Blog Archives - PerkSpot

How to Handle Workplace Bullying

Max Goldenberg November 17, 2022

Today’s modern, dynamic, rapidly-moving workplace comes with many advantages. We benefit from agile organizational structures with an atmosphere where anyone can shine. Or, at least, that’s what we like to say. And while these benefits make a big difference in employee’s lives, the changing modern workplace has also changed what bullying looks like, transforming it from open abuse of power into something that tends to be quieter, manipulative, and more insidious.

With open-faced bullying seen as totally unacceptable, workplace bullying often instead takes the form of competitive employees defaming others, attempting to manufacture situations where they’ll look like the hero. For example, a common tactic employed by this kind of toxic personality is to claim credit for co-worker’s key deliverables. Then, they’ll use those same deliverables as evidence of why they’re a better performer than their ‘target’. When conflicts invariably spring up from these lies, if management isn’t careful, workplace bullies will tend to have the edge in the ‘he-said, she-said’ conflict due to focusing more on telling executives about the work ‘they’ did rather than actually doing the work.

Handling Office Conflict Responsibly

Needless to say, workplace bullies can destroy a team’s cohesion and productivity, and it’s essential for leadership to detect and remove these kinds of people ASAP before they can gain power in the office. That being said, rushing to fire someone who exhibits bullying behavior is not always the correct move! There are a range of reasons why an employee might engage in bullying; including personal insecurities or even mental illness.

While stopping bullying is critical, it’s also important to understand motivation for an effective response. That might include sensitivity training sessions, a recommendation to see a therapist, or simply termination from the company. As a leader, it will ultimately fall on you to decide which approach is right for your situation.

Common Patterns of Workplace Bullies

It’s also important not to misconstrue or hastily judge the situation. Behaviors that appear to be rooted in bullying may in fact stem from deeper, institutional issues within the organization, such as cruel or over-competitive traditions. To help distinguish, here are some common patterns of legitimate bullies in the workplace:

Consistently redirecting conversations about team efforts to focus exclusively on their personal contribution
Displaying a lack of empathy or care for the feelings or workload of others
Highly judgemental, and willing to delay or jeopardize projects over minor personal issues
Takes poorly to any kind of criticism, even constructive criticism, often viewing it as insulting

How To Document and Report Conflict

These traits all but guarantee someone is a bad fit for any workplace. If you start to notice them, there’s a real chance that you have a workplace bully on your hands! And if you’re an employee stuck in a situation with a bullying co-worker or even boss, make sure to document a pattern of behavior before presenting to Human Resources. Not only will it help you construct a case, but also allow you to examine your relationship with your co-worker. A detached perspective will help you understand if it’s actually a case of workplace bullying or something else entirely. No matter the case, your office will feel the positive impact of removing toxic influences. And you might be surprised how fast things change when you take action!

Check out PerkSpot’s Five Focus Areas for Building a Better Workplace for more advice on building healthy, sustainable long-term culture at your organization.

4 Key Strategies to Boost Your Employee Experience

Contributing Author November 9, 2022

Businesses in the United States lose productivity worth about $300 billion a year due to disengaged workers.

But the good news is that you can increase employee engagement by boosting employee experience. Employees who have a positive experience are likely to be more engaged than those with a negative experience. And creating a positive experience is simple. Let’s take a look at how you can do it.

1. Improve Internal Communication

Ask any HR expert- strong internal communication in the workplace is a huge factor in the employee experience.

Effective communication leads to better collaboration which helps develop employee relationships. It boosts the morale, engagement, satisfaction, and productivity of your employees. Plus, increased communication in the workplace promotes a sense of community and creates cohesion in the organization. This is especially important in a remote or hybrid work environment.

Start by making your workplace a safe space where employees can share accomplishments in their personal and professional lives.

