any of you guys (apart from anagarlis) hiring engineers in the south east?
£50 per person per quarter to spend on a team night/lunch/activity, can be spent quarterly or saved up through the year for a bigger event.
loads of competitions to win additional budget for the above, prizes range from £250-£10,000 (for an inter office location prize)
company incentive trips where places can be won. Every half year it tends to be a long weekend somewhere nice in Europe, full year is the holiday of a lifetime, currently there is a group in Nepal, and have just been for a look at Everest. Other destinations have included matchu pichu, the Galapagos and Antarctica.
loads of fully funded nights out/parties/lunches thought the year, along with Michelin star meals for those that have gone the extra mile.
Supplier incentives, I went, all expenses, paid to the British GP last year
employee of the quarter in each dept gets to pick from a deck of cards laid out in a grid on the floor, 2-10 gets £100, jack - £500, queen - £1,000, king - £1,500, Ace £2,000, joker - £15,000. I know a few people who have had jokers.
Beer fridge access on a Friday afternoon
Free breakfast
Free onsite gym
free massage once a month
Serve 15 years? Lump sum of £15k, then again every 5 years thereafter.
full private medical/dental cover
Annual bonus
share purchase scheme
c2w up to £3k
Loads of discounts on holidays/vouchers etc
Extra day off for every year worked, extra day at Xmas, day off for birthday
electric car salary sacrifice
This is all very much calmed down since the company went public 10 years ago. Founder of the company used to come in with pockets full of 50’s and hand them out randomly when the mood took. Once accidentally set fire to a T-shirt cannon with £15k in it… he also did random acts of kindness, including putting employees kids though private school, paying off mortgages etc. He’s one of those ‘evil’ billionaires you keep reading about (though he is in the top 30 tax payers in the country, so may not be all bad, despite having retired a few years ago)
Shit pension though.
Just remembered, we got a new perk last year, not that all of us can make use of it. Blokes get family leave, 18 weeks full pay and optional 8 weeks half pay for a new baby.
Would be nice if I could take a paid sabbatical instead, approaching 25 years and I think I’m just due a card certificate saying thanks!
My wife used to get a free breakfast, I can’t remember if it was a perk for getting in before getting in early, or for cycling in.
I work for the RSC and we get 1 free ticket and one for a tenner for every theatre show.
I've been going to the theatre a lot and it's brilliant. Not always so enameled with the Shakespeare stuff but there's lots of other stuff too. 😊👍
HE - but private HE so slightly different. Healthcare scheme, rewards site like others where you buy through the website and it knocks a certain percentage off the total. However, above all else I get to work from home every single day and if I ever do have to go to the office I get paid all the way from Manchester to Coventry and only have to travel in work hours. Everybody I work with also understands and seems to appreciate me so I dont need to have a work filter/persona. I'd like to be able to buy more holidays if I could have any perk, I do have a flexible arrangement in place where I get every other Friday off for a salary difference but I'd rather have this in the form of days bookable whenever I want them for the same sacrifice.
I get very little, certainly in comparison to what the job used to offer (I've seen an old offer that was left on the server - bonus, healthcare, Pension cont., 5x salary Life Ins., 2 days holiday per 2 years and a few more) Now I get 3x salary Life Ins, some pension contribution and the option to buy up to a week of extra holiday.
Enshitification of the job market.
I've seen job adds with free onsite parking as a "perk" FFS!
Nothing really, though I do get to ride abroad regularly and get paid for it.
pick from a deck of cards laid out in a grid on the floor
Is this a gambling company by any chance?
Purchase Of Annual Leave is great, especially if your employer only offers close to the UK law minimum of 5.6 weeks less any Bank Holidays. At Royal Mail, you could boost leave to 6 weeks plus Bank Holidays (basic is 4.5 weeks plus BHs), but since I left some look to lose this benefit because of a secret formula being used and how close the postie wage has dropped towards minimum wage!
Separate sex shower and changing rooms are great, especially for the likes of bike commuters.
Day off on birthday, regardless of time of year is nice, couldn't even book mine off as annual leave as postie as leave banned ~4 weeks approaching Xmas.
Condensed full-time hours to do a 4-day week?
Extended lunch break every now and again where you make up time?
