What do Addepar Inc.
Companies, Facebook Inc., and Zappos.com Inc. all have in common? Each company offer
rent stipends, house-hunting services and down-payment help for employees
willing to live closer to the office.
These services attract workers to move to high rent areas and live in
neighborhoods that lack in traffic. Allowing workers to live closer to home
offers the opportunity for healthier meals, healthier work environments, healthier
lifestyles, and more environmentally friendly ways of transportation to work.
Addepar Inc. Companies offer a $300 monthly housing striped for employees
to live less than a mile from the company and $150 monthly stipend for
employees that live further away. After noticing many workers were tired coming
into work from the commute, Lissa Minkin, the leader in charge of human
resources, introduced the idea of paying employees to live closer to work with
the idea “the less time you’re spending on commuting, the more time you can
spend focusing on work or focusing on your friends and family”. Although this
money is taxed, it allows employees the opportunity to pay for their home
without it taking a toll on their families. Facebook is also known for paying
their employees several thousand dollars a year to live within 10 miles of its
Menlo Park campus in California. Facebook also offers their workers the help of
apartment-hunting. Loren Becker, from Zappos.com Inc. states that “workers who
spend their free time together exhibit more trust, productivity, and creativity
on the job. If you want to spend time with people, you’re more apt to work
harder.” Unlike Addepar Inc., Facebook, and Zappos.com, Yelp does not offer
this service causing their employees many struggles with paying rent and other
bills.
Even though many companies are starting to offer this stipend, there is
much debate on the employers providing money to their employees for their
housing. The CEO of Gusto, Joshua Reeves, believes this stipend takes back
employees to their college days. Segmentors prefer to separate their
professional and personal lives, but with this action of stipends or
house-hunters, employees are offering to null that line.
Not having
to travel too far for work with your employer’s paycheck or traveling to work
but having more privacy: what would you do?
Title:
“Companies
Pay Workers to Live Close to the Office”
Link:
Time
Published:
February 23,
2016 11:09 AM
Living close to one's work can provide flexibility that has the potential to increase both work satisfaction and productivity. When companies choose to lease or buy space in expensive areas they are disincentivizing workers who value their personal time, which also may be the most dynamic and well rounded applicants. By providing a stipend these companies are correcting that error.
ReplyDeleteI think that the view of being given more money to live closer to work as detrimental is pretty false, as it still allows other employees to live far away if they wish to and it only benefits the employees. This is a great way to incentivize them to try and live closer to work without penalizing them if they choose not to as they are still getting a bonus to their salary. As for their private life being impeded upon, you really shouldn't be doing anything that you wouldn't want others at your workplace to know about anyway. You aren't being watched over by the workplace if you choose to have a home closer, so it's not like they are intruding on your personal life.
ReplyDeleteIf companies want to offer this to employees it is their prerogative. If it really increases productivity, retainability, and makes for a better work environment then maybe this will be something other companies will get on board with. It definitely will not entice all though, because it would not personally entice me. It will only really work for certain companies that are centrally located in larger cities.
ReplyDelete