Compensation and Benefits Plan
Compensation and benefits curriculum have a considerable amount of influence in a business’ capability to allure and retain workforce. Understanding the company’s goals, attracting experience candidates, and reward the existing employees will expand benefits and compensations to fit the potential position and work environment. By built on a strong working characteristic, respected core benefits package with insurance, and superior compensations Freeley & Driscoll can expand and fill a new position more effectively. In response to Feeley & Driscoll, P.C.’s (the “Company”) operational goal of 10 percent annual revenue growth, a market development and expansion manager position will be created to lead the Company’s expansion into new markets beyond the New England demographic. In order to attract experienced candidates for the position, the compensation and benefits package must include a variety of options to meet the needs of the employee. At the same time, the proposed package should reflect the Company’s expectations for the position, utilizing a combination of fixed and performance-based compensation, and benefits to ensure the candidate is thoroughly invested in the Company’s success. Since its inception, the Company has built its success through the hard work and dedication of its employees. As a result, the Company has rewarded its employees with the highest salaries in its industry and region. The Company believes a mutually beneficial relationship with its employees fosters an organizational culture built on a strong work ethic, high levels of motivation, personal responsibility, teamwork, and respect. One of the Company’s core competencies is the cumulative technical knowledge and experience of its employees. If the Company expects to capitalize on this core competency in new markets, it will need an experienced market development and expansion manager with a history of successful market expansions. If the Company expects to employ an individual with this background, the base compensation must be set at the top of the market. According to salary.com, the top tier of the United States employees in a business development manager position average $142,000 in base salary and $155,000 in base salary with a bonus. However, in comparison, careeronestop.org lists the top tier of base salary for a marketing manager in the Boston-metropolitan area at $187,000. Staying true to the Company’s belief in paying the highest salaries in its industry and region, the base salary should be at least 10 percent greater than the top tier in the Boston-metropolitan area, resulting in a proposed base salary of $205,700. To encourage greater productivity and investment in the Company’s goals, the position’s bonus will be tied to the goals of the Company. As noted in the performance requirements for the position, expansion into a new market will take approximately one year with the expectation that at least 10 potential clients can be identified by the end of the process. Therefore, the bonus will be $1,000 per prospective client capped at $30,000. These prospective clients must have the potential to generate at least $30,000 in annual gross revenue to be eligible for the bonus. In future years, if any prospective client generates $100,000 in annual gross revenue, an additional one-time bonus of $1,000 per client will be rewarded with no cap on the number of clients eligible for this bonus. In this way, the bonus makes the employee invested in the Company’s short and long-term success because it includes attainable short-term measures (number of client leads) and realistic long-term measures (clients worth $100,000 in annual gross revenue). After compensation, the other key component of the proposed package is benefits, which should focus on a variety of options to appeal to a broad range of candidates. Whereas the benefits package will include the standard perquisites offered to all Company employees, certain customizations should be implemented because the target candidate will most likely have different needs compared to many of the Company’s entry-level employees. Additionally, the Company should use the United States average cost of benefits for business development managers of $40,000 according to www.salary.com as a baseline for the proposed benefits, but such a figure should not be a hard cutoff for benefit offerings. The core benefits package will center on a variety of insurance options, including health, dental, vision, prescription drug, life, short and long-term disability, workers’ compensation, and business travel accident. The Company will cover all costs of insurance with the exception of health insurance because of rising costs throughout the industry. The employee will be expected to contribute 20 percent of the monthly cost of health insurance, but to offset the cost, the Company will provide a variety of individual and family plans for HMO and PPO networks. Since an experienced candidate may have insurance coverage through his or her spouse’s insurance plan, the Company will include a health care reimbursement and dependent care flexible spending account up to the maximum allowable Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) limits. The Company sponsors a wellness program with corporate fitness membership discounts, a work-life balance assistance program, onsite flu shots, and other medical consulting services. During busy season (the first quarter of each calendar year), employees often work Saturdays to accommodate increased workloads, so Saturday childcare services will be supplied