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With so many different employee perks programs available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want software to help you automate recognition for key achievements while improving morale, job satisfaction, and loyalty, but you need to figure out which tool is best. In this article, I'll help you make your choice easier by sharing my insights on the best employee perks programs to automate rewards, boost motivation and productivity, and create a positive work environment.

What are Employee Perks Programs?

Employee perks programs are tools that help organizations offer a wide range of employee benefits, including performance-based gifts, birthday treats, company milestone gifts, corporate discounts, flexible stipends, wellness packages, and more. They simplify the process of administering these perks, giving employees a diverse range of options to choose from based on their personal preferences.

While many companies approach employee perks on an ad hoc basis, investing in a proper employee perks program can save you a lot of administrative hassles. These software systems allow organizations to offer perks at scale, with plenty of flexibility and customization options, including budget management tools. Other benefits include improved employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention, and a strengthened company culture. In addition, offering a competitive employee perks package can also help organizations attract new candidates and stand out against their competition.

Overviews of the 10 Best Employee Perks Programs

Here’s a brief description of each employee perks program that showcases each platform’s best use case, their noteworthy features, and some pros & cons. I’ve also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of their user interface too.

Best employee perks program for incentivizing health and wellness challenges

  • Free demo available
  • From $3/user/month
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Rating: 4.7/5

Nectar is an employee recognition platform that helps organizations connect employees, emphasize core values, and build a proactive company culture focused on positive behaviors. 

Why I picked Nectar: I picked Nectar because their Challenges feature really made them stand out. To promote healthy behavior among your staff you can create a custom challenge, set participation requirements (such as photo evidence or a brief explanation), then offer employees reward points upon completion. 

I also like Nectar’s platform because of the flexibility of their rewards system. To help your top talent stay engaged, Nectar offers 5 different types of employee rewards to choose from: branded company swag, digital gift cards, physical goods available through an Amazon Business integration, donations to charity, or custom rewards you can design yourself.

Nectar’s system is also useful for managing company branded swag on-demand. Instead of pre-ordering stacks of swag items that go unclaimed, you can host a swag catalog directly through Nectar and allow staff the flexibility of choosing the size, colour and style of items they want.

Nectar Standout Features and Integrations

Features include a social activity feed that all employees share, birthday and work anniversary recognition posts that run on auto-pilot, a key dates calendar for managers and admin staff, a reward points accrual system, and numerous reward options. Companies using Nectar can also offer employee discounts at a wide variety of popular businesses like Costco, Disney World, Universal Studios, Six Flags and numerous hotels with no employee reward points needed. 

Integrations include Amazon Business, 20+ popular HR software systems (ADP, BambooHR, Gusto, Microsoft Teams, Namely, NetSuite, Paycor, Rippling, Slack, Workday, and Zenefits, etc.), Microsoft Teams, Slack, and many single sign-on (SSO) providers too.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Employees can grant reward points at the peer-to-peer level
  • Easy to add core value tags to employee recognition posts
  • Lots of culture building tools

Cons:

  • The Challenges feature is only available in their Plus service package
  • No free trial available

Best for its robust mobile app

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4/5

TriNet is a cloud-based human resources management platform that offers a variety of services to small and medium-sized businesses. Their technology platform offers employee benefits, payroll, compliance, HR consulting, and other services to help businesses automate their HR processes.

Why I picked TriNet: I picked TriNet because it is a comprehensive HR platform that offers a lot of different services in one place. When you don't have the time or resources to manage all of your HR tasks manually, TriNet makes it easy to handle employee benefits, payroll, and compliance all in one place. It's also a great tool for businesses that want to simplify and automate their employee perks programs and rewards.

TriNet Standout Features and Integrations

Features include an employee perks program, vendor perks and deals, payroll management system, custom rewards, a variety of payment options, and recognition programs.

Integrations include QuickBooks, Oracle NetSuite, Sage Intacct, BambooHR, Lattice, Greenhouse Software, Carta, and Xero.



Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Easy access to payroll
  • Easy-to-use mobile app
  • Plenty of integrations

Cons:

  • Employees have to learn new software
  • App can be a bit buggy

Best for employee savings programs

  • Free trial + free demo
  • $450/month
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Rating: 4.1/5

Abenity is a perks and discount program management tool that provides organizations with a platform to offer their members, employees, or customers access to a curated collection of discounts and rewards. 

Why I picked Abenity: Abenity provides a platform for organizations to offer a variety of discounts and benefits to their employees. It allows clients to customize their perks program with their brand, control membership eligibility, and send targeted communications to engage users. Members can access discounts across various categories such as travel, dining, shopping, and entertainment through the Abenity website or mobile app. Abenity also offers back-end administrative tools for clients to track engagement, manage offers, and view savings.

The platform additionally includes features for clients to add their own negotiated discounts, create private offers, and distribute tickets and gift cards. It is accessible via a website and mobile app, allowing employees to easily utilize their benefits. Overall, the service aims to support organizations in increasing employee engagement and satisfaction by enriching their benefits package with valuable perks.

Abenity Standout Features and Integrations

Features include eTickets and gift cards, tools for importing member data and managing member registration, engagement and communications tools, a mobile app, analytics and reporting features, and a dedicated client success team.

Integrations include Salesforce, ADP, Workday, Microsoft Azure, ArcGIS, and Google Maps.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Includes wellness and health-related benefits
  • User-friendly platform
  • Available for businesses of all sizes

Cons:

  • Cost may not fit into every organization's budget
  • Limited search functionality

Best employee perks program for personalized rewards

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.7/5

Awardco is an all-in-one employee rewards and recognition platform that helps organizations incentivize and celebrate their staff with unique, personalized perks. Through their official partnership with Amazon Business, Awardco also offers your employees points that can be redeemed for thousands of items through Amazon, or event tickets, hotel vouchers, or gift cards. 

Why I picked Awardco: I included Awardco in this list because the personalized nature of their years of service awards really stood out to me. Instead of offering your staff a traditional gift, Awardco can automatically pull data from their employee recognition activity feed and compile it into a digital MemoryBook. These MemoryBooks are a unique keepsake that help keep your employee’s work highlights top of mind, making a bigger impact on your employee retention numbers. As an anniversary date approaches, Awardco automatically sends out a reminder to other teammates to contribute additional content such as special messages or photos.

Another benefit of using Awardco is their partnership with Amazon Business. While many employee perks programs have high markup fees, Awardco offers lower vendor fees, dollar-for-dollar spending value, free in-country shipping across 130 countries, and zero customs and import fees thanks to Amazon’s in-country warehouses.  

Awardco Standout Features and Integrations

Features include automated anniversary celebrations, celebration kits, customizable service awards, automation tools, curated bonus boxes, sales incentive programs, wellness program templates, social recognition tools, peer-to-peer shoutouts, and a points-based reward system.

Integrations include popular software systems like ADP, BambooHR, Ceridian Dayforce, Infor, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Paycor, SAP SuccessFactors, Slack, Workplace by Meta, and UKG Pro. They also have an open API to support additional custom integrations too. 

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Downloadable holiday celebration kits for on-site celebrations
  • Includes a helpful employee recognition ROI calculator
  • Integration with Deloitte to manage tax obligations associated with employee gifts

Cons:

  • Pricing details are not transparent
  • No free trial available

Best employee perks program for strengthening your company culture

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.8/5

Kudos is an employee recognition and rewards platform that’s full of modern features to help you build a strong company culture. You can use their platform to gamify the peer recognition process, with employees earning reward points for praising each other publicly. 

Why I picked Kudos: I included Kudos in this list because of the depth of their culture-building tools. While they do offer a points-based reward system like most platforms in this list, they also take it one step further with their advanced people analytics, sentiment surveys, and their Kudos Culture Accelerator. When used in tandem, these features can have a huge positive impact on your company culture. 