Here are a few other tips to open communication lines:

Schedule regular 1:1 sessions. Use this time to learn about any concerns they may have before they turn into bigger problems. It’s also a great time to address their happiness at work.
Schedule weekly team meetings as well. It helps members know what others in the team are working on and find opportunities to collaborate. Members can share any setbacks they may be experiencing and get help from teammates.
Always give the ‘why’ behind every action you take. It helps create a more transparent atmosphere.
Give constructive feedback. Instead of criticizing, help them learn from their mistakes. This can boost the morale of your employees, which would otherwise drop if you keep criticizing them.
Use communication channels to openly recognize employees’ contributions. It’s a great way to motivate them as they’ll see their work being recognized.

2. Act on Feedback

Collecting feedback to understand your employees’ job satisfaction and assess the dynamics of the workplace is great.

But do you act on this feedback? If not, you’re losing out, and this inaction can make employees lose trust in you. They are likely to stop giving feedback if they feel unheard. To build employee confidence, first ensure your feedback surveys are anonymous.

This will empower employees to be candid about the issues affecting them in the workplace, and help you implement the changes they want to see.

Once you collect the feedback, communicate your action plan in relation to the issues they raise. If, for instance, your sales and marketing team raised an issue on inefficiency in lead generation, highlight the growth software you’ve adopted in response to this feedback. It’ll go a long way in improving employee experience.

3. Create Growth Opportunities

About 22% of employees cited ‘career issues’ as the number one reason they left their jobs in 2021, largely seeking opportunities for growth and promotion. This concern even comes ahead of other major issues like work-life balance.

Image via Work Institute

This means having opportunities for growth in the workplace can keep your employees happy and content. It’s one of the main ways to boost employee experience in your company.

Good growth opportunities should:

Be accessible to all employees
Cater to the different experience levels and needs of your employees
Center around short-term and long-term objectives

Instead of hiring externally for leadership positions, promote your employees. Empower them to qualify for these promotions by helping them expand their skills. You can:

Use the online course creation platforms to create job-specific training. This Thinkific review can get you started
Create mentorship programs
Help employees expand their skills through cross-training and stretch assignments
Create leadership development programs
Set up a tuition reimbursement program. Or if you’re looking to control business spending, encourage them to take up massive open online courses (MOOCs)

Discuss long-term career goals with each employee and create a development plan that gets them there.

4. Create a Strong Company Culture

Company culture encompasses what’s acceptable and applauded in your organization. It’s what the company stands for and the key values that define the organization.

Positive work culture creates an environment where employees are happy to be with each other, committed to the company goals, and engaged in their work.

Create policies that curb barriers to positive company culture, such as:

Uniform framework for annual reviews
Diversity and inclusion policies
Adopting remote and hybrid communication tools and policies
Flexible working hours and leave policies to improve work-life balance
Placing a cap on the number of work hours to ensure workload management

You can make a video collage that demonstrates the mission, goals, and values your company holds dear. Using this or a similar tool in your onboarding process can help get new employees accustomed to the tone of your work environment from the get-go.

What Next?

It’s time to put these strategies into action to boost your employee experience.

Start by leveling up communication in your organization. It’ll make it easy for employees to build workplace relationships.

Additionally, implement the right changes by paying attention to employee feedback.

Finally, create an environment your employees want to stay and work in by opening up growth opportunities and building a positive company culture.

Once you put these into practice, you’re sure to experience higher employee productivity and retention rates!

Contributor Profile:

Gaurav Sharma is the founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. He regularly contributes to top publications such as HuffPost, Adweek, Business 2 Community, TechCrunch, and more. Connect on Socials: Twitter, LinkedIn

Turning Your Objectives into Real Results

Max Goldenberg November 3, 2022

Anyone who’s ever been part of a strategy meeting knows that coming up with objectives is always the easiest part. Managers and entrepreneurs especially can relate to that nagging feeling of “too many ideas, too little time’. Coming up with amazing ideas might not be easy, but turning a great concept into positive metrics is the real challenge.

In many ways, bridging the gap from idea to result is the core responsibility of any team leader, as nearly every team – no matter how talented and happy to be in the organization – depends on you to ‘steer the ship’ and productively direct their efforts.

