Highlighted in this month’s Engagement Strategies Online Magazine is a snippit from BlessingWhite’s website regarding a Perks Culture vs a Purposeful Culture.  My first observation of the author’s comments is why do these two things have to be mutually exclusive?  In fact, we at All Star would recommend that you do everything in your power to intertwine your company culture with your rewards program.  Utilize your program messaging to not only emphasize reward program features but also highlight company milestones, new business achievements, and corporate responsibility initiatives.  Rewards programs will not work in a vacuum.

The author suggests that a perks culture can be dangerous.  Certainly there are some companies that design rewards and perks programs solely around achieving one goal but this is not a properly designed rewards program.  I think the author paints a very black and white picture to suit her argument against perks.  The fact is that a performance improvement company that is delivering a program designed without taking into consideration the culture of your company – is not the type of performance improvement company that will get you results.

To read the full mention from Engagement Strategies – see below.

Perks Culture vs. Purposeful Culture

Kim Heyer, Marketing Manager at BlessingWhite, writes on the firm's website that perks are important for recruiting the brightest talent, but they may actually keep the wrong (aka disengaged) employees in the organization as well. "This got me thinking," she says, "about the difference between a 'Perks Culture' and a 'Purposeful Culture.' A purposeful culture centers on a compelling mission and core values, with shared accountability for maintaining the culture and delivering results. A purposeful culture, when combined with a killer business strategy, drives an organization's performance and can tie directly to positive bottom-line results. A free lunch does not make a culture. My point is a culture based on perks can be dangerous! Without a clear purpose, an organization is at risk of sitting on its successes and drifting over time into a state of low performance. Alternatively, in the absence of a purpose, an organization can become solely focused on driving results, leading to burnout and employee churn."