Executive Perks Keep Employees Connected

As technology threatens to make life easier, executive perquisites are one reason employees stay connected to work outside of the office. According to the Compensation Data annual survey of more than 5,300 employers, 64.6 percent of companies offered executives cell phones as a perk, while 43.6 percent were given laptops or home PCs in 2006. With these kinds of perks, itís no surprise employees are expected to stay plugged in to the office long after theyíve left for the day.

Companies are now providing employees with cellular phones, pagers, BlackBerrys and laptops to keep them hard at work while on vacation or away from the office. With phone, e-mail and Internet access at their fingertips, employers expect middle management and executive level employees to stay more in tune to the organization than non-management employees. As technology continues to advance, executives should expect to spend even more of their time on call.

While companies are offering more practical perquisites to employees, there is still a significant percentage providing more classic perks, like company cars and club memberships, said Amy Kaminski, manager of marketing programs for Compdata Surveys. As more executives stretch to meet the growing demands of this fast-paced work environment, it will be interesting to see if companies begin to offer health-focused perks for their executive-level employees.

Other perks mentioned in the Compensation Data study were car allowances, supplemental life insurance, company car and annual physical exams. Below is a list of some other executive perquisites:

34.3 percent offer a car allowance, and 31.5 percent provide a company car.

17.6 percent are given club membership(s).

30 percent give executives supplemental life insurance.

3.8 percent provide employees with an airline VIP lounge membership, and 5.8 percent can fly first class air.

19.8 percent receive an annual physical exam.