According to James Berkeley, Director of Berkeley Burke International, however, there’s still a disconnect. “The decisions made regarding what benefits to offer are often based on subjective viewpoints, viewpoints that are far removed from the actual needs of employees.” Rather than assuming you know what your employees want, Berkeley suggests you ask them. Though answers will vary, many people are interested in more benefits in these areas:

• Healthy Living and Wellness Benefits. Susan Combs, President of Combs & Company, “The biggest benefit that employees ask for is gym membership reimbursement.” Wellness programs like WalkingSpree–which creates walking clubs, assigns teams and creates competitions – are another great way to motivate and engage employees to live healthy (thereby reducing your health care costs).
• Flexible Work Options. Telecommuting and other forms of flexible work options make employees healthier and happier.  And as Sara Sutton Fell, Founder and CEO of FlexJobs points out, studies show that, “Employers who offer flexible schedules and alternatives to the traditional nine-to-five not only see higher productivity, but also save on health-related benefits they already offer.” Stanford University conducted a big study that showed that telecommuters were four percent more productive than office workers, working more hours and taking a larger workload.
• Commuting Relief Benefits. More and more are looking for commuting relief benefits from their employers. Incentivize carpooling; use services like Transit Chek so employees can purchase transit tickets with pre-tax dollars; Or promote healthy living and alternative commuting options by installing bike racks your the office.
• Perks You Can Afford. Great perks aren’t just for the guys in Silicon Valley. Many companies–big and small–bring in a massage therapist who offers chair massages to employees. Convenient and relaxing, this perk costs the employer nothing and might just keep employees in the office longer. Others adopt reward programs like BetterWorks where employees are given an allowance to spend on discounted food from local restaurants, dry cleaning, gym memberships and more.

Clearing The Great Leadership Hurdle

By offering benefits that are actually competitive, an organization can set itself above the competition–and build a strong culture of engagement and motivation. But as Eddie Trieber, CEO of HRI, points out, “Getting there requires the support of leadership–and there are a few common concerns that need addressing.” Leaders are often focused on Costs, Immediate Benefit, and Employee Utilization. It’s up to you to deliver on these key points.

Address the issues of cost by reminding leadership how little (if anything) creative benefits cost the organization. It might also help to frame benefits in terms of investments–not costs–in new employee acquisition and retention. And educate your employees. Actively promote offerings in your recruiting strategy. Use open enrollment to re-educate employees. Add FAQs and educational content to the employee self-service portals in your HRMS.

About the Author: Kyle Lagunas is the HR Analyst at Software Advice—an online resource for reviewing and comparing HR and recruiting software. For further reading, you can find this full article on Kyle’s HRblog.

Do you know who is talking about your company?  It’s not just consumers, it is current employees, past employees, and recent job candidates too! That’s right, and they are not just talking about your products. They are serving up uncensored commentary about what it is really like to work at your company.

As a result of new websites that offer self publishing tools, employees and candidates have an anonymous  forum to vent. I recently explored two such websites (Glassdoor and Jobvent) that offer user generated reviews of employers.  You can check out the websites at: Glassdoor (www.glassdoor.com) and JobVent (www.jobvent.com).

These sites allow the user to type in a company name to research reviews, salaries, and interview questions.  This means that a potential candidate can see what current and past employees as well as job candidates have posted anonymously about what they think of your company.  Here are some excerpts on two large outdoor industry companies that I researched:

COMPANY #1:
“Systems are outdated-Lotus Notes for mail”
“Managers not qualified for their positions”
“Employees don’t have a voice”
“A company that lives its values only in words”

COMPANY #2:
“Tremendous brand with great values “
“Lots of room for entrepreneurial endeavors”
“Flexible schedule/hours”
“Little turnover and slow growth philosophy make it challenging to move up in the company and grow”

Which company would you rather work for if given a choice?  Glassdoor even allows the user to offer anonymous advice to the “Senior Management” and ranks the CEO with an “Approval Rating”.  While this information is intended to be objective, it is important to recognize that these sites can make it easy for a disgruntled employee to communicate dissatisfaction.

While you might be able to find some stuff online about your employment brand, the majority of the information is passed around by word-of-mouth stories told by current employees, past employees, and candidates who have had interaction with the company. With as much connectivity and communication as there is these days, it does not take much to develop a soiled reputation. These word-of-mouth warning sirens can easily scare off top talent even if the stories are taken out of context or not fully accurate representations.  Companies that earn notoriety for being a dreadful place to work often can only attract employees who need a job bad enough to overlook the potential downsides of a toxic environment. Ultimately, this perpetuates the situation and leads to ongoing turnover and turmoil.

Most HR Mangers and Hiring Executives that I have surveyed state that they believe their “employment brand” to be “better than average” as compared to “average” or “below average”. Unfortunately, I have found that the internal perception often does not mirror the external feedback that I receive when I survey the market. As you might expect, companies generally have a more positive perception than what is often heard on the street. In some cases, companies with a strong consumer brand often falsely assume that the employment brand is a reflection of the consumer brand.  Often, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Please share your thoughts, comments, and ideas:

1. Is the market perception of what it is like to work at your company accurate? If not, why?
2. What should be done if someone has written an unfavorable review of your company?
3. What are some best practices for improving a company’s employment brand reputation?