunch and dinner by in-house chefs, and snacks and coffee throughout the day. Facebook goes one step further and offers its employees breakfast, lunch, and dinner, including international cuisine. It also provides snacks and coffee.
LinkedIn gives it employees catered lunches, ice cream, snacks and coffee.
Twitter provides its employees with catered breakfast and lunch, snacks, and Happy Hour once a month on Fridays. Tagged tops Twitter by offering its employees breakfast, catered lunches and dinners, snacks, and a Happy Hour every Friday.
Eventbrite provides catered meals and snacks. And Gaia Online gives out restaurant-catered lunches and snacks.
Many companies you’ve never heard of offer food perks, such as:
- Catered lunch-time meetings or training sessions. Food is a definite lure if you want good attendance at voluntary events. Pizza or sandwiches work well. Companies often provide the eats at mandatory meetings scheduled for first thing in the morning or around the lunch hour, too.
- Bottled water. Local and state building codes often require companies to have water fountains, but many companies go beyond that and stock their lunch room refrigerators with bottled water.
- Fresh fruit. Bowls of fruit on lunch room tables were a rarity as recently as 10 years ago, but many employers are trying to model healthy eating by giving their employees food that's good for them. Healthy employees take fewer sick days and are more productive.
- Candy bowls. Okay, candy isn’t a health food, but it’s a happy food. This is one of those cases where small gestures, when done consistently, can go a long way. Companies set out bowls of candy throughout their buildings and assign administrative assistants to make sure they remain full.
Full candy bowls. Full stomachs. Fulfilled employees?
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By Mark Di Vincenzo. Mark is a journalist with 24 years of experience and a New York Times best-selling author.
You've probably noticed them shoved in the far back corner of that unused conference room on the second floor, the place where abandoned desk chairs go to die. Should you worry that employees reject so many pieces of office furniture? The answer is a resounding "yes!"
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Doctors who study the spine agree that people should sit in a supportive chair at a desk that is the right height. In fact, ergonomics, the study of making the work environment fit the physical and psychological needs of the employees, is really hot these days. And for good reason: comfortable workers are better workers. Workers who don’t strain their bodies at their desks take fewer sick day.
Incorporating ergonomics into the set-up of the office can reduce instances of neck pain, back pain, headaches, and eyestrain, and even prevent bursitis or tendon problems that come from doing the same tasks over and over.
Some of the simple suggestions include making sure the office chairs and desks are adjustable so that each person is working at the correct height, and placing computer monitors directly in front of each user so employees don’t need to stretch or slouch.
Cessi: Ergonomics, a company that works with offices on ergonomic issues, supports the idea that an ergonomic environment helps reduce workplace injuries and fatigue. Plus, when you increase employee comfort, you increase job performance too.
Gretchen Rubin, author of the best-selling book, The Happiness Project, says happiness at work mostly depends on how much you like your job. But she adds that a properly adjusted chair, good lighting, and even some attractive desk accessories can't hurt.
Comfort, of course, can be taken to an extreme. The Google offices in San Francisco feature spectacular bridge views (nice for the eyes), free food (good for the stomach), and even a slide instead of a staircase.
The Whatif! meeting bed. 23hq/Alexander Kjerulf
The London-based Whatif! Innovation Company, known a few years back for having a meeting bed in the office, uses a slide show on its website to spotlight its office interiors: Overstuffed chairs and couches. Ottomans. Employees spread out on the floor for meetings.
So what’s the bottom line? You don’t need to put a colorful slide in the stairwell, but companies do need to pay attention to their employees’ desks and chairs. Expect to spend a chunk of money. A quick trip through the online shopping world reveals that “ergonomic” office chairs cost anywhere from $99 to $699 and up.
The more expensive chairs are often better constructed, and come with more features like support and swivel and roll—and will last longer. But so will your employees’ backs.
Good chairs mean comfort, and comfortable employees are the most productive. Spend a bit now; you’ll reap the benefits later.
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By Carla Turchetti. Carla is a print and broadcast journalist who likes to break a topic down and keep her copy tight. That's why this bio is so brief!
By Mark Di Vincenzo. Mark is a journalist with 24 years of experience and a New York Times best-selling author.
As any small business owner will tell you, employees are a company's most important asset. The vast majority of owners will therefore try to make a great first impression when new employees come on board.
This post isn’t about that. It’s about the knuckleheads who don't. Here are 10 ways to frighten or disengage your new staff on their very first day of work—a classic list of what not to say and do:
1. “Wait here while we, uh... do something else right now.”
