The Coolest Perks Companies Offer Their Employees

We Hope More Companies Follow Their Lead

It’s not all Casual Fridays and Taco Tuesdays; some companies have gone above and beyond when it comes to providing perks to their employees. Here are some of the coolest, best, and most useful that we’d like to see show up in more companies.

Family First

Let’s face it: the type of maternity and paternity leave mandated by law in the US comes in two flavors – awful and non-existent. That’s why it’s so cool to see companies going above and beyond when it comes to letting you take care of your family.

Audio streaming company Spotify loves its parent employees, and it shows. The company provides six months of paid parental leave, and then an additional month of flexible work options for parents returning to their positions. The company even covers the costs of fertility assistance and egg freezing!

Meanwhile, video streaming juggernaut Netflix didn’t want to be left out. While there’s no ancillary support for parents returning to work, Netflix provides a whole 12 months of paid parental leave. How’s that for cool?

Facebook might not have much in the way of paid parental leave, but the company does provide $4,000 of what it calls “baby cash” to new parents. Four grand pays for a lot of diapers and baby formula, and even a little bit left over for a babysitter once and a while. And real estate website giant Zillow foots the bill for any nursing mothers that need to overnight breast milk. Every little bit helps for new parents.

Rest and Relaxation

Studies show that employees who feel rested and relaxed at work are happier and more productive – and smart companies have taken that to heart. This often takes the form of additional PTO. Outdoor clothing company REI provides two days a year where it encourages its employees to get out in the sunshine.

Some R&R perks are more comprehensive, like the $2,000 stipend that Airbnb gives its employees to stay at any of the company’s rentals around the world. The paid four-week sabbatical that healthcare software company Epic Systems offers veteran employees, solely to explore creative talents and hobbies, also comes to mind as an impressive use of time.

Of course, you don’t have to kick your employees out of the office for them to be relaxed at work. Plenty of companies have expansive break rooms with ping-pong tables and well-stocked drink coolers, but it takes a bit more to stand out nowadays. An example of this is microblogging heavyweight Twitter, which has built a reputation on in-office perks like three catered meals a day and for providing regular improv classes and even acupuncture sessions for harried employees.

Finally, companies can hit two birds with one stone by providing PTO to employees who want to volunteer their time to charities. Salesforce offers six days a year to any of its civic-minded workers, even offering an additional $1,000 for the employee to donate to a charity of his or her choice. Businesses can tout not just how socially conscious they are but their employees are, too, leaving everybody with the warm fuzzies.

Conclusion

It takes more than a modicum of effort nowadays to be thought of as a company that provides the coolest perks to its employees. We’re hoping that perks we’ve found in some of the most cutting-edge companies of today – extended support for families, better quality of life for workers on the job and off, and a move towards more socially conscious, community-minded activities – will become much more common as time goes by.