Employee benefit at Google : Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products,[2] and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program.[3][4] The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, often dubbed the "Google Guys",[5][6][7] while the two were attending Stanford University as PhD candidates. It was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998, and its initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. At that time Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt agreed to work together at Google for twenty years, until the year 2024.[8] The company's mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful",[9] and the company's unofficial slogan – coined by Google engineer Amit Patel [10]and supported by Paul Buchheit – is "Don't be evil".[11][12] In 2006, the company moved to its current headquarters in Mountain View, California.
It has been estimated that Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world,[13] and processes over one billion search requests[14] and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data every day.[15][16][17][18] Google's rapid growth since its incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond the company's core web search engine. The company offers online productivity software, such as its Gmail email service, and social networking tools, including Orkut and, more recently, Google Buzz and Google+. Google's products extend to the desktop as well, with applications such as the web browser Google Chrome, the Picasa photo organization and editing software, and the Google Talk instant messaging application. Notably, Google leads the development of the Android mobile operating system, used on a number of phones such as the Nexus One and Motorola Droid, as well as Google Chrome OS, which is brand new (was just released on June 15, 2011)[19] but is best known as the main operating system on the Cr-48 and also on commercial Chromebooks since June 15, among them the Samsung Series 5.[20] Alexa lists the main U.S.-focused google.com site as the Internet's most visited website, and numerous international Google sites (google.co.in, google.co.uk etc.) are in the top hundred, as are several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube, Blogger, and Orkut.[21] Google also ranks number one in the BrandZ brand equity database.[22] The dominant market position of Google's services has led to criticism of the company over issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship.
Google Employee Perks
Many tech industry companies in Silicon Valley offer a range of perks and benefits to attract and keep employees. Several offer on-site benefits, which have the added bonus of keeping the employee workforce in the office more often. Give employees enough reasons to stick around and you'll likely see productivity go up. Why head home when everything you need is at work?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A Google employee gets a free haircut on site.
With that in mind, here's a short list of the perks Google employees get when they sign on at the Googleplex:
If an employee's bangs are getting in the way during a furious coding session, he or she can schedule an on-site haircut free of charge.
To work off all those calories, employees can head over to a gym filled with equipment. For the aquatically-inclined, Google also provides swim-in-place swimming pools. These pools are narrow and not very long. Electric water pumps provide a strong current that flows in one direction. Employees swim against the current, staying in place within these small pools. Lifeguards are on duty to keep employees safe.
Employees can play against each other in a quick game of ping pong, billiards or foosball -- you can find game tables in several of the buildings on campus. There are also video games for employees who prefer to let their thumbs do all the work.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Google employees can take a break and play a quick game of pool or foosball.
If an employee spills some of that fancy juice on his or her clothes, all is not lost. Google has laundry facilities available to employees on site. The company even offers dry cleaning services. It's not unusual for Google employees to bring clothes in over the weekend to do laundry at the Googleplex.
Google's healthcare plan includes on-site medical staff. If an employee suffers an injury or feels ill while at work, he or she can make an appointment with a doctor at the Googleplex.
Even with all the benefits and perks at the Googleplex, work can become stressful. Fortunately for Google employees, they can take advantage of a subsidized massage program. For a small fee, the employee can receive a massage from a licensed therapist in a private room. In fact, Google's massage rooms and bathrooms are some of the only areas in the Googleplex that have opaque walls.
Another famous benefit of working at Google is the 20 percent time program. Google allows its employees to use up to 20 percent of their work week at Google to pursue special projects. That means for every standard work week, employees can take a full day to work on a project unrelated to their normal workload. Google claims that many of their products in Google Labs started out as pet projects in the 20 percent time program.
During a telephone interview, Gopi Kallayil, senior product marketing manager for Google, lists which of the company's much-publicized employee benefits he takes advantage of.
"Let me pull this up because there are so many," he says. When his computer produces a list a moment later, Kallayil makes his way down the screen and continues: "The free gourmet food, because that's a daily necessity. Breakfast, lunch and dinner I eat at Google. The next one is the fitness center, the 24-hour gym with weights. And there are yoga classes."
