The war for talent has long since seen the common suite of employee benefits — medical, dental and life insurance, 401(k) and other retirement plans, and so on — being taken up by even very small accounting firms, but the continued pressure of the staff shortage now has firms exploring new perks to offer.
One very popular benefit this year is to add or expand paid parental leave. Many of this year's Top 100 Firms reported giving staff more time to welcome new additions to their families, and a number of the Best Firms to Work For said adding parental leave was very popular with staff.
"Our paid parental leave policy supports both new moms and dads," reported North Carolina's Smith Leonard. "Given we have a young firm with a considerable number of young families, this makes a huge impact."
Once that parental leave is over, of course, many employees will need to find some kind of child care, which can be costly. That's why some of the Best Firms offer child care reimbursements, such as the $5,000-per-calendar year that Georgia's Hancock Askew & Co. makes available.
It's common enough for firms to include employees' families in their insurance, but there's a rising trend of also offering pet insurance. For many, their pets are as much a member of their families as any human (and they never get in arguments over Thanksgiving dinner), so firms like Michigan's Maner Costerisan and Florida's Saltmarsh, Cleaveland & Gund are offering these kinds of policies. And Saltmarsh's pet insurance has one major advantage of human health insurance: Employees can sign up any time during the year — no open enrollment period for furred and feathered family members!
The search for enticing benefits can call for some serious innovation. Nevada's Fair, Anderson & Langerman, for instance, offers "the works," as they describe it, including vision, health, dental, and retirement benefits — and much more: "We've worked with the community to source unique benefits like discounts on mortgage and real estate fees. Our staff receive approximately $7,000 off closing costs."
And Florida's Markham Norton Mosteller Wright & Co. has a roster of unique perks, from dry cleaning pick-up and delivery services, an on-site car wash service, and the option for staff to personalize their work stations with specialized lighting options and stand-up desks.
With the usual employee benefits increasingly seen as table stakes, coming up with benefits offered by no one else can give any firm a leg up when it comes to recruiting and retention — as long as they meet an employee need.
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