Kudos’ Culture Accelerator helps you create repeatable campaigns that honour and appreciate your staff, mesh with your corporate values and company branding, and reward employees with perks of their choosing. Once launched, their analytics dashboard monitors the success of your campaigns to show you how much your culture is growing and improving. 

Using Kudos, you can create custom awards that reflect your business objectives and company values, and empower your employees to submit their own nominations. You can also set up automated recognition campaigns for key dates, and give employees the opportunity to redeem their reward points for prizes.

Kudos Standout Features and Integrations

Features include performance recognition, peer-to-peer recognition, a public Kudos Wall, gamified badges, milestone celebrations, automation so no milestones are missed, a points-based reward system with no transaction fees, culture-building tools, anonymous employee sentiment surveys, and people analytics with easy-to-understand visuals. 

Integrations include ADP, BambooHR, Google Workspace, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Okta, Oracle, Paylocity, Ping Identity, SAP SuccessFactors, Slack, and Workday. In addition, their Kudos API can help you create custom software integrations with any other systems you’re using too. 

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Their fun, social media-style user interface is engaging
  • Nomination-based awards give employees a voice
  • You can commemorate important company moments and wins with their image gallery feature

Cons:

  • No free trial available
  • Pricing details are not transparent

Best employee perks program for driving peer-to-peer recognition

  • 60-day free trial
  • From $2/user/month
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Rating: 4.7/5

Bonusly is an employee recognition and rewards platform that facilitates peer-to-peer recognition, automates employee milestones, and provides incentives and rewards programs.

Why I picked Bonusly: The platform is built around peer-to-peer recognition, and promotes a culture of positive feedback and appreciation. Employees start each month with an allocated budget of points, which they can then send out to their peers with personalized recognition messages. Recognition messages can include images, links, GIFs, emojis, and hashtags to give a personalized touch and highlight company values. Once recognition is posted publicly, other team members can comment and chime in to share their appreciation, too.

Team members can then use the points they receive to tap into the platform's rewards program. Reward types include gift cards, cash out options, charitable donations, and custom company rewards. Administrators can also set up automated celebratory messages for employee anniversaries, birthdays, and other important dates. These celebrations can also collect comments, and team members can pitch in additional points towards their peers' milestone celebration.

Bonusly Standout Features and Integrations

Features include personalized peer recognition, automated milestones, various reward types, customized reward options, incentive programs, and an analytics dashboard.

Integrations include BamboHR, SAP, Workday, Namely, Zenefits, ADP, Paychex, HiBob, Sage, Microsoft Teams, and Slack, among others.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Automate employee milestone celebrations
  • Implement rewards and incentive programs
  • Encourage public peer-to-peer recognition

Cons:

  • Requires employee adoption for success
  • Not a traditional benefits platform

Best for reward points and cashback

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
Visit Website
Rating: 4.7/5

Vantage Circle is a global employee engagement platform designed to enhance company culture and improve workforce management. It offers a suite of products for employee recognition, surveys, and corporate discounts. 

Why I picked Vantage Circle: I like that it has reward points and a cashback system. Employees can earn reward points through the company's recognition programs or as cashback from purchases made via the platform. These points can be redeemed for merchandise, experiences, and gift vouchers, adding an extra layer of value to their everyday spending. 

Additionally, Vantage Circle provides exclusive corporate offers. Employees gain access to special discounts on a wide array of products and services from top global brands, covering categories such as dining, fitness, and retail. The platform's ability to negotiate and verify these deals ensures that employees receive genuine and valuable discounts without the hassle of individual negotiations.

Vantage Circle Standout Features and Integrations

Features include employee discounts with popular vendors, eNPS-based pulse survey tools, a gamified corporate wellness platform, recognition programs, a points-based cashback system, bulk gifting solutions, an exclusive weekly offers newsletter, a classified ads system, and a mobile app for iOS and Android devices.

