Upand$tarting

You want people to want to work for you because of your vision, cool product, or desire to have a hand in creating a company and not just being a cog in the machine.  But, you need to provide a competitive benefits package to allow them to focus on the work and keep your employees happy.  The overriding benefit you should offer your employees should be ownership through stock options and the incentive to build a business that will have their fingerprints on the company’s success.

Here is a list of basics that you will need to have in place.

•    Medical – company partially subsidized
•    Dental – company partially subsidized
•    Health Savings Account
•    Long term and short term disability
•    Life insurance – minimum 1x salary
•    401k – Roth or regular, generally non-matching
•    3 weeks vacation – make them use it and recharge their batteries
•    Paid holidays & sick time – the standard 10 -12 major holidays plus sick time as needed

Extras that put you above the rest

•    Free soft drinks – company stocked fridge
•    Free snacks – through peapod or other delivery service
•    Monthly Starbucks allowance – create a caffeine addiction
•    Cell phone (Blackberry or iPhone) or reimbursement – this one may not be considered a benefit to some
•    Better than average workstation set-up (Laptop, dual 22” LCDs, Aeron Chair)
•    A Kindle (from Amazon) with a monthly book allowance to spend on work related material
•    Matching charitable donations
•    Allow each employee to choose one conference to attend each year and act as an ambassador to your company

Putting together a package made up of the first list and adding a few of the items from the second will give your company a killer benefits package and may make the difference in pulling in top performers.  The more thoughtful and offbeat benefits help define your corporate culture as an exciting and fun place to work.