When new employees arrive for their first day, make them wait in the lobby for several minutes. Don’t bother being ready for their arrival. They won’t care. After all, they’re getting paid to just sit there and read magazines, right?
2. “Here’s your desk. Sorry, but the computer and phone aren’t working yet.”
It doesn’t matter if everything’s hooked up and ready to go. Employees are getting paid, so unless they're good with technology, they should show some patience and wait until the IT guys can get around to helping them.
3. “Dear (New Hire)... ”
When you give your new employees their welcome letters, don’t worry about having their actual name on it. They can fill in the blanks for you. It’s not a big deal. No one reads those letters anyway.
1. “Wait here while we, uh... do something else right now.” flickr/frances1972
4. “We’ll introduce you to your co-workers—later.”
Don’t waste your time introducing new hires to other employees on their first day. There’s plenty of time for that later. If they need to, they'll figure out who's who. And besides, by now they're too intimidated to remember names and titles anyways.
5. “You told us during your interview that you take a lot of initiative, so we’re not going to saddle you with a partner.”
New hires don’t need an experienced co-worker to help them transition to their new environment and answer their questions. Employees are adults. They don’t need anyone to hold their hands. Ever.
6. “Hey, the lunch room down the hall has some pretty good stuff in the vending machine.”
Most newcomers don’t expect to be taken out to lunch on their first day of work. That’s kind of old fashioned, isn’t it? And besides, the other employees are too busy to take someone out to lunch who they don’t even know.
7. “Oh, by the way, HR’s on the fourth floor. Finance is on the seventh floor...”
A tour of the building? Don't be ridiculous. It’s a waste of everyone’s time, and besides, employees don’t need to know where the other departments are, or meet people who they won’t have to interact with very much.
8. “Expectations? We’ll get back to you about that.”
Employees don’t need to know what the expectations are for them when they just start a job. That’s something they’ll figure out on their own after they settle in.
9. “It’s your first week, so just sit back and observe.”
There's no need to give new employees something to do right off the bat. After all, what can they be expected to do? They just got here. They’ll probably appreciate not being overwhelmed with work, after all.
10. “This week will be crazy for me, so if I don’t check back with you, just leave at 5 p.m.”
New employees will be sick of their supervisors before long, so don't bother to check in with them at the end of the day during their first week. After all, they just started. What do they have to say that can’t wait? They can save their questions for later.
All of these examples are great ways to greet a new employee—if you want to get off on the wrong foot and set a terrible example. If any of the above sounds like your company, don't be surprised if your valued new employees soon become valued new employees for one of your competitors.
Hire the best team and build a culture of success. Greet your new employees with access to engaging HR software.
By Mark Di Vincenzo. Mark is a journalist with 24 years of experience and a New York Times best-selling author.
Every year, soon after Thanksgiving, associates at the largest New York City law firms await the announcement of their year-end bonuses. The venerable firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP typically goes first, followed by other firms which often try to match Cravath’s bonuses, to keep their own promising young lawyers happy.
This year the bonuses ranged from $37,500 for the top and most experienced associates, to $7,500 for those who started their careers in 2011.
TribeHR's holiday gift? Swag!
Were they happy to hear these four- and five-figure numbers? They were not. Consider that some senior associates at Cravath and the other firms received a bonus of as much as $110,000 as recently as 2007.
The bottom line is that what makes a good year-end bonus really depends on who's giving it and who's receiving it. This year, sadly, most workers aren’t getting a dime.
According to a recently released survey of 500 business owners by American Express OPEN, only 29% of small-business owners are planning to give bonuses this holiday season. That’s up slightly from last year, when just 25% gave year-end bonuses, but way less than in 2005, when 54% of small businesses did.
A similar survey by Hewitt Associates found that of the companies that will give bonuses, fewer than half will give cash, spending a median of $250 per employee; less than 40% will give gift cards, with a median value of $35 per employee. The rest will give food.
Many companies that award bonuses do so based on seniority. Unfortunately, that’s not a good way to motivate employees, according to Ronald Riggio, Professor of Leadership and Organizational Psychology at Claremont McKenna College. Bonuses need to be tied to performance, Riggio says, and the bonuses must be large enough to be seen as worth the effort.
Companies that don’t have the cash should give Christmas gifts. If you go this route you need to do three things:
- Be honest. Let your employees know the company doesn’t have money for bonuses, but you appreciate their efforts and hope they’ll accept the gifts in that spirit.