Integrations include Microsoft Teams, Slack, Workplace, Yammer, Okta, Azure, Office 365, People Strong, Zoho People, Freshteam, and SAP SuccessFactors.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • User-friendly interface
  • Vantage Points do not expire
  • Robust reward system

Cons:

  • Could have more customization options
  • The number of vendors offering deals may be limited

Best employee perks program for creating a custom-branded rewards portal

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.6/5

Reward Gateway is an employee engagement platform with a focus on five core engagement areas: employee recognition and rewards, employee communications, employee surveys, employee well-being, and employee discounts. When used in tandem, these features can help organizations engage, motivate and retain their top talent, by tapping into employee feedback and rewarding top performance. 

Why I picked Reward Gateway: I included Reward Gateway in this list because of the depth of their employee engagement features and the ability to customize their rewards programs. Customers using Reward Gateway can brand their reward portals to match the look and feel of their company and create custom rewards and ecards that are specific to their organization. In addition, Reward Gateway allows you to segment your reward options for different departments or teams as needed, making your offerings more relevant to your workforce. 

Employees at all levels can recognize and celebrate their colleagues through multi-directional, public feedback that boost connections and help your staff feel valued. Reward Gateway also includes manager-led awards that empower managers to reward great work on the spot. Managers can give their top performers digital rewards such as instant gift cards or award them points to purchase an item of their choice through Amazon Business with no added markups.

Other reward options include custom awards (e.g., extra paid-time off or lunch with the CEO), charitable giving, or prepaid MasterCards. At any time, participating employees can also take advantage of their employee discount program that offers discounts at popular vendors like Best Buy, Expedia, Gap, Home Depot, Macy’s, Staples, Starbucks, and more. 

Reward Gateway Standout Features and Integrations

Features include public recognition, employee-led and manager-led rewards, custom rewards, a wealth of employee engagement tools, engagement benchmark data, communication tools, surveys, customized blogs and content pages, white labeling, and an employer-branded mobile app. 

Integrations are available with numerous HR management systems, productivity tools, and authentication services. Key software systems include Amazon, Google Suite, LinkedIn, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, Okta, OneLogin, Ping Identity, Slack, and Yapster. They also have an Open API to support additional custom integrations as well.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Actionable data analytics help prevent employee churn
  • Advanced branding tools with access to a Marketing Design Team for assistance
  • Platform functions as a central hub for all employee engagement and recognition efforts

Cons:

  • Unclear if modules can be purchased separately or not
  • Pricing details are not transparent

Best employee perks program for consumer discounts and instant credit

  • 30-day free trial + free demo available
  • From $1/user/month + free plan available
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Rating: 4.6/5

Empuls is an all-in-one employee engagement and recognition solution that’s tapping into a new style of employee benefits that are starting to gain traction: exclusive consumer discounts and instant credit. 

Why I picked Empuls: I included Empuls in this list because they’re offering two new styles of employee perks that have been gaining popularity in recent years. Empuls enables organizations to help their workers save money on common expenses all year round through their employee discount program. Their corporate discount catalog is extensive, with over 20,000 popular brands to choose from across 25 categories.

The second perk Empuls users can take advantage of is accessing instant credit when needed. The need for this increased exponentially during the pandemic, especially among millennials. With this perk, you can grant your employees instant credit up to 4 times their monthly salary, if they need it. This type of temporary loan gives your employees access to funds immediately, with flexible repayment terms ranging from 3 to 36 months. 

These are both new features for Empuls, which are only available as an add-on to their core employee engagement platform. The main focus of their platform remains employee communication and engagement, employee recognition, and a points-based rewards system to incentivize participation in culture-building initiatives.  

Empuls Standout Features and Integrations

Features include employee recognition tools, a public activity feed, participation nudges to increase engagement, cultural alignment tools, automated workflows, a points-based employee rewards system, employee engagement survey tools, and people analytics.  

