Perks That Work

By Laura Koss-Feder

Though she enjoyed her job as a quality consultant for Hewlett-Packard, Shelley Comes, 47, was thinking seriously in 1995 about leaving it. Comes was concerned about her 74-year-old mother, who has a heart condition and diabetes and was living all alone on a remote farm five hours away. Then Comes learned that HP was offering telecommuting as an option to its employees. She told her boss she would like to give that elective a whirl. She struck a deal to work three weeks a month from the family farm in Garberville, Calif., and one week from her Mountain View office; then she relocated with her husband and daughter. It was, she confesses, the best idea she'd had in a long time.

"Working at home for me has been wonderful," says Comes, who has now been with the high-tech company for 18 years. "I know my mom is O.K., and this allows me to focus on doing my job better." Armed with a laptop PC, an all-in-one fax machine and printers, e-mail, conference-calling capacity and other gear, Comes is able to keep in touch with her colleagues and perform her job of developing and analyzing software from her home. It helps that she works for a computer company--her Hewlett-Packard equipment can be updated regularly with the latest features.

For Katherine Lechler, 35, a graphics designer for CMP Media's InformationWeek, a trade publication in Manhasset, N.Y., knowing that she can have lunch every day with her two children, Christopher, 3, and Beatrice, 13 months, makes all the difference to her job. The company's on-site, full-service day-care center allows Lechler to see her kids anytime during the workday if they aren't feeling well--or if they just need a hug from Mom. She pays the company about $165 a week for Christopher's care and $150 a week for Beatrice's, which, Lechler says, costs her about 20% less than some independent day-care centers located near her home. The company center cares for about 90 children; next year it will be expanded to accommodate 108. "It's a great comfort to me that I can see my kids in a split second if I want to," says Lechler, a 12-year CMP employee. "I don't have to worry about running out of here at the end of the day and racing to a day-care center somewhere else. My kids are right here in the building with me, and that just makes me feel very safe and secure about them, and very grateful that my company offers this great service."

For Comes, Lechler and many other professionals trying feverishly to juggle work, family and personal time for themselves, the normal fringe benefits of corporate employment--health insurance, a dental plan and maybe a subsidized gym-- simply aren't enough to make the grind worthwhile. So in a world where specialized skills and hands-on experience are still at a premium, corporations are adapting at the fringes. Rather than a fat expense account and a company car, firms are offering things like flexible work plans (job sharing and part-time employment) or on-site day-care programs, parenting classes, referrals to elder care for aging parents, and tuition money for college-bound kids. The alternative, they know, is that they may lose "the best and most creative employees in their fields," says Peter Elinsky, partner in charge of compensation and benefits at KPMG Peat Marwick in Washington.

These nontraditional benefits reflect the down-to-earth mind-set of the '90s, a far cry from the conspicuous consumption that dominated the 1980s. For some, quality-of-life initiatives are more meaningful and more of an incentive to do a good job than gargantuan salaries and lofty signing bonuses. And this isn't likely to change anytime soon. In fact, nontraditional benefits like financial-planning services and long-term care insurance are among the top benefit choices that employers intend to expand over the next two years, according to a 1997 survey of 509 companies done by Hewitt Associates, a Lincolnshire, Ill., human-resources consulting firm. By the year 2000, alternative work arrangements, like flextime, job sharing and telecommuting, will probably be offered by more than half--57%--of the employers surveyed.

PROFITS FROM LOYALTY

What's the payoff? For starters, loyalty in a job market where the word is a rarity. Hewlett-Packard estimates that its staff turnover rate is one-quarter to one-third that of competing computer companies in the U.S., says spokeswoman Amy Flores. The company's New Age benefits include flextime and telecommuting, time off for volunteer work in K-12 school programs, and referrals for day-care and elder-care services. "While salary is still an important factor, people will take a lower-paying job if it means they will receive better benefits that make a substantial difference in their lives," says Pam Kerns, corporate account executive with Knowledge Beginnings, a work-life consulting firm based in San Rafael, Calif.

Such benefits can take many forms. Along with the family and flexible work arrangements, some companies provide additional time off in the form of sabbaticals. Others simply offer to make people feel better--by having an on-site psychologist to speak with about personal problems, letting employees volunteer for their favorite charity on company time or having a vacation paid for by the boss. High-tech firms, financial institutions, travel companies and consulting firms have been among the most progressive in offering such creative benefits, Kerns says.

Nancy Rowland, 56, an administrative assistant at ATS Telephone & Data Systems Inc., a Memphis, Tenn., telecommunications firm, is a big fan of the new approach. Worried about her daughter's marital difficulties, Rowland sought advice three years ago from the company's part-time industrial psychologist, Paul Stuart. He spoke with Rowland and even counseled her daughter and son-in-law. Rowland has met with Stuart, who is an ordained minister, to seek solutions to other problems--and just to ask his opinion on decisions like whether to move from a rural area to a more suburban setting to be closer to her job. "My company sees me as more than just someone who sits in front of a computer--as a multi-faceted person with a variety of concerns and needs," says Rowland, 56, who has been at ATS for five years. "Having someone like Paul to talk to gives me an emotional as well as a spiritual lift," she adds. "I really feel like he cares about me and my family. This kind of attention is something you don't want to give up."

