I’ve been paying for a gym membership basically all of my adult life (accidental humble brag, I’m sorry). Gym membership has been baked into my budget for as long as I can remember. Now you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that I could have had my company pay for my gym membership for years! If you’ve learned anything from my blog posts, it’s that I’m a big fan of my company footing the bill as much as humanly possible
Discovering this particular hidden benefit started where all hidden benefits get discovered: Pendant. Low-key, Pendant is becoming more exciting to check than TikTok for me these days. When I opened Pendant this time, the number “23” on this screen jumped out at me. Am I really using all 23 of these benefits? I doubt it.
Sure enough, there was a benefit that I wasn’t using:
Gym membership! How did I not see it sooner! I can get a monthly $20 reimbursement, or just have my gym membership paid outright. That might not sound like much, but over the course of a year, one would save $240. You could use that extra money to buy four new video games, or two tickets to Disneyland, or one unforgettable evening at Olive Garden. So, I’m sold on the benefit, but how do I get it set up?
After clicking the link, I learned that I needed to go through my insurance to get my $20 reimbursement. Navigating insurance portals is certainly easier said than done, so I didn’t want to go in blind. And when I need help understanding a benefit, my first stop is to the Pendant AI assistant. So far, for me, the Pendant AI assistant has yet to disappoint.
Okay, now I feel like I have some solid guidance. I follow the steps one by one, and within ten minutes, I’m set up to receive *checks notes* $160 in backpay for my gym membership! And now the fun part–I can either redeem that money straight to my bank account, or I can use the credit for some guilt-free gift cards! I chose the latter of the two options, and let’s just say that I’m going to have a good time at the Olive Garden tonight.
My company had been paying for these benefits for several months without me knowing about it. I just feel lucky that I was able to get back pay on the previous months I missed.
If you feel like your employees are not taking full advantage of the benefits you offer, consider using the announcement feature in Pendant to share news about a specific benefit. You can spotlight any lesser-known benefits with a notification on your employees dashboard.
You’re paying huge amounts of money on company benefits, you might as well make sure your employees know how good they have it.