17 Companies with Stand-Out Employee Perks

A paycheck isn't the only thing that makes great employees happy and stay with the company. Savvy companies are figuring out that offering great employee perks help them recruit and retain the top candidates. It helps them become an employer of choice.

Business Insider recently featured 17 companies who have made their employee perks something to talk about. Aside from traditional perks, such as paid vacations, many of these companies feature outstanding wellness facilities, tickets to amusement parks, free travel, and more. Here's their list.

1. Epic Systems - This Healthcare tech company is known for their month-long paid vacation and outdoor inspired work environment.

2. Google - The search engine giant is known for free food, recreational activities, a gym, and on-site haircuts and massages.

3. Cisco Systems - Cisco takes health and wellness to the next level with on-site fitness center, primary care, physical therapy, and acupuncture.

4. S.C. Johnson - The cleaning products company offers a concierge service to help employees with their chores such as returning library books and picking up dry cleaning.

5. Southwest Airlines - This airline company boasts free flights, travel discounts, and a festive environment.

6. General Mills - General Mills offers their employees a significant amount of freedom and flexibility with their employment. Employees in certain departments are allowed to sit wherever they chose, and all new hires automatically receive three weeks paid vacation.

7. Chesapeake Energy - The natural gas producer encourages their employees to be active. Their company features an on-site rock-climbing wall, fitness center, Olympic-sized pool, and sand volleyball court.

8. Smucker’s - Headquartered in Orrville, Ohio, this company sends gift baskets to the homes of their new hires. Employees of Smucker’s also enjoy recreational activities, such as softball games and bowling nights. They also offer to reimburse their employees 100 percent for tuition costs if they chose to go back to school.

9. Yahoo - This internet company offers their employees access to their outstanding, on-site fitness centers featuring yoga, cardio-kickboxing, pilates, and golf classes. Employee wellness is a priority as the office has ergonomic support chairs, healthy snacks, and drinks on every floor of the office.

10. Quinn Emanuel - The law firm boasts an amazing vacation perk: employees receive a $2,000 allowance for one week to work from anywhere in the world, as long as they work their normal hours. Anomalous from the typical law firm, employees have a casual dress policy to promote their creativity. Instead of conducting traditional job interviews, the firm assesses prospective interns with parties on law-school campuses.

11. Boeing - The aerospace company promotes social well-being and provides their workers with 12 paid holidays and a winter break between Christmas and New Year’s Day. They also connect new hires with social activities and community outreach through their “REACH program.”

12. Mattel - The toy manufacturer clearly values the family dynamic, particularly the parent-child relationship. The company offers a program to defray adoption costs for families looking to adopt a child. They also offer parents 16 hours of paid time off for school-related activities, such as field trips and parent-teacher conferences.

13. Microsoft - The software giant offers some unconventional perks that set them apart from other corporations. Although many corporations offer maternity and paternity leave, Microsoft’s maternity/paternity leave is paid. Additionally, they provide their employees with a network of support programs.

14. World Wildlife Fund - The non-profit allows their employees to work a few extra hours during the week in order to take every other Friday off.

15. Oshkosh - The armored vehicle manufacturer offers extensive advancement and training opportunities to their employees through instructor-led, web-based, and video-based trainings. The company also provides tuition reimbursement for employees seeking higher education.

16. 3M - The office product company offers many wellness programs to their employees, including smoking cessation, weight loss, and stress management programs. The company also extends their health benefits to employees in same-sex domestic partnerships.

17. TIAA-CREF - The financial services organization provides on-site medical services and full-time daycare to their employees. The organization also boasts facilities for their employees to play up to six sports on site.

Although traditional benefits are still an important part of employee retention and recruitment, there are some non-traditional workplace perks that are appealing to employees. Many of these companies have focused their employee perks on creating a culture of health and wellness, supporting the family dynamic, and fostering a flexible work environment. These companies clearly understand the value and benefits of a great company culture.

While many of these companies are huge corporations with extensive budgets, small and growing companies could learn a lot from these techniques for employee satisfaction. These examples show that it doesn’t always take a lot of money to make employees happy. Some of these perks are very simple and would be easy for any company, large or small, to implement, no matter what their budget is.

Which of these workplace perks is your favorite? Leave a comment below.