Workplace News this Week: Best Perks of 2021, Spying on Employees, & the Power of the People

Here are the topics and trends grabbing attention ?? in the workplace this week. As an Employee Benefits Advisor, we get the inside scoop on what employers and employees are concerned, excited, and stressed about. What is the topic grabbing your attention this week?

1.And the Best Perks & Benefits of 2021 are……. Comparably, a culture and compensation data company, announced the results from their Best Companies for Perks and Benefits list. Looking at the small/mid-size companies (because it’s hard to compete with Google and Microsoft), here some of the most interesting and well-liked benefits from employees:

• Pipefy, a SaaS company from CA, offers 7 days of PTO for marriage, 10 days for mourning, and 3-6 months for maternity/paternity leave.
• Stack Overflow, a NY-based software company, offers a 4 week sabbatical on year 5 along with a continuing education stipend of $1750/year and tuition reimbursement up to $5,250/year.
• ClearCover, a fintech company from Chicago, offers a home office stipend of $250 to set up your remote office.
• ThomasArts, a marketing agency out of Utah, offers a wellness and phone reimbursement along with reimbursements for conferences and trainings throughout the year.

What’s in common between the winners? A majority of the companies listed focus on lifestyle benefits like flexible paid leave, a gym membership, and dollars toward education.

2. What’s the verdict on spying on employees? Digital.com found that 60% of companies who have employees working remotely, are using a monitoring software to track employee activity. The companies in the survey cited productivity as the primary reason for surveillance and only 14% of companies have not notified their employees of the monitoring. What did Digital.com’s survey reveal about employees?

• Eighty-one percent of employers using monitoring software report an increase in employee productivity after the software was implemented.
• Twenty-five percent of employers terminated between one and 10 workers as a result of monitoring their productivity habits, while 21% terminated between 51 and 100 employees.
• Thirty-nine percent of construction employees, 32% of employees in advertising and marketing, 29% of business and finance workers, and 28% of IT employees spend 5 or more hours per day on non-work activities. Yikes! ?

Disclaimer-- Employers who are tracking employee activity should make note of any state laws that prohibit monitoring or require an employee notice. ?

3. Employees are officially in the driver seat. This was a big week for employees all across the U.S. The labor shortage, rising company profits, and working conditions during the pandemic have given employees a seat at the table for negotiating better pay and benefits. John Deere has 10,000 employees on strike after unionized workers were unable to come to an agreement with the company, despite John Deere offering employees an increase in pay and benefits. This week 60,000 union TV and film workers announced plans to strike along with 24,000 workers from Kaiser Permanente. This is good news for employers looking to poach employees from these companies but also a wake up call to large employers who may need to re-evaluate their compensation packages as more states become more union-friendly.

To view trending topics in greater depth, make sure to check out my weekly LinkedIn Live, FriYay Workplace News, on Friday's at 9AM EST.?

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