Alternative HR Benefits: Housing, Free Preventive Medications, Lead the Way
Looking for an employee benefit that will dazzle potential recruits and silence the siren song of competitors trying to steal your stars?
Forget about bonuses, or a company car, or credit card. The hot ticket in this increasingly competitive job market is the concept of alternative benefits ... perks and pluses you wouldn't normally think of in a benefits plan. Let's look at a few of them:
Housing
Affordable housing is one of the critical issues in today's family budget. And though they've cooled some, skyrocketing home prices and rents have forced many workers to live far from their place of employment, thus facing a punishing commute that saps their energy before they even walk in your door. Others have turned down great jobs because they simply can't afford to live in the employer's area.
But if you can help workers with housing, says SunValleyOnline, employees can "devote more time to work, family, and community ... while employers reduce turnover costs and increase their competitiveness in recruiting."
Several forms of housing assistance have been used. Some companies help with, or even pay, home down payments or closing costs through grants or forgivable or deferred loans. Others offer rent subsidies, sometimes paying the landlord's operating costs direct. Even companies that can't afford such largesse are offering training in smart home buying or free publications with this information.
Free Preventive Pharmaceuticals and Medical Tests
As recently reported in the New York Times, several large organizations have begun moving away from constantly increasing the employee's share of healthcare costs through ever higher co-payments and premiums, at least for some of their workers.
One evidence is programs by Pitney-Bowes, Marriott International, Eastman Chemical, and the state of Maine, among others, offering free medical tests and cholesterol, diabetes, asthma, and blood pressure-lowering medications to employees needing them. The no-cost medications |