That being said, you’ll have a much easier time acting on your ideas with a supportive, engaged, and satisfied team to carry out action plans. But even the best team needs direction and guidance to turn those concepts into something tangible. So, without further ado, here’s three concrete tips to keep in mind as you build your next big campaign!

Set Deadlines and Keep To Them

Remember when you’re setting up your deadlines that unexpected roadblocks can always cause delays. Building a reasonable deadline means accounting for the possibility of delays – so take the time to think about them beforehand! Keeping to your deadlines encourages employees to closely follow your campaign plans and fosters a culture of not only trust but also mutual accountability – making it far easier to transform those objectives into tangible results!

Don’t Delay Moving on your Action Items

It’s rare that any project will have total smooth sailing without any unexpected hurdles along the way. The best way to prepare for delays is to get started on your project plan immediately! The power of getting started promptly is often underestimated, but hitting the ground running sets the tone and pace. If a lethargic start can lead to an underwhelming project, an enthusiastic one can set the stage for greatness. Demonstrate that you’re serious about turning your ideas into action by tackling execution enthusiastically right off the bat!

Lead by Example – Show, Don’t Tell

Most important of all is to be directly involved in the process. You can help through personal, visible contribution on key items, or by providing a clear and reasonable roadmap to the team that breaks down the wider objective into bite-size elements matching individual talents. Translating your ideas to results is often a matter of initiative. Big ideas are never easy! And sometimes, they can look harder when you get to documenting every step you’ll need. But by providing clear direction and quick, steady movement on each point, you can get the results of your dreams! For many top-level objectives in Human Resources, PerkSpot can be a part of the solution, providing actionable benefits that impact your organization’s turnover and retention rate. Reach out now, or learn more about how PerkSpot can help you reach your goals!

An Inside Look At PerkSpot’s Headquarters

Courtney Shipshock October 27, 2022

We’re headed behind the scenes to get a glance at PerkSpot’s Headquarters located in Downtown Chicago. At PerkSpot, our mission is to inspire others to love where they work, and that starts right here with our own employees. What began as an idea has now sprouted into a company that is changing the lives of employees at more than 1,000 businesses around the world, all with the goal to build a better place to work.

Above all, we are proud to be a leader in the human resources space, creating new and valuable ways for employers to provide financial wellness for over one million employees with an attitude of humility, generosity, and gratitude.

Collaboration is Key

PerkSpot’s office is built for collaboration. With two stories of workspaces, the options are endless.

Open-Air Concept

With an open-air concept, employees are able to smoothly work cross-functionally with other internal teams. In addition, there are plenty of meeting rooms available for private meetings.

The Kitchen

Did someone say free lunch? The PerkSpot kitchen is the perfect place to mingle with colleagues. It’s also a great place to cheers to our successes!

Creative Nooks

Why work from a desk when you can work from a couch? PerkSpot has multiple nooks to let your creativity flow.

Historical Elements

Located at 320 W Ohio Street, the PerkSpot office has historical elements throughout with brick walls and industrial accents.

Natural Sunlight

You don’t have to worry about a lack of sunlight here. In other words, with windows on every wall, natural lighting is always present.

A Culture of Recognition

We are proud of our accomplishments. In other words, our recognition wall is the perfect motivation for all employees.

Outstanding People

Our people are pretty great. Throughout the office you’ll find PerkSpotters hard at work to provide the best possible experience for our members.

Work Hard, Play Hard

PerkSpotters like to have fun too! We frequently hold events both in-person and virtually to connect with our peers and get to know one another.

For our colleagues in Chicago, we offer the flexibility to work remotely. Yet, we cherish our in-person monthly All Hands meetings along with occasional in-office collaboration days. For our remote employees, we offer occasional travel into the office for team and company events.

Recently, PerkSpot was named one of Built In Chicago’s 2022 Midsize Companies Best Places To Work and one of America’s Fastest-Growing Companies by Inc. 5000.

We’re always looking for people who align with our core values, an essential part of who we are as a company. Are you interested in becoming a PerkSpotter? Check out our open positions and apply today!