Early finish on Friday by working bit longer Mon-Thurs (or equivalent system for non-traditional working days)?
I've seen job adds with free onsite parking as a "perk" FFS!
It's £3 a day here...
Indoor cycle parking, showers, drying room, indoor dog toilet for service dogs.
If you don"t cycle or have a service dog, it's pretty shit.
Well I think the sex shower wins the perks...
Well I think the sex shower wins the perks...
Exactly what I was thinking. A younger me would have been applying already!
I've seen job adds with free onsite parking as a "perk" FFS!
Strangely there's never any equivalent to those who have to get the bus or train is there?!
It's not an equal perk to all employees if some are getting the benefit of free parking but some have to get public transport or they choose not to drive for other reasons.
It's not an equal perk to all employees if some are getting the benefit of free parking but some have to get public transport or they choose not to drive for other reasons.
Exactly what I was thinking with the paternity leave mentioned above. It's fantastic that a new dad gets comparable bonuses to a new mum, that's long overdue. But where's my free holiday?
How well is that policed, I wonder. It wouldn't be rocket surgery to lie about.
Well I think the sex shower wins the perks...
Only available to members of the separate sex though
Exactly what I was thinking with the paternity leave mentioned above. It's fantastic that a new dad gets comparable bonuses to a new mum, that's long overdue. But where's my free holiday?
I agree - free guide dogs for everyone. The blind have had it too easy for too long.
But where's my free holiday?
You do sometimes have to grit your teeth and smile. I'm friends with a colleague currently off on a year's maternity leave. Social media never tells the full story but jeez she's making the most of it - currently on a 3 month family vanlife road trip getting to know each other in about the bazillionth (probably 6th) country. Fair play.......he says whilst covering a significant chunk of her lessons and doing my admin in the evenings because my non contact periods are slightly busier than normal. Social media says you are spending your evening having lovely family meal in the Alps before going skiing tomorrow - that's odd, my evening was spent online doing parents evening for your class! And breath.
So yeah, equitable benefits are a win for work harmony. The lottery of the billionaire handing out bonuses on the turn of a card above would totally not work for me. Or the 'employee of the month bollox'.
I've seen job adds with free onsite parking as a "perk" FFS!
I briefly worked in a place where the employer announced they were withdrawing the free car parking. If the disgruntled employees put even 10% care into their jobs as they did in their consternation about losing their free parking, the company may not have gone out of business
Social media says you are spending your evening having lovely family meal in the Alps before going skiing tomorrow - that's odd, my evening was spent online doing parents evening for your class!
As a non parent i also get a bit jealous of all the women in the office who pop out a couple of sprogs and end up relaxing with their feet up* for 26 of the next 31 months (when you factor in the accrued leave)
But on the other hand, those sprogs are going to be paying for my state pension, so I can't grumble too much.
It is work they are going to - not a fun club.
Can’t it be both? As long as you hire self motivated people that know when they need to work and when it’s appropriate to let their hair down, it makes for a much more productive workforce
One place had an annual "learning allowance" of a couple of hundred quid to spend on training unrelated to your work. It had to be different each year so you couldn't go to Jedi every time but it was surprisingly handy, for example a friend was doing up an old house so did a course on lime plastering,
Another place was on an out of town business park but had a few reserved parking spaces in the town centre so there was no faff looking for a parking space if you needed to go into town to get something done.
One of the big management consultancies used to offer a house sitter so you could go into work instead of waiting for the plumber to fix your boiler. Not sure if that survived in the flexible working world, and TBH even back then it was probably more for the company to increase revenue than the convenience of the employee.
I've seen job adds with free onsite parking as a "perk" FFS!
Strangely there's never any equivalent to those who have to get the bus or train is there?!
It's not an equal perk to all employees if some are getting the benefit of free parking but some have to get public transport or they choose not to drive for other reasons.
It is an equal perk, your just choosing not to take advantage it. It’s like saying that companies shouldn’t offer the cycle to work scheme because some employees will choose not to take advantage of it.
Personally if there is no free parking at the office and I’m expected to be there then I will go and work for someone else. I’m not wasting taxed salary to park to help my employer make more money. Its bad enough that I have to buy the fuel for the 2 days a week I have to be there.
