Guest buxbaum2 Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 Good Morning All, I am trying to do some benchmarking regarding creative benefits for one of my clients. I am interested in seeing what kind of Out of the Box Benefits are being offered by companies these days (i.e., free massages at work, gym memberships, smoking cessation benefits, etc..) Any and all suggestions are greatly welcomed. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jrzgrl Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 I guess it depends on what you define as out-of-the-box. I would not call gym membership discounts or smoking cessation programs out of the box as they are included in some major carriers' health insurance plans. I hired a massage therapist to come to our benefits fair and that was a hit, but it wasn't something that was done on a regular basis. We had a bank-at-work program through our main bank that offered free checks and $0 balance requirements and other advantages not offered to the general public. You might want to talk to your bank to see if they offer something similar. We signed up with the National Preferred Employer Program (http://www.npep.com/) that offers employees discounts on leasing and apartment application fees. I also signed up to be on area amusement parks' coupon mailing lists and put them out in payroll stuffers. Oh, and if you have a Boscov's department store in your area, you can contact them for special employee discount coupons throughout the year, usually 15% off. Employees appreciated that. These were all free to the employer - we were non-profit and couldn't afford to sign up for a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Feldt ERPA CPC QPA Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 A previous client maintained a suitcase full of cash in a vault in case any employees or their family were ever kidnapped or held hostage - this client worked all over the globe with many different governments. Of course, this benefit was not widely known to the employees for obvious reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pensions in Paradise Posted October 3, 2006 Share Posted October 3, 2006 Would that be considered a cash-or-confined arrangement? Sorry, stupid joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetM Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Stupid or not it made me laugh. Our company has discount arrangement with the airport parking, theaters, windshield repair company that comes to the parking lot, resaurants................ We even sell stamps and movie ticket once a week. Gym on first floor, massage folks here four days a week. Yoga, spinnning, and weight lifting classes................... JanetM CPA, MBA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saabraa Posted October 4, 2006 Share Posted October 4, 2006 Janet, does your company need a part-time retirement plan specialist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanetM Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 LOL not at the moment JanetM CPA, MBA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wsp Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 LOL not at the moment If you offered those benefits to all employees even part timers you could probably have 300 of the top benefits consultants in the country join your staff. Bring them in each 1 day a year for available consultation with the staff and employees....And all just for access to those bennies! Now how's THAT for outside of the box benefits! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jevd Posted December 5, 2007 Share Posted December 5, 2007 See article about depression counseling in todays Benefits Link. The link wouldn't connect when I put it in the response but works from the main page. JEVD Making the complex understandable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hpdka Posted December 30, 2007 Share Posted December 30, 2007 I recently retired from a municipal police agency as a 911 calltaker after 24 plus years. What always bothered me and we could never get done was the fact that calltakers and dispatchers, who worked the same exact split shift schedules, and worked by the same rules regarding holidays etc, were always lumped with the General Employees Union for their bargaining instead of the Police Union. I mean, they worked officially for the "police dept" which is an entitiy of the city. Anyone else have this problem? So when it comes to bargaining for benefits the police employees could stay unified on any issue but would be outvoted by all other city employees on any issue that was especially not good for everyone or anyone. Big problem. My husband is a p/o and works for a new baby police dept, and they dont have a union so they just bargain with the city counsel on their own for now, until a union is needed if ever. The communications staff again is not included in the police bunch. Why is this such an issue everywhere?? hpdka@bellsouth.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kabert Posted January 1, 2008 Share Posted January 1, 2008 My company has arranged a "best-friends" program with a large national bank under which, as long as the employee has any kind of account there (checking, savings, etc.), the employee is entitled to the best mortgage rate the bank is offering. This rate is decidedly below what the typical off-the-street customer would get, at least without doing some hard bargaining. I was floored when I found out what the rate was that I could get for a no-points jumbo 30-yr fixed through the bank. It's a fantastic employee benefit and any employee at the company who has benefitted from it raves about the experience (both the good rate and the high quality of service received). By the way, part of the best-friends program also allows for no-cost meetings with financial planners, assistance with rollovers, etc. (all of which, naturally, is beneficial to the bank as well as the employee). Oh, and one more I've heard more and more companies doing recently that is popular -- either having on-site day care, or having a best-friends arrangement with a day care center provider that operates several day care centers in the area so that (after the company pays some small fee (@$5,000), the company employees get priority for admission to day care centers and receive a slightly reduced rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ice2waves Posted October 10, 2008 Share Posted October 10, 2008 I just got laid off from them, but my old company, Intel, offered a very unique program called "Live Homework Help". The program provided live access by internet to a tutor for employees and family members. It was apparently highly used, and I guess they got very positive feedback. I tried to find info on it... and this is what I was able to find... http://ebn.benefitnews.com/asset/article/6...mework.html?pg= Hope it helps. Ice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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