In the move to the Hybrid Office, the office perk has been lost for many businesses.

The move to remote first has become a level playfield for others who struggled to offer the same level of perks as other companies.

The Perk Problem

The office perk was often mistaken for company culture, whether that was the ping pong table, the food, bi-weekly healthy snacks, free after work drinks or the office dog.

I strongly recommend you read what is company culture if you are struggling with what company culture really is and what perks are and how they work together but should not be considered the same thing.

Some of the office perks were included in job descriptions and considered in the reason for wanting to join a company over another or whether you stayed in your current role.

If you are lucky enough to be able to hire or looking to expand your hiring, perks will now have to look and act differently and appeal in completely different way, especially if you are connecting into your company’s mission or include as part of your unique company culture.

Craving For Old Normal

There are a number of people who deeply missed the office, they miss their desk, they miss their colleagues, the interpersonal time, their favourite breakout space, their routine and likely even the less fun elements like fighting over meeting rooms and causally gossiping.

There are a number of businesses that crave for their teams to get back to working in the office, to work safely onsite vs the now normal working remotely.

Some organisations are actively developing ways to entice and encourage colleagues back into the office with in-office perks, with more courses, more apps, more flexible working hours while working in the office. There are some companies proactively looking at their office and environmental design to build a new in office working experiences, enabling more space and more open collaboration in the next normal and other fresher ways to encourage teams being back together and an attempt to differentiate against competitors for 2021 and 2022.

Move To Hybrid Perks

The Hybrid Office is a new way and an opportunity to rethink an important element of your company subculture, it is a new path to build out layers of perks and move to what Focus calls Hybrid Perks.

What Are Hybrid Perks?

Hybrid perks are as they sound, a way to reward your employees and colleagues while working remotely, instantly hybrid perks should be available to all and should not be limited to be based in the office. Hybrid perks can include:

  • Offering extended mental health support and paid subscriptions into mental health and therapy apps
  • Expanding out physical health membership and paying for remote classes
  • Offering help with building out your home office, ring lights, microphones and dedicated webcams for improved online meetings (remember important humans cues are being lost with poor video and internet connectivity)
  • Supporting staff with better WiFi connectivity,
  • Ensuring healthy snacks are available and can be delivered to employees homes
  • Localised discounts for local stores
  • You can borrow one of Focus’ offering of an anonymous text helpline for colleagues to have external support.

These are all areas in which Hybrid Perks can help your teams function as well as possible and build a remote company culture that people are proud to refer your company to other people and potential new talent.

So rethink your office perks system and look to build out a hybrid perks programme you and your teams will be happy to receive and be part of.

Want to know more about what company culture is?

Here is the Focus what company culture deck