MBA1541 Do Company Perks Work?

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Hey oh. Welcome to the $100, the place to be for business builders everywhere with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zed home. I'm also the co founder of the Hundred Dollar mba, a complete business training and community online. And in today's episode you will learn do company Perks work? Jelly beans in the staff room Friday massages Unlimited vacation do these perks actually attract great talent, keep your current employees happy and keep retention low? Or are these just gimmicks and a.

Waste of what messages do they send?

And can they have a negative effect on your company culture? That's what we get into in today's episode. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Many Silicon Valley startups will really promote the fact that they have these outrageous perks. Whether it's Google with free lunches and a huge slide that brings you down to the ground floor, or companies that offer unlimited vacation and massages or cocktail nights on Friday. Many businesses, whether they're remote teams or they're in person in office teams, have these perks because they want to attract great talent. They also want to keep their team happy. They want to keep retention down. They don't want to keep hiring replacements, right? But do these perks actually work? Do they actually get you a return on investment? Well, actually. Keith Cunningham, in his book the Road Less Stupid, argues and shares his findings that many of these perks actually backfire. They don't actually work. And actually what your employees really care about are a few basic things that are not really considered perks. They're actually fundamental. They actually really care about working on things that are exciting, that make them feel significant, and they're building significant things. They like to be respected.

They like autonomy, flexibility, and the feeling.

Of they're growing every day. Many of the large Silicon Valley companies like Google have these on site perks for a reason. And it's not to just spoil their employees, it's actually to keep them at work. The reason why they have daycare and massages and volleyball is because if you.

Use those facilities, you'll tend to stay.

Longer in the office and actually do more work. Now, this doesn't mean to throw the baby out with the bathwater that all perks stink. I've actually seen companies that have done really interesting perks that are not on a regular basis. They're sort of on occasion that really make an impact on new and existing employees. For example, Wistia, they give their new employees a gift card to take out their family to celebrate their new job and have dinner on them. It's not a reoccurring perk. It's not something they give every month.

But it's just something that they do for new employees.

For existing employees, they give a perk when they complete one year of employment, whether it's a massage or a day off or, or even the classic cake, right? Remember cake in the staff room? These are considered perks, but they're just not regular perks that happen on a regular basis. The thing that Keith Cunningham talks about, which I thought was interesting, is that when you provide perks on a regular basis, people feel like this is just a part of the job. Like this is not something special, it's just something people get used to. And many people don't even take advantage of these perks. For example, I know that Noah over@Sumo.com, they gave free massages every Friday to their staff, many Fridays, because they have a kind of a flexible office space where some people work from home or they work from a cafe or they work in the office. They would hire the masseuse and no.

One would get a massage.

So it was sort of like a waste of money.

People kind of got tired of it.

They're like, oh, that's okay. I'm okay without a massage. So I really believe that if you're going to have quote, unquote, perks in your office, in your workplace, in your.

Team, you should really do the things.

That matter to your team. Whether that's recognition, whether that's a welcome or some sort of celebration. For example, even though we're a remote team here at Webinar Ninja, we're going to be launching a huge, huge update called webinar ninja6 very soon. It's something the whole team's been working on for over a year. And we want to celebrate that hard work. We want to celebrate that launch as a team. So we're going to be doing a virtual launch party where everybody's going to get pizza and drinks and fun and games and prizes. And it's a way for us as a company to say, hey, guys, I know that, you know, we're all working hard and this is all part of our job, but we want to say thanks. We want to kind of celebrate and have a good time and say, we did it. You know, we actually hit our goal and we crossed that finish line. This would be considered a perk because, hey, it's not in their job description or in the contract they signed, but we feel the positive that we get from that really outweighs the. The cost. Whatever your perk is, you want to make sure that you're tracking the data. How many people are using this perk? How often do they actually take on these perks? Which ones are more popular? Because if after six months to a year, no one is taking advantage of these things you're paying for, cut them out, maybe try something different. Maybe do one off kind of perks or celebrations that make more sense and really give your company a real sense of gratification and a sense of appreciation. I was reading an article once in an in flight magazine that talked about perks in the office. It was a Delta flight, and they interviewed the employees, and they actually said many of the perks, like massages or exercise, whether it's volleyball courts or things like that or a gym, didn't really appeal to them. They felt like that's like their personal life. They want to do those things on their own without their colleagues. Maybe they want to do that with their partner, their spouse, their best friend. And it just felt strange. And they never took on those perks because of it. Know your team, find out. Ask your team about these perks. Get the data right. Survey and find out if these perks are actually Working right. You don't just continue paying for them because hey, that's just a standard I want to put on my jobs page. We have these fancy perks. That's not enough for you to be spending your company dollars when you can actually spend them on better things for your employees.

Gas, snacks, tolls. This trip is draining my wallet.

Yeah, but we'll be with family.

You're in a good mood.

What's your deal?

What's my deal? I saved at Metro, no activation fees and I got one line of 5G for just $25 per month. Kept the phone I love and a 5 year price guarantee on my top.

Tuxed data detour to Metro.

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Perks can work if you're actually doing something your employees actually want that they feel are significant or actually are helping the morale of the team. You don't have to have reoccurring perks, but you can have small perks throughout their journey, throughout their career at the company and team based perks like the virtual party we're doing to celebrate your wins. It's really important to celebrate as a team to understand that we're in this together. And even though sometimes it's a grind and we're working hard and sometimes we get disappointed in, you know, how we perform. But we're in it together. Let's celebrate when we have a win. When something great happens, don't miss a great opportunity like that. That's good money spent. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. If you love what you hear, leave us an iTunes rating and review. I'd love to hear what you think about the show. Also hit subscribe so you get our next episode automatically right on your device. We're on every single podcast platform. So whether you like to listen to podcasts on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher Radio or or Spotify or Overcast or Himalaya or whatever it is, hit that subscribe button right now. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. When you are profitable as a business and you're making some surplus, it's tough because you need to make sure you're spending that money properly, investing it back into your business. And one of the best things you can do is invest in your team. Your team is really what's going to make everything happen.

It's really what's going to build you.

A great product or service or whatever you're selling. So giving back to your team is great, but make sure you're giving them something that they actually want, need, and actually value. Thank you so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. Free ride Friday. I'll see you then. Take care.

Of.

Gas, snacks, tolls. This trip is draining my wallet.

Yeah, but we'll be with family.

You're in a good mood.

What's your deal?

What's my deal? I saved at Metro with no activation fees and I got one line of 5G for just $25 per month. Kept the phone I love and a 5 year price guarantee on my top.

Text and data detour to Metro.

Get that more for your money feeling only at Metro by T Mobile Just.

Bring your number $30 first month and $25 after with autopay not available. If with Metro or T Mobile in the past 180 days.