- Make it clear that the gifts are not tied to performance, so employees won’t think the value of the gifts they receive is what the company thinks they’re worth.
- Personalize the gifts. Give a round of golf to an employee who you know plays golf. Give a nice box of chocolate truffles to someone who you know has a sweet tooth. Personalized, heartfelt year-end gifts can make employees feel valued more than cash.
Can’t afford even small gifts? Then how about giving the gift of time? Paid time off. Many employees appreciate a paid personal day or two, and clever business owners can find a way to let their employees know what it will cost the company. Make up a company “gift card” that says something like:
This card—with a value of $320 (16 hours of work multiplied by your hourly rate of $20 an hour)—is your pass for two additional days of paid time off next year. Enjoy!
Give your employees the gift of a fun-to-use self-service HR system. Get started with TribeHR today.
In order to recruit and retain the best team, you need to offer a compensation package that's competitive in your area and industry, and that meets the needs of your employees.
When it comes to benefits packages, many small businesses struggle to figure out what their employees expect, and how they can remain competitive against larger firms.
Apparently, small businesses are not alone in this struggle. A recent What's Working survey by global consulting firm Mercer shows that across the board, employees are less satisfied with their benefits than they were 5 years ago. 43% of US employees don't consider their benefits competitive, and about the same amount say they don't meet their needs.
Given how important benefits packages are to overall employee satisfaction, the study shows that employers need to do more to keep their teams happy. How has your benefits offering changed in the past five years?
Check out this infographic for more survey results:
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By Mark Di Vincenzo. Mark Di Vincenzo is a journalist with 24 years of experience and a New York Times best-selling author.
How to Create an Amazing Employee Welcome Package
If a job interview is like a first date—with the employer and the job seeker getting to know each other and trying to make a good first impression—an employee’s first few days at a new company is the honeymoon period.
Unlike an actual honeymoon (hopefully, anyways), the first day or two of work can be awkward and uncomfortable for new employees. They don’t know their co-workers, and they know relatively little about their new employer, so they may at times feel insecure or even stupid. That's why it behooves companies to make a fuss over newcomers in those first few days.
Why bother? Welcoming new employees shows them that you care, and it helps them get rid of their nervousness, which means they become productive sooner. If the welcoming process is part of your company’s culture, then current employees will treat newcomers well, because they were shown kindness when they joined the company.
So what should you do to welcome new employees?
Put a small gift on new employees’ desks each day during their first week. A Starbucks gift card on Monday, fresh flowers on Tuesday, an iTunes gift card on Wednesday, a cupcake from a local bakery on Thursday, and a coffee mug with your company’s name on it on Friday.
You just spent $40 and did something your employees will always remember. Chances are you also bought some loyalty. One company gives new employees Almond Joy candy bars with a note about how “overJOYed” they are that they joined the firm.
Too corny for you? Then give new employees a welcome-to-the-company letter and tell them in writing how happy you are that they accepted your offer and how excited you are to be starting a business relationship with them. Make it clear in the letter who they can go to if they have questions or comments, and give them some interesting tidbits about their supervisor and about a few of their co-workers. (eg. Ann, the human resources manager, once climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, and Bob, the company’s bookkeeper, is a descendant of Edgar Allan Poe.)
Give new employees a questionnaire to fill out that gives you information about them, such as their hobbies and their favorite movies, musicians and comfort foods. This will give the company ideas about how to reward them in the future for a job well done.
If they’re new to the area, give them a stack of menus to popular local restaurants and coffee shops, and a bunch of brochures for local museums, theaters and other attractions.
On their first day of work, have the people they’ll work closely with take them out to lunch so everyone can get to know each other better. Make sure the person who grabs the bill expenses the lunch, and makes sure the newcomer knows the company is buying. This is another opportunity to let the new employee know the company is doing something nice for them.
Businesses spend tens of thousands of dollars a year or more on new hires, with the hope that they will become valued employees who add to the company’s success. It pays to do a few little, inexpensive things to welcome them aboard.
Welcome your new employees with the login information for an engaging social HR system. Build the best team.
By Mark Di Vincenzo. Mark Di Vincenzo is a journalist with 24 years of experience and a New York Times best-selling author.
So you found an incredible candidate for an important job that you desperately need to fill. Congratulations!
What do you offer? All the obvious things make sense: An attractive salary, good health insurance coverage, and plenty of vacation time. But to land a "big fish" these days, that often isn’t enough.