There is a pause before he adds that he also enjoys the speaker series, the in-house doctor, the nutritionist, the dry cleaners and the massage service. He has not used the personal trainer, the swimming pool and the spa -- at least not yet, anyway. Nor has he commuted to and from the office on the high-tech, wi-fi equipped, bio-diesel shuttle bus that Google provides for employees, but that is only because he lives nearby and can drive without worrying about a long commute.
Is Google's generosity purely altruistic? Of course not, which is not to say that any nefarious motives are at work, either. To be sure, Google is a funky company that calls its offices a "campus" and has created a "collegiate" atmosphere where employees dress casually and can have fun. But make no mistake: All these perks -- some quirky, some traditional -- show that Google means business, according to management experts from Wharton and elsewhere. The company wants to achieve several goals: Attract the best knowledge-workers it can in the intensely competitive environment for high achievers; help them work long hours by feeding them gourmet meals on-site and handling other time-consuming personal chores; show that they are valued; and have them remain Googlers, as employees are known, for many years.
There may be a potential downside to all this largesse: Some employees may come to feel uncomfortable at the company if they see the perks as an impingement by their work lives on their personal lives, according to one Wharton researcher. For the most part, however, what Google and other firms are doing makes eminent sense for both the companies and the people they employ.
Peter Cappelli, management professor and director of the Center for Human Resources at Wharton, says simply: "These benefits help companies recruit people who are willing to spend most all of their time at work."
Steven E. Gross, global leader of the broad-based rewards consulting business at Mercer Human Resource Consulting, says that Google, with its vast array of benefits, is trying to differentiate itself from other companies that want to hire people with the same talents. These companies, too, have been expanding their employee benefits in recent years. "It's all about the employment brand," Gross says.
"There's a great demand for technical-professional types -- the folks Google is going after," Gross adds. "What you see happening with knowledge-workers is the creation of a different type of employment experience. Google and others are saying, 'Come to work for us, work very hard, and we'll try to help you with your daily activities.' Transportation is one. And having services available on campus is another. There's also an integration of work and non-work activities. Family life and work are blurring for many professionals."
Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard agrees. She says companies want to create both an appealing environment to attract and retain employees and make people feel they belong, but they also want to increase productivity. Worries like childcare, cooking, going to the dry cleaners and visiting the doctor off-site during the week, says Rothbard, "distract employees at the workplace."
Google -- which has close to 10,700 full-time employees, although not all are based in its Mountain View, Calif.-headquarters -- is the best place to work in America, according to a recent issue of Fortune magazine. A big reason for that No. 1 status is the broad array of amenities it offers employees. It has a reputation for doing the unusual. In the prospectus accompanying its initial public offering of stock in 2004, the company declared that its philosophy was: "Don't Be Evil." One section of its IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission was headed "Making the World a Better Place."
But while Google has gotten a lot of media attention for its employee benefits, it is far from alone in treating workers well. A quick Internet search turns up evidence that any number of companies -- Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Netscape and Yahoo!, to name a few -- were offering benefits like auto detailing, oil changes, lactation rooms for nursing mothers and concierge-like amenities like laundry and dry cleaning services, in the 1990s.
"Treated Like Paper Clips"
David Sirota, co-author of The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want, says far too many companies do not value employees -- and pay a price for treating them that way. "The key question in organizations is not the typical one -- how do you motivate people or engage people?" he explains. "It's how do you keep management from destroying motivation?"
Surveys of employees conducted by Sirota Survey Intelligence, the Purchase, N.Y., firm that Sirota founded in 1972, have determined that when people enter an organization, their morale is high. But, in as little as six months, the level of morale can drop precipitously if employees feel unvalued and, in Sirota's words, are "treated like paper clips."
Sirota says morale will decline if management views employees as costs rather than assets, if they are treated disrespectfully and if they are poorly compensated in salary and benefits. "Google and other organizations like it are just the opposite of these things," Sirota says. "Perks, of course, are an important part of it.... Our research indicates that the more companies do this kind of thing, the higher the morale and the higher the performance [of employees]. This is really enlightened self-interest."