For its part, ATS does very well out of the deal. The $22,000 a year that the company pays Stuart for his counseling services is about a fifth of what it saves on hiring new people, according to Michael Hackett, vice president of human resources. ATS's turnover rate is 8%; the norm for the telecommunications industry is about 25%, he points out. "People walk around this place feeling better about themselves and their jobs compared with workers in other companies I've seen, since they know they have someone like Paul to talk to if they need to," Rowland says.

In a similar approach, Marriott International offers a 24-hour, toll-free hot line manned by social workers to give employees assistance with and referrals for almost any problem. This can include anything from tips on how to maintain a budget to advice on how to handle a child being expelled from school, to what to do if your house burns down. The hot line costs about $1 million annually to operate. It saves Marriott about $4 million in reduced absenteeism and lower turnover.

Another virtue of creative benefits is that a company need not be a multinational giant to offer them. Take the case of Russell, Karsh & Hagan, an 11-person public relations firm in Denver. Employees are allowed to donate public relations work to their favorite charities--on company time. Over the past year, the firm has donated pro bono p.r. expertise to eight charities, says managing partner Charles Russell. In 10 years of business, only one person has left for another company, he says. "The company cares about what is important to me personally," says accounts supervisor Meghan Dougherty, 32, a six-year employee. Dougherty has donated more than 100 hours annually to help promote Big Brothers Big Sisters programs and a local aquarium. "It's nice to get out of the office in the middle of the day and know you're doing something worthwhile for a good, worthy cause," she says. "I come back to the office feeling refreshed and more thankful for what I have in my life. It's like the same kind of endorphin rush you get from exercising."

One of the major worries of working parents is how best to take care of their kids. To meet that need, NationsBank of Charlotte, N.C., provides five different on-site or near-site child-care centers that are open to the children of its 100,000 employees. There is even a public school accommodating 150 students for grades K-3 that is just for children of NationsBank's employees in Jacksonville, Fla., says Nancy Poe, a vice president in the bank's personnel department. The school is a joint project of the company and the Duval County school system. "The school is an extension of our day-care program," says Poe. "Parents have the comfort of knowing that they can visit their children in the school, which is right near their office."

PHASE BACK FOR PARENTS

New mothers and fathers at NationsBank, including those who adopt a child, can take up to six months of partial home time after their six weeks of maternity or paternity leave, Poe notes. In this program, employees can "phase back" into their jobs, working more than 20 hours and less than 40 hours, if they want.

For NationsBank vice president Sheila Burroughs, 31, taking advantage of the phase-back program and spending more time with her new baby reduced the stress of jumping back into the work force after an extended maternity leave. She returned to work part time for about a month after her daughter Melissa was born in February 1997, and plans to do the same with her infant Jenna, who was born last month. "I wasn't quite ready physically or emotionally to go right back to work full time," Burroughs says. "You need that extra time to really just enjoy your baby and get over the newness of becoming a parent."

Flexible work arrangements and the ability to take extra time off are attractive lures in the current economy. Sometimes they give employees the chance to develop the idealistic side that earlier generations felt constrained to repress when they put on a business suit and tie. Bonnie Weisner, 34, a senior consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Fort Lee, N.J., took advantage of the firm's flextime policy because she wanted to pursue an outside interest--becoming an emergency medical technician with a volunteer ambulance corps. In September she took a 40% pay cut and went from a 55-hr. workweek to a 24-hr. workweek at the consulting firm. She spends the rest of the week in training to become an EMT. She has an understanding with the company that she can go back to work full time when, and if, she wants.

"I was at a burnout stage and felt I needed to do something different in my life, but I wasn't too quick to get up and leave my job, since they gave me the option to do something like this," says Weisner, who has worked at the company since she graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton 12 years ago. "I guess I wanted to feel like I'm giving back to my community in a tangible way," she adds. Weisner had toyed with the idea of going to medical school when she was an undergraduate. "If I can save someone's life or even help a little kid who has broken his leg, I'll feel like I'm really making a difference. You just don't get that feeling sitting behind a desk."

PLEASURE PERKS

Other creative benefits can take a variety of shapes, some of them just plain fun. Jerry Daly, president of Daly Gray, a Northfield, N.J., public relations firm with six employees and annual billings of $1 million, donates some of his frequent-flyer miles to his staff. Daly's practice of letting employees add vacation days to business trips if they want allows his firm to save on airfare--because of cut-rate Saturday-night-stayover airline prices. And his grateful employees get the added benefit of a mini-vacation at no cost to them. "I may be competing with the largest public relations firms in the world for employees; I need to differentiate myself from the big guys," Daly says.

Daly Gray vice president Carol McCune says she has saved $15,000 to $20,000 in hotel and airfare expenses during the five years she has been with the firm. When she goes to California on business, she stays a few extra days to visit her sister--courtesy of the boss. "If it weren't for these business trips, I would probably never get to see my sister and 12-year-old nephew," McCune says. "This is my twin sister, and we are very close. And it's real important to me that I can go to my nephew's soccer games and watch him grow up, even though he lives so far away."

Some companies may even help employees with their holiday shopping. CMP Media is considering the launch in January of a personal concierge service for its 1,800 employees, says Leah Landro, director of compensation and benefits. By calling a toll-free number, employees could have a special gift picked out and sent to that hard-to-please favorite aunt or have tickets ordered for the hottest concert in town, without doing any of the legwork.

At CMP, some benefits translate into big savings for the company's employees. Those with college-bound children receive $2,000 toward their kids' higher education. "Even if I were to get a better job offer somewhere else, I would have to think twice about giving up the kind of benefits that my company offers," CMP's Lechler says. That's the whole idea.