A Homey Cubicle Helps a Little

By Julie Rawe

Peggy Hunt learned to fly-fish on company time. The human-resources manager works at Orvis, a mail-order firm in Manchester, Vt., that offers employee classes on the outdoorsy lifestyle espoused in its catalogs. S.D. Deacon, a construction company based in Portland, Ore., gives new hires $100 to decorate their cubicles, "just to make it feel homey," says an administrator, "since we're here so much." In today's labor market, in which simply getting a paycheck can qualify as a morale booster, some firms are providing inexpensive stress reducers that have the added benefit of squeezing more work out of their staff.

More companies are offering such perks as on-site massages and hair salons, take-home meals and pet health insurance, according to surveys by employee-benefits consultants. But there's a catch. Most of the new benefits are paid for by workers, the people being asked to do more work for the same--or lower--pay. Each week, for example, some 50,000 workers pay to use Pressed4Time, the dry-cleaning pickup-and-delivery franchise that is part of a growing suite of employer-facilitated "concierge" services. "Companies are adding 'soft' benefits that save employees time as opposed to 'hard' benefits that cost employers money," says John Challenger, who heads an executive-outplacement firm based in Chicago.

"The value far exceeds the overhead costs," says Jeff Chambers, human-resources chief at SAS, the world's largest privately held software company. SAS calculates that the free primary-health-care facility at its Cary, N.C., headquarters enables workers to return to their desks in 30 minutes instead of the two hours they would need if they went off-site to a doctor. The company, which has two on-site child-care centers, a 77,000-sq.-ft. gym, a farmers' market and a putting green, last month announced a new benefit: retiree health care. "We're going counterculture," says Chambers, noting that the firm has a 97% worker-retention rate. "And when the economy turns around, we'll be poised to execute because we've got all the talent we need." --By Julie Rawe