Integrations include Azure, BambooHR, Freshteam, Google Workspace, Gusto, Keka, Microsoft Teams, Namely, Okta, Onelogin, Ping Identity, SAP, Slack, UKG Pro, Zoho People, and others.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Comes with a full set of classic employee engagement and recognition tools too
  • Includes automations to celebrate key milestones
  • Platform is an affordable option for small businesses

Cons:

  • Reward points expire within their Starter (basic) service level plan
  • Perks noted above are only available as an add-on

Best employee perks program for motivating sales teams through gamification and financial rewards

  • Free demo available
  • Pricing upon request
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Rating: 4.7/5

Compass, by Xoxoday, is an automatic incentive platform that helps accelerate sales through competition-based challenges and other gamification features. It’s well-suited for sales-oriented businesses, though it can also be used to motivate employees across other industries that have pre-set targets they’re aiming to achieve. 

Why I picked Compass: I included Compass in this list because financial incentives like performance-based bonuses are an important type of employee perk, especially for sales-oriented businesses. Compass simplifies the entire incentive process through their automated Incentive Programs that combine pre-set key performance indicators (KPIs) with engaging game templates, rules and conditional logic. 

Participating employees can track their progress towards their targets through Live Scorecards that all team members can access. Once any target is achieved, the system automatically rewards the participant with system points they can use to purchase merchandise, gift cards, or travel opportunities. Alternatively, recipients can choose to redeem their rewards as one-click cash payments deposited directly into their bank account as well. 

Compass Standout Features and Integrations

Features include a selection of well-defined incentive programs (target based, competition based, cascading, or special structures), live scorecards, a public score leaderboard, gamification templates, a public achievement feed, highlights and opportunities, payment tools, an earning tracker, one-click payments, company-wide announcements, communication tools, a document repository, automation and action triggers, nudges and reminders, business simulations, predictive analytics, and data insights. 

Integrations are available with many CRM systems, including Freshdesk, Freshsales, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Leadsquared, Pipedrive, Salesforce, WhatsApp and Zoho CRM.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Direct deposit feature is unique
  • Gamification features serve to improve engagement and performance at all levels
  • Numerous automations to help your incentive program run on auto-pilot

Cons:

  • No free trial available
  • Limited information on physical rewards that are available

The 10 Best Employee Perks Programs Comparison Chart

This comparison chart summarizes basic details about each of my top employee perks program selections. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best program for your budget.

Tools Price
Nectar From $3/user/month
Trinet Pricing upon request
Abenity $450/month
Awardco Pricing upon request
Kudos Pricing upon request
Bonusly From $2/user/month
Vantage Circle Pricing upon request
Reward Gateway Pricing upon request
Empuls From $1/user/month + free plan available
Xoxoday Compass Pricing upon request
Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Compare Software Specs Side by Side

Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.

Compare Software

Other Options

Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the best employee perks program list:

  1. SnackNation

    Employee perks program for distributing edible incentives to hybrid teams

  2. Caroo

    Employee perks program for personalized group eCards

  3. Snappy

    Employee perks program for gifting sustainable products or gifts with a DEI focus

  4. WorkTango

    Employee perks program for incentivizing positive behavior

  5. ThriveSparrow

    For rewards, recognition, and engagement tracking

  6. PerkFix

    Employee perks program for using artificial intelligence (AI) to measure employee engagement

  7. PerkSweet

    Employee perks program for non-monetary recognition using badges called Sweets

  8. PerkUp

    Employee perks program for managing flexible employee stipends

  9. Blueboard

    Employee perks program for rewarding staff with activity-based experience gifts

  10. Quidli

    Employee perks program for distributing cryptocurrency micro-rewards

How I Selected the Best Employee Perks Programs

Wondering how I selected the best employee perks programs for this list? I’m happy to explain my approach. To build this top 10 list, I evaluated and compared a wide range of employee perks software platforms with positive user ratings.

