

What benefits can you offer that help recruit good talent? - ecommercematt
http://blog.jabbik.com/2008/08/benefits.html

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thehorge
One of the perks that more companies should start providing are incentives to
workout. Providing a gym or subsidizing a gym membership for an employee will
not only benefit the employee's health, but with a healthier employee there is
less of a need for sick days. The employee can concentrate their paid time off
on vacation. When the employee is feeling good about themselves, the quality
of work and their attitude might improve as well.

~~~
gaius
One of the best companies I worked for was just around the corner from a
Holmes Place (upmarket chain of gyms), they got us all memberships and we
could literally hold meetings in the sauna or jacuzzi.

Only place I've ever worked where everyone had seen everyone else naked...

~~~
ojbyrne
I'm guessing that was an all-male company?

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jon_dahl
After you've met a salary/benefit baseline, the most important thing to
recruiting _good_ talent is the work. Often, a good employee will take a fair
salary for really interesting work over a great salary for boring work. I've
talked with people willing to even take a pay cut to get out of a boring job.

IMO an employer should (a) pay employees fairly and (b) treat them well, give
them enjoyable work, etc. And then (c) share the company's profits, if there
are any (or when they come). I think this is more important than having an
impressive slate of benefits.

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ardit33
First, great pay, and a good amount of stock options, interesting work, and
good work enviroment.

After that.

4 weeks of vacation --- minimum.

Good health care

Real dental coverage

Gym subsidy

Comuting help (shuttles, or public transport subsidies)

~~~
time_management
I'd agree with all this, to the letter, and I'd add one, because aside from a
signing bonus, it's relatively cheap:

Moving assistance, both in the financial sense, and in terms of connecting
people with necessary services and utilities. This is especially salient in a
place like New York where life is not as "convenient" as one might expect it
to be.

~~~
ecommercematt
We're based in New York, so this interests me. What sort of extra help do you
think we should give to people relocating here?

~~~
mrtron
Maybe help finding a place? I've heard horror stories, and mainly its due to
ignorance of the market. So perhaps have a friendly real estate agent
available?

~~~
time_management
New York real estate agents are utterly terrible. Once you have them show you
more than 8-10 apartments, they stop returning your calls, because they'd
prefer not having to work for their absurd commissions.

Last time I used one in a move, I ended up spending $2600 for an introduction.
This was to one person, for an hour and a half of work at most.

The movers, of whom there were 4, charged me $320 for three hours of
backbreaking, difficult labor. They did excellent work. They were thrilled
when I added an extra $60.

The comparison just makes me want to vomit.

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elai
Free Lunch? It can be productivity booster too, since your staff don't have to
spend an ~hour walking, hunting for a good restaurant, waiting for food,
eating said food, and walking back when the food is just right there.

This can be more of a personal preference type of thing.

~~~
a-priori
Also, it would encourage employees to eat together and therefore socialize.

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dangoldin
Ability to work from home - telecommute.

Judge work by result and not by time spent.

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briancooley
In priority order for me:

1\. interesting work (not sure if this is considered a perq by most, but it is
for me.)

2\. time off, both via flexible work schedules and generous vacation

3\. located within a short commute of desirable and reasonably affordable
housing. alternatively offering telecommuting

Other benefits like health/life/disability insurance are nice, but they won't
make or break a deal for me any longer.

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DaniFong
As I posted on the blog:

I often cook the troops quality, gourmet food, give them cool trips and the
chance to put up crazy installation art, and throw many person dinner parties
(with outsiders, too).

I also am getting graph paper placemats:

[http://einfall.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/engineers-a-paper-
ta...](http://einfall.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/engineers-a-paper-tablecloth/)

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tptacek
A four day work week.

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vaksel
You also need friendly atmosphere, make people want to come to work, instead
of having it be a chore

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sanj
nearby, quality childcare

~~~
tptacek
This is an excellent idea. Do you know how much decent child care for school
age children costs? ~$20/hr, fully loaded.

~~~
sanj
I'm painfully aware how much it costs.

The bigger question to me, as with charities, is how much goes to the people
that matter. In this case, the ones that care for my kid.

~~~
tptacek
If I had several team members with kids, I'd probably look in to just
contracting someone directly off Craigslist, in which case 100% of the money
goes to the person caring for your kids.

