While all employees are usually eligible for benefits such as health and other insurance, retirement plans and leave, key employees have come to expect certain additional benefits related to their increased levels of responsibility. Among the perquisites employers may want to consider for top performers and key, or even all, employees are:
- Company automobile.
- Extra vacation.
- Special parking privileges.
- Personal expense accounts.
- Spouse travel on company business.
- Sabbaticals (with pay).
- Professional memberships.
- Professional publications.
- Loans/mortgages.
- Club memberships.
- Parking (depending on circumstances).
- Chauffeur.
- Estate planning.
- Legal services.
- Medical expense reimbursement.
- Travel clubs.
- Credit cards.
- Home entertainment allowance.
- Physical examinations/health screening.
- Physical exercise facilities.
- Executive dining room.
- Matched donations to universities, colleges and/or charities.
- Tuition programs.
- Dependent day care (on- or off-site).
- End-of-year bonus.
- Merchandise discounts.
- Sales commissions.
- Holiday gifts.
- Employee assistance programs (EAPs) (substance abuse, debt, interpersonal relationships, psychological, financial, other types of counseling).
- Service awards.
- Credit unions.
Like basic benefits, perquisites help attract and keep good employees. You can balance the far higher cost of providing some perquisites with expectations of increased production from the employees who benefit.
Key employees responsible for generating contacts for new business should receive consideration for company automobiles, personal expense accounts, professional memberships and publications, club memberships, spouse travel on company business, credit cards, home entertainment allowances, end-of-year bonuses and sabbaticals.
Sales staff responsible for keeping current customers satisfied should receive consideration for company automobiles (if needed for their duties), credit cards, personal expense accounts, professional memberships and publications, sales commissions, spouse travel on company business and end-of-year bonuses.
All employees should receive consideration for EAPs, physical exercise facilities (if you have them), parking, tuition programs, dependent day care, holiday gifts, service awards, credit unions, matched donations to universities, colleges and/or charities, physical examinations or health screenings when offered and merchandise discounts.
Offer legal services and loans and mortgages on a case-by-case basis.
Some perquisites, such as extra vacation, should be given only as a reward for extraordinary service to your company.
You may want to consider employer-employee cost sharing of such perquisites as physical exercise facilities, dependent day care, parking and, perhaps, some health screening services.
Before beginning any program of perquisites, check current tax law for treatment of each item:
- Can you, as the employer, deduct it as a business expense?
- Will it become taxable income for your employee?