Special one at ours is the staff canteen. Canteen manager is a wizard, so for a pretty paltry budget we get free hot and cold drinks, breakfast choices oof cereals plus porridge, beans on toast plus occasional full fry up. Then lunch is full salad bar, soup option and a different hot meal every day. Highlight this week was steak, dauphinoise potatoes and broccoli with diane sauce. Then fresh cake in the afternoon.
Then there's the special stuff to keep us healthy, like flu shots which taste awful but do the job. This week she was practicing making throat lozenges 🙂 It's genuinely incredible.
Nothing, not even cycle to work scheme or even a tea bag
Would the tea bag come before or after the sex shower?
And there was me thinking I was the only one who gets annoyed by maternity leave. I used to work with a woman who had four children while working at the same company and here I am choosing not to be a mother and I don’t see any of that benefit. Even just one extra day off a year in recognition would do it for me!
Would the tea bag come before or after the sex shower?
During.
It’s getting worse! Can’t you all just go to work and be happy you get paid for it like most working people? Sounds like most of you work in the warmth and dry with very little risk to your health except scalding your lip on a cappuccino yet get all these extra “perks”!
When a poor civil servant there were few if any perks but Mrs kilo scored high. One of the biggest was when they did an overseas trip for all employees and partners, as flight times were problematic they just chartered an airliner for the trip.
Self employed since age 19. 43 now and semi retired.
Zero employer benefits other than deciding for whom I work.
Sounds like most of you have it right cushy..... Pension contributions, C2W, paid holidays and sick days.... How the other half live.
Sounds like most of you have it right cushy..... Pension contributions, C2W, paid holidays and sick days.... How the other half live.
and
43 now and semi retired.
Indeed....how the other half live!
I agree - free guide dogs for everyone. The blind have had it too easy for too long.
A perk of the job, that, is it?
Free tea and coffee (instant)
A company I worked at many years ago had a Maxpax (remember those?) coffee machine, it was dreadful, but common in the 80s/90s.
It was 12p or something for a drink, which was too much. What made it worse was we, the mobile service guys would have to pay and the office staff were allowed to use the money we’d put in to ‘buy’ their hot crappy drink.
Apparently, when I pointed out to my boss it’s taking the piss, it was a perk for the office staff as we’d tend to get a free coffee/tea when visiting clients.
Apparently the coffee machine needed some money in it ‘for tax reasons’.
Self employed since age 19. 43 now and semi retired.
Zero employer benefits
As convert has already pointed out, this is self evidently bollocks.
I get lots of little things
Loads of free event tickets to.- Horse Racing, Festival of Speed , Revival , GRRC Members meetings , gym memebrship , discounted golf club memebership ,free gym- sauna- pool, discounted hotel rooms, discounted food and drink at 6 or so locations, several xmas events, discounted flying lessons, discounted car finance , health cover , life insurance 4x salary , medical checks , annual performance related bonus . Basic pension contributions though.
NHS - decent pension contributions, decent holidays after long service, salary sacrifice, and that’s about it
30yrs work experience I’d take a good culture as a perk any day over any other ‘perk’
A pound for every commute thats sustainable. I enjoy poking holes in this one.
Our pension contributions are matched up to 10percents
Healthcare stuff
Employee Ownership bonus
Profit share
Electric car and bike to work
And the latest addition is 750quid a year with various options how to spend.
- Pop it pension and we get a little extra contribution on top of that.
-Sports club and gym membership
-Electric car contibution
-Etc.
Its probably the best in terms of its a perk that you can fit to your own needs.
This thread is back to front though...
Instead of what do you get as a work benefit it really should be . " Which workplace benefits are a good reason to start working somewhere else , or make staying where you are more bearable"
How does the buying holiday days thing work, is it just a case of giving up the salary you would have gotten for those days?
Ours comes off as salary sacrifice, across 12 months. I've been doing it so long I don't miss the money as I've never really had it.
Ive never understood how this is a perk. When I’m on a/l my work just sits there waiting for me to come back. If I buy an extra week off I get paid less but still end up having to do the work I would have done whilst away.
I can see the benefit if your work gets done by others whilst your away such as nursing, manufacturing lines etc
Sounds like you either need to do a better handover or manage your outstanding workload better.
The answer to "if I don't do it, it doesn't get done" is "well it doesn't get done, then."