Why You Need Voluntary Benefits

Max Goldenberg October 6, 2022

Employee benefits are, by their very nature, a highly personal thing. Few things are more important than having reliable health and vision benefits, for instance, across a huge range of varied personal situations. That’s why it’s critical that any competitive benefits package allows for meaningful customization for the things that matter, so employees can opt-in towards retirement, time-off, or whatever else is important to them. In other words – you need a benefits structure that works around the unique needs of your unique employees!

Ideally, your voluntary benefits should be more than just “skin deep”. The kind of benefits program that attracts top talent is the kind that offers meaningful solutions to major hurdles experienced by your employees – like, for instance, providing financial well-being tools such as financial education resources or 401k guidance as part of an employee benefits package. It makes a huge difference to the growing number of employees concerned about their financial health. But even something as simple as separate voluntary benefits for commuters and motorists getting to the office can make a big difference in the positive cultural impact of your program.

Productivity, Loyalty, and Voluntary Benefits

Studies show consistently that incentive programs have a strong positive impact on productivity and loyalty. For example, a recent Incentive Research Foundation study indicated that a well-run incentive program can improve loyalty by up to 44%, showing that employees want to be recognized as individuals for their work. Providing voluntary benefits functions just the same; when employees feel like their efforts are being recognized and rewarded on an individual basis, it acts as a strong productivity driver. That’s because personalizing your benefits demonstrates that you care about your employees – and there’s nothing that ensures employee loyalty more strongly than showing you’re loyal to them right back.

From parking vouchers to cutting-edge telehealth benefits, giving employees a comprehensive and customizable benefits suite is among the top ways to stand out from competitors and attract fiercely competitive best-in-class talent. That’s how PerkSpot helps you build loyalty and reduce turnover; providing your employees with discounts tailored around their interests. Through the hundreds of national brands who work with us, PerkSpot is able to selectively highlight the programs and discounts most applicable to individual employees; whether it’s a frequent traveler in need of cheaper car rentals or an amateur gardener looking for new tools, we’ve got the deals to help your employees save on the things that matter to them. That’s why PerkSpot is such a powerful employee productivity driver.

The Value of Personalization

When you recognize your employees as individuals and format your programs around individual needs, it never goes unnoticed. In many cases, even if the monetary benefit is the same, giving employees the choice to opt-in to relevant programs instead of a “one-size-fits-all” approach improves productivity and loyalty metrics. As far as benefits go, it pays to realize that one size does not fit all; and the more you can provide employees with benefits that match their individual needs, the happier they’ll be. That’s what makes PerkSpot different; our wide range of discounts has something for everyone, no matter how unique. Catering to that uniqueness is our priority.

Interested in learning more about the benefits of a customized discount program? Request a demo for a free overview of how PerkSpot can help your organization!

4 Reasons Behind High Turnover Rates (And How to Solve Them)

Contributing Author September 21, 2022

What does a business need to be successful? Some would say producing best in class, appealing products; others would say top quality customer service. Both factors are undeniably necessary, but for bigger businesses, there’s one metric of success that’s even more important: your employees. And just anyone’s butt in the chair won’t cut it. At the top levels, you need hard-working, committed staff that will help you advance your goals. Feel like you’ve got a fantastic team? Great – but there is another challenge that you’ll need to overcome. If you’ve got the best staff, you want to ensure they stick around, which means keeping turnover down.

If your voluntary turnover is high, it shows that staff aren’t happy with their working situation. There are lots of reasons why you’d want to keep voluntary turnover on the decline – for one, the cost of replacing an employee ranges from one-half to two times the employee’s salary. But how can you keep turnover levels low? The following four steps will help you keep your workers happy and content.

Image sourced from Quantumworkplace.com

1. Poor Management

Looking for one of the top causes of workers leaving their jobs? You’d be hard pushed to beat poor management. The best team leaders can inspire their teams to work harder while utilizing the unique skills of different members. The worst leaders do the opposite.

