10 Unique Perks At Tech Companies
Tech companies are well represented on Glassdoor's rankings of the top beyond-the-basics perks and benefits offered to employees. See 10 of the most interesting and surprising.
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Glassdoor's annual list of the Top 20 Employee Benefits and Perks is out, and it is not surprising that the tech industry was well-represented. Of the 20 featured, 14 are from tech companies.
Glassdoor compiled its rankings by identifying some of the more unique and surprising benefits employees are enjoying at their companies based on the hundreds of thousands of benefits reviews shared by employees on Glassdoor since Aug. 2014. For our slideshow, we feature the 10 tech companies that had at least 20 benefits reviews shared on Glassdoor by employees as of Jan. 28, 2016.
[See 10 Quirky Tech Job Interview Questions That May Stump You.]
One notable thing about the perks and benefits that made the Glassdoor list is that they appear to buck the widely held perception that tech company perks are all about video game contests and well-stocked refrigerators (although there are many of those types of perks, according to the perks list we compiled last year).
Tech companies seem to be tackling work-life balance and even social justice issues with their perks. Although Pinterest and Spotify aren't included in our slideshow, because their ratings were based on fewer than 20 reviews on the Glassdoor site, they are examples of that trend. Both offer extended parental leave.
Pinterest offers three months (plus another month of part-time work to ease back in) and Spotify offers a full six months of parental leave (plus flexible hours for another month). Spotify even covers the costs of employee egg freezing and gives assistance for fertilization treatments. Other companies on the list, as you will see, are also helping new parents in big ways. Others are coming up with ways to nurture the creativity and promote the well-being of their employees.
Take a look at the following pages to see some of the creative perks and benefits that can be found at some of top tech companies, and then tell us about the perks you get in your office in the comments.
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Netflix offers a full year of paid maternity and paternity leave for new parents and flexible hours upon their return. Up until this year, the policy was only for salaried employees. But late last year, Netflix announced improvements to its policy to cover hourly workers.
Salesforce offers its employees six days per year in paid vacation to volunteer at a charity of their choice. The company will also give $1,000 to a charity of an employee's choosing as long as that employee completes at least 48 hours of volunteer work in a fiscal year.
Airbnb offers its employees an annual stipend of $2,000 to travel and stay in Airbnb listings. However, in an answer about the travel credit perk on Quora, one person claiming to work for Airbnb says, it is a quarterly "use it or lose it" system.
Twilio gives its employees a Kindle and $30 a month to buy books, though Twilio's site says this perk is only for those who build and present a Twilio app. But if you do, you also get a special jacket.
Twitter offers acupuncture and improv classes at its office in San Francisco.
Facebook offers $4,000 in "baby cash" to new parents. According to a 2014 NBC News report, Facebook also pays up to $20,000 for employees to freeze their eggs.
Epic Systems gives employees four-week sabbaticals every five years. According to the company's website, if an employee takes that sabbatical to a country they've never visited before, the company will help cover hotel and flight expenses for that employee and a guest.
Adobe shuts the company down two weeks a year -- one week in the winter and one week in the summer. According to its time-off document, these weeks vary from year to year, but the company usually tries to have them occur over one or more holidays.
Zillow pays for traveling employees to ship breast milk, which is very useful, considering rules around liquids on airplanes. Additionally, according to the company's website, every employee gets a Fitbit.
Obviously, not every company is in a position to offer all of these perks. But good benefits can help attract top talent, which could help a company's bottom line. Which perks are you most attracted by? Which ones do you wish your company had? Tell us in the comments.
Obviously, not every company is in a position to offer all of these perks. But good benefits can help attract top talent, which could help a company's bottom line. Which perks are you most attracted by? Which ones do you wish your company had? Tell us in the comments.
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