While it might not be as popular a practice as it once was, offering employees the chance to use a company car is still a good way to provide additional compensation to an entire workforce. Of course, this sort of service is more pertinent when workers have to drive regularly during work hours, but it nonetheless illustrates that some creativity can be used to create the right sort of employee benefits.
However, it is important for employers to know what they're getting into before they start handing out cars to any worker who wants one. A new survey by research firm USwitch found that 67 percent of drivers were more likely to take risks and drive aggressively if their automobile belonged to an employer and was not their own. The actual figure may even be higher because some workers may not want to admit to such a thing.
In any event, this illustrates the danger of letting employees use cars on their own time with little oversight. Consequently, employers need to perform cost-benefit analyses to make sure that warranties, insurance and service for cars aren't too expensive to prohibit offering company cars as an employee benefit. Consult with a benefit specialist to help make such calculations and for any other benefit services that a company cannot perform on its own.