You might want to consider new leadership if you’re encountering the following issues:

Unmotivated employees
Lack of cohesion between teams
Burnt out employees.
Leaders setting poor standards

These are just a few examples of bad management. These practices will only cause you harm and do little to help you retain employees. Don’t underestimate the importance of leadership in the workplace. If your current leaders aren’t up to scratch, find new ones.

2. Not Enough Opportunities for Progression

Most people don’t take on a job to stay in the same position forever. Employees want to advance and grow in their careers. If workers feel they aren’t getting enough opportunities to progress, they’ll turn over to go elsewhere. Instead, you’ll want staff to feel they have a clear path to climbing the career ladder. You could consider a talent management strategy.

It means creating a culture of development. In other words, the idea of development and progression should be an intrinsic part of your organization. Try to offer continuous education throughout every layer of your business. Even those at the top still have room to learn more. Those at the bottom will be keen to grow their skill sets and advance. So for their sakes, it’s best to make learning materials easy to access, mobile or otherwise!

3. Hiring Externally

Image sourced from Unsplash

One pitfall a lot of businesses fall into is only offering high-level roles externally. There’s a clear logic to hiring externally; you can choose from a larger pool of candidates. But reliance on external recruitment can have a major impact on employee morale, especially for critical mid-level managerial and executive positions; morale impacts that translate directly into higher turnover.

Put yourselves in the shoes of an employee for a moment. You’ve devoted long hours and shown commitment to your organization. But when the opportunity for a promotion crops up, you’re overlooked in favor of an external hire. In this instance, you probably won’t want to stick around much longer.

Ultimately, if employees are putting in the effort, they should have the opportunity for a promotion.

4. Recognize Your Employees

A little recognition goes a long way. A contributing factor to high turnover rates is a failure to show appreciation for the efforts of your workers. Obviously, you don’t want to be gushing praise constantly. But when teams or individual workers do well, you should let them know.

Recognition can take many forms. It could mean setting up an employee of the month scheme. Using a conference calling system, you can announce each month’s winner in front of the team. This is a great way of showing recognition while building a healthy sense of rivalry between teams.

If you want to go the extra step, you could set up a discount program for the highest performers. The more recognition and feedback you offer to your employees, the more valued they will feel.

Employee Satisfaction Is Key

Image sourced from Unsplash

There are some areas in business that are just common sense – like retaining good employees.

Some employee turnover is natural. People don’t stay in the same position forever; they move on to new opportunities and horizons. But if voluntary turnover levels are high, you should be more worried. If your organization isn’t providing a positive environment for your workers, it reflects badly on you.

Start by asking yourself, ‘why are people leaving?’. Is there a problem with management, or perhaps you’re failing to provide a route for your employees to progress? You can’t just click your fingers and make your workers happy. As shown here, retaining workers takes commitment.

But if you look to the roots of the problem and work to find a solution, you’ll foster a much happier workforce. So, make sure you’ve on top of your turnover rate!

This contributor post was written by Jenna Bunnell – Senior Content Marketing Manager at Dialpad.

Dialpad is an AI-incorporated cloud-hosted call center platforms that provides valuable call details for business owners and sales representatives. Jenna is driven and passionate about communicating a brand’s design sensibility and visualizing how content can be presented in creative and comprehensive ways. Jenna Bunnell also published articles for domains such as SME News and Together Platform.

How to Boost Employee Morale in a WFH Environment

Contributing Author August 31, 2022

The workplace is changing. If you are running a business, you probably know this too well. Today, many organizations are doing away with the traditional office – in favor of a remote environment. In recent years this trend has accelerated, 52% of global employees now work remotely at least once a week.

It’s not hard to see why. Remote workers don’t have to worry about costs of commuting or delays due to travel disruptions. Businesses can save money by renting small office spaces, meaning they can focus funds on growth.

With the right technology and an application of integrations, a remote worker can be just as effective as an in-office counterpart; as long as you pay attention to their morale.

