The problem

A competition for top talent

As a growing Series B startup, Courier found themselves in competition with big tech companies and other Series B startups to win over talent. To compete with other companies and win, they decided to revamp their benefits offering. When Courier People Operations Coordinator Sophia Blistein did a benefits review, she found that wellness and gym benefits kept coming up as the most popular additions.

“We wanted to be hyper competitive with our benefits. It’s a shame to lose a person because of the benefits.” Sophia says. “We needed to make sure we were offering the things talented people are looking for."

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The solution

A flexible wellness platform

Courier ultimately chose PerkUp over competitors because of the platform’s flexibility. With PerkUp, every Courier employee is able to define wellness for themselves and choose their own benefits.

“We realized there’s something meaningful about empowering employees to choose their own wellness solution.” Sophia adds.

Whereas to some individuals, wellness means a gym membership, to others it might mean a meditation app, a trip to the spa, or a subscription to AllTrails. When it comes to wellness, there really is no one-size fits all.

In addition to their wellness offering, Courier also uses PerkUp to help welcome new hires to the company by sending $30 lunch stipends to them and their new hire buddies. With PerkUp, employees are able to use their lunch stipends both locally (cafes, restaurants, delis) or with major chains and delivery apps (Starbucks, DoorDash, Postmates), adding an extra layer of flexibility.

Empowering the NEN team with choice

Whereas NEN previously had to send merchant-specific gift cards, PerkUp’s Visa cards can be used anywhere. Additionally, employees can save and combine the rewards they receive so they can purchase something of more value.

“Our employees love that they’re able to bank a few rewards and combine them to buy something larger later on,” Ashley explains. 

NEN’s employees weren’t able to do this with their previous vendor because the options were limited and couldn’t be combined.

The result

Benefits that help attract talent

Deploying PerkUp has helped Courier stay competitive with their benefits offering and better attract talent.

“People are excited when I walk them through our benefits on day 1 and start thinking about how they want to use them.” says Sophia.

One of the Courier team’s favorite features is that they can save up their monthly wellness allowances for a bigger ticket item, such as a mountain bike. They also like that they can use their allowances to support local vendors.

Ultimately, Sophia is happy every employee can use PerkUp to support their own wellbeing, and that she isn’t the one who has to approve or deny specific requests, as is often the case with outdated reimbursement systems.