If a person works for a company that does not offer the kinds of extraordinary perks that Google and like-minded firms provide, what, if anything, does that tell the employee about his or her employer? "On the one hand, it signals that the employer isn't paying as much attention to the employee's needs," according to Cappelli. "On the other, it may signal that they don't expect to be as involved in your life outside of work. Maybe they are more willing to see a boundary between your work and your life."
Gross, the Mercer HR expert, says the broad array of benefits offered by Google and other firms may exert pressure on less-generous organizations to increase their benefits. But whether employees at companies that have fewer perks actually feel less appreciated by their own management will depend on circumstances.
What Google and other firms are doing "raises the ante for everybody," notes Gross. "But it means employees have to look at the whole value proposition where they work: 'Look at what I'm given, and what is the value to me?' Some people would argue that working at Google is more exciting, but [Google employees] are working incredible hours. And at the end of the day, you have to ask, 'Is that a good deal? What are they offering, and how does it compare to what I'm getting?' Having childcare services doesn't have value for you if you don't have a child. The value proposition is very personal. What motivates me is different from what motivates you. We each take our own mosaic of those variables, and how we value them determines our value proposition."
Gross also points out that perks alone, no matter how beloved, are insufficient in themselves to retain employees over time. "Employees are not going to stay if they're not paid reasonably," he says. "Perks are only part of the package. You can attract people but this isn't enough to retain them."
Google’s founders often state that the company is not serious about anything but search. They built a company around the idea that work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun.
To that end, Google’s culture is unlike any in corporate America, and it’s not because of the whimsical lava lamps and large rubber balls, or the fact that one of the company’s chefs used to cook for the Grateful Dead. In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to online services, Google puts employees first when it comes to daily life in its offices.
“The goal is to strip away everything that gets in our employees’ way. We provide a standard package of fringe benefits, but on top of that are first-class dining facilities, gyms, laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, carwashes, dry cleaning, commuting buses – just about anything a hardworking employee might want. Let’s face it: programmers want to program, they don’t want to do their laundry. So we make it easy for them to do both.” Eric Schmidt, CEO Google
Benefits Philosophy: We strive to be innovative and unique in all services we provide both to customers and employees, including our benefits and perks offerings. We realize and celebrate that our employees have diverse needs, and that this diversity requires flexible and individually directed support. Our priority is to offer a customizable program that can be tailored to the specific needs of each individual, whether they enjoy ice climbing in Alaska, want to retire by age 40, or plan to adopt 3 children (Google Jobs).
When you take a close look at these employee benefits Google provides, you will see a common thread that indicates how much Google sees their employees as a close-knit family. The thought, consideration and assistance they offer, with their employees' needs being the focus, is the glue that keeps their workers happy, healthy and financially taken care of.
10 Simple and Effective and Effective Employee Benefits You Can Learn from Google:
Here are some of the benefits, other than the standard good health care and retirement plans, that people who work at Google love. Maybe you can incorporate some of these ideas into your Employee Benefits Package:
1. 529 College Savings Plan. Now, this is an incredible benefit that provides a way for employees to save part of their paychecks for post-secondary education for themselves or their children.
This plan is another offering besides Google's Flex Spending Account and their matching 401(k) Plan options.
2. Maternity Leave. Google offers up to 18 weeks off at about 100% of an employee's regular pay. That's especially generous because many large corporations only give up to four weeks' paid.
Check this out: on top of the fantastic paid leave, new moms and dads are able to have take-out meals covered up to $500 during the first 3 months they are home with the new baby.
3. Parental Leave. This is a special benefit for non-primary caregivers. For example, if your sister wound up in the hospital and needed you to fly out to care for your nieces and nephews, you get up to 7 weeks off, paid at approximately 100%.
4. Employee Referral Program. Google's motto is, "Good people know other good people," and encourages recommendations of candidates for openings. If they hire your referral and remains employed at Google for at least two months, the referrer (you) gets a nice bonus.
5. Back-Up Child Care. If your babysitter doesn't show or your daycare suddenly closed its doors one morning, Google will provide five days of free childcare through Children's Creative Learning Center (CCLC), for ages 6 weeks to 12 years of age.
6. Gift-Matching Program. Let it never be said that Google doesn't contribute to charity and go the extra mile to encourage their employees to get more mileage out of their charitable dollars.
