Companies Are Outsourcing Employee Morale Building

On a recent Thursday evening, Erin McCulloch, 31, was in her New York City office’s conference room balancing on her manager’s shins. Nearby, another colleague lay on her back and lifted the chief executive officer into the air with her feet, airplane-style. Jason Nemer, who’d come to teach this fusion of acrobatics and yoga to employees of tea and supplement company Aloha, was pleased. “We can leverage the wisdom of AcroYoga and apply it to corporate America,” he said. “Both require cooperation and communication.”

This may overstate the powers of AcroYoga, but not by much. Ever since Google began offering employees free massages and fresh-fruit smoothies, startups have had to think hard about recruitment and retention tools, from on-site dry cleaners and baby-sitting to conference-room gymnastics. According to a 2015 survey by job-listings website Glassdoor, 79 percent of workers would prefer new benefits and perks over a raise. More money is nice, of course, but having a little extra in your paycheck may not enrich your life in the same way that making your day-to-day a bit more fun might.