Your company claims that it has great benefits, but how well does it stack up against Google? Famous for helping its employees to enjoy a healthier life, with sweet perks like organic food in the cafeteria, on-site gyms, subsidized massages and nap rooms, Google wanted its employees to also enjoy a better death too.
In an interview with Forbes’s journalist, Meghan Casserly, Google Chief People Officer, Laszlo Bock, shared a Google benefit that is quite literally out of this world. Bock told Casserly, “This might sound ridiculous, but we’ve announced death benefits at Google.”
Started in 2011, anytime an employee passes away while still employed at Google, their surviving spouse (or domestic partner) receives a check every year for fifty percent of the deceased’s salary, for a decade! And, the salary payout isn’t the only death benefit Google provides to the former employee’s family!
In addition, surviving partners get all stocks vested immediately, and children of the deceased receive $1,000 every month from Google, until they turn nineteen. That age limit is extended to the age of twenty three, if the children are full-time students.
But, Google’s generosity isn’t just an act of benevolence, it’s also a measure that fosters employee loyalty, which prevents talent mobility. Google is a rare corporate giant that treats its employees better than employees, it treats them as what they really are, investments. As both a business, and as an employer of people, Google is way more than a place to work, it’s a way of life.
Bock told Casserly, “The reason we’re doing these things for employees, is not because it’s important to the business, but simply because it’s the right thing to do. When it comes down to it, it’s better to work for a company who cares about you, than a company who doesn’t. And, from a company standpoint, that makes it better to care than not to care.” Let’s hope other corporations soon follow Google’s lead!
