What Perks Attract the Best Employees?

Gummy bear waterfalls! Indoor climbing walls! Music rooms! 37 foosball tables on each floor!

Yeah, we get it — perks are nice. But in their effort to keep up with the Joneses (or keep up with the Googles, as the case may be), does it feel like too many companies are turning their “why work here?” pitches into 70’s used-car commercials?

If you’re running a company, there’s no doubt that the bar’s been raised. Employees — especially millennial employees — expect more and more perks. One survey even showed that employees want better benefits even more than they want a pay raise.

That’s why figuring out what perks really matter is where you come in. After all, you’re not looking for the most employees — you’re looking for the best employees.

Luckily, plenty of research can tell you what perks employees appreciate. Let’s take a look.

1. Flexible work schedule

This one hits the top of almost every single employee survey out there. Most employees, it turns out, don’t mind spending some time in the office. But most would prefer to not be held to too strict of a schedule. And most would also prefer to have the freedom to do some work at home as well.

Lots of studies have shown that letting employees work from home is actually good for the bottom line. It increases productivity and work satisfaction. It lets you support millennials who want to come in and stay late, and parents who need to pick up their kids. It tells employees that you’re judging them on the quality of their work rather than simply tabulating the minutes they spend in the office.

Plus, it costs you nothing! This should be at the top of your list.

2. Paid parental leave

While (or perhaps because) the US is the only industrialized nation that does not mandate paid parental leave, companies trying to attract the best talent are increasingly offering this as a benefit. Doing so is not only a great way to lure young, rising stars to your company (i.e., people who imagine having kids one day), it’s also a great way to make sure your best employees stay at your company when they do decide to have children.

One study of companies in California (which does offer partially paid leave for new parents) found that the huge majority of companies observed a “positive effect” or “no noticeable effect” on productivity and profitability. Despite employers’ worries about their bottom line, in fact they experienced no loss in profit, and noticeable gains in morale.

3. Gym membership / Sports teams

A healthy workforce is a happier, more productive workforce. Period. So you should do what you can to keep them that way. Providing a free or discounted gym membership is a great way to do encourage healthy behavior. So is putting together a company softball team, or sponsoring employees who run a local 5K.

Free gym membership is also an attractive perk to offer prospective employees: even if they end up not using it, it’s easy for job seekers to imagine themselves in the gym.

4. Free food

Ok, it’s true. Millennials, especially, like free snacks. In one survey, 48% of millennials said that they would weigh “availability of snacks” in their decision when looking for a new job. And if you’re wondering where in your office you’ll fit those mountains of gummy worms, know that having good food around can encourage employees to eat together, and that this builds comradery and makes work a little more fun.

If paying for all your employees’ meals seems a bit much, even providing lunch once a week can give employees something exciting to look forward to.

5. Unlimited Vacation

Here’s one thing that most employees can agree on: vacation is great. In recent years, many companies have started moving to an “unlimited vacation” model. This can be very attractive to potential employees, and can be less stressful for you. It also means there’s no “saved vacation time” for employees to cash out when they leave the company.

There are some caveats, however. The biggest of these is that if you’re going to offer unlimited vacation, you have to keep good track of what your employees are doing, since you don’t want to unconsciously evaluate them on time in the office, instead of what they get done.

The other problem with this policy (or benefit to it, depending on how cynical you are) is that in practice, employees with unlimited vacation often take less actual vacation than employees who are given a certain amount of vacation days do. So if you believe that it’s important for employees to take vacation (and you should!), you’ll have to do some encouraging.