So what are the perks and benefits that employees say they like the most these days? The following comes from websites that track what employees have to say about their employers.
Flexible work schedules
This tops the list. It includes anything from job sharing, to working from home, to working flex-time, which allows employees to put their eight hours in a time slot different from the standard 9-to-5.
9/80
This allows employees to work 80 hours during a nine-day period, giving them every other Friday off work. Chevron, BP, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin are a few companies that offer it to at least some of their employees. Some only allow it during the summer months, giving their employees more opportunities for three-day weekends.
Company stock
Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch? Some publicly traded companies give new employees stock units, which after two or three years, become stock. Many companies also give their employees stock or stock options as an end-of-the-year bonus or when employees are promoted. Employees also love being able to buy stock at a discount. Intuit, for example, offers its employees a 15% discount.
Fitness centers
Large companies, such as Valero Energy and Altria Group, attract employees with their on-site fitness centers. Smaller companies pay for a private gym membership for employees, who tend to use the facilities anywhere between eight and 12 times a month. Employees get a free gym membership if they use it a lot, and companies win because fit employees are less likely to get sick.
Reimbursements
Many companies, including Oracle, Bausch & Lomb, and WellPoint, reimburse employees for tuition, adoption, and relocation expenses.
College scholarships
Altria Group, Well Point, and other mostly large companies, give scholarships to some of the children of their employees, or to other worthy students.
Employee discounts
Many companies, including all of the major car makers, offer employees discounts on the products and services they sell. This perk saves BMW employees thousands of dollars.
Movie tickets
Some companies, including Eli Lilly, have regular draws for free tickets to movies, professional sports, concerts, and events such as ice shows and circuses.
Coffee and water
Bristol-Myers Squibb points out on its website that it offers its employees free coffee and water. It all adds up.
Before you make offer a benefits package, ask the kind of questions that'll allow you to figure out what’s important to the person you want to hire.
The owner of a financial services firm in Virginia recently lost a great candidate because she didn’t do that. “I played up our 401(k) plan, which my other employees say is our best benefit,” the owner said, “but this candidate was 26 years old and she wasn’t thinking about saving for retirement. I later found out she valued other things, but I didn’t know that because I didn’t ask the right questions.”
TribeHR wants to help you to build the best team. For more great tips, check out our Startup HR 101 video series.
How important are employee relations? One word: very.
By Angela Stringfellow. Angela is a social media strategist, and a public relations and marketing communications consultant.
Walk into a workplace. Quick: What's the vibe? Is the place thrumming? Are workers engaged, busy, upbeat? Or does the tension of the place suck the breath out of you as soon as you enter the lobby?
Whether you're the CEO or the customer, a current employee or a potential one, you can tell within minutes whether you're walking into a hostile environment or a positive one.
If you're the CEO, you'd better make sure it's the latter. Good employee relations is as important an operating strategy as a good product or excellent marketing. If morale is bad and your employees are miserable, it will directly—and negatively—impact your success.
Leadership Buy-In
From the CEO to the shift manager, everyone needs to understand the importance of maintaining and developing positive employee relations. Whether it’s dealing with contractors, unionized employees, senior executives or the entry level workforce, company leaders must develop and follow a mission, vision, and values that promote a positive work environment. The culture of the company begins at the top. And the proverbial "it" always flows downhill.
Don't let your workplace be toxic. Unless it's a nuclear power plant, or something. Actually—especially if it's a nuclear power plant.
Flickr/K Latham
Just like any 12-step program, company leaders need to be the first to admit there's a problem, then takes steps to remedy it. Front-line management must work with employees to understand their needs and create a plan of action.
Transparency and Communication
Employee relations are built and maintained through efficient communications. Poor communications creates a destructive environment. Employees need to know they're being kept in the loop. Even if it’s as trivial as a change in the dress code to a more career-altering change in ownership, morale will diminish if secrets are kept and leadership can't be trusted.
Allow employees the opportunity to speak freely to upper management about questions or concerns they have about their positions, the company or even their colleagues and managers. Being able to express their needs without fear is essential in keeping an open forum with employees.
Also, employees need to feel as if their concerns are being addressed. If something requires action, get it done. Show your employees that they're valuable to the organization and that what they have to say is important.
Build teams
It doesn't really matter if you work by yourself, behind a desk or if you're the figurehead of the company: Teamwork is inevitable. Whether it’s a group of department heads making budgetary decisions or laborers working the floor, creating a sense of team develops accountability.