Google matches contribution of up to $3000 per year from eligible employees to non-profit organizations, says the Google site. "Bolstering employees contributions to worthy causes with matching gifts doesn't just mean helping hundreds of organizations, both locally and globally, it's also a tangible expression."
7. Adoption assistance. Google assists their employees by offering financial help in the adoption of a child.
Google will reimburse the adoptive parents up to $5,000 for legal expenses, adoption agencies, or any other professional adoption fees. On top of this, parental leave and take-out benefits also apply here.
8. Financial Planning Classes. Google provides their employees with objective and conflict-free financial education courses that are comprehensive and cover a wide variety of financial topics---free.
In addition to these courses, Google offers EAP, an Employee Assistance Program that provides services for employees and their dependents that include free short-term counseling, legal consultations, child care referrals, and even pet care referrals.
9. Great On-Site Services. Google headquarters in Mountain View, California provides their employees with an on-site oil change, car wash, massage therapy, dry cleaning, hair stylist, gym, fitness classes and bicycle repair.
In addition to these services, gourmet chefs create a wide variety of healthy and delicious---and free---lunches and dinners for Google's employees. Google also offers satisfying snacks in between meals.
10. On-Site Doctor. Also at Google's Mountain View headquarters, employees have the convenience of seeing a doctor for medical attention right on-site.
This perk could save having an employee leave the workplace in order to be seen by a medical professional.
Important Points to Remember when Adding Employee Benefits to your Business:
Make sure your benefits and rewards match the accomplishments. In other words, a reward does not need to cost a lot of money; what matters is that the benefits is of value to the employee.
Center your company benefits around your employees' needs.
Be fair with reward systems. Make sure that whatever benefit or reward system you set up can never be construed into “playing favorites.”
Don’t let your mood(s) dictate when to offer benefits or rewards to employees for jobs well-done. Employees can detect when an employer is sincere when showing appreciation.
Never use benefits or rewards as leverage to get what you want. Don’t put a reward in place for everyone and then use it against everyone---for lack of performance by one or two people---by taking it away. Again, be fair to all.
Learn to incorporate and give rewards to the right employees for the right reasons.
Resources for Effective Employee Benefits:
Employee Benefits by The Business Review
The Role of Great Employee Benefits
Childcare Issues and Your Workplace
It has been estimated that Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world,[13] and processes over one billion search requests[14] and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data every day.[15][16][17][18] Google's rapid growth since its incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond the company's core web search engine. The company offers online productivity software, such as its Gmail email service, and social networking tools, including Orkut and, more recently, Google Buzz and Google+. Google's products extend to the desktop as well, with applications such as the web browser Google Chrome, the Picasa photo organization and editing software, and the Google Talk instant messaging application. Notably, Google leads the development of the Android mobile operating system, used on a number of phones such as the Nexus One and Motorola Droid, as well as Google Chrome OS, which is brand new (was just released on June 15, 2011)[19] but is best known as the main operating system on the Cr-48 and also on commercial Chromebooks since June 15, among them the Samsung Series 5.[20] Alexa lists the main U.S.-focused google.com site as the Internet's most visited website, and numerous international Google sites (google.co.in, google.co.uk etc.) are in the top hundred, as are several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube, Blogger, and Orkut.[21] Google also ranks number one in the BrandZ brand equity database.[22] The dominant market position of Google's services has led to criticism of the company over issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship.
Google Employee Perks
Many tech industry companies in Silicon Valley offer a range of perks and benefits to attract and keep employees. Several offer on-site benefits, which have the added bonus of keeping the employee workforce in the office more often. Give employees enough reasons to stick around and you'll likely see productivity go up. Why head home when everything you need is at work?
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A Google employee gets a free haircut on site.
With that in mind, here's a short list of the perks Google employees get when they sign on at the Googleplex:
If an employee's bangs are getting in the way during a furious coding session, he or she can schedule an on-site haircut free of charge.
To work off all those calories, employees can head over to a gym filled with equipment. For the aquatically-inclined, Google also provides swim-in-place swimming pools. These pools are narrow and not very long. Electric water pumps provide a strong current that flows in one direction. Employees swim against the current, staying in place within these small pools. Lifeguards are on duty to keep employees safe.