To narrow down my list, I then examined each platform in finer detail using the selection criteria below to see how each system stacked up against the next one. 

Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best employee perks programs for this article:

Usability 

The main goal behind any employee perks platform is to keep your employees happy and engaged. That’s why it’s important to choose a platform that creates a fun and engaging user experience (UX) for users at every level, whether they’re employees, managers, or platform administrators. 

To assess a platform’s usability, I analyze its user interface (UI) to get a feel for what the user experience would be like. I also pay attention to the way the menus are organized, and how easy it is to navigate between features. 

Recognition and Engagement

Most employee perk programs are rolled into platforms that also offer employee engagement and recognition tools. When building this list, I looked for platforms with popular employee recognition functions, housed within social media-style user interfaces. Key features I searched for include public activity feeds, point-based leaderboards, custom badges or awards, and other fun gamification features that incentivize positive behaviours. 

Reward Options 

All of the providers in this list offer some form of perks and rewards. Some are focused exclusively on point-based reward systems, while others cover automated milestone gifts, health and wellness challenges, flexible stipends, employee discounts, group ecards, custom-branded employee swag, or gourmet snack deliveries. I’ve included a blend of all these providers to give you a taste of all the top options out there.  

Software Integrations 

Software integrations can help your employee perks program operate on auto-pilot. For example, by integrating a gifting platform with your human resource information system (HRIS), you can take advantage of pre-built workflows that send your employees gifts exactly on time for their most important dates, be they work anniversaries, birthdays, or years of service awards. For sales-based incentives, integrations with customer relationship management (CRM) software, or sales databases are also a huge plus. 

When selecting an employee perks program, also consider the best payroll software and top-rated benefits administration management systems to integrate with for a more comprehensive payroll and benefits management.

To save you some time, I’ve noted key software integrations for each employee perks program in my list. As you’re doing your research, take the extra time to ensure the platform you choose will integrate easily into your existing systems to simplify your processes. 

Cost Management Tools

Often, it all comes down to cost. However, the monthly costs for the employee perk programs in this list vary greatly depending on the type of system. With some programs, you can purchase employee gifts at scale for whatever budget suits you. In other systems, prices are set at the per gift, or per delivery level. 

For this list, I focused my efforts on platforms that include cost management tools like campaign budgets and bulk purchasing discounts instead. I’ve also highlighted other financial-friendly features like employee discounts and reduced (or free) shipping services too.  

Employee Perks Programs: Frequently Asked Questions

To further assist you in your journey to crafting the best employee perks program for your organization, here are some answers to frequently asked questions you may have about employee perks programs and why they’re important:

What is an employee perks program?

The exact definition of an employee perks program is broad. Traditionally, employee perks are extra offerings that are granted to an employee above and beyond their salary and health benefits.

Some employee perk programs are focused on in-house initiatives, such as company policies covering extended leave for new parents, employee referral incentives, and other similar offerings. An alternate style of an employee perks program is a type of software platform that helps organizations motivate and retain their employees. The good news is, you don’t have to stick with one over the other.

A well-rounded employee perks program can be a blend of both approaches. The best employee perks programs are comprised of a collection of offerings, including a rewards and recognition system, flexible stipends that employees can spend according to their preferences, financial supports, milestone celebrations, and other types of perks that help your organization attract top talent.

How do employee perks programs work?

The main intent behind employee perks programs are to ensure your employees remain happy and motivated in their roles, and receive proper recognition for their contributions to the company. By acknowledging your employees’ efforts, you can expect to increase your employee retention rate, while simultaneously reducing your employee turnover.

In most cases, employee perks programs include a reward-based point system to incentivize positive behaviors within teams and reward top performance. For example, your employees may earn a small amount of reward points for posting public recognition shoutouts about their team members, or for hitting specific business targets.

