5 Unique Employee Benefits

When you think about employee benefits, what comes to mind? For many of us it’s affordable health insurance, vacation days and paid time off, (PTO) a good retirement plan, and possibly a pet friendly office.

But some companies, in an effort to attract top tech talent, are moving beyond the basic benefits. They’re coming up with packages that include perks for employees with college loan debt, housing issues, and those who are thinking of starting a family. In other words, they’re thinking about real world issues and hoping that offering benefits to help make them a little easier will sway a potential candidate their way.

And it seems to be working. Recent studies show almost 80% of employees say they’d prefer new benefits over a pay raise.

If you have the good fortune of choosing between two job offers, make sure you look at the company benefits, not just the salary being offered, before making your final decision. Here are some examples of the new and unique perks being offered.

1. Paid Parental Leave 

Companies big and small are stepping up their efforts to help support new parents. Microsoft offers 12 weeks paid parental leave to its full-time employees and just announced it will start requiring business partners and suppliers to offer paid family leave. In a blog post, Microsoft says “The case for paid parental leave is clear. Studies show that paid parental leave enriches the lives of families.  Women who take paid maternity leave are more likely to be in the workforce a year later and earn more than mothers who do not receive paid time off. Employers who offer paid time off for new mothers experience improved productivity, higher morale and lower turnover rates.”

Other companies agree. Spotify, the streaming music company, offers six months of paid parental leave, and one month of flexible work options to ease the transition when parents return to work. American Express supports new parents in a big way. It gives new parents up to five months paid leave, and birth mothers can get six to eight weeks additional paid medical leave. Plus, it offers benefits for breastfeeding moms, which brings us to the next unique benefit.

2. Shipping Breast Milk 

Nursing moms at American Express who travel for work can ship their breast milk home at the company’s expense. In the office, they have access to a lactation consultant, since anyone who’s done it will tell you pumping breast milk in an office can often be a stressful experience.

It’s not just large corporations offering this new assistance. Social media platform Twitter also offers free breastmilk delivery for nursing mothers on business trips. Twitter VP of diversity and inclusion, Janet Van Huysse, told Business Insider it’s all part of an effort to ease the transition back to work.

"It really hits at a time when women are thinking about the tradeoffs they're making with their career and family, and so anything that our industry or other industries can do to make women stay in the workforce and support the choices they're making I think is a good thing."

3. Financial Assistance 

The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) the nation's largest tech trade association, was recently selected as one of Washington D.C.’s Top Workplaces for the fifth year in a row. 

With nearly 200 employees they’re not a huge corporation, but they seem to be doing something right. In addition to telework options one day a week, free exercise classes and telemedicine services, they offer financial assistance which sometimes is better than a salary bump. Looking to finally buy a place of your own? The CTA offers $25,000 mortgage assistance towards the down payment of a primary residence within 5 miles of the office. Still paying off student loans? CTA offers student loan assistance; direct payments to the employee's student loan provider of up to $200 per month. Add in half-day Fridays from May through September and we can see why they keep making the list.

4. Flexibility

Larger companies like Google, which consistently finds itself in the top five of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work for” list, recognize that it’s important to offer many of these lifestyle perks and to keep re-evaluating what employees need. CEO Larry Page told Fortune Magazine,  “It’s important that the company be a family, that people feel that they’re part of the company, and that the company is like a family to them. When you treat people that way, you get better productivity. Rather than really caring what hours you worked, you care about output. We should continue to innovate in our relationship with our employees and figure out the best things we can do for them.”

5. Freezing Eggs

Facebook and Apple were among the first to offer women the option of freezing their eggs. It’s a unique benefit that has caught on with about a dozen tech companies. Some of them also cover spouses of employees as well as fertility treatment assistance. It’s offered as an option to women of child-bearing age who may not want to start a family just yet. The idea is they’d continue their career path and delay the decision to have kids, leaving their options open.

You’ll find this at Google, Yahoo, Netflix, and Spotify, among others. These are two benefits sure to attract top female tech talent in an already male-dominated industry.