Dive Brief:
- The headlines trumpeted a point-counterpoint about perks and startup employers, but if you read the Fortune articles (appearing on the same day), it turns out that for the most part they share the same key perspective: perks mean little if they are not tied to company purpose and culture.
- The articles,  "Here’s Why Employee Perks Are Actually Really Important" and "Proof That Fancy Job Perks Can’t Keep Millennials Happy," on the surface appear to cancel each other out. But that simply isn't the case.
- As part of Fortune's Entrepreneur Insiders network, the articles do disagree on some aspects of perks (dogs at work, table tennis, etc.), but on balance come to that same fundamental conclusion.
Dive Insight:
One author, William Vanderbloemen, founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group, writes that perks or no perks, if millennials aren’t believers in an employer's core values, they won't stick around for that next game of table tennis or free lunch Friday. He admits his company does offer perks to workers, but each one is directly tied to culture.
The other author, Jeff Reid, founding director of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Initiative at Georgetown University, writes that perks are all about company culture (sound familiar?). He says perks need to reinforce the culture you want your company to embrace, but all things considered, probably won't "make or break" a company's success.