Anybody Cutting Perks

[Guest edemby]

Does anybody know of any companies that are cutting back on discretionary expenditures such as free coffee, danish at meetings, free parking etc?

[mming]

From my experience, free parking seems to mostly be a thing of the past. Parking can cost an employer $150+/mo. per employee in major downtown areas - eliminating this when you have as few as 25 or 30 employees will save over $50K/yr. That may be enough to hire an additional experienced professional.

There are quite a few companies who have toned down things such as Christmas parties. Where previously they were held in, e.g., first-class hotels, lately more firms are opting for lower-priced rental halls, modest restaurants or just having food catered to the office.

Although most employees take free coffee for granted, having them pay for coffee is lame. The morale problem it could create would far outweigh the few bucks you would save. Besides, you wouldn't want them falling asleep at their desks, would you (seriously - it's an addiction)?

[Guest mdrucker]

Taking away any benefit that is valued by the employee is a negative, but if you take away free parking you can soften the blow to the employee by adding a parking reimbursement program. The employee will use pre-tax dollars to pay the parking expense, so that $150 parking will now be about $100.

You can email me for more info.

Mike