MIAMI – Imagine having someone change the oil in your car and pick up your dry cleaning without having to leave work. For some employees, it’s more than just a dream, it’s reality, the Associated Press reports.
A growing number of workplaces are embellishing their benefits with “concierge services” for employees. From flower delivers to restaurant reservations, to dry cleaning and car washing, companies are beginning to pamper their employees by offering help with the mundane chores of modern life.
For example, the employees of Memorial Healthcare System can have someone else get their car’s oil changed, while at Ernst & Young, workers can have someone plan their vacation or research elder care options for them. Google offers its employees a varied list of services, from three free meals a day to on-site car washes, oil changes, massages, haircuts, dry cleaning, child care and medical care. The Internet search company subsidizes some services, while employees have to pay completely for others.
About 5 percent of U.S. companies in the United States hire personal assistance firms to help workers with tasks such as car washing or finding a good airfare deal. While perks such as these came up during the high-tech bonanza of the 1990s, experts point to a tight labor market for some industries, such as nurses, as why some traditionally low-frills workplaces, like hospitals, have started adding these benefits.
“It helps the employee not to have to burn up all their personal time doing all these chores,” Wayne Wallace, the director of the Career Resource Center at the University of Florida, told the news service.
By offering these types of services, companies benefit by having workers more focused on their work instead of distracted by their unfinished errands, , said Peter Ronza, the compensation and benefits manager at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.