I'm interested in anything really interesting/fun/creative/worthwhile or even the boring stuff like life insurance. If it's of value to you as an employee then it's worth listing.
-In office music
-In office shower. Somewhere to store extra clothes and items
-In office kitchen (and a good one at that)
-Bike rack
-Basic bike tools on-hand at office
-Easily accessible set of basic hand and small power tools in office. Stuff happens. You need them.
-Motorcycle parking
-Chair budget. Get what you want/need to work best
-I liked Pixar's office/cube budget, although I've never worked for them, search for it.
-Ability to have whatever keyboard/mouse/display/computer best suited me. Don't make me use the shitty company's logo mousepad if I want something else. Don't force an IDE on me. If I use textmate, allow me to use that. If I'm a vim or emacs guy, allow that. Results matter- not my IDE.
-Give me a software budget, or better yet no budget at all. If I want software that is tangentially related to my work, I should be able to get it
-Massive company library. Geeks love books/knowledge. Being able to take these home is good. Being able to order anything and add to it is even better.
-Food and drinks available.
-Cabs home if needed- no questions asked.
-Ability for me to receive packages at work (that may not be work related). When I have an office I *always* ship my packages there as to not miss them.
-I loved being able to do laundry at betahouse.
-Encourage and pay for employees going to social events, even if they aren't 100% tied to their daily work functions. Social employees are worth much more.
-A 'quiet room' where someone can work/study/sleep without being bothered. A nap/dark room is a good idea too if you can fit it space-wise.
-Your office layout matters. Think how you position people and how the arrangement of power sits. I liked sitting right beside the CEO at my first startup (and we were 20 people, so this wasn't a given). I count him as a good friend because of this.
Other small things that we miss now in society do matter to people.
-Anniversaries, birthdays and important dates to that person. Doing more that just posting to facebook is a way to show thoughtfulness. This can just be a card.
-Even in politically correct 2010 and with many of us working at home, we do have holidays that we appreciate having noticed. Small gifts are very noticed.
-Just as you want your employee to go above and beyond, think about how you can go above and beyond for them. This will come back to you.Each company should figure out what is right for their particular culture. Defining that culture in a meaningful way can be rather difficult.
The worst part of my day, every day, is managing windows (the application windows) in Windows (the OS). It's terrible. We build Java software that has a web front end. It really shouldn't matter which OS I use to develop (assuming I test in IE frequently), but I'm forced to use Windows. sigh A really really simple thing that many companies could do is to let their software developers have a bit more control over their environment.
I don't have root access on my current computer, and it's a royal pain. For some boneheaded reason, no idea why, svn wasn't installed on it. I had to bother IT for three days to get it installed.
Thankfully, I'm about to get a new box on which I have been promised root. :)
2) Smart colleagues: for work and non-work conversation.
3) Fridges stocked with healthy food: junk food is cheaper, but leaves you unable to think clearly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinn_Emanuel_Urquhart_%26_Sull...
More firms should follow suit. (Pun not intended.)
When you bike or take public transportation to work, you can't sneak a nap on your lunch break in your car. A nap room would be oh so helpful, and would dramatically aid productivity for sleepy employees benefiting from a power nap.
It's really nice to be able to take your outgoing packages to the shipping folks, give them some money, and have them take care of fedex/ups. It's much better than leaving work to go to fedex, ups, what have you.
Most large companies already have shipping departments, so the only additional fixed cost is the ability to take money from employees.
And, if fed ex/ups/etc have minimums, this helps meet them, so it may even reduce some company costs.
Not a safe assumption, unfortunately. I had to make a huge stink to not get this taken away last year.
Wow, I guess I've been pretty lucky so far...
One thing that I loved about the office - every day at 6pm, caterers would come round with lunch boxes for everyone. Plus soup, plus drink, plus fruit. And every day it was different! (and delicious)
Sure it's a far cry from Google's 5-star catering with 10 page menu or whatever, but I remember feeling super happy every day when the food came round. Everyone ate, chatted, played games for a bit, then got back to work. It was good for lifting spirits.
Edited to add: this was for about 1000 people, every day.
(Of course, this was good for the company too as it meant people stayed that little bit longer at the office)
Coming from Japan, I felt this was fairly normal. Long working hours are part of the culture.
After 4 years, the car is yours.
2 weeks to visit family at Christmas. 1 week to visit family during the summer. 2 weeks for a proper vacation in Europe or Asia or whatever 1 week for home renos. There's nothing like swinging a hammer for a week to destress. 1 week to create a few extra long weekends to get stuff done, show visitors around the city, et cetera.
total: 7 weeks, which is relatively common for professionals in Europe. Unfortunately, I don't live in Europe.
In most cases, it isn't the food that I'd pick myself and it often leads to weight gain.
Listening to, and stocking based on, employee suggestions isn't enough. You have to provide the food that I want, even if I'm the only one who wants it.
Stocking based on employee suggestions will miss about 10-15% of the employees.
Yes, I understand why that is, and I'm not suggesting that companies change, I'm pointing out that it's a problem.
EDIT: Oh, Google. Funny, I just applied for a job there not ten minutes ago, partly because of things like that.
I know what it takes to keep my weight in check and it's a small subset of what is considered "healthy".
> One of my coworkers lost 60 pounds since starting.
Good for that person. Untill I'd done it, I didn't know how hard it is to do.
Yegge says that the typical experience at Google is +10. Is he wrong?
If your ops department is good enough that people list it as their "in case of emergency" contact number, in preference to family members, you're doing it right. (obviously ops will contact your spouse/etc., but I'd rather have "Ryan has been kidnapped" or "hurt in a car accident in Malaysia" responded to by someone who can actually bring serious resources to bear, vs. someone who will get emotional.)
On top of that, we were eligible for significant discounts on season passes to many of the local resorts (in the Salt Lake City area). Between that and the free day passes that were handed out as rewards by team leads, project managers, and the like, it was hard not to get in some serious slope time.
(And, of course, there was the discount on gear...)
- 20% Time
- Music/Stereo System in the office
- Work from Home Days (where everyone does)
I suppose it would be a nice little benefit if the music played was interesting and cool, but I'm not convinced that's likely to actually work very often.
So it's something to be wary of and not a benefit in my book.
Not only can you listen to music with them on, listen to whatever music you want, it's also a bit more of an effort for other people to bug you and take you out of the flow. Of course you can still be interrupted but the barrier is ever so slightly higher.
Equity.
amazing results.
They can now work as much or as little as they wish (including in private enterprise), where they wish, on a contract basis, and not worry about health care.
It's not a cash benefit nor one you can buy with cash (other than being wealthy enough not to have to worry about such things), so I see it as a significant "non-cash" benefit.
Recently, they were working in an office where the management and politics were wearing them down. When their commitment ended -- even though the organization wanted them to remain -- they were free to decline and look for something more comfortable.