Coffee Talk – Employment Law 2020

Coffee Talk is a regular feature of the Contra Costa Lawyer magazine. We ask a short question related to an upcoming theme and responses are then published in the Contra Costa Lawyer magazine.

This month we asked,
“What are some creative, non-traditional employee incentives that you recommend for employee recruitment or retention?”

Work from home a couple days a week. Bring your kids and pets to work. Home baked goods every week. Leave early to watch your kids school plays, sporting events, or just be with your family.

— Matthew P. Guichard

I would love to offer yoga or a massage therapist coming in and giving a chair massage to my staff. We are all too stressed. I hope to make this a reality.

— Marta R. Vanegas, J.D., LL.M.

I am not sure if this is new but we did a “beat the bosses” gym competition at our office so that we can all make sure we pay attention to our health and fitness (with a prize incentive–Jesse Gill won!). We are also engaging in “in house” services for employee enrichment/learning on healthy ways to address stress and other topics. Finally, we are beginning a new program regarding “compassion awareness” for improvement in handling client stress in order to help clients and develop awareness and feedback that also, in turn, becomes functional and healthy for the attorneys and our office team, as well.
— Carin L. Johnson
The Law Offices of  Johnson & Johnson