10 Sweet Job Perks In Tech
Free snacks are yesterday's news. Now tech companies offer $10,000 office decoration budgets and helicopter rides. Here's a look at what Google, Pinterest, Airbnb, Facebook, and others offer employees.
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By now, it's common knowledge that the benefits of working at many tech companies go far beyond health insurance and paid vacation days. Tech businesses trying to hire and retain top talent are starting to get creative in terms of what they offer employees.
When you think of where the best perks are offered, Google is usually top of mind. After all, the company offers free gourmet meals, nap pods, massages, and even a concierge service to take care of personal duties like party and home-improvement planning. Its over-the-top headquarters reflect the growing trend of offering excessive benefits to talented employees.
While Google is one of the bigger household names, there are plenty of sweet job perks offered at a broad range of tech companies, from software giants to small startups. My personal favorites on this list? Helicopter rides, frequent trips to the Apple store, and the ability to take a dog to work.
In most cases, benefits like unlimited (and free) vacation and fully stocked kitchens are intended to lure in top talent and keep people from hunting for new gigs. Yet some perks are pretty sneaky at keeping employees working in the office for longer hours per day. If they are offered free gourmet dinner or in-office exercise classes, workers don't need to worry about leaving to grab lunch or hit the gym.
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Lavish perks have become ubiquitous throughout the tech industry. The trend has even created a job category of its own. Many businesses now hire "workplace coordinators" who lead teams that aim to cater to employees' wishes, the Wall Street Journal reports. They fly under the radar and function as a sort of concierge service, responsible for planning office happy hours and keeping the kitchen stocked with favorite snacks.
It seems excessive, but such job positions are necessary when successful tech companies grow to hundreds or thousands of employees. In a market where tech wizards receive multiple job offers and sky-high salaries right out of college, interesting perks like fitness classes, game rooms, and haircuts can make a big difference in whether a company gains or loses valuable talent.
As the perks get bigger, employees try to push their boundaries. One worker at Pinterest asked the company to build a zip line to a nearby bar. At Adobe, another inquired about the possibility of getting a Slip 'n Slide for use during the day. The zip line got a no, unfortunately, but Chris Lavoie, global event strategist at Adobe, spoke more vaguely about the slide. "I'm not making any promises," he admitted to the Journal.
They may not have zip lines, but some of the perks at today's tech companies are pretty outrageous. Click through to see what's on offer. If you could have any job perk, what would it be? Share your thoughts in the comments.
If you're into social media and Apple, you might want to take a look at Pinterest's career page. The company takes its employees on frequent outings to the Apple store, because "whatever you need to be productive is what you should be using."
The rapidly growing company also offers a Zen meditation room and free fitness classes like yoga and muay thai, in addition to free lunch, dinner, and snacks. Office "studio night" events get employees together outside of work to relax and have fun. (The last one taught them how to make Jell-O shots.)
Silicon Valley startup Asana builds collaborative task and project management software. The company offers in-house yoga, twice-a-day cooked meals, and executive and life coaching. The best part? Each employee is given $10,000 to spend on his or her office setup. A lot of employees use the cash for motorized desks that allow them to sit or stand with the push of a button, but others have opted for mini refrigerators, custom-made ergonomic desk chairs, or rugs.
Asana also enables employees to place their full focus on work with free yoga classes, in-house chefs, and other treats.
Each employee at Dropcam is given a voucher for a free helicopter ride. The chopper is driven by none other than CEO (and licensed pilot) Greg Duffy.
Healthcare tech business Epic Systems rewards five-year employees with a month-long paid vacation. The company covers most travel expenses for both the worker and a friend if they choose to spend the sabbatical in a country they've never previously visited.
A lengthy vacation isn't the only reason to stay at Epic Systems, however. The company's offices, based outside Madison, Wis., have a tree-house conference room, a moat, an Indiana Jones-themed tunnel and plenty of greenery. Most would say the workplace is, in fact, epic.
Evernote employees' spouses and significant others were probably thrilled to hear about the free house cleaning their employer offers twice a month. The company also has an unlimited vacation policy and even provides a cash incentive to encourage prolonged trips.
"We had to modify [the vacation policy] because one of the first things I started worrying about is whether people would actually take less vacation," said CEO Phil Libin. He continued, "You're not going to get a lot of work out of someone if they haven't taken a vacation in a while. So we started rewarding people for taking at least a week at a time on a real trip by giving them $1,000 spending money. That seems to be going well."
Of course the king of job perks is on the list. The Googleplex, or the massive complex that houses Google's headquarters, really does have it all. Employees have access to on-site medical care, an acupuncturist, a massage therapist, lap pools, and haircuts. Oh, and they can use slides to get from floor to floor.
Benefits extend far beyond the campus, with employees meeting up in locations around the world. "I've been on off-sites to Tahoe, Vegas and Hawaii in the last year," said one Google senior software engineer.
An added bonus? Employees have the chance to work in a Chrome-themed ball pit (via Reddit).
Financial software company Intuit's Workout on Wheels (WOW) allows teams of five to twenty-five Intuit employees to complete 15-minute stretching, strengthening, or relaxation stretches that combine yoga, breathing, and meditation.
The many perks at Facebook's 57-acre campus earned the social media giant a spot on the 7 Happiest Companies in Silicon Valley. At corporate headquarters, employees have access to communal bikes so they can easily navigate the grounds, which include a company candy shop, a bank, a gym, a barbershop, a pizzeria, a sushi restaurant, a video arcade, a bike repair shop, a dry cleaner, and a doctor's office. "It felt like Disneyland's Main Street, U.S.A," said one visitor.
Facebook also demonstrates commitment to employees' families with generous bonuses as they welcome new members. Expectant parents receive four months of paid leave and $4,000 of "baby cash" in addition to day care reimbursement and adoption fees.
While a lot of company perks are designed to keep their employees in the office, Airbnb's seem more intended to encourage them to leave. Each worker receives $2,000 a year to travel anywhere in the world. In addition, staff members have weekly yoga classes at work, go sailing together, and can bring their pets to work each day. The staff also dresses up for "theme days" and, in one instance, showed up to the office dressed as characters from Mad Men.
IAS does its part to help the environment by giving employees $10,000 towards the purchase of a hybrid vehicle. It's a popular benefit among employees, over half of whom have chosen to take advantage of it.
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