Offering benefits such as healthcare and even stock options to lower-level employees, a compensation strategy also pursued by Starbucks (a company both literally and figuratively 'green' in its image), is another example of a policy that can benefit both the company and employees -- employees enjoy greater security, while the companies reduce the high rate of workplace turnover that is endemic to the service industry at companies like McDonald's. In fact, as Eric Schlosser observed in Fast Food Nation, fast food companies have often deliberately made life unpleasant for lower-level employees, to reduce the need to offer them promotions, benefits, and higher pay, on the theory that it is easy to train a new worker to operate a cash register. "How can workers look to this industry as a career…when it pays them the minimum wage and provides them no health benefits" (Schlosser 2001, p. 88). Whole Foods and Starbucks have adopted a different philosophy than other service-related establishments such as McDonald's and Wendy's and try to keep costs of training new employees low, and workplace turnover at a minimum. The service is superior as a result, these corporations believe, and employees are more likely to be conscientious and put on a good 'face' to customers if they feel their benefits packages are better than those they could obtain from Shop Rite or Dunkin' Donuts.
However, no company has taken social engineering through benefits packages to the level of Google. And, it seems to be working -- Google employees are fitter, with gyms and fitness classes at their finger tips, Googlers keep building their base of knowledge with continuing education classes, and they give back to the company by working long hours in exchange for exciting work, a lack of hierarchy (lower-level employees eat side-by-side management at the free cafeteria), and even the right to pursue their own research and projects on the company's dime. Employees even feel they are saving...
Facebook, another IT upstart that has become ubiquitous in the lives of teens and young adults, is taking a similar approach: The LA Times reported "Facebook's headquarters is smack in the middle of one of the priciest real estate markets in the world, out of reach to many of the company's less-well-paid staffers such as customer service reps and even to many of its more handsomely compensated engineers…. [But] Facebook employees [do not] lack for perks. The latest: Free food. The Facebook cafeteria, run by…a former Google executive chef, is already a real crowd pleaser. Following the Google model, it serves up ... gourmet grub such as fettuccine, fish, baby beets and celery root puree alongside a daily selection of pizzas. There is even a magical machine that swirls delicious homemade frozen yogurt" (Guynn 2008).
Works Cited
"Benefits." Google website. February 8, 2010.
http://google.com/international/en/jobs/lifeatgoogle/benefits/
"Careers." Whole Foods Market. February 8, 2010.
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/careers/benefits_us.php
Gunn, Jessica. "Facebook perk was apparently just a rental." LA Times.
May 29, 2008. February 8, 2010.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/05/facebook-perk-w.html
"Life at Google." Google website. February 8, 2010.
http://www.google.com/international/en/jobs/lifeatgoogle/index.html
Schlosser, Eric. Fast food nation. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001.
"Why Google employees quit." Tech Crunch. January 18, 2009. February 8, 2010.
http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/18/why-google-employees-quit/
