Following The Zappos Model To Offering The Best Employee Benefits

Jasmine http://about.zappos.com/jobs 3m 678 #zappos

The views of this article are the perspective of the author and may not be reflective of Confessions of the Professions.

What You Can Learn from Zappos on Offering the Best Employee Benefits

For the past five years, Zappos has made it onto Fortune Magazine’s Best Companies list. That’s a pretty prestigious list to find yourself on. Looks like selling shoes isn’t the only thing Zappos is good at.

So why is Zappos considered one of the best places to work in the entire country? Well, one of the things that Zappos as an employer is known for is their amazing benefits packages and the extra “perks” that they offer to their employees.

Let’s take a look at some of the traditional and nontraditional benefits that Zappos offers… and maybe each of us can learn how to be better employers ourselves.

Medical, Dental, Vision, & Life

Zappos offers a very competitive “basic benefits” package. They understand that they have to offer top benefits packages when it comes to medical, dental, vision, & life insurance if they want to stay competitive in the job market and have happy & loyal employees. A few perks of their basic benefits packages include:

• large provider network
• zero money out of pocket for many procedures
• zero deductibles in-network
• full coverage on primary & routine care
• free dental exams & cleanings
• adult orthodontic benefits
• adoption & infertility benefits
• generous life & accident insurance

As you can see, they aren’t trying to scrimp when it comes to their employee’s benefits.

Fitness & Nutrition Benefits

Zappos believes that “Benefits are hot!” and they definitely put their money where their mouth is when proving that they are willing to spend money in order to have happy, healthy employees. Zappos goes way past just offering the general benefits packages. They understand that a healthy employee is a happy one, and they are willing to invest in their employees’ health to ensure their employees are healthy. This is not only smart because it shows their employees that they care about their health, but it also results in healthier employees… which means less time missed due to illness. They offer Fitness, Nutrition, & Lifestyle Programs to help their employees achieve their optimum health. Some of these benefits include:

• on-site gym that is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
• fitness & health classes
• financial classes
• they pay for employees’ entry into “endurance events” (races, etc)
• paid for on-site Weight Watchers sessions
• free food (both healthy & unhealthy) in cafe & break rooms
• free smoking cessation classes
• and, the piece de resistance, they have nap rooms!

Additional Benefits

Zappos goes way beyond the expected with their employee benefits & perks packages. They give their employees 40% off all products on their website, paid volunteer time off, monthly team outings, themed company picnics, a nursing room, etc etc.

More Ideas

Even though Zappos is known for their generous benefits packages, that doesn’t mean that they’ve thought of it all. In my opinion, there are still several great employee benefits that they aren’t offering. Here are a few more ideas of great benefits or “perks” that you could offer to your employees to follow the “Zappos model” of generous employee benefits packages:

• tuition reimbursement
• onsite daycare or childcare costs reimbursement
• onsite massage therapist (or bring in a massage therapist once a week to do employee massages)
• game room
• birthday PTO
• fuel cards to cover fuel costs for work trips (Fleetcare offers a great corporate fuel card)

Zappos has earned the title of one of the top places to work in the entire country. One of the reasons they’ve earned this bragging right is because of the amazing benefits packages that they offer to their employees. By following their example with generous and creative benefits packages, you can also help to create a company that people will be lining up out the door to work for.

Jasmine is business owner who understands the importance of having happy employees who feel taken care of. She’s researched everything to do with this, including the best employee benefits to offer to the best ways to plan a company party.

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