Employees can play against each other in a quick game of ping pong, billiards or foosball -- you can find game tables in several of the buildings on campus. There are also video games for employees who prefer to let their thumbs do all the work.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Google employees can take a break and play a quick game of pool or foosball.
If an employee spills some of that fancy juice on his or her clothes, all is not lost. Google has laundry facilities available to employees on site. The company even offers dry cleaning services. It's not unusual for Google employees to bring clothes in over the weekend to do laundry at the Googleplex.
Google's healthcare plan includes on-site medical staff. If an employee suffers an injury or feels ill while at work, he or she can make an appointment with a doctor at the Googleplex.
Even with all the benefits and perks at the Googleplex, work can become stressful. Fortunately for Google employees, they can take advantage of a subsidized massage program. For a small fee, the employee can receive a massage from a licensed therapist in a private room. In fact, Google's massage rooms and bathrooms are some of the only areas in the Googleplex that have opaque walls.
Another famous benefit of working at Google is the 20 percent time program. Google allows its employees to use up to 20 percent of their work week at Google to pursue special projects. That means for every standard work week, employees can take a full day to work on a project unrelated to their normal workload. Google claims that many of their products in Google Labs started out as pet projects in the 20 percent time program.
During a telephone interview, Gopi Kallayil, senior product marketing manager for Google, lists which of the company's much-publicized employee benefits he takes advantage of.
"Let me pull this up because there are so many," he says. When his computer produces a list a moment later, Kallayil makes his way down the screen and continues: "The free gourmet food, because that's a daily necessity. Breakfast, lunch and dinner I eat at Google. The next one is the fitness center, the 24-hour gym with weights. And there are yoga classes."
There is a pause before he adds that he also enjoys the speaker series, the in-house doctor, the nutritionist, the dry cleaners and the massage service. He has not used the personal trainer, the swimming pool and the spa -- at least not yet, anyway. Nor has he commuted to and from the office on the high-tech, wi-fi equipped, bio-diesel shuttle bus that Google provides for employees, but that is only because he lives nearby and can drive without worrying about a long commute.
Is Google's generosity purely altruistic? Of course not, which is not to say that any nefarious motives are at work, either. To be sure, Google is a funky company that calls its offices a "campus" and has created a "collegiate" atmosphere where employees dress casually and can have fun. But make no mistake: All these perks -- some quirky, some traditional -- show that Google means business, according to management experts from Wharton and elsewhere. The company wants to achieve several goals: Attract the best knowledge-workers it can in the intensely competitive environment for high achievers; help them work long hours by feeding them gourmet meals on-site and handling other time-consuming personal chores; show that they are valued; and have them remain Googlers, as employees are known, for many years.
There may be a potential downside to all this largesse: Some employees may come to feel uncomfortable at the company if they see the perks as an impingement by their work lives on their personal lives, according to one Wharton researcher. For the most part, however, what Google and other firms are doing makes eminent sense for both the companies and the people they employ.
Peter Cappelli, management professor and director of the Center for Human Resources at Wharton, says simply: "These benefits help companies recruit people who are willing to spend most all of their time at work."
Steven E. Gross, global leader of the broad-based rewards consulting business at Mercer Human Resource Consulting, says that Google, with its vast array of benefits, is trying to differentiate itself from other companies that want to hire people with the same talents. These companies, too, have been expanding their employee benefits in recent years. "It's all about the employment brand," Gross says.
"There's a great demand for technical-professional types -- the folks Google is going after," Gross adds. "What you see happening with knowledge-workers is the creation of a different type of employment experience. Google and others are saying, 'Come to work for us, work very hard, and we'll try to help you with your daily activities.' Transportation is one. And having services available on campus is another. There's also an integration of work and non-work activities. Family life and work are blurring for many professionals."
Wharton management professor Nancy Rothbard agrees. She says companies want to create both an appealing environment to attract and retain employees and make people feel they belong, but they also want to increase productivity. Worries like childcare, cooking, going to the dry cleaners and visiting the doctor off-site during the week, says Rothbard, "distract employees at the workplace."
