By Tom Anderson
Feb., 2006

Massages on demand and concierges at employees' beck and call seem like relics of the tech boom, but more employers are adopting such perks to stem turnover or keep workers happy in an era of health care cuts.

Meridian Health, a hospital chain in New Jersey, offered an onsite concierge service provided by Circles in September 2005 to help employees deal with job stress and improve work force retention, says Wendy Edelson, Meridian's director of employee and labor relations.

"Meridian has the philosophy that if we give employees benefits that help with work and family balance they stay more focused and stay more loyal to the organization," Edelson says.

Meridian had considered offering employees a concierge service for a couple of years. The continuing labor shortage of qualified health professionals prompted the company to act. "We just felt with this health-care environment, now was the time to do it," Edelson explains.

Employers "now have to worry about employee discontent, especially as they cut back on medical benefits," explains Devorah Slavin, administrative director at Stress Recess Inc., which provides employer-provided massages to workers. "Dollar for dollar, massage is a very inexpensive benefit that has a very high value perceived by employees, despite it's low cost."

The Society for Human Resource Management estimates about 12% of employers offer massage therapy services and roughly 3% provide a concierge to employees.

Two types of employers
The decision to choose a concierge or massage service - or any other exotic perk for that matter - is usually CEO led, says Janet Kraus, Circles co-founder and chief executive. Long-time Circles customers-typically large and midsize employers - want to be known for their benefits and corporate culture. Or as Kraus phrases it, the "employer of choice."

Meridian strives to be that kind of employer, Edelson says. She notes that her company is rated as one of the best places to work in New Jersey by several publications. "We try to take care of our employees because in turn they take care of our patients," Edelson says.

Employers make a commitment to work-life benefits to differentiate themselves in the labor marketplace "because they believe happy employees lead to happy customers," Kraus says.

Boston-based Circles provides concierge and personal assistance services to employees. Pepsi-Cola North America, Unilever and Yum Brands, owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, use Circles services for their employees.

Another group of employers is offering work-life benefits to attract specific types of employees when the labor market is tight or lessen the blow of cuts to more expensive benefits, such as health and retirement plans, Kraus observes. Some employers that are reducing expensive benefits add a concierge service as a way of saying "we can't afford what we used to do, but we still care, she notes. "And they are not joking. They mean it."

Many companies chose to provide work-life benefits as incentives for big tasks, Slavin notes. For example, IBM Multimedia gave Web programmers twice-weekly massages during a two-year project. More recently, IKEA offer massages from Stress Recess to employees at stores in Pennsylvania and California during several large sales events, she says.

Return on investment
Yet, companies aiming to be employers of choice seem to be rare in an environment of health care cost hikes and pension freezes. Increasingly, top employers want "the minimum benefits we can get away with providing in order to hire and keep the people we want," notes Dallas Salisbury, president and CEO of Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Kraus contends that the pool of employers committed to offering their workers top-notch benefits is not shrinking, and new companies continue to strive for that standard.

Regardless, like all benefits expenses, Circles has to show clients return on investment. The company measures the time its concierge service saved clients' employees and user satisfaction to justify the cost of the benefit. Kraus will focus her effort on attracting more health care clients, especially hospitals, and companies that set out to be employers of choice this year.

Slavin says prices for Stress Recess services have dropped in the past seven years due to scheduling technology, which allows the company to deploy its massage therapists more effectively. The cost ranges from $8 to $25 per employee per month.

The Weather Channel provides monthly and quarterly massages to employees in Atlanta and New York. Atlanta's Northside Hospital has offered massages to employees for seven years.

Fees for the Circles' service range from $2 to $5 per employee per month. Pricing is based on predicted usage, which is usually 30% to 40% of the employee population. Usage can be as high as 80% if the benefit is heavily marketed.

Meridian employees have placed 2,000 requests with Circles, and 700 of the company's 7,600 employees have used it. Edelson used Circles to buy airline tickets and a hotel for a last-minute trip. Circles completed the request in 35 minutes, she says. - T.A.