Image courtesy of John Kraus’ photostream
As 2014 concludes and we prepare for another great year ahead, regardless of if you’re an employee or an employer, workplace amenities are as hot a topic as any. Not only do folks want to be employed but they want to have certain luxuries while at work. After all, we spend nearly half of each workday traveling to or being at our place of employment.
Here are five essential workplace amenities that will be keep employees happy and help employers retain talent.
- Flex Hours: Providing employees with the luxury of working certain days or hours from home is a huge perk that is almost a standard these days. And for good reason. Most everyone has a work laptop or home computer that can handle their workload, not to mention smartphones that can do more than desk phones. Allowing employees to work from home will give them the freedom from the dreaded morning commute and allow them to live life to the fullest after working hours without waiting in traffic on the way home or to meet friends.
- Onsite Gym: Onsite gyms are great, and can allow employees to relieve stress during their hectic workday. Whether it be a full blown gym with treadmills, ellipticals and free weights or just a universal gym, employees will get their workout in during their workday so they don’t have to spend extra time at the gym after work. If employers want to take it one step further start offering classes such as Group Power, Yoga or even Cross-Fit.
- Cafeteria (without cafeteria grade food): Most businesses that have a large enough employee base have cafeterias onsite. And that’s great. So long as the food isn’t your below average cafeteria food such as frozen pizza, dry chicken or old French fries. These days’ employees want to the convenience of a cafeteria but need it to taste good and be health conscious. Having onsite food alone won’t cut the mustard (pun intended)
- Smartphones: You’d be hard pressed to name 10 friends who don’t own a smartphone. In today’s day and age it seems almost impossible to own a mobile phone that isn’t connect to the internet in some way, shape or form. And what comes with that is work email. Most of us have it on our personal devices and check or reply to email continuously. It is not only courteous but expected that employers pay for employees mobile phones regardless of job level.
- Nursery: So much of today’s workforce is comprised of generation X, Y and Z. And what can come with this generation is babies. Only removed from college for a handful of years up to a decade it’s feasible that these folks have children or are planning to in the not-so-distant future. Having onsite childcare is a huge bonus for employees. It saves time and is incredibly convenient for the parents. And when it’s included as an employee… major bonus points!
- BONUS: Having the above mentioned amenities would be fantastic for any employer to offer their employee but Bonus offerings can be what separate one employer from another. Perks can go much farther than a bonus, additional compensation or job title.
- Tickets: And not the kind you have to pay for! Knowing that your employer raffles off tickets to your favorite local sports team or to your regional amusement park, and that every employee has a chance to win is a fun way to get employee engagement.
- Services: Having an onsite barber or hair-stylist is serious next-level stuff. Imagine saving hours per visit to get your hair cut or styled. Or if an onsite dry-cleaner or car detailer was available at your beckon call. All at work. Convenience, convenience, convenience.
- Environment: As mentioned in my first point, we as a society spend a lot of our day at or commuting to work. Having an aesthetically pleasing work space with an interactive work environment can make it much more fun to be at work.