Google -- which has close to 10,700 full-time employees, although not all are based in its Mountain View, Calif.-headquarters -- is the best place to work in America, according to a recent issue of Fortune magazine. A big reason for that No. 1 status is the broad array of amenities it offers employees. It has a reputation for doing the unusual. In the prospectus accompanying its initial public offering of stock in 2004, the company declared that its philosophy was: "Don't Be Evil." One section of its IPO filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission was headed "Making the World a Better Place."
But while Google has gotten a lot of media attention for its employee benefits, it is far from alone in treating workers well. A quick Internet search turns up evidence that any number of companies -- Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Netscape and Yahoo!, to name a few -- were offering benefits like auto detailing, oil changes, lactation rooms for nursing mothers and concierge-like amenities like laundry and dry cleaning services, in the 1990s.
"Treated Like Paper Clips"
David Sirota, co-author of The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want, says far too many companies do not value employees -- and pay a price for treating them that way. "The key question in organizations is not the typical one -- how do you motivate people or engage people?" he explains. "It's how do you keep management from destroying motivation?"
Surveys of employees conducted by Sirota Survey Intelligence, the Purchase, N.Y., firm that Sirota founded in 1972, have determined that when people enter an organization, their morale is high. But, in as little as six months, the level of morale can drop precipitously if employees feel unvalued and, in Sirota's words, are "treated like paper clips."
Sirota says morale will decline if management views employees as costs rather than assets, if they are treated disrespectfully and if they are poorly compensated in salary and benefits. "Google and other organizations like it are just the opposite of these things," Sirota says. "Perks, of course, are an important part of it.... Our research indicates that the more companies do this kind of thing, the higher the morale and the higher the performance [of employees]. This is really enlightened self-interest."
If a person works for a company that does not offer the kinds of extraordinary perks that Google and like-minded firms provide, what, if anything, does that tell the employee about his or her employer? "On the one hand, it signals that the employer isn't paying as much attention to the employee's needs," according to Cappelli. "On the other, it may signal that they don't expect to be as involved in your life outside of work. Maybe they are more willing to see a boundary between your work and your life."
Gross, the Mercer HR expert, says the broad array of benefits offered by Google and other firms may exert pressure on less-generous organizations to increase their benefits. But whether employees at companies that have fewer perks actually feel less appreciated by their own management will depend on circumstances.
What Google and other firms are doing "raises the ante for everybody," notes Gross. "But it means employees have to look at the whole value proposition where they work: 'Look at what I'm given, and what is the value to me?' Some people would argue that working at Google is more exciting, but [Google employees] are working incredible hours. And at the end of the day, you have to ask, 'Is that a good deal? What are they offering, and how does it compare to what I'm getting?' Having childcare services doesn't have value for you if you don't have a child. The value proposition is very personal. What motivates me is different from what motivates you. We each take our own mosaic of those variables, and how we value them determines our value proposition."
Gross also points out that perks alone, no matter how beloved, are insufficient in themselves to retain employees over time. "Employees are not going to stay if they're not paid reasonably," he says. "Perks are only part of the package. You can attract people but this isn't enough to retain them."
Google’s founders often state that the company is not serious about anything but search. They built a company around the idea that work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun.
To that end, Google’s culture is unlike any in corporate America, and it’s not because of the whimsical lava lamps and large rubber balls, or the fact that one of the company’s chefs used to cook for the Grateful Dead. In the same way Google puts users first when it comes to online services, Google puts employees first when it comes to daily life in its offices.
“The goal is to strip away everything that gets in our employees’ way. We provide a standard package of fringe benefits, but on top of that are first-class dining facilities, gyms, laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, carwashes, dry cleaning, commuting buses – just about anything a hardworking employee might want. Let’s face it: programmers want to program, they don’t want to do their laundry. So we make it easy for them to do both.” Eric Schmidt, CEO Google
Benefits Philosophy: We strive to be innovative and unique in all services we provide both to customers and employees, including our benefits and perks offerings. We realize and celebrate that our employees have diverse needs, and that this diversity requires flexible and individually directed support. Our priority is to offer a customizable program that can be tailored to the specific needs of each individual, whether they enjoy ice climbing in Alaska, want to retire by age 40, or plan to adopt 3 children (Google Jobs).
