eVisibility Boosts Morale with Gas Subsidy Program
With the economy in the dumps and gas prices skyrocketing, eVisibility Inc. Founder and CEO Danny DeMichele found a way to make the long commute to work for many of his employees a little more bearable. Earlier this year eVisibility began a gas subsidy program that pays employees the difference between the average price of regular gas at the end of the month and $2.25 a gallon based on the number of miles that each employee’s commute is. When many of the employees came on at eVisibility the cost of gas was at $2.25 a gallon or lower and DeMichele wanted to make sure these employees weren’t tempted to work closer to home.
Many eVisibility employees live in the City of San Diego or areas of Northern San Diego County as far up as Temecula, or even in the neighboring County of Riverside. With the eVisibility main office located in Carlsbad, California, these employees are traveling 30 to 40 miles each way to get to work. eVisibility CEO Danny DeMichele knew that employees were talking about the prices of gas and he didn’t want to lose any members of the dream team that he had put together. The gas subsidy just made sense.
Although this program will cost eVisibility between $45,000 and $55,000 for the first year, DeMichele says that is much more affordable than the cost of losing employees and having to find and train their replacements. Not only would this cost eVisibility resources, but it would also lower the quality of the services that they could provide to clients while the new employees would have to acclimate and they might never be as good as the original employee. And while many eVisibility employees live close enough to the office that their gas costs haven’t gone through the roof, everyone appreciates the extra cash.
What eVisibility has done should serve as a lesson to other companies. Provide incentives to boost morale of a skilled staff, and the company will be successful even when the economy takes a downturn.