Nadya Dunkley

November 8, 2020

BUS311 [1200]

Prof. Buckler

Unit 9 Benefits & Services

Employers are using discretionary benefits such as educational assistance, wellness programs, childcare assistance, retirements savings, and employee assistance to name a few. These are voluntary benefits that employers are not obligated to provide. Organizations use these nontraditional benefits to attract and retain valuable employees. These benefits are used to boost employee morale, productivity, and retention. Bonuses, wage increases, and merit-based incentives, are also forms of voluntary benefits. These benefits are given based on employee reviews and  by achieving job specific and project goals that tore apart of work criteria. In organizations top managers receive the highest portion of bonuses and 3 % of compensation paid to U.S. workers are bonuses. I think this is unfair because a lot of times lower level workers are the real reason why organizations achieve their goals. At my job we receive a maximum of $3 additional dollars added to our hourly rate if we achieve or daily sales goal. If we meet the goal, we get an additional $1, if we exceed the goal by 10%, we get $2 extra, and 20 % gives us the maximum additional $3. The saddest part of this is that the entire team receives the bonus, and the managers receive a larger portion. Everyone does not put in the same amount of work, so it is not fair for everyone to receive the same bonus or a bonus at all. This might be a great motivational tool for some organizations but from my experience it does not work for all. Another voluntary benefit is childcare assistance because childcare can be a major challenge for working parents especially for working moms. In the lesson we learned that I 1991 economist confirmed that over 1 million young mothers were out of the labor force due to childcare complications and expenses. Studies also show that low income mothers suffer the most by having to spend more than 26% of their paycheck on childcare. I know this a little bit too well because I am one of those mothers. I was not able to work many full-time jobs until my daughters were school aged and even, so I had to make sure that my schedule accommodated their school schedule. There are many times that I had to resign jobs and have even been fired for childcare issues. As my children got older I’ve been able to sustain continuous employment where I’m able to grow without worrying about picking up, dropping off, or having money to pay my bills and get back to work after I paid for childcare. To me this is one of the greatest voluntary benefits that organizations can offer. When parents have the option to receive assistance in childcare that can focus on their jobs without the distraction of childcare concerns. When employees work for organizations that provide benefits to supplement the needs of their family it encourages workers to grow with the company and invest more of themselves into their roles. This is also an important way to attract quality talent because people will want to come on board to a team where their needs are being met in more places than one. Employees will also be better vested in the organizations that they work for, more encouraged to do a great job and put back into a company that is putting into them. If I had the opportunity to work for a company that offered benefits that met my financial needs, and demands outside of work but paid a less than an organization that paid more but had less benefits I would probably conceded. It is as if the company is budgeting for you by allocating funds exactly where they would need to be. This would only work for me if the work culture and environment is somewhere that I fit in otherwise Id probably have other things to worry about like my emotional health. The childcare benefit as well as other voluntary benefits still has economic value. Though employers are not required to provide childcare benefits I believe that it would give any organization a competitive edge not only to sustain valuable employees, but they would also receive tax credits from the government. This is very important for the health and sustenance of the American economy especially today because more women are entering and enterprising withing the workforce. Childcare assistance in more organizations would help to lower the unemployment rate and take the American economy a bit closer to full unemployment. However, according to the lesson data collected in 2008 have shown that employers nationwide are reducing the number of voluntary benefits available to their workers. Economist and organizations ought to investigate the effects of the decline in companies offering these discretionary benefits because company turnover rates might be negatively affected, and the unemployment rates might also increase because of this. In the lesson one of the company case studies was Google who was named the best company to work for in America by fortune magazine. One thing that stood out to me is that the company studies everything it does, and they have a strong focus on analytics making their Human Resource Management approach scientific. This is how they can come up with the best discretionary benefits such as the video in the lecture says that what they do on the product side is exactly what they do on the people side. They even have a nap pod where employees could take a 5-15-minute power nap will give an employee enough of a boost to do their jobs if they are feeling tired. This was a very attractive company to me someone who is always tired at work especially if I’m scheduled a “CLOPEN” shift which is when an employee in retail is scheduled to close the store and the open the store the following morning. I find this to be ridiculous and have always wondered how the scheduling manager expect employees to function properly when they did not get enough sleep. When I work these shifts, I have headaches in the morning, and I’m am very irritable which isn’t good for business because I have to work with clients. This ultimately means that I end up working under pressure because I respect my role and always strive to do my best even though in my mind I’m tired and angry and keep telling myself that I can’t wait to find another job. Research says that some of these benefits pay off in the long run while some of them do not. The employees of an organization need compensation and benefit that provide a solution to their individual pain points not just what their employer assume will be a benefit to them the benefit need to indeed be beneficial.