With the withdrawal of first class rail travel for many civil servants and the BA cabin crew strike reduced to an argument about reinstating free staff flights, perks are very much in the news at present and, for the most part, are getting a bad press. Ian Hislop, talking about the BA strike on his news quiz TV programme, was typical in his sneering attitude towards the whole notion of perks.
Well, if Hislop thinks perks are trivial, he’s been too rich, for too long. When, aged 24 and accustomed more to travelling in old bangers or hitch hiking, I landed a job which involved frequent first class rail travel and flights sitting at the front of the plane, it made me feel like a king. More importantly, from my employer’s point of view, it made me feel valued. This was something they didn’t have to do for me, but did nonetheless. And boy, did I return the favour, working much longer and harder than I had to. A little generosity on my employer’s part reaped much greater dividends.
Perks make particularly strong economic sense when an organisation can offer a benefit that costs it very little, but which the recipients value a great deal. BA is the obvious, as well as the most topical, example here. Allowing staff to use otherwise empty seats costs BA nothing. But, especially for staff who have taken a significant pay cut to do an increasingly low status job, free flights to anywhere must make all the difference in the world.
In many countries, gifts between company representatives are also a regular ‘perk of the job’. In the UK, we are quick to dismiss such gifts as corruption, but the true position is much subtler and more constructive. Indeed, in my experience, the risk of corruption is part of the game of checking out who you are dealing with and whether or not he or she can be trusted. No gift at all breaks no ice. A small token shows politeness, goodwill and a degree of sophistication. Too substantial a gift raises alarm bells and shouts ‘this person wants to buy me in the hope I’ll sell out my company’.
Such subtleties are the very stuff of the provision of professional services, because everything hinges upon relationships and the quality of your staff. Thus an awareness that short-term perks can motivate staff more than money, and that the most humourless of clients will, all else being equal, choose the firm with which it has the better relationship, can make the difference between keeping and losing an account.
So provide employees with more perks, not less, because it’s cheaper. And if it’s not on to take clients out for a boozy lunch, consider taking them out for boozy dinner (or something more original) instead. Most will be genuinely appreciative – and you’ll discover much more about what makes them and their organisation tick, than at any formal meeting.
