Christian Narine                                                                                                       November 4th, 2020

BUS311 1900                                                                                                        Professor Brielle Buckler

Unit 9: Benefits and Services

Assignment – Benefits

Benefits are – Indirect financial and nonfinancial payments employees receive for their employment with the organization and which employers use to attract, recognize and retain workers. A total compensation package can include salary, bonuses, health-care plans, and a variety of other types of compensation and is an important part of the overall organization’s strategic HRM plan, since much of the organization’s budget is for employee compensation. The goals of compensation are first to attract people to work for your organization and second, they can be used to retain and motivate employees to work at their peak performance and improve morale of the organization – From our Unit 9 Lecture; Companies compete for top talent. The better the perks, the better the work environment, the more loyalty they receive from their employees.

As the work force changes, to include more women, single parent house-holds and more-late-in-life workers, organizations are changing their operations to incorporate new benefits for employees. There are some benefits that matter more and some that matter less to certain people. Therefore, some organizations shift to more of a cafeteria approach, where the employee would choose their benefits, much the same way you would fill your plate in a cafeteria line [pre tax]. This benefits the employees to maintain a better work life balance. Some of these non-traditional benefits can include –

• Flextime – Employees’ workdays are built around a core of mid-day hours, but each can opt to work early or late depending on preference.
• Telecommuting – benefit in geographical areas where reliable mass transit may not always be available.
• Compressed work week – for example, an employee might work four ten hour days instead of five eight-hour days.
• Job Sharing – two or more people share one full time job.

What appeals to employees can vary based on generations. For example, as I get older and begin to consider having a family of my own, my priorities will change, and I might consider taking a lower rate of pay to gain the value of choices of benefits, like paid time off, ability to work remotely, more flexibility and control over my schedule.

Research indicates that these benefits are paying off in the long run for companies, especially as more women enter the workforce. For instance, consider the voluntary none-wage benefit of child care assistance. Although employers are not required to provide child care assistance beyond the minimum unpaid leave requirements with the Family and Medical Leave Act. Research has found that child care can be a major challenge for working parents. A Study by an economist at the Bureau of labor statistics in 1991 estimated that over 1million young mothers were out of the labor force due to challenges in finding adequate child care. Low income mothers who worked, paid for child care out of their wages and spent more than 26 percent of their weekly income on child care. This expense can create a difficult circumstance, where mothers have to consider the choices of either continuing to work and forego a substantial amount of income to child care or leave the work force.

Evidence from companies described in Unit 9 Lecture, suggests that these perks are sustainable. As companies begin to compete for top talent, benefit programs have been one of the ways to attract employees beyond high pay. These benefits are designed to keep the employee happier for longer and are often present at large tech companies like Google, described in Unit 9. Google receives almost 2.5 million resumes every year. Google’s research proves that these perks that seem like luxuries is actually good business. To reiterate some tenets of Chapters 6 – The goals of compensation are to attract the best talent to work for your organization. Increase employee loyalty, motivate employees to work at their peak performance and improve morale of the organization, resulting in overall organizational growth and development.

My interview explored the benefits of a large financial equity institution, entry level position. The Benefits Program were foremost, easily accessible throughout the organization, widely communicated and a significant part of a new employee’s orientation. The HR managers conducts monthly workshops to ensure all employees are aware of the benefits available & updates on any changes. Following are just some of the benefits, not only the Benefits required by Federal and State Laws but the other benefit programs that often go beyond pay and vacation days to attract the best talent, that the employee can enroll in at anytime during the year, they include –

Work/Life:

• Student Loan repayment assistance program
  • As a new college graduate I can consider taking a lower pay rate for this benefit.
• Tuition Assistance program
  • Helps to promote loyalty in the organization to grow.
• College referral program
  • Educational benefits. As a recent graduate I can work towards expanding education to help with promotions & grow with the organization.
• Employee Assistance Program [EAP]
  • The EAP designates a counselor to be exclusively available to the employee several days a week. I can relate to this benefit for mind and body balance.
• Veterinary Pet Insurance
  • For those of us with pets, like myself, having this insurance discount through my employer will help me lower my pet ownership costs.

As the employee priorities change, so do the benefit choices offered, some of these include:

• Fertility Adoption and surrogacy
  • This is an example of the HRM organization’s strategic plan on retaining talented employees.
  • Employees might consider not leaving for higher paying jobs if this benefit aligns with their current life stage.
• Elder and Child care support
• Personal line of credit
• Home loan program

Benefits are extremely important to employees. Since the cost of obtaining the benefits outside of work if the employer does not provide them can be expensive for individuals. Organizations typically use their workforce and leverage their vendors to lessen their benefit costs for each person that works for the organization. The choices of benefits will continue to evolve as organizations adapt to the changing requirements of employees.

Work Cited

Law Shelf Educational Media. Employment Benefits-Module 4 of 5

https://lawshelf.com/videocoursesmoduleview/employment-benefits-module-4-of-5/ . Accessed Nov 4, 2020

University of Minnesota, M Libraries. Chapters 6.4 /6.5 Human Resource Management

 https://www.oercommons.org/courses/human-resource-management-3/view /. Accessed Nov 4, 2020

Buckler,Brielle. Unit 9 Lecture

https://youtu.be/uUDvL1tonZo.  Accessed Nov 4, 2020