But despite these benefits, remote work isn’t always a walk in the park. Remote workers can feel isolated socially, and if you’re not careful, people can feel out of the loop. It all negatively impacts the morale of employees. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Here are some simple ways to boost the morale of your remote employees.

Check in On Your Team

It’s easy for workers to feel a disconnect remotely. In a traditional office environment, leaders will get many opportunities to spend time with team members. Employees must trust leaders and vice versa. Regular meetings provide useful opportunities for teams to get to know leaders.

But in the remote environment, ensuring contact is harder. If leaders don’t work hard to ensure communication, there will be a lack of coherence within teams. But what can be done to avoid this problem?

Ensuring regular meetings is a good first step. Try to find a time that fits with the schedule of all members to avoid creating frustration. Ultimately, you want communication to be as natural as possible. That’s why it’s a good idea to prioritize video calling over audio calls, as this offers more common face-to-face communication.

It’s best to choose work from home tools that have a track record of reliability, especially for communication purposes. You can’t ensure solid dialogue if your phone keeps dropping calls.

Make Mental Health a Priority

The topic of mental health in the workplace has been given more and more attention in recent years. Today, people are less reluctant to talk about their problems and more willing to seek help. But despite this, studies have shown that nearly 1 in 4 workers meet the criteria for ‘clinically relevant symptoms’ of anxiety and depression.

In the remote work environment, these problems are only exacerbated. What’s more, people are more reluctant to come forward to talk about their problems. So, what’s the solution? Start by leveraging emotional intelligence.

Alongside group calls, it’s useful to hold regular one-to-one sessions with members. By doing so, you can offer the chance for workers to express their issues in a confidential, judgment-free environment.

To provide better support in sessions, it’s a good idea to take note of what employees are saying. Otter AI is a good option if you’d rather transcribe notes (although there are some Otter AI app alternatives if you’re looking to save money).

So, if you haven’t already, get in touch with workers and organize some drop-in sessions.

Take Regular Breaks

A key element of working in a standard work environment is a daily schedule. Loss of routine is one of the reasons that many remote workers struggle. Many remote employees overlook a fundamental element of working: taking a break.

The idea of employees doing more work might seem appealing to some (cold-hearted) team leaders, but breaks are necessary. Without taking the occasional rest, workers risk being burnt out. Ensure you encourage your team to step away from the screen and take time for themselves.

Additionally, why not set up a virtual break-out room that employees can join on their breaks? Regular chats are a great way for workers to bond and feel part of a team. By encouraging breaks, your workers will feel more rested; you’ll notice a boost in motivation. It’s a win-win!

Have a Virtual Night Out

Not everyone likes the idea of spending a night out at work. But there is no denying the importance of social events in terms of teamwork and morale. Sharing drinks with your team can be a great way of recognizing successes and building stronger bonds. But how do you replicate this experience when your team is remote?

There’s no denying that virtual festivities are harder to orchestrate. There’s a good chance that you have workers spread across the globe. This means you will have to work across time zones to find a time that works for everyone. Obviously, standard activities like going for a meal aren’t possible, so you have to think creatively.

But if you keep these factors in mind, you can have a fun virtual night out. Here are a few fun activities that you can try out:

Share Drinks – This is probably the simplest solution. While you can’t go to a bar, you can all gather in a conference call and share a drink together.

Cook Together – Again, you can’t go out for a meal, so why not share one together? You can even all work on the same recipe and then share the results of your work!

Start a Book Club – Not everyone likes reading. But for those that do, a book club can be a great way to bond over a shared interest. If reading isn’t an interest, why not all agree on a movie to watch together?

Adapting Is Key

The switch to remote work can be a learning curve. Don’t worry if it takes time to adjust to this different environment. You will need to be flexible with time zones and even schedules.

To keep morale high, you need to put communication at the heart of everything you do. By adapting to new technologies and putting workers’ needs first, you’ll have a happy and productive workforce. With the right approach, your business can out-compete your rivals. So make sure you’re getting the most out of remote working!

This guest post was authored by Grace Lau.

