The Behavioral Economics Driving Companies To Award Remote Workers New Perks

The conventional wisdom is that companies are pleasantly surprised by their employees productivity as they have worked from home during the pandemic.

But as the timeline for returning to the workplace is extended and the possibility that some, if not all, may never return, at least full time in the traditional sense, organizations are searching for ways both to reward performance as well as inspire cultural bonds based on teamwork, values and shared goals. To do so, employers are working to determine the mix of behavioral economic and motivations that will be mutually beneficial and optimize outcomes. JL

Ann-Marie Alcantara reports in the Wall Street Journal:

“How do you maintain focus that you had within a classic office environment because of what you’ve got around your home or other potential interruptions?” Businesses are seeing the importance of addressing the impact that chronic stress has on people or on their bottom lines from lost productivity, healthcare spend and attrition. Employers are also trying to compensate for the loss of perks tied to the office, like free lunches in the cafeteria, or subsidized gym memberships. “(In) a virtual or dispersed environment, we need to continue to create a culture where we were connected.”

As many companies enter a third month of lockdown with no clear end in sight, employers are toying with new perks that might address some of the struggles remote workers are facing on their own.

For instance, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., based in San Jose, Calif., in April started giving employees access to meditation and mindfulness services from Headspace Inc. Some 9,000 of the company’s workers have tried it, spending more than 500,000 minutes on the app.

Hewlett already offered other mental health support, but added Headspace to help employees unplug, even—or perhaps especially—with work relocated to the home, said Alan May, whose title is chief people officer at Hewlett.

“Many people were suddenly thrust into a whole different work environment,” he said. “How do you maintain focus, mindfulness in an environment that you no longer have as much control as you perhaps had within a classic office environment because of what you’ve got around your home or other potential interruptions?”

He added, “We needed a platform that could enable team members to get away.”

But Headspace might also serve to bring employees together with challenges like meditating for a certain number of minutes in a month, said Lindsay Crittendon, head of the Headspace for Work program.

“Businesses are increasingly seeing the importance of addressing the impact that chronic stress has on people—or on their bottom lines from lost productivity, healthcare spend and attrition,” Ms. Crittendon said.

Employers are also trying to compensate for the loss of perks tied to the office, like free lunches in the cafeteria, or tied to places that are closed at the moment, like subsidized gym memberships.

The financial software company BlackLine Inc., for instance, had contributed to employees’ memberships to ClassPass Inc., which allows users to take classes at a variety of gyms and studios.

Now BlackLine is testing a four-week series of virtual classes via ClassPass. The company streams a live class with a different theme—yoga or Pilates, for instance—each week. Each class is held at four different times to give employees across different time zones a chance to take it.

About 40 employees joined the first week’s yoga session, said Esther Yang, global benefits manager for BlackLine.

“As we transition to a virtual or fully virtual or dispersed environment, we needed to make sure we still continue to create a culture where we were connected,” Ms. Yang said.

But perks can also take the form of more closely addressing the pandemic. Hotel management company Montage International began providing employees with memberships to One Medical, a service providing virtual and in-office care, which is affiliated with 1Life Healthcare Inc. With a One Medical membership, employees can schedule telehealth appointments, send messages to health-care providers, refill prescriptions and more, as a way to supplement their healthcare coverage.

The company is also using One Medical to conduct daily assessments of employees to ensure they have no symptoms of Covid-19.

Jason Herthel, president and chief operating officer at Montage International, based in Irvine, Calif., said the additional One Medical membership seemed like a natural companion to the daily Covid-19 screening. Guests who stay at certain properties operated by Montage also receive a 30-day complimentary membership to One Medical.

“We want to make sure they have ready access in the palm of their hands to medical care,” Mr. Herthel said of Montage’s employees.

Businesses are trying one-off perks as well.

Pre-pandemic, Meadows Office Interiors, which is headquartered in New York, used to have events like wine on Wednesdays and pizza on Fridays. Those now gone, the company went to SnackMagic, a new brand from Kitchen Stadium Inc., to allow employees to choose $45 worth of snacks to have sent to their homes. Before coronavirus, Kitchen Stadium compiled workers’ orders from multiple restaurants into single deliveries for offices.

SnackMagic has shipped more than 10,000 of its boxes since its introduction on May 7, Kitchen Stadium said.

“It is that sense of community that keeps everyone coming back and it means we need to try and focus on that even when we’re not in the office,” said Marissa Allen, chief operating officer and co-owner of Meadows Office Interiors.