"What perks / Benefits do you offer your employees"
A Happy employee is definitely the Master key to success... though all of us agree that no one in this world can keep everyone happy.. we still try .. we still try our best.... In response to one of my previous posts on Of Teams and Trust a colleague of mine wrote me an email .... an edited version of which I put here...
"Can you think of a quicker way of destroying trust in the company and demotivating people to give their best on every day? What do I mean by that? Someday I am in great form and can work for 10 hours straight without getting tyred. Someday I just "don't feel" it. It is hard to concentrate and I am feeling like banging my head against the wall. Everything feels realy hard and you know on another day it would be a easy."
Well it tells a story of what we expect and what teams expect.... however it also reveals a bitter story of what sort of perks / benefits teams need or should have when they work with you... though this has some or other level of impact on the Team Building efforts ... We do some of these.. and some of these that we want to do... Remember one thing... if Employee motivations are only driven by the perks they receive the Team is going to sink quickly... I also believe that perks / benefits should compliment the effort the Team members put on....
So here is some of it that we follow, though on a distributed model we have to follow it differently at different places :
1. We Give a Culture
Every company or organization tries to do this, it is also to a level that larger organizations try to enforce cultures.. these cultures come form the traditional mode and sometimes are just being driven by the values of people who follow it... Imagine a culture of writing / confirming over emails... you must have come across this? often? Very Often???? well you may have also heard that "I am waiting for an email from XXXX" its a culture.... we give a culture that the Team can value on.. the Team can like on...
A culture that is driven by things that we impose not by forcing it on people.. but by following it and letting people see , learn and adapt to it.. I am glad that people who are with us , who were with us and who will be with us in future .. understand that its a culture that keeps the Team together.. rest all is irrelevant.
2. Super Flexibility
There is nothing called as 9 - 5. I could never imagine that your productivity levels are best between 9 - 5. People like Rhushi , Myself can work so well in the nights ;) but the Amits and Davids are very good at the start of the day... some people like to stay late and start late.. some want to start early and end early... some want to start early , break in the middle and end late.... all these individual preferences have to be considered for the Teams... it should be... We offer a level of flexibility to our members where they can think of time only when they have time to think of it..
3. Work from Home
For those who need a break from office for a while.. this comes handy.. part time working from home is a good option.. Though I have reservations that usually work from homes are abused and people tend to use the time to enjoy vacations and not really work. I also have reservation that if people build Teams and Teams build culture... and cultures and Teams cant be built when there is no Team at work place.
Yet this is a handy thing to use sometimes to have a relaxed working day.
4. Freedom of Speech
From my previous experience I know that lot of companies dont give this to their employees... really not.. They are being forced to do things. We give a culture to let the employee voice what they want to say...
5. Snacks
Some cookies..it doesnt do a great deal.. but if you ave some cookies in a jar.. people tend to have some break times. Of course they should come with some real good Coffeee options... We also do team lunches but only when we are not so busy...
What we want to do?
1. Full Flexibility
2. Friday Brunches
3. Gaming time every week. Stress Busting
4. Rolling office space... Imagine if we get to work for a week from the nearby lawn.. and next on a golf course... ??? Imaginative..?????
5. Implement the same across geographies... it will take time but we will be there soon...
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