Many employers offer perks to let their workforce know how much they appreciate their efforts. While some fringe benefits are enormously useful to workers, many are unnecessary or even downright insulting.
While it’s nice for companies to make an effort to acknowledge that the success of the organization is largely due to its hard-working staffers, most employees, if not all of them, would prefer to receive monetary compensation or other benefits.
Do any of these office perks sound better than receiving cold hard cash, a higher-quality insurance plan, or a more flexible leave policy? Decide for yourself.
1. Certificates of Recognition
Receiving a certificate of recognition may be a big deal in some instances. When an entire company or department receives it for a job well done, it rings hollow, as if it were an afterthought.
Certificates are nice to receive, but they should be given in a meaningful fashion. No one wants to feel as if an award for their service or work isn’t worthy of more than a single piece of paper that doesn’t even have their name on it.
2. Notes of Praise
Acknowledging hard work with mass-printed, impersonal certificates is bad enough. Mass-printed, impersonal notes are somehow even worse. It’s showing a lack of imagination and respect for the recipient.
If an organization isn’t willing to show gratitude with money, then the very least they could do is to make their notes personalized for each recipient. It’s a better way of recognizing an individual’s contributions.
3. Office Swag
Items with the company logo, such as mouse pads, coffee mugs, water bottles, and stress balls are a nice way to promote the organization. They’re not a substitute for extra money in employee paychecks.
Giving away office swag is more palatable when bonuses or other financial incentives are also granted. Using office swag in place of bonuses or pay raises makes employees wonder how the company could spend money on objects and not its people.
4. Free Food
Very few folks are going to turn down an offer of free food, especially if it’s catered by a nice restaurant. If the food is badly catered, employees will wonder what the whole purpose of a free meal is.
Combining free food with a bonus or pay increase is more satisfying than the food by itself. Even if the meal is given at a separate time than the money, knowing a raise or bonus is on the way makes it taste even better.
5. Free Coffee and Spring Water
It’s commonplace for workers to bring their coffee and water to work with them. Amenities like free coffee and a water cooler are nice to have, but they’re not a requirement to successfully do one’s job.
The money spent buying coffee and bottled water could be reinvested back into the workforce by increasing everyone’s pay. That improves office morale more than any amount of water and coffee ever could.
6. Onsite Fitness Centers
An onsite fitness center is a neat benefit to have, but only for those who use it. Some employees like the idea of a fitness center where they work because it saves them time and the expense of a private gym membership.
Other employees may not use a fitness center that’s located at work. They may have a gym membership somewhere else, or they don’t feel like working out in their place of employment. Offering health insurance benefits with lower copays and coinsurance is a great way to promote wellness.
7. Miniscule Raises
It might sound a bit ungrateful to complain about small raises, but when a company is pulling in billions of dollars a year, a five-cent raise isn’t going to cut it. Such a small increase borders on an insult to the workers.
If organizations are going to hand out raises, then they should be large enough to make a difference in a paycheck. A few cents increase isn’t going to matter much, plus it gives the impression that employees aren’t valued.
8. Company Gatherings
Company gatherings are a potential landmine, especially if alcohol is served. It’s too easy to drink too much and do something that could have negative ramifications at work. It isn’t the only reason this is a pointless perk.
Not everyone will attend the company gathering on their own time, either because they have other obligations or because they simply don’t want to. A benefit that’s only enjoyed by some and not all of the workforce isn’t exactly fair.
9. Employee Discounts
Receiving a 10 percent discount on company merch is okay, and receiving an even bigger discount is better. What’s even better than that? Earning enough money to have the ability to afford the company’s products without a discount.
That’s not to say employee discounts have zero value because they do. But when employees aren’t paid their worth, discounts don’t matter much. They would rather be paid a decent, competitive wage.
10. Casual Dress Days
Having permission to dress down one day a week is a perk that doesn’t cost companies a penny. It also allows workers to show a degree of individuality by wearing their regular clothes instead of work attire.
How much does one day of casual wear matter when you’re underpaid and your other benefits like paid time off and health insurance are lacking? This is an area where companies need to step up and do more.
11. Game Rooms
Having a game room with foosball, table tennis, and arcade games has a definite hipster vibe to help make the workplace feel more fun. They can also give off the wrong perception of the people who use them.
Workers using game rooms may be perceived as less focused on work and more interested in playing, leading to feelings of resentment among their peers. To spare tensions between co-workers, companies should apply that money to a less divisive, universal benefit.
12. Pets at Work
Devoted pet owners love their animals so much, they hate to be parted from them during the workday. Allowing workers to bring their pets to the office sounds cute on the surface, but it can cause problems.
Not everyone is going to be as enamored of your pets as you are. People have allergies to pet dander, and some may be afraid of them. It’s difficult to consider this a perk when it’s not enjoyed by all.
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