The moment I saw the iconic red, white, and blue I knew what I was about to see: A salon built right into Google’s offices. Apparently they have a stylist who is on-call for their employees who can sign up, during work hours, to get a trim.
A pretty neat perk and definitely something very unique. I mean, when was the last time you worked at a place that had a stylist ready to cut you some hair?
It was the full deal too – wash area included. This was just one of the many neat perks and benefits of working at Google in the Atlanta office. My friend, who manages some large Fortune 50 clients for Google in their sales department, was showing me around and talking about some of the neat products/services that they were currently building.
I’m not sure if I heard half of them since there was something new and neat to see around every corner. I particularly like the exercise workstation where you can walk on a treadmill while you do email. I’ve never used one of those but apparently it doesn’t take too long to become acclimated to walking while you work (and without stumbling).
I even got to meet the executive chef who told me that this was the best gig he’s ever had after 25 years in the food and restaurant business. “It’s a dream working here buddy.” is what I recall him saying.
All this and more just made me think back to when I was working at corporate and all the perks that I had as an employee. They weren’t nearly as neat and as Google but there were some perks that definitely held their own.
I care about this stuff because it’s not just creating value for the employee but it’s creating a culture and an environment that serves the staff and their needs. I’ve been thinking about this more and more because the teams that I work with desperately care about this type of stuff – and it really does matters.
The challenge is that most bootstrapped startups can’t afford these perks while VC-backed startups typically can. But I don’t necessarily envy those with money because it forces us to consider the true nuts and bolts of what makes us unique, the culture we’re developing, and the people that we attract to work with us.
There are a lot of perks that sound really fantastic at first but provide little value long-term to the environment and culture. The Google Salon, although pretty neat, probably fails in the development of long-term culture building. It’s neat, for sure, but I wonder how often it really gets used.
My friend hasn’t used it once and he’s been there for a few years now. Huh.
Back in the late 90′s I worked for eGreetings.com and Escalate.com (both of which sold to bigger corporations). I remember the perks…
1. Lunch meetings on a Yacht in San Francisco Bay
2. Free Peete’s coffee (huge espresso machines w/ fresh ground)
3. Unlimited Doritos, Cheetos and soda
4. A free weekly massage while we worked
5. Extended Health Benefits (fully covered) to include Natural Health practices (e.g. Chiropractors, Acupuncture, etc…)
I could go on and on… but at the time, nothing mean more to me than the mission/vision and the fine people of the company.
My brother visited Apple and he couldn’t believe how it reminded him of a college campus; vibrant, full of life and lots of diversity.
RAS
Not sure Chris Ames would even need an 8bit Salon.
Money well saved.
Hmm… 2nd attempt in leaving my comment, my comments usually go up immediately, as I’ve left comments before. if the 1st is up for moderation, please delete this one.
I used to work for a few dot.coms, back in the late 90′s. Egreetings.com and Escalate.com. We had some pretty cool perks, which at the time was totally new to the corporate world.
1. Lunch meetings on a Yacht in the San Francisco Bay
2. All you can drink Peete’s Coffee
3. Unlimited Doritos, Cheetos and Oreos
4. Unlimited Soda
5. Weekly massages as we worked
6. No time sheets, schedule
And we had incredible Health insurance that extended to fully cover chiropractors, acupuncture and any related naturopathic medicine.
And I’m sure we had more but my memory is shot.
My brother once went to Apple and as you mentioned “culture”, Apple’s was incredibly vibrant, energetic and diverse. It was like a college campus.
RAS
I think it is great when a company adds perks to the workplace, and I would love to work at such a place. I understand that start ups don’t have a lot of cash to add perks like a salon, gym, and Starbucks to the workplace, but there are other powerful ways to add perks without bankrupting the company.
The power of encouraging words is a way underestimated perk. People love to go to work and their job when they hear from their supervisors what a great job they are doing. If you know your employee is doing a great job, it does nothing to build them up or the company if you keep those thoughts in your head; you got to let them come out of your mouth and into their ears. We haven’t reached the level of mind reading yet!
How much does it cost to build, staff, and maintain a salon? Another powerful and cheaper perk is gift cards. If I was handed an occasional gift card to Starbucks, restaurant, etc. and told what a great job I was doing keep it up; then yeah, I would brag about my job instead of bashing it.
Wouldn’t it be great to tape to Chris Ames monitor a gift card to a barbershop… I mean Starbucks?
#LOL
I posted a coment yesterday and noticed it didn’t post. So I redid my comment and still not on this post. Note I am able to leave comments on your other posts.
got caught up as spam. wierd. my bad!
No problem, I thought I was banned!
Thanks John.