Employees are no longer responsible just for themselves, but for a group of others. Teams that work well together bond, develop dedicated and loyal relationships, and ultimately create positive environments.
Cultivate Positive Relationships
The old adage “if it ain't broke, don’t fix it” forgets a key component: maintenance. A beautifully running sports car still needs regular oil changes and service. The same holds true for successful and efficient work environments.
Companies where employee morale is high and relationships are great have to work to maintain it.
Supporting the team is essential. Whether it’s financial incentives, tokens of gratitude or just simply a pat on the back, recognition for jobs done well is vital. More often than not, lack of recognition is a leading cause of morale breakdown and turnover.
Your employees make your company. Without them, almost nothing gets done. Your customers and clients can tell when something isn't right. That's why it's critical to promote and maintain positive relationships with every person who enters your establishment—starting with the people you pay.
TribeHR opens communication channels, helps promote teamwork, and builds positive relationships. See how TribeHR's affordable software can manage your human resources, faster and easier.
By Angela Stringfellow. Angela is a PR and communications consultant.
In the workplace, no advice is better than "don’t eat your own," especially when employee turnover is high and morale is low.
Unfortunately, in many industries where employees work under direct supervision, hierarchy cannibalism—where staff are literally at each other's throats—happens often.
Take for example a health care facility, where wages might not be the best, shifts are less than desirable, and the tasks are often humbling and challenging (think bedpans and sponge baths). Those who quit before their probationary periods expire tend to be at the bottom of the food chain. Personal care attendants may report to licensed practical nurses, who report to registered nurses, who then report to either a nursing supervisor or director of nursing.
Dog-eat-dog? More like fish-eat-fish-eat-fish-eat-fish.
It's this food chain that creates unique dynamics and allows the bigger fishes the opportunity to gobble up the little guppies. With constant turnover affecting every aspect of production and productivity, here are five tips to help reduce dog-eat-dog behavior:
1. Leadership Buy-In:
It may be the most important component of employee buy-in. If management can't recognize the problem or is unwilling to help create resolutions, the cycle will continue. The philosophy of collaboration and team work must come from the top. Lead by example.
Good managers know show their employees that working together and embracing each other’s strengths and weaknesses creates an environment worthy of their time and energy. If the boss tends to gobble up their own, the cycle will continue down the chain.
2. Mentor Programs:
In many companies the first few days on a job are spent following someone who has experience in the position. Often, these people become confidants and unofficial mentors. So why not make it official?
Create opportunities for the best employees to take the new hires under their wings. It gives those who do a great job and are natural leaders the opportunity to shine, and gives onboarding staff a safe and confidential person to turn to for advice, guidance or simply to vent any frustrations.
3. Open Forums:
Provide an opportunity for the newbies and seasoned pros to air their grievances in a safe place, where upper management will listen to and address their concerns. Sometimes it’s not that they're afraid to speak up, it’s simply that they aren't being heard or understood. Anonymous feedback mechanisms can make this process easier.
4. Spread Thanks:
Particularly for new employees, a little pat on the back goes a long way. A simple thank you, or job-well-done can make the difference between a good day and a bad one. On many exit interviews, respondents claim cite a lack of recognition as a reason for looking for other opportunities.
Set up ways for public recognition, in a company newsletter, on a break-room bulletin board, or in your HR software. Perhaps most importantly, don’t stop recognizing achievement: make it an ongoing process.
5. Good Training/Trainers:
It all starts with education and quality training. Training-by-error doesn't produce anything but frustration and dissatisfaction from both the employee and their supervisor. An appropriate training period with qualified trainers allows many of the errors and unnecessary frustrations to be eliminated, which creates a more effective and positive work environment.
It all comes down to the one golden rule: Respect. Treat others the way they should be treated, and the way you would want to be treated. By respecting employees at all levels, the workplace will be a much more productive and effective environment.
How are your new hires treated? Is there cannibalism in your company?
Trust, communication, culture. Coaching, relationships, dialogue. Ownership, clarity, action.
These are the things that a workforce needs to be effective and engaged. For a small business, the cost of turnover associated with disengagement can be massive.
Human resource, employee engagement, and industrial/organizational psychology research institute NBRI created this infographic, which shows how important employee engagement is, what disengaged employees do with their time, and how to make sure each level of your workforce is engaged.
Looking for more on employee engagement? Check out these posts from the Workplace Tribes archives: