The Top 20 Employee Perks And Benefits For 2017

[McFurd]

Forbes - Jeff Kauflin - Every year it seems that companies try to one-up each other on the perks they provide their workers. That’s great news for employees. Careers website Glassdoor looked through hundreds of thousands of employee-submitted benefits reviews to find the most compelling and uncommon corporate perks. An organization needed at least 20 benefits reviews to make the cut. Since this list isn’t a ranking, the companies are shown in alphabetical order.

Furniture designer and retailer IKEA provides impressive benefits. Employees who’ve been at the company at least a year can take four months paid parental leave, a perk that’s available to both retail and corporate workers. American Express also has an excellent parental-leave policy, with five months of fully paid leave for mothers and fathers.

Starbucks provides complete tuition reimbursement for employees, which covers an online bachelor’s degree with Arizona State University. Additionally, workers only need to put in 20 hours per week to become eligible for benefits.
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According to Glassdoor’s economic research, trendy perks like free lunches and ping-pong tables might grab candidates’ attention, but won’t make them stay long term. Here are the benefits that have the strongest impact on employee satisfaction:

• Health insurance

• Vacation and paid time off

• Pension plan

• 401K plan

• Retirement plan

• Dental insurance

• Maternity and paternity leave

• Sick days

• Vision insurance

• Paid holidays

While benefits can help attract candidates, Glassdoor has found that other factors matter more in keeping workers happy and engaged. Those include company culture and values, career growth opportunities and satisfaction with senior leadership.

Follow me on Twitter @JeffKauflin or email me at jkauflin[at]forbes[dot]com.