Following announcements of unlimited vacation at LinkedIn and elsewhere, employers are finding new ways to boost their reputation, recruitment and retention, several experts say.
Intel is now offering salaried employees $40,000 in lifetime medical coverage for fertility treatment in addition to $20,000 in prescription drug coverage, quadrupling the previous fertility benefits available to employees, Mashable reports. Adoption benefits also were increased.
Intel is only the latest organization to boost benefits. LinkedIn’s U.S. employees will be able to take as much time off as they want every year under a policy starting Nov. 1, joining companies such as Pocket, Prezi, Evernote and Netflix.
“Benefits have long been a way for companies to differentiate themselves,” says Shel Holtz of Holtz Communications + Technology. “Benefits have sometimes been referred to as your ‘hidden paycheck.’”
Publicizing a progressive benefits package is a smart way to get more female hires in a typically male-dominated tech organization, he adds. Day care is another route companies have taken.
Varying by employee
Benefits such as fertility treatment can matter, but it depends on the employee, says Sean Williams, founder and CEO of Communication Ammo. An unmarried or newlywed hire who doesn’t intend to have children in the near future may not care much about fertility treatment, but a parent of youngsters is going to take a long look at health care benefits.
“By and large benefits matter, but I think it depends to a large degree on the individual circumstances,” Williams says.
Both he and Holtz, however, expressed skepticism about unlimited vacation, particularly since the concept didn’t work at the fundraising platform Kickstarter.
“Kickstarter offered it, and nobody took vacation,” Holtz says. “So, they set a limit on vacation—25 days—and suddenly people started taking their vacation. The problem was that employees didn’t know what kind of time away from the office was acceptable.”
In a story on Kickstarter, FastCompany notes an unspoken rule at many organizations. In exchange for the vacation time, workers are expected to spend long hours in the office for the weeks preceding and following the vacation.
Companies are finding other creative ways to recruit and retain employees by respecting their off-time. Williams cites United Shore Financial Services, a wholesale mortgage lender based in Troy, Michigan, which limits people to a 40-hour workweek. (The company was highlighted in a recent Wall Street Journal article, “Radical Idea at the Office: A 40-Hour Workweek.”)
United Shore’s 1,350 employees aren’t expected to field emails in bed late at night next to a snoring spouse.
Instead, the financial firm demands that its staffers devote their full attention to work when they are on the job. Chief Executive Mat Ishbia preaches, “I want all 40 hours, and then go be with your family,’” says Chief Marketing Officer Barbara Yolles.
The company is seeing higher productivity, and the practice has paid off in reputation and recruitment, she says. United Shore has been hiring 75 to 100 people a month, and the schedule is a selling point.
“We find you don’t have to work 60 or 70 hours to give us 40,” she adds. “Give us all 40, but give us full effort.’ We don’t give them access to Facebook. People don’t shop. They come in. They’re very focused. … And then they get out of here.”
This means companies can make lifestyle—rather than just salary and medical benefits—one of the selling points, Williams says.
“Benefits will matter,” he says, “but this is an age [when] there’s a lot of movement on this.”
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