Employee Benefits Ideas - 10 companies with creative employee benefits

Employee benefits can be tricky, especially without a budget like Google's! We shine the spotlight on 10 companies offering the coolest benefits, without breaking the bank!

Company Culture
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Benefits 101

Sep 12, 2024 ⋅ min read

It’s no secret that employee benefits are great: they motivate employees, attract top talent, and are generally just great to have. 

But sometimes choosing the perfect ones can be tricky. And with more and more companies offering unique and creative employee benefits, how can you make yours stand out?

Of course, not every company has a budget like Google’s to spend on rewards and benefits. But there’s still lots of smaller brands who support employees with some really cool and unique employee benefits without massive budgets!

So, if you’re looking for some creative employee benefits ideas that'll retain and attract top talent, as well as help your employees feel valued, we’ve pulled together a list of 10 of the companies with the coolest employee benefits!

1. Chattermill - loyalty rewarding benefits

Chattermill has cracked the code when it comes to rewarding loyalty. Their unique employee benefits package drives employee retention and engagement through rewarding those who stay at the company year-on-year. 

Chatermill has teamed up with Ben to offer their team a monthly allowance to spend on anything they wish! Not only this, but the allowance increased by £25 for every year the employee stays at the company!

2. Gymshark perks 

Gymshark is well known for their unique employee benefits. Their benefits packages cover a range of different areas to reflect their values. They work with an employee benefits platform to offer discounts and employee perks to their employees and they even have their teams choose a ‘perk of the week’.

They have also teamed up with HSBC to offer personalised financial guidance and financial literacy classes.

Gymshark Lifting Club interior. Neon sign saying 'sweat' and weights set-up
Gymshark Lifting Club - Solihull, UK

3. Hotjar - holiday perks 

Hotjar’s approach to employee benefits has a unique focus on holiday benefits to make a positive impact. Some of these benefits include a holiday budget of €2,000/year, 40 days paid holiday leave per year, and two company retreats per year! What a way to treat your employees!

4. Oliva - mental health matters

Oliva is another great example of a company offering cool employee benefits. They are leading the conversation about mental health in the workplace. So, it only makes sense that they extend these values to their whole team and offer them 24/7, one-to-one mental health support. 

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5. Improbable - flexible allowances

Improbable has gone the extra mile with their employee benefits package. They give their employees the flexibility and freedom to choose their own benefits and what they spend their monthly benefits allowance on. 

By working with Ben, they created a fully flexible benefits programme that includes a custom design Ben allowance card. This has been a hit among Improbable employees who love that they can make guilt-free spends!

6. Spotify - fertility and family planning benefits 

While Spotify is a large global company (with no doubt a big benefits budget), we just had to mention them because their commitment to supporting parenthood is inspiring!

One of their stand-out benefits is a global parental leave policy of six months off, fully paid. This means that no matter where they are in the world, new parents can comfortably enjoy time off to enjoy those first moments of parenthood without money stress. 

Spotify also covers the cost of employee egg freezing procedures and fertility treatment. This allows employees who are looking to start a family, at some point in the future, the freedom to put the brakes on becoming a parent until a time when they feel ready. It would be great to see more companies follow!

A pregnant employee working in the office
Credit: MaHoo Studio via Healthline

7. Akraya - home-cleaning benefits

Akraya’s unique benefits idea takes the stress out of catching up on housework. 

Akraya have figured out that their employees dread having to get the vacuum cleaner out, and so as part of their benefits package, they have arranged for their employees' homes to be professionally cleaned every fortnight! What a quirky way to restore work-life balance -  bravo Akraya!

8. Maze - Flexible allowances across 25 countries!

Maze worked with Ben to create a flexible benefits package that suits all of their employees across the globe. They were challenged with finding a package that suited their diverse team. By teaming up with Ben, they were able to offer their team a range of flexible benefits that everyone was happy with, including mental health support and insurance policies. 

9. Propellernet’s Dream Machine

Propellernet’s dream machine is a thing of legend in the HR world. Each employee adds a ‘dream ball’ outlining their ultimate personal dream into the dream machine. Whenever Propellernet reaches a major target, a ball is drawn and the company makes that employees’ dream come true!

So far, they’ve included an epic trek through Africa and have staged a sci-fi rock opera!

Propellernet has been voted one of the UK’s Best Workplaces in the UK, and it’s no surprise given this awesome benefit…

10. Impala 

Impala have worked closely with Ben to create their perfect and unique benefits package. Their challenge involved offering their team benefits across 11 different countries.

With Ben, they were able to simplify the process and offer their team a package that includes 5 categories of benefits such as gym memberships, insurance, learning and development opportunities, and a monthly allowance to spend on whatever they like! This put the decision-making in their team’s hands, and has made every penny count!

Okay, one more…

11. Google’s death benefits 

So we know we said we weren’t going to talk about big tech benefits, but this Google one was just too good to miss out…

Now, no-one wants to think about this benefit, but it’s a super valuable one to have. As part of their extensive employee benefits package, Google offers the spouse or partner of their deceased employees 50% of their salary for up to 10 years after their death! What a kind way to support the families of their employees. 

The outside of google's headquarters in Silicone Valley
Google HQ - Mountain View, California

What now?

So, you’re feeling inspired by all the cool benefits other companies are offering. Now what?

If you're wondering how to go about implementing these benefits, get in touch via hello@thanksben.com. We’d love to help you build a package for your team that features the coolest employee benefits. 

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