Company culture

9 Companies That are Acing Promoting Their Employee Benefits

So, your company’s benefits are pretty amazing. Perhaps you’re like law firm Bingham McCutchen, which offers its employees in Boston two box seats to a Red Sox game every year – of course, seniority gets first dibs. Or Intuit, where a Workout on Wheels cart delivers mini-fitness sessions, to keep employees active.

What’s critical, though, is communicating those benefits in a compelling, original way to prospective candidates. Being named to an annual list of top companies to work for can go a long way – but there are 51 other weeks in the year when job seekers are out there “shopping”, comparing your benefits with those of your competitors.

A bulleted list of all of the benefits your company offers can make a candidate’s eyes glaze over and potentially miss really incredible perks that just don’t stand out. Ask yourself if you’re giving as much attention to presenting your benefits package as you are to advertising available jobs or promoting recruiting events.

Here are examples of companies doing a good job of packaging up what they have to offer, and marketing their benefits to their advantage:

SurveyMonkey, Target and Salesforce: Enticing imagery

SurveyMonkey has a page dedicated to its Monkey Perks. It’s simple, visual and straight to the heart. In fact, a candidate might almost feel like they’re in on the best-kept secret in the world. Check out the droolworthy perks:

surveymonkey_employee_benefits

Target presents its benefits – grouped into health, social, career, community, financial – with an accompanying video for each category. Each video features an employee sharing how the company’s benefits made an impact on his or her life. For example, in the “Social” category, employee Tony talks about how the company encouraged him to pursue work-life balance – “get home more often”, and shares a poignant story of how he was able to spend more time with his father in the year leading up to his dad’s death.

Salesforce.com completely upended how benefits are packaged when the brand created a colorful, clean infographic, filled with reasons why a candidate can find their dream job with the company. Benefits are carefully chosen for broad appeal – and dollar-sign impact:

salesforce_employee_benefits

AT&T, Commonwealth Bank, Google and Mozilla: Winning words

AT&T shows us that when it comes to promoting your perks, compelling word choices can make all the difference. Instead of an employee benefits section on its careers site, AT&T presents “Rewards.” This simple word choice delivers the promise of something fun, enticing, a real bonus that isn’t expected.

AT&T_employee_benefits

Mozilla’s benefits section of its careers page may be small, but the everyday language they choose speaks volumes. The "snacks" section in the benefits category  below is especially enticing, asking: “Are you a latte lover? Do you crave cookies? Or do you prefer to fuel up on fruit? Whatever you need, we have it. Or we can get it.”

Mozilla_employee_benefits

Also falling into the word-choice category is Commonwealth Bank. They present their corporate benefits “from necessary to nice-to-haves”, speaking to candidates in everyday words that strike a chord.  From “We are flexible” [lifestyle benefits, such as job-sharing] and “We care” [counseling services], to “We look after ourselves” [health and wellness benefits], the bank using inclusive language, and presents its perks in a format that is human and relatable.

Google’s quite similar, using the inclusive “we” and ditching a bulleted laundry list delineating health plans and 401Ks, in favor of non-corporate-speak that talks directly to the candidate, human to human: “It’s all about removing barriers so Googlers can focus on the things they love, both inside and outside of work.” [Oh, and by means of proof that its perks are amazing, Google simply drops in an external link to a CNN story on the company.]

Google_employee_benefits

Allianz: Tempting testimonials

Allianz insurance incorporates employee testimonials into its benefits section, demonstrating how real people find the perks applicable to their lives. This also helps candidates envision themselves in the shoes of existing employees. One example:

“Taking a career break was one of the best opportunities that Allianz allowed me to pursue during my employment. It allowed me the chance to travel and see parts of the world I might not have seen otherwise. I was able to spend 5 months travelling through Europe, visiting towns and cities I’d only ever dreamed of, with the financial security of knowing I had a job to return to. Upon my return, I found I had a renewed enthusiasm for my job, which consequently resulted in my promotion. If you get the opportunity for an extended stint of travel, study or time with the family I highly recommend the option of taking a career break.” -- Kiri, Workers’ Compensation, WA

For a prospective candidate, there’s not much left to say after reading that aside from, please hire me [and really, 5 months travelling through Europe?].

AARP: Total transparency

While AARP takes a more traditional approach to presenting its perks within its career site, at the bottom there’s a click-through to a real goldmine: a complete PDF of benefits – 36 pages long, including healthcare plan pricing, accrual rates for leave, and a lengthy list of contacts for more questions. We’re open with our employees, the company seems to say. We put it all out there. Such transparency and openness goes a long way to setting the tone for working with AARP.

AARP_employee_benefits

Have you stumbled across a career site that presents employee benefits in a unique or standout way? Let us know on Twitter by sending your thoughts to @HireOnLinkedIn.

*image by Jeffrey Zeldman

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