How green are your work perks?

Work perks, or work benefits, are incentives offered on top of employees’ base salaries that help increase motivation and enhance the employee experience. Popular workplace perks include free meals, subsidised gym memberships, and summer working hours. However, new generations of employees are starting to scrutinise the green credentials of their rewards programmes and ask for more sustainable alternatives. 

Do work perks improve engagement?

Reward and recognition are proven to influence how engaged people feel, as our PEARL model shows, however creative perks alone aren’t enough to improve employee engagement or influence why people stay. To have a real impact, benefits should be offered as part of a wider employee engagement strategy  so they can reflect the needs and feedback of your people.

How can we make work perks greener?

Traditional work perks focused on aspects like a creative office environment, social events, or free snacks and meals. However, increased awareness around our environmental impact means that employees are more alert to the ethics and impact of the benefits being offered.

In light of this, many organisations are reviewing the perks available, in order to reflect a healthier, greener agenda. A strong green footprint is also key to engaging a Gen Z workforce; 70% of 18 – 26 year olds are 70% more likely to choose a company that cares about sustainability.

Below, we share ideas to clean up your work perks programme and ensure they reflect your values, ethics, and employees. 

Examples of environmentally friendly work perks:

1. Cycle to work schemes
2. Electric vehicle salary sacrifice schemes
3. ‘Journey days’ to reduce flights
4. Source meals and snacks from local businesses
5. Green gyms and company allotments
6. Discounts on home insulation
7. Food sharing apps
8. Volunteering days
9. Give As You Earn schemes
10. Support a tree planting charity

Employees want to see climate positive action  

Company values have long been important to employee engagement, but we’re now seeing prospective employees seek out responsible employers. People want to work for companies that make a positive difference. In fact, 34% of UK white-collar workers said they’d turn down a job from a company with poor environmental credentials. Similarly, 40% of millennials would take a lower-paid job to work at an environmentally responsible company.  

Like we’ve seen with Diversity and Inclusion, employees won’t allow their leaders to stand by when it comes to making environmental commitments. While company-wide action needs to be led from the top, the demand for change is coming from employees across the business. People are speaking up about the change they’d like to see.  

“Employees want to feel that their employers are aligned with their values and actively taking action.” Leyla Acaroglu, Designer and Sustainability expert.

Clean up the commute  

Enabling employees to make greener travel choices can reduce personal carbon emissions and clean up our planet. Look for employee benefits that encourage cycling, walking, public transport usage, or carsharing when employees need to travel to the office or to meetings.  

Ideas for a cleaner commute

Cycle to work schemes are a great incentive that help employees save up to 40% on the cost of a bike. However personal health or circumstances may limit the take-up of this scheme. As an alternative, consider encouraging employees to go electric. Electric vehicle salary sacrifice schemes help employees switch to more environmentally friendly vehicles.  

Some organisations are taking their employee perks even further. For example, Somerset-based cheese manufacturer Wyke Farm provides free electrical car charging in its employee car park and the Bank of America offers employees $3000 cashback for switching to hybrid cars.  

Beyond the commute, flying is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases and can be a hard habit to break. A recent survey found that 50% of people want to reduce the amount they fly – yet only 3% do it. Climate-conscious employers are signing up to Climate Perks and offering paid ‘journey days’ to staff who travel on holiday by train, coach or boat instead of flying – empowering people to act on their values.  

Shop locally for your employee perks  

Depending on your company size and location, there are a variety of green employee benefits you can offer that focus on locally sourced goods.  

Ideas for on-site perks

If you still provide meals, snacks or treats for on-site staff, consider how you can source these from local businesses and include a variety of vegetarian or vegan options to help reduce meat consumption.  

Offering workshops and activities that teach employees how to garden is a great way to encourage people to grow their own produce and spend quality time outside. While some of these lessons might need to be hands-on, many can be run virtually to include remote workers. 

Of course, your perks could get even more local by using a company garden or allotment to grow produce. Footwear and clothing brand Timberland has a 1200 square foot fruit and vegetable garden on the front lawn of its headquarters. The Timberland Victory Garden is maintained by employees, with produce sold to staff and local residents and all profits given to charity.  

Energy efficient employee perks 

While some organisations have returned to the office, many employees are still working from home for at least part of the week and are keen to find greener energy solutions.  

Your employee perks could include discounts on alternative energy installation, for example rooftop solar panels, or help to subsidise loft or cavity wall insulation.  

By offering rebates or discounts you can also help employees access more energy efficient appliances, home energy assessments, home composting equipment or devices such as smart thermostats that can help reduce their energy consumption and bills.  

Reducing food waste is another hot topic. Encourage the use of a food sharing app like OLIO that connects employees with one another and local businesses to cut down on food waste.  

If you’re offering these energy efficiency discounts, look for local providers you can partner with and check that their sustainability ethos aligns with yours.  

Offer community-based employee perks 

There are a number of employee perks that appeal to staff while also helping improve green spaces, boost local communities and support charities. 

You could set up an annual volunteering day with a local charity, for instance a foodbank, community garden or litter-picking group. This allows your organisation to give back and has a positive impact in your local community. Virtual volunteering opportunities, for example becoming a telephone friend for lonely older people, have increased since Covid-19 making this more accessible for remote workers.  

Some companies are part of a salary exchange or Give As You Earn scheme which allows employees to donate part of their salary to charity each month. You could nominate a charity with similar values to your organisation or invite donations to a charity focused on the environment. 

If you run peer-nominated employee awards with a voucher or cash prize, consider offering a charitable donation as an alternative. Your employees may have a specific charity in mind, or you could choose to support an organisation like Eden Reforestation Projects who employ local people in areas of extreme poverty to plant trees and restore healthy forests.  

Beyond employee perks, you could introduce tree planting as an incentive or reward. Many of our employee survey clients choose to plant 1 or more trees via Eden Reforestation Projects for every survey participant. At People Insight, we also plant 200 trees as a thank you to clients for taking part in a webinar or case-study.