What Benefits Have You Always Wanted?

Posted Dec 17 2008 9:51 AM by Anne Cheng

AnneFree soft drinks, while still nice, are a bit ordinary considering how creative companies have become with their benefits packages. Microsoft has great benefits and our HR teams are constantly evaluating our packages to see where we can innovate and improve. 

What are the benefits you wish the company you worked for would provide?  I’ll take the top recommendations and pass them along to the Microsoft Benefits team for their review. :-) 

 In the meantime, after finding out about the WiFi shuttles,  I decided to cruise my internal benefits website to see what we have that might get overlooked. Microsoft has some great extras you probably didn't know about, so here's a few of our lesser-known perks!

Guaranteed Ride Home:
I found out recently about this neat benefit Microsoft offers to their employees. I haven’t tried it first hand, but I love the concept.  From previous experience (oops), I know that you can always call the Microsoft Security team to come out to your car with jumper cables.   But what happens if you miss the last bus home or your carpool driver has an emergency and they have to leave early?  That’s when employees who are stranded for various reasons can utilize the Guaranteed Ride Home program that provides a few free taxi rides a year for unexpected events that occur during the work day.   Just a small little benefit that just might make my night sometime

24-Hour Health Line:
Microsoft has truly great health care benefits.  I, however, happen to be notorious for not scheduling doctor visits when I’m under the weather.   With one call, you can check in with nurses and ask questions about aches, pains, illnesses, immunizations, etc.   The best part is they can offer suggestions about appropriate next steps or available resources.  This will also be nice when I’m out of the country and looking for advice!

Microsoft Giving:
Microsoft matches charitable contributions by employees– up to 12K a year.  Plus if we volunteer, $17 an hour is donated to eligible organizations.  I’ve known about this benefit and have participated, but wanted to share that over $75 million dollars has been raised to date across these Microsoft programs this year making an impact in our communities.  My new year’s resolution will be to take greater advantage of this benefit!

- Anne

12 Comments

  • Shruti said:

    Free massages... sitting at a desk all day wreaks havoc on my already-bad back!

  • fran said:

    Honestly, I would just assume getting rid of Benefits except monetary related ones.  i.e. Let me manage my own benefits.

    The only benefits I would like to see would be ones that give me a tax break, but they are still monetary benefits.

    I would rather have Health Savings Accounts instead of employer provided insurance (even with their tax benefits, I would rather manage it myself and have a choice in coverage).

    Of course 401(k) matching is a monetary benefit.

    All the rest I would rather have in increased salary rather than a "benefit".

  • Andrei Rinea said:

    An ideal company should offer :

    1. Flexible schedule

    2. Allow 2 beers / 1 wine bottle for the staff to drink during the lunch break

    3. Casual clothes

    4. Company parties regularly

    5. Team-buildings regularly

  • Ali Abdin said:

    Hmm this is an interesting topic :)

    I visited the Google campus in Kirkland (a friend invited me for lunch) - and one thing that I found a lot better is the food/cafeteria. Two really good benefits in one:

    1) It's free.

    2) The quality (compared to MS cafeteria) is just so much better. I've had a number of less than stellar meals there and the variety is not that great.

    Some other benefits I think that are good:

    - 100% match on 401(k)

    - Access to neutral/independant financial advisors

    - Single offices

  • Anne Cheng said:

    All great comments and ideas!  

    Nice to see some of the things we already provide in the wish lists above:)  Flexible hours/casual work place/morale events - all good things already happening.  

    Things we are working on:

    Cafeterias - I actually like the food and find it affordable, but I agree that it could be better.  We've brought in some o/s restaurants to set up shop in house- so we now have great vegetarian, thai, India, BBQ, etc options without the drive off campus.  

    Single offices - many of us have single offices, but with the growth that we are seeing - we also have folks doubled up as well.   But with the new buildings and parking spaces that we have planned within the coming years in Redmond/Seattle, many of our space issues we have been feeling will be alleviated.    

    Great ideas again everyone!  Thanks again for the dialog!

  • James said:

    I've heard good things about the cafeterias as well, with quite a bit of variety if you move around the campus a little - or a lot, as the guys in the 'MS Cafeteria Tour' did: <a rel="nofollow" target="_new" href="http://buckleyplanet.typepad.com/cafetour/">http://buckleyplanet.typepad.com/cafetour/</a> - being 'free' (effectively part of your salary) would be nice, but not that big a deal.

    As Anne says, lots of companies now have little perks like the free soda, but the individual offices seem more distinctive - I get the impression that environment is an asset of Microsoft's: perhaps JobsBlog should give it a bit more attention in a future post? Being fed by the company that packs you side by side into little cages doesn't make battery chicken farming popular - is it enough to make programmers happy?!

  • Rodrigo said:

    I second Shruti on that.. massages! But I believe that, before we get massages, we should be offered top-quality chairs and desks - ergonomics!

    Free access to drinks (cold and hot) may not be a great perk nowadays, but is still important. I am thirsty all the time while working.

    So, drinks all day and a nice, relaxing back massage at the end is what I wish!

    Hope I am successful in my MS application

  • Sean Kearney said:

    The ONLY benefit I can see ever wanting is ONE.

    Just ONE.

    Work for Microsoft.  That by itself is it's own benefit and the only I would ever want.

    Any thing is just ICING on the cake... :)  

    Granted REALLY NICE icing.  But icing...

    Cheers

    Sean

  • haitham hamed said:

    Nice Anne, but for me , the benifits is to enjoy the challenge

  • Gaurav Jaju said:

    Do they also provide day care for children of their employees?

    That will be one great thing.

    They offer it in Univs to professors........

    So.........

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