Perks that work: Employers show their appreciation with free child care, financial literacy training, and subsidized socializing

The perk embodies the company’s values, says head of people ops Ariana Gett, but also has a practical benefit: The better colleagues know each other, the easier it is to work together, especially across functions.

The benefit is often used to fund after-work dinner or drinks, but employees have also put it to much more creative uses, such as Red Sox games, escape rooms, and even a Mad Hatter-themed tea party outing. The women’s employee resource group counts on the funds to support its book club, where co-workers read and discuss both fun fiction and professional development books.

“It shows that they don’t just care about the work that we do,” says regional account executive and book club co-lead Hannah Prokop. “They care that we’re developing relationships that last past mabl.”

When Heather Nichols had her daughter in 2018, the first-time mother knew she wanted a doula to help her navigate the sometimes overwhelming experience of pregnancy and childbirth. The two women she found offered expertise and guidance, and one stayed by her side while she gave birth.

“It was kind of nice to feel like you had someone in your corner,” Nichols says.

And the doulas weren’t the only ones offering support: Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where Nichols is the executive director of corporate communications, pitched in $1,500 to help pay for the coaching and support. The benefit, which has since been bumped up to $2,000, covers a range of services, from pre-birth planning and labor support to postpartum doula visits. From January through September, 56 employees had already taken advantage of it this year.

The company established the reimbursement as part of a suite of benefits aimed at helping employees form families, including assistance with surrogacy and adoption. Nichols appreciates having an employer who looks for ways to help families beyond standard parental leave and health insurance.

“I like that the company invests in all the other things that come with having a family,” she says. “It’s not a one-time, one-expense adventure.”

Jack Sherman has exceptional company on his 50-minute drive into work as a project executive: his 5-year-old son, Henry, who attends a day care run by Sherman’s employer, Sunrise Erectors.

“I am getting invaluable time with my kids that I normally wouldn’t have,” Sherman says.

The father-son commute comes courtesy of Jeffrey Erickson, who cofounded the facade contracting company and had a longtime dream to open a free child-care center in its Canton headquarters. He tapped his daughter, Kait Picozzi, then a special education teacher, to lead the project. Together they created a space that is colorful and welcoming, staffed with experienced, highly trained teachers.

“We take pride in the fact that it’s a really great day care,” says Picozzi, whose three children all attend or have attended the center.

The day care provides a financial boost to families who might otherwise have to pay hundreds of dollars a week for private child care. It also has emotional payoff, Sherman says.

“It’s been an incredible benefit,” he says. “How many dads can have lunch with their kids during the day and tuck them in for naps if they want to?”

After college, Dan Alberico was working at Andover staffing company ALKU and was $100,000 in debt. So when he heard his employer had launched an internal competition called “Mark Tank” to find ways to improve employees’ experience, he donned his cap and gown and pitched the idea of student loan reimbursement. The new benefit — a total of $7,500 over five years — was implemented within weeks.

“It made me feel like I was making a difference,” says Alberico, now director of business applications recruiting. “It made me feel like I was heard.”

Mark Tank, named for ALKU founder Mark Eldridge and a play on the popular Shark Tank show, has two purposes. First, it helps unearth good ideas to make employees happier. Second, it lets the staff know that their input is valued.

Originally, it was an in-person pitch competition; today, ideas are shared through an online form. The process has led to a child-care benefit, surround-sound installed in the offices, and the creation of a diversity and inclusion council, among other improvements. The company is always looking for more ideas, says director of media affairs Rebecca Crossley. And the cap and gown is optional.

ScrubaDub Auto Wash Centers doesn’t want to just pay employees for their work; it also wants to help them make the most of the money they earn.

“We asked, how do we teach these young people who are coming into their own how to manage their financials effectively?” says Alex Paisner, director of people and culture for the Natick-based chain.

The answer: partnering with financial coaching nonprofit TrustPlus to offer employees free education and advice on managing their money. Coaches help with the basics — such as opening a savings account — and more in-depth planning, such as setting goals for retirement.

Director of training, learning, and development Sabrina Jacques has taken advantage of the coaching to figure out how best to pay off credit card debt. The process gave her a sense of accountability, she says, and a source of advice who was never more than a text or email away.

It also gratifies Jacques to know that ScrubaDub, now in its third generation of family leadership, is helping employees create future stability for their own families.

“It’s knowledge they can pass to their own children,” she says. “It’s setting up other families to succeed.”

Before Ben Bichotte emigrated from Haiti to the United States, his work involved supporting the victims of the island’s 2010 earthquake and other crises. So when he moved to Massachusetts a few years ago, he wanted to continue helping others. Open Sky Community Services in Worcester showed him the way.

The nonprofit’s Human Services Career Support Program trains immigrants, refugees, and people of color who are interested in human services work, and guarantees graduates jobs at the organization or with its partner nonprofit, Seven Hills. The program helps participants find meaningful careers, offers strategies for success, and addresses a stubborn shortage of qualified human service workers, says program director Omolewa Fagboore.

Trainees rotate through several positions over the course of five months to help them find the work they are best suited for.

“The goal is retention,” Fagboore says. “It isn’t just to place people at a location where there is a vacancy, but to make sure there is a good fit.”

For Bichotte, that good fit came in the form of a residential counselor position with Open Sky that has him back making a living while helping his community.

“When this opportunity came up, I immediately seized it,” Bichotte says. “Because this is what I love to do.”

Sarah Shemkus is a frequent contributor to the Globe Magazine. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.

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