Employee Perks

Times are not as bad as most of us like to think. I recently attended a Human Resources Panel at the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce and got the opportunity to hear from HR people from Overstock.com, Neutron Interactive, and Spillman Technologies. These companies continue to grow through the recession, and not only that, they offer employee perks that are unheard of. How can Neutron Interactive offer a full catered lunch onsite for their 40 employees each day, or how can Spillman Technologies give their 210 employees access to various vacation timeshares at no cost? What is the secret these companies know that the rest of the world just isn't figuring out?

It's that you get back what you put in to your people. Companies like these (there is a whole list of them in Utah Business Magazine issue a couple months ago) are going above and beyond what they offer their employees because they have seen what a difference it has made in their company's culture, growth, and bottom line. I find that very inspiring when other companies are downsizing and doing layoffs. Perks and worth the investment.