My son-in-law, Dan, is a biometrician. If you're asking
yourself, "what the heck is that?" that was my exact
response when I was introduced to the guy years ago.
According to the American Heritage Dictionary,
it's a branch of biology that studies phenomena
and observations by means of statistics.
In simple terms, Dan counts sea lions for a
living. Well, a little more than that. He counts
them, tracks them, tags them and generally keeps
tabs on them. The information he gathers is used to
determine how sea life can tell us about our changing
environment. All of this happens up in Seward, Alaska,
at the SeaLife Center. Although
Alaska is beautiful
country, living there year-round is challenging.
And raising a young family there can be lonely, with
the rest of us guys in the "lower 48."
As you can imagine, it must be pretty tough for
the SeaLife Center to recruit the scientists they
need. But, according to Dan, they have a
"drop dead" employee benefits package, complete with
six weeks of vacation. Yes, that's six weeks for
new employees! It makes sense. It's tough duty and
the robust benefits package somewhat eases the
discomfort.
How about your company? I know you probably don't
have your people out on a boat for hours on end or
camping out on the Aleutian Islands during the
summer, but do you have a "drop dead" employee
package? If the answer to that is "Well, maybe" or "I
really don't know," you had best find out and think
about making some real changes.
Be Innovative in
Your Approach to a Benefits Package
Lots of the companies we work with are small and
privately held. Many of them are under $50M in
revenue. But some of our smallest clients are our
most innovative. Because they don't have deep
pockets, they've added benefits that don't cost much
but earn them a ton of goodwill with their
employees.
These are the types of things that delight your
employees and attract people to your company.
These benefits tell your employees and the
candidates you want to attract about the culture of
your company. Think about adding some of these
to your package:
- Flexible time — Do all of your
employees have to work the same hours? Probably
not.
- Mother's hours — There are lots
of talented parents out there who'd like their jobs to
coincide with their children's schedules. Think about
structuring your job to meet their needs.
- Birthday off — What a fun way to
spend a birthday with a day off!
- Health club memberships — Some
of this cost can be subsidized by your health plan
— check it out.
- Floating, flexible holidays — Not
everyone wants the day after Thanksgiving off! Make
more of your holidays floating.
- Museum tickets — Join as a
corporate member and then offer your employees
tickets on a first-come basis.
Some other clients that have deeper pockets offer
benefits like:
- A parking space — This is offered
by a client in the city and believe me, it's a real draw!
- Health benefits extended to same-sex
partners — A real cutting-edge benefit.
- A metro or subway pass —
Employees can use it on the weekends too!
- Increased vacation time — There
is nothing as easy to negotiate when you are hiring
someone who may be more expensive than your
budget permits than increasing their vacation time. In
my experience, future employees always want more of
this!
Just remember these two things when thinking about
beefing up your benefits package:
Your employee benefits package will help your
recruit top talent and it will keep top talent in your
company.
You will more than save the money you spend on
your package by retaining your employees.
Remember — employees are expensive to
replace!
I spoke to Dan last night. He just got back from two
weeks in his hometown of Berkeley, California. He was
taking in his "quota" of sunshine in anticipation of his
dark winter days and dreaming about his next vacation
— which will be coming before he knows it!
