Nicole NicholsonPerks are a popular thing circulating work offices across the globe these days. In fact, we just discussed how outside-the-box ideas can enhance your company culture and bring better talent your way. Who wouldn’t want to bring Fido to hang out in the office all day? It may seem a bit odd, but offering great perks to your employees is becoming more and more important. After all, if you don’t offer anything creative to your prospects, it’s likely they will choose the company that does instead. To expand on that idea, let’s take a look at a few things you can do for your employees, and prospective employees, to keep them on board and happy.
Some companies think that offering free lunches for their employees is more than enough. This may be true, but you don’t always have to spend a ton of money to keep your employees happy. At the top of your list should be activities and events that promote teamwork within your office.
Teamwork
If there’s one thing you should know about young talent in the workforce these days, it’s that they love working in teams. Gen-Y, or Millenials, are a team-oriented generation. They love to collaborate and bounce ideas off one another. Therefore, sparking activities that incite teamwork is really important to them. A great way to hold onto great talent, and to bring more great talent in, is to be sure that collaboration in your office exists. Generation X, or the Baby Boomers, are way more content with working on their own and being left alone. To be sure, Millenials get their work done on their own but are seen collaborating with each other much more often and working together to generate even better ideas. Exuding this kind of “team” attitude in your company will likely bring in those talented Millenials you seek.
Open-Space Office
To build upon the previous idea of working as a team, nothing spells “boring” and “stifling” more than cubicles. If you want to have a creative and open team that is constantly generating new, fresh ideas then it’s best to leave the cubicles in the box. Having an open work space where all of your employees can easily interact and communicate is much more effective than stuffy, talent draining cubes. If you take a look at the layout of some of the most successful and flourishing companies, they have their employees sitting together in a general, open space. The super successful startup Pinterest, for example, offered a peek into their offices in Palo Alto and showed that their open-space loft is the way to go.
Break Room
Offering a relaxing place for your employees to unwind and chill-out for a short period of time can do wonders for morale. You can do this easily by having a simple break room. You don’t have to go all out with leather couches and wide-screen TVs, but having a space to escape is somewhat necessary. Paint the walls a nice color and make sure it’s known that the space is for “quiet time’ or for a nice recharge.
Social Events
Having monthly social events that involve the whole team/office is a great way to strengthen the bonds of your employees. People like to feel as though they are part of something- whether it be an important project or just part of a team that works together towards a common goal. If you think about it, you see the same people every day all day when you come into the office. It’s usually always in a work setting and everyone has their own goals to attend to. The atmosphere and general attitude of your office will change for the better if you can spend some time with these people outside of the office setting. Stronger bonds will be built and your employee’s will be much happier at work.
So you see, all office perks don’t necessarily have to be pricey. Sure, having a pool table or a foosball table in the office is an awesome perk, but you don’t have to spend a ton of money to make your employees happy. If you actually have their best interests at heart and truly want to see them happy, then making your office- and the work you have- look appealing shouldn’t be so difficult.
IMAGE: Courtesy of Vitra
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