by the Company. The Company sponsors a defined contribution retirement 401(k) plan with an employer match of 50 percent of employee contributions up to six percent of employee eligible Medicare wages. All full-time employees receive four weeks of paid vacation per year, 10 paid holidays per year and five sick/personal days per year. Paid time-off days do not carry over from one year to the next year (use-it-or-lose-it policy). Additional benefits comprise an employee referral bonus system of $2,000 per referral (minimum of one year of service), tuition reimbursement of $5,000 per year for continuing education, corporate discounts with local businesses (including computers and clothing), sports ticket raffles, Company matches on employee fundraising, paid professional membership dues, moving allowances, discounted movie tickets, and monthly staff lunches and after work events. Unique to this position is the amount of travel needed to gauge properly new markets. Due to the travel requirements, the Company will supply the employee with a laptop, a mobile cellular device, wireless Internet access on these devices, reimbursement of all travel expenses (hotels, meals, airline tickets, rental cars, IRS mileage rate and other expenses) and a discount on local public transportation and parking. Since the Company has limited exposure outside the New England region, additional costs may arise during the employee’s out-of-state work, so the preceding list of benefits will not represent an all-inclusive listing, pending discussion, and approval of other benefits brought to management’s attention by the employee. Paying the business development manager position at the top-tier of compensation deters the search for a better offer. The compensation amount was benchmarked against specific companies within the same industry and in the region to locate the designated amount needed to recruit the best potential candidates possible (Salary.com, 2013). Using salary.com, Feeley & Driscoll, P.C. has researched the job description, not the job title because similar companies will use different titles for the people doing the same jobs. Offering the top-tier of the market for a business development manager enables the company eliminate unqualified applicants and create a gravitational pull of the more suitable candidates (Salary.com, 2013). This will also ostracize that are not viewing this position as a challenge to increase revenue and push to create new business opportunities for the company. The compensation must be aligned with the strategic business goals and by providing a top-tier compensation packages the attempt is to find a person who will adhere to the direction of the company while understanding the how hir or her compensation is tied to the strategy of the business.
The benefit packages offered for the business development manager are equally as important as the compensation requirements. Although some of the benefits that are offered are not mandatory but ensure the best people apply for this position (Encyclopedia of Business, 2013). The benefit package associated with the position will give applicants the perception that the company is dedicated to the recruitment of a highly qualified person and expeditious to retain capable personal. The bonus incentives will relate the success and growth of the business to the success of business development manager. In addition the bonus program will provide consistent motivation to grow the business. The benefit package not only is excluded from taxes and is an advantageous deduction for the company (Cascio, 2010). The benefits will give the newly hired employee a sense of entitlement from the beginning of employment and throughout his or her career with Feeley & Driscoll, P.C.
While the compensation and benefits plan is very important during the hiring process, it is essential to identify any obstacles that may be foreseen prior to implementing the plan. In this case, it may be difficult to maintain the company’s belief of paying employees 10 percent higher than competitors. This is a large amount of funds to pay employees. Furthermore, this is a very high expectation to maintain. Resistance to the compensation and benefit plan is low because of the immaculate offer an employee is offered. However, some may believe that because they are being offered such a great plan that it cannot get any better. This may lead to a fear that the compensation and benefits plan may suffer a decline due a lack of organizational funding.
Compensation and benefits packages play an important role in a business, it is essential to gain new employees and retain current employees. It is important for Feeley & Driscoll, P.C. not only to have a competitive compensation and benefits plan but also have on that works for their employees. While the Company is offering such a top of the market compensation and benefit package for the new position, it is important to justify this decision and to overcome the obstacles that they might face.

References
Cascio, W. (2010). Managing Human Resources: Productivity, Quality of Work Life, Profits (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Encyclopedia of Business. (2013, March 17). Employee Compensation. Retrieved from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Di-Eq/Employee-Compensation.html#ixzz2NoDbWmV1: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/small/Di-Eq/Employee-Compensation.html#ixzz2NoDbWmV1
Salary.com. (2013, March 17). Salaries for business. Retrieved from http://www.salary.com/compensation-surveys/: http://www.salary.com/compensation-surveys/