Name: What will the future of job perks look like?
Uploaded: 2020-07-02
Duration: 4 min 11 s
Description: The coronavirus pandemic is changing everything.

[BRIGHT MUSIC] DEVIN HANCE: Silicon Valley has pioneered and popularized the fun office. It's the heart of the high tech industry with perks like catered meals, gyms in the office, meditation, and even just Instagrammable office settings in general. But the coronavirus has forced these same companies to completely rethink their office culture, and not only that, but their strategy around perks and benefits as well. So as I was thinking about this, it left me with one question-- what will the future of job perks look like? AMY SPURLING: If you want to compete for the best talent, you are going to have to offer something beyond salary and health insurance. That's just the reality of being a competitive employer. That hasn't changed, COVID or not. What's changed is companies' budgets to be able to handle that. HOLLY PETROFF: There's really this overarching question, which is, how can you be a great place to work if you don't basically have a workplace to go to? The good news is that a great place to work isn't tied to the four walls of the building itself. It is based on so much more than the things I can get from my employer. It's more about the actions my employer takes. SARA SUTTON: There's a lot of really fun ways you can integrate perks through [INAUDIBLE].. Come Halloween, we send out little packages to people. We also do things like trivia nights. We do pizza parties, where we deliver pizzas to people's places. AMY SPURLING: There is no one perk that's going to make everybody happy. There is no one remote perk that's going to make everyone happy. HOLLY PETROFF: In this new COVID world, I think there are a few things we're going to see go away. One of them is your buffets, open food celebrations. And if you're lucky enough to have them, things like massages and spa services are likely not going to be offered by businesses anymore. AMY SPURLING: What a lot of companies are going through is cutting perks. They have to make sure that they can weather this storm. A lot of those perk vendors that are out there are not going to survive the pandemic. HOLLY PETROFF: Health benefits are going to take the place of all of these other benefits that tend to be the perks that get people's attention. One of the greatest things that we see employers doing right now is challenging their benefits providers to come up with new and creative ways of taking care of their people. And in fact, I'm seeing some of our best workplaces say, you've got a year to figure this out with us. And if you're not able to come up with programs that we think challenge the status quo, you won't be our provider in a year. AMY SPURLING: The beauty of creating a stipend is that say you created a stipend and put a family category in. For the person who wants to use that money towards child care, they can use that. If you don't have kids though, you don't miss out on that benefit. You have a family. It may look and feel different from someone who has kids. Maybe it's your aunt that you're really close to. Maybe it's your parents. Mine may look different from yours, but this is how I want to be supported. HOLLY PETROFF: There are three things people want at work, whether they're working virtually or they're going to a physical space every day. The first is that people want to trust the people that they work for. Is my leader really communicating transparently about the health of the business, or about layoffs, or about restructuring? The second is that people want a sense of purpose and pride in the work that they're doing. And the third one is connection and community at work. And this is the one we're seeing organizations grapple with today, because connection and community is a whole lot easier to do when you're actually in a physical workspace together. You'll notice that nothing I say is actually a perk or a benefit because it's tied to this idea of action. What does my company stand for on issues that are important to me? People are looking to say, are people who look like me on the board of this organization, because it sends a message to me that it's possible for me to grow in that company. DEVIN HANCE: Maybe the real goal is not fun perks like massages and free snacks, but truly feeling supported throughout the trajectory of your career. And maybe we'll start seeing offices shift to more of an innovation hub, a place we go to to brainstorm, a place that we go to for a specific purpose, and not necessarily because we're required to. [MUSIC PLAYING] 

The coronavirus pandemic is changing everything.