The days of ping-pong tables and wet bars are gone. The smartest companies are now giving their employees the perks they really want—the ability to keep their family lives in balance

Worker bees toil all day without complaint, schlepping pollen to the hive and helping generate the honey to service the queen. Damn those bees for setting an impossibly high standard for the rest of us.

While workers of the human variety are likewise driven to be productive and impress their superiors, the reality is they are not worker bees but parents, children, caregivers, and pet owners with all the associated responsibilities both inside and outside the office. It’s no surprise, then, that the buzz on Best Places to Work is they understand and accommodate their employees’ needs to manage their personal lives in synch with their careers.

“We want to keep people happy and balanced,” says Sean Hanlon, a partner at Dillon Consulting in Saint John, N.B. “When they’re out of balance and managing other people, it reflects on the quality of their work. Their level of efficiency drops off.” In Hanlon’s view, it’s less challenging to motivate people to excel than it is to encourage them to blow off steam to reduce burnout. “We encourage a fun workplace,” he says.

Part of that fun at the environmental-and-engineering consultancy includes Furry Fridays. Two years ago, Dillon project administrator Lee-ann Grant showed an article to her office manager about the health benefits of pet therapy. “Everyone is more at ease when there’s a pet at work,” says Grant. Her manager agreed that as long as no one was allergic or afraid of dogs, Grant’s Labrador mix or any another employee’s dog could spend every Friday at the office. “It’s a relaxing way to close out the week,” says Grant.

Children also are occasionally found at various Best Places offices. This came as a relief to Ramona Hall, a programmer analyst and mother of two who has worked at Corporate Research Associates (CRA) in Halifax for 12 years. In a pinch she brings her children to work, where they work on their colouring books or watch movies in the boardroom. Like many employees at a number of the Top 25, Hall can also work from a laptop at home when necessary or leave work to pick up a sick family member or attend a special event. “I don’t feel I’m sacrificing any time with my family,” she says, adding that the flexibility has motivated her to remain loyal to CRA.

Best Places seem more concerned with what an employee accomplishes overall than adherence to strict nine-to-five schedules. Dillon, for example, has a charter that lays out what is expected of employees and their entitlements. While driving to play golf in the middle of a Tuesday afternoon in May, Hanlon explains: “We impart a level of trust in employees that they will work a 37.5-hour week, regardless of when it is. If their performance is there and clients are happy, then we’re happy.”

Farm Credit Canada is also a leader in flexible work arrangements. It allows, where and when it can be accommodated, two part-time employees to share one full-time job. Many employees also work an extra half-hour each day in exchange for a full day off every three weeks. “If we give to our employees, they give more back to us and our customers,” says Greg Stewart, Farm Credit Canada’s CEO and president. He points out that building good HR policies helps reduce staff turnover. “In a tough employment market—and there has, in the last couple of years, been a labour shortage—having a reputation for being a company that treats its employees well has served us well.”

CRA president and CEO Don Mills says his employees are the company’s most important asset, and staff-retention rates are higher than 90% year after year. Because the company’s 26-member workforce is more than 80% female, CRA arranged expedited entry into two day cares for employees coming off maternity leave. Meanwhile, Dillon tops up maternity-leave EI premiums to 70% of an employee’s salary, while Ritch Durnford Lawyers in Halifax tops up to a whopping 95% of an employee’s salary for 17 weeks.

Offering attractive benefits packages to both employees and their dependents is undeniably another way companies earn family-friendly recognition. Many Best Places offer fully funded medical, prescription, and dental coverage, as well as short- and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and out-of-country and travel medical insurance. Some go further still with vision coverage or by extending the definition of sick days to include time off to care for ailing family members. Many have employee-assistance programs that offer confidential counselling to help staff members manage life’s many personal stressors. Farm Credit Canada even takes proactive measures to keep employees healthy by bringing a nurse on-site to administer flu shots each fall.

And as those diligent worker bees show us, it’s necessary to spend time away from the hive to replenish the pollen. As much as employees tell us they love working for family-friendly companies, everyone needs time away to recharge. Beyond the usual vacation days offered, Ritch Durnford Lawyers provides an annual Winter Day for employees to spend with their families, while CRA offers an extra half-day off on the Friday afternoons before summer long weekends.

While the worker bees may spend their lives completely in service to their queen, it’s not lost on Best Places to Work that the well-being of individual workers is tied to the welfare of their families. And in the end the forward-thinking, family-friendly organizations will generate the most honey.