Grace Lau is the Director of Growth Content at Dialpad, an AI-powered cloud mutlichannel call center platform for better and easier team collaboration. She has over 10 years of experience in content writing and strategy. Currently, she is responsible for leading branded and editorial content strategies, partnering with SEO and Ops teams to build and nurture content. Grace Lau also published articles for domains such as Tapfiliate and Easy Affiliate.

Your Top Travel Savings Tips

Max Goldenberg August 26, 2022

If you’ve got Thanksgiving travel plans, whether you’re going by plane or car, gas isn’t cheap these days. Why pay full price on all those flights, rentals and hotels, when you could be saving hundreds every trip? Before you set off to your next destination, here’s some travel pro tips that can help you spend less on getting where you need to go.

Book Rental Cars Online, Not At The Airport

One of the easiest ways to save on rental cars is also one of the simplest – booking well in advance. Rates are much cheaper for rentals booked a few weeks in advance of travel, and especially better than what you’d pay after stepping out of the airport, where you can get hit with a head-spinning number of extra fees. Booking ahead of time also lets you use your online Discount Program, where your membership nabs you 25-35% off from most major car rental companies.

If You’ve Gotta Take a Flight, Get a Good Deal

While an airline loyalty card might save you some money, the real deals are in using a service like Scott’s Cheap Flights to find flights that’ll cost hundreds less. By monitoring fares and compiling the best possible deals, frequent fliers can find tickets for hundreds less. You can access membership to premium flight-discount services like this from your PerkSpot portal, plus find other great deals like 15% off airport parking with ParkNFly from your discount program’s travel center.

Keep Your Eyes Open to Save on Hotels

Even more so than rental cars or flights, you can get great deals on hotels if you know where to look. One of the best ways to get big savings on hotel stays is through your private discount program, where you can regularly find top hotel rooms listed for 30, 40, or even 50% off for both domestic and international travel. Planning your travel around low-occupancy months can also help you save big on hotel stays, though that might not always be possible; but if you can schedule your travels away from tourist season, your wallet will thank you.

While grabbing all these great travel deals can save you hundreds or even thousands on getting around, there’s no denying that compiling the best flights, hotel bundles, and rental cars all in advance to get your savings can be a headache.

Take Advantage of Your Discount Program

If you’ve already got PerkSpot, then your discount marketplace is already working overtime to bring you the best travel deals available anywhere. Instead of running across the internet looking for deals, all you have to do is sign in to your discount portal and navigate to the Travel Discount Center to find the best savings and bundles on hotels, rentals, flights and even cruises in one easy location. Say goodbye to deal hunting and start saving on your travel expenses! And if you don’t already have PerkSpot – well, now that you’ve heard how much you can save on your travel plans, what are you waiting for? Request a demo for free to claim your travel discounts today!

Scaling Your Culture While Keeping Employees Engaged

Max Goldenberg July 27, 2022

When your organization is growing fast, it’s an exciting thing! New clients, new opportunities, new employees – and often new culture brought with them as your organization adapts. But fast-paced growth also comes with its own set of unique challenges; as organizations become bigger and more difficult to manage, more apathetic employees can easily dilute an energetic company culture, tanking employee engagement – and morale with it. Keeping an increasingly large roster of unique employees actively engaged in company culture is a huge challenge. For a growing enterprise, strong, positive cultures are vital for productivity and retention; so you’ll have to tackle the daunting task of scaling culture.

Bring New Employees Into The Conversation

Organizations of any size, even those with codified values, are filled with unspoken norms. These small quirks and daily standards can’t be communicated in onboardings, but they form the most basic building-block of culture. It’s essential that new employees feel a part of these minor daily routines! An excellent way of achieving this is through a monthly meeting where newer employees can discuss the company’s culture. Alternatively, you can assign newer employees a veteran buddy to talk candidly about your ins and outs.

