How do you keep her (happy) when you can’t give her a raise? Part 2
If you’ve been with your company for 2 years or more, have you noticed your overall health and productivity improving? Or have you stopped going to the gym, started eating junk food and found yourself in more arguments at home? If it’s the latter, your company may be behind the curve, with your overall wellbeing affecting your work performance.
Companies are able to cherry-pick the best marketing and advertising talent out of agencies because of the non-salary benefits they offer. In many cases their salaries are actually below average with potentially big gains in stock. But there’s also more of a focus on overall health: physical, financial, mental and social.
In her article “Wellness Blows Up”* writer Susan Milligan details a list of real benefits she found in place in forward-thinking companies:
- Onsite child care
- Onsite primary medical care (would that help you get your flu shot?)
- Fitness centers, outdoor sport courts, walking trails, bikes
- A generous paid-parental-leave program
- Financial education (56 percent of workers are not financially healthy)
- Flexible work policies
- Paid time-off days for volunteer work
- Onsite workshops on maintaining wellness
And here are some other perks I’ve seen:
- A paid executive or life coach
- A starting vacation time of 4 weeks (love that European CEO!)
- Recognition in the form of gift cards or time off
- Standing desks and ergonomic tools
- Business Class tickets for road warriors
- A meal delivery program
- A yearly razorblade subscription (seriously, blades are expensive!)
- Dry-cleaning pick up
- A dog-walking or petsitting service
- Pet insurance included in the benefits
These aren’t anomalies found only in Silicon Valley. More than 3 in 5 companies surveyed by the Int’l Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) have “wellness” budgets, with more than half expecting increases in those budgets in the coming year. And 9 in 10 companies offer at least one “wellness” benefit.
Think it’s too expensive? If you lose a senior or executive woman, it can cost up to 213% of her compensation to replace her.** Furthermore, in the IFEBP survey, organizations who kept track of their wellness program’s ROI reported a return of $1-$4 for every dollar spent.
These great retention tools are limited only by the imagination of the people who suggest them. Send me your own ideas and I’ll compile a major gift list.
*HR Magazine 2017
** Center for American Progress, 2012