These reward points accrue over time and are redeemable for prizes. The most common reward redemption types are physical rewards and merchandise, digital gift cards, and branded company swag, or they may include travel or experience-based rewards. Some platforms also allow you to offer customized rewards, such as an extra vacation day, a complimentary parking spot, or lunch with the company CEO.

Another category of employee perk that’s gaining in popularity, especially for distributed teams, is employee stipends. Stipends can cover a number of uses, including health and wellness items, home office purchases, subscriptions, or even meal deliveries.

Why are employee perks important?

Employee perks are important for many reasons. They help your employees feel valued and appreciated for their hard work. They incentivize them to keep working hard to reach their goals. They also strengthen your company culture, improve morale and productivity, and give your employees a more favorable impression of your organization.

You don’t just have to take my word for it though. There is plenty of research out there to back this up.

A report from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation found that 90% of HR professionals believe that employees will stay in their roles with proper rewards and recognition in place.

Another study reports that 78% of employees would remain with their employer because they like their benefits package. On the other hand, 44% of employees would either change jobs or disengage (quiet quitting) if their work efforts were not properly recognized.

A Glassdoor survey on employment confidence confirmed that 79% of employees would prefer new or additional benefits over a pay increase. Digging into that data more, while healthcare insurance claimed the top spot at 40%, office perks and employee discounts were reported as their most valued perk type 19% and 17% of the time, respectively.

In yet another study from 2022, 92% of employees claimed they would repeat a specific action if given proper recognition for it. The same study also found that 80% of employees would work harder if they were shown more appreciation.

All of these statistics clearly show that it’s important to reward your top performers if you want them to stay with your company, and keep working hard. Whether your appreciation for your staff comes in the form of monetary perks, stipends, bonuses, gourmet snacks, or any other form, a proper employee perks program will increase your employee’s job satisfaction, leading to long term retention and higher productivity.

What other types of employee perks should my company offer?

Perhaps you already have a strong rewards and incentives program in place, and you’re wondering what else you can do? Here are some additional employee perks you can offer your staff that go above and beyond. Consider adding these to your benefits package to set your company apart from your competition:

  • Additional paid time-off (PTO)
  • Paid sick days
  • An extended sick leave policy (i.e., short and long term disability)
  • Employee health insurance
  • Life insurance coverage
  • Mental health resources
  • Reimbursement for home office expenses
  • Reimbursement for professional development courses
  • A stipend to cover annual professional certification/license registration fees
  • Tuition reimbursement for upskilling
  • Extended parental leave (paid or unpaid)
  • Paternity leave for fathers/partners
  • In-office childcare or daycare subsidies
  • Flexible schedules (i.e., flexible work hours)
  • Gym membership subsidies
  • Sabbatical opportunities
  • A registered retirement plan
  • Commuting benefits
  • A complimentary parking space
  • A pet-friendly work environment
  • Pet insurance

Final Thoughts

I hope this article helped you understand how important it is to keep your employees happy. As I've explained, there are many different options for how you go about it. However, the software systems in this list will remove the hassles and headaches by automating key portions of the process for you.

Before you go, here are some other in-house resources that address employee perks and the employee experience:

I also recommend subscribing to our weekly People Managing People newsletter. By signing up, you’ll be the first to hear about industry trends and hot topics in the HR and leadership space. 

Kim Behnke
By Kim Behnke

Kim Behnke is an HR Tool Expert & Writer for People Managing People. She draws on her 9 years of human resources experience and her keen eye for systematic processes to support her analyses of the top HR tools on the market. She is passionate about maximizing efficiencies and streamlining workflows to ensure internal systems run smoothly. Kim's HR experience includes recruitment, onboarding, performance management, training and development, policy development and enforcement, and HR analytics. She also has degrees in psychology, writing, publishing, and technical communication, and recently completed a Certified Digital HR Specialist program through the Academy to Innovate HR. When away from her desk, she can usually be found outside tending to her ever-expanding garden.