Airbnb, Patagonia and Adobe are some of the companies offering cool perks to employees. Take a look.
Jyoti Mann,Lakshmi Varanasi
- Big tech companies are offering fewer lavish perks than they once did.
- But there are other businesses that offer workers some pretty great extras too.
Big Tech companies are famous for dishing out lavish perks to their employees, but many have scaled back on these amid the economic downturn.
Meta, for example, cut $1,000 off its health and wellness benefits for its employees this year. It's also stopped offering its workers onsite laundry services, slashed its Lyft subsidy for staff in the Seattle region, and pared back its snack and cereal offerings during the pandemic.
Google has also cut down hours for its onsite cafes and started limiting employee travel to "business critical" trips.
But there are still companies out there offering workers some great perks, both in the US and abroad.
From surf breaks to digital detox cabins, here are some of the best perks on offer right now.
Outdoor clothing company Patagonia helps its employees stay active by offering them fitness and yoga classes, climbing lessons, and even surfing lessons.
Patagonia's founder Yvon Chouinard told NPR back in 2017 that "we have a policy that when the surf comes up drop work and you go surfing."
A spokesperson for Patagonia told Insider in an email tha employees still had "permission to go surfing when the conditions are good with the expectation that work gets done, though!"
Employees also have access to e-bikes and sand volleyball courts at Patagonia's Ventura, California, campus, and river floats at the Reno, Nevada, campus.
Airbnb offers its employees $2,000 yearly travel credit.
An Airbnb spokesperson told Insider that the credit was distributed on a quarterly basis and employees could use it to book stays or experiences on the Airbnb platform.
Ben & Jerry's lets employees take three pints of ice cream home a day.
The company churns out nearly one million pints a day out of its two factories in Vermont, which run 24/7.
Ethena, a compliance platform, lets its employees expense up to $100 a month for in-person bonding events.
Ethena's cofounder and CEO, Roxanne Bras Petraeus, told Insider that the company implemented the program in the past year after realizing that the bonding events it was holding, like virtual happy hours for example, weren't quite working with its largely remote employee base.
"As corny as it sounds its everyone's job to create culture," Petraeus said. "So, if we want that to be true, we then also need to give people the authority and resources to do that."
Since starting the bonding program, Ethena's employees have gathered for indoor rock climbing, manicures and pedicures, Broadway shows, and those in New York City recently took a cheesemaking class together, Petraeus said.
At the law firm Clifford Chance's London office, you can find a swimming pool, shopping centre, dry cleaner, hair salon, gym, squash courts, and dance studio.
Unplugged, a company that offers digital detox stays in cabins, gives employees one annual stay.
Unplugged, a UK-based digital detox cabin company, also boasts a unique corporate wellbeing programme called Unplugged Out of Office.
Employees can book a free-of-charge stay, once a year, for three or four days at one of its 20 cabins.
Citadel offers employees an impressive range of benefits, including on-site perks like breakfast, lunch, snacks, and access to fitness centers and medical facilities.
Last year alone, the firm hosted more than 100 events for employees and are on track to host an even more this year, a spokesperson for Citadel told Insider by email.
Event highlights from the past year include a Disney World extravaganza held in honor of Citadel's 30th anniversary and Citadel Securities' 20th anniversary, Citadel's spokesperson told Insider.
Some 10,000 people attended weekend long celebration, which was fully funded by founder Ken Griffin.
Citadel's spokesperson also noted other events that the company holds for its members of staff, including buyouts for amusements parks like Six Flags Great in Chicago, Ocean Park in Hong Kong; Universal Studios Singapore; and Centennial Homestead in Sydney.
Employees also have previews of museums exhibits — like a private viewing at The National Gallery in London this past spring — private movie screenings, and a host of different speakers.
Citadel's chief people officer, Matt Jahansouz, told Insider by email, "whether it's the world-class events that bring our colleagues, families, and friends together or conversations with thought leaders from a range of intellectual endeavors, we are committed to providing our people with experiences that foster connectivity, reinforce our culture, and generate a sense of community."
Adobe offers employees free access to wellbeing apps like Headspace and LifeDojo for themselves and one additional person.
The company has also partnered with Spring Health to offer an employee assistance program, at no additional cost to employees, a spokesperson for Adobe told Insider by email.
It covers the cost of the first 10 therapy sessions for an employee, their spouse or domestic partner, and their dependents each calendar year, Adobe's spokesperson wrote, adding that the number of free therapy sessions will be extended to 12 per year.
Hiring platform Fountain has had a peer-to-peer reward program for its employees for the past two years.
The company uses the employee recognition and rewards platform, Bonusly, for its peer-to-peer recognition program.
Employees can gift each other gift cards, swag, or donate points to nonprofit organizations, according to Hope Weatherford, Fountain's Senior Director of People.
"We're a remote-first company and at our recent annual in-person gathering, called Fountain Forward, many of our employees actually donated their points from Bonusly en masse to a number of organizations that line up with Fountain's mission–to the tune of $4,000 donated World Wildlife Fund, the ACLU, Juma Ventures, and the Trevor Project in June and July. Our CEO Sean Behr also matched this donation," Weatherford told Insider.
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