Use Benefits Levers To Provide A Universally Attractive Foundation

Certain traditions, such as monthly gatherings of all staff, may become logistically unfeasible as your organization grows. To replace them, you can leverage digital tools to instead offer benefits with universal appeal. While attractive benefits are no replacement for bottom-up culture, using levers like PerkSpot’s discount program can help engage growing cultures by giving new employees attractive reasons to approach the office with the same enthusiasm of their veteran colleagues.

Be Flexible to New Quirks

With any influx of new employees, or even just a growing scope of your enterprise, it’s important to remember that the organization is never going to be exactly the same as it was – and that’s okay. Scaling your culture is the perfect time to codify your organization’s core values. You’ve got the unique chance now to really identify what makes your culture strong and successful. These core values should be your guiding torch to handling company-wide decisions and day-to-day interactions alike. With confidence in your example-setting, you can help maintain your organization’s positive cultural traits while also allowing new employees to add a piece of their own to the tapestry of your workspace.

Find Ways For Leadership To Engage Organically

It’s true that it’s a bit more difficult to do water-cooler talk over Zoom. Still, whether remote or in-person, it’s important that your organization’s leadership is accessible and engaged. Encouraging lower-pressure get-togethers, lunches, or similar events for teams or individual offices creates an environment where teams and leadership can come closer together. It’s also the perfect setting to reinforce a positive organizational culture!

Growing any organization is an exciting and fast-paced time to be involved, but it’s also a high-pressure environment. While one side of ensuring employee engagement is to provide enjoyable interaction opportunities, the other is to prevent burnout and disengagement through proper support and resources. As long as you can supply both sides of that equation to your employees, old and new, you’ll find any sort of cultural transition a breeze.

Flexible Benefits – What to Know

Max Goldenberg July 14, 2022

Watch out, traditional options plans, because flexible benefits are making big strides. While traditional benefit models provide specific, flat advantage is extended to the employee by their organization, ‘flexible’ or ‘personalized’ benefits challenge this entire hierarchical structure. These flexible benefits employees with stipends, allowing them to actively pick and choose the benefits they want to engage with.

Building Custom Benefits for Your Workplace

But before we get to asking if flexible benefits might be right for your workplace, we should first figure out just what exactly these ‘personalized’ benefits look like. The most common type of flexible benefit is a benefits spending account. Instead of a direct benefit, employees receive specific stipends in their spending accounts that can be spent across a range of lifestyle benefits. A great example of this is a Lifestyle Spending Account. As opposed to hosting regular mandatory training sessions, employees with an LSA might receive a stipend to attend trainings and seminars that they find interesting or useful from a broader list. Employees might even receive stipends to build their own home office, fitness supplies, or maybe even just groceries!

What makes flexible benefits so special – and so often highly well-received by employees – is right in the name; the tremendous level of flexibility they offer. Increasingly diverse workforces have similarly diverse needs, so a ‘flat’ benefit that might be a great boon for one employee – for instance, paternity leave for a new parent – isn’t going to help an employee with no plans of having a kid. By offering flexibility and personalization in benefits through stipends, your new parent might be able to spend his benefits on childcare supplies, while the child-free employee instead books a vacation!

Flexibility and Discount Programs

Although stipends are the most common, discount programs also fall into the category of highly customizable flexible benefits. Much like how a lifestyle stipend gives employees complete flexibility to purchase new gym equipment, bird-watching binoculars, or anything in between, having access to thousands of discounts means that employees have the freedom to pick out just the savings that matter to them – no matter their hobbies, situation, or identity.

Diversity and flexibility go hand in hand; diverse workplace situations require flexible mindsets, whether it’s in accounting for the needs of both in-person and remote employees or offering benefits attractive to individuals at entirely different life stages. By their very nature, no matter how unique your industry or employees, flexible benefits can fit right in.

That’s why you might want to consider PerkSpot for your company’s benefits suite. Not only does PerkSpot offer the adaptability of flexible benefits so that every employee can find something they’ll love – it’s also a no-cost solution, being completely free to add to your organization. Whether you’re looking for a cost-effective way to beef up your benefits or just a perk that everyone can enjoy, let’s talk about how PerkSpot’s discount program could be just the thing you need.