When you take a close look at these employee benefits Google provides, you will see a common thread that indicates how much Google sees their employees as a close-knit family. The thought, consideration and assistance they offer, with their employees' needs being the focus, is the glue that keeps their workers happy, healthy and financially taken care of.
10 Simple and Effective and Effective Employee Benefits You Can Learn from Google:
Here are some of the benefits, other than the standard good health care and retirement plans, that people who work at Google love. Maybe you can incorporate some of these ideas into your Employee Benefits Package:
1. 529 College Savings Plan. Now, this is an incredible benefit that provides a way for employees to save part of their paychecks for post-secondary education for themselves or their children.
This plan is another offering besides Google's Flex Spending Account and their matching 401(k) Plan options.
2. Maternity Leave. Google offers up to 18 weeks off at about 100% of an employee's regular pay. That's especially generous because many large corporations only give up to four weeks' paid.
Check this out: on top of the fantastic paid leave, new moms and dads are able to have take-out meals covered up to $500 during the first 3 months they are home with the new baby.
3. Parental Leave. This is a special benefit for non-primary caregivers. For example, if your sister wound up in the hospital and needed you to fly out to care for your nieces and nephews, you get up to 7 weeks off, paid at approximately 100%.
4. Employee Referral Program. Google's motto is, "Good people know other good people," and encourages recommendations of candidates for openings. If they hire your referral and remains employed at Google for at least two months, the referrer (you) gets a nice bonus.
5. Back-Up Child Care. If your babysitter doesn't show or your daycare suddenly closed its doors one morning, Google will provide five days of free childcare through Children's Creative Learning Center (CCLC), for ages 6 weeks to 12 years of age.
6. Gift-Matching Program. Let it never be said that Google doesn't contribute to charity and go the extra mile to encourage their employees to get more mileage out of their charitable dollars.
Google matches contribution of up to $3000 per year from eligible employees to non-profit organizations, says the Google site. "Bolstering employees contributions to worthy causes with matching gifts doesn't just mean helping hundreds of organizations, both locally and globally, it's also a tangible expression."
7. Adoption assistance. Google assists their employees by offering financial help in the adoption of a child.
Google will reimburse the adoptive parents up to $5,000 for legal expenses, adoption agencies, or any other professional adoption fees. On top of this, parental leave and take-out benefits also apply here.
8. Financial Planning Classes. Google provides their employees with objective and conflict-free financial education courses that are comprehensive and cover a wide variety of financial topics---free.
In addition to these courses, Google offers EAP, an Employee Assistance Program that provides services for employees and their dependents that include free short-term counseling, legal consultations, child care referrals, and even pet care referrals.
9. Great On-Site Services. Google headquarters in Mountain View, California provides their employees with an on-site oil change, car wash, massage therapy, dry cleaning, hair stylist, gym, fitness classes and bicycle repair.
In addition to these services, gourmet chefs create a wide variety of healthy and delicious---and free---lunches and dinners for Google's employees. Google also offers satisfying snacks in between meals.
10. On-Site Doctor. Also at Google's Mountain View headquarters, employees have the convenience of seeing a doctor for medical attention right on-site.
This perk could save having an employee leave the workplace in order to be seen by a medical professional.
Important Points to Remember when Adding Employee Benefits to your Business:
Make sure your benefits and rewards match the accomplishments. In other words, a reward does not need to cost a lot of money; what matters is that the benefits is of value to the employee.
Center your company benefits around your employees' needs.
Be fair with reward systems. Make sure that whatever benefit or reward system you set up can never be construed into “playing favorites.”
Don’t let your mood(s) dictate when to offer benefits or rewards to employees for jobs well-done. Employees can detect when an employer is sincere when showing appreciation.
Never use benefits or rewards as leverage to get what you want. Don’t put a reward in place for everyone and then use it against everyone---for lack of performance by one or two people---by taking it away. Again, be fair to all.
Learn to incorporate and give rewards to the right employees for the right reasons.
Resources for Effective Employee Benefits:
Employee Benefits by The Business Review
The Role of Great Employee Benefits
Childcare Issues and Your Workplace
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