Write a five to seven (5-7) page paper in which you:
1. Determine which facets of the Geico total rewards program align with the five (5) top advantages of a total rewards program outlined in Chapter 2 of the textbook and discuss your reasoning.
2. Create a strategy for ensuring that the Geico plan addresses all of the advantages.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of the communication of Geico’s total rewards program based upon the Website’s descriptions of the benefits. Recommend two (2) areas for improvement.
4. Assuming employees are unhappy with the current plan, offer two (2) improvements or changes to Geico’s total rewards program.
5. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

Geico Case Study
Assignment # 1
Your Name here
University Name here
Instructor Name here
HRM533
Date

Geico Employees Insurance Company has been in existence since in 1936 and was founded by Leo and Lillian Goodwin. Geico was established to provide auto insurance for governmental employees in the entire United States. Geico was based on the idea the governmental employees were safer and more financially dependable then the general public. With this way of thinking Geico was able to cut out the middle man “agents” saving money the company money. So they were able to pass these saving onto the customers, employees, and advertising.
Geico total rewards program aligns with the basic total rewards program that is Compensation, Benefits, Work-Life, Performance & Recognition, and Development & Career Opportunities. This set up was designed and implemented to mirror how the government was operating. The way Geico was structure it developed and promoted internally. They used this technique at Geico to develop well knowledgeable employees as well as maintaining a low employee turnover ratio. These principles help develop the company that people see today.
Advantages to a Total Rewards Approach
The first facet when reviewing Geico’s compensation scale and comparing it to its competitors. Geico salaries are competitive to its competition like State Farm and All State. For the most part Geico salaries exceed the industry. When reviewing the salaries that was posted by position it compensated all positions well from entry level customer services representatives all the way up to their senior executives. Geico pays their employees based off of their skill level and experience. Geico takes the time to place a monetary value on the work that an employee provides for their company. These salaries are based on not only competitor’s salaries but also on the overall cooperate budget of the agency. Throughout the past few years with the economic decline Geico was one of the few employers able to sustain the decline without having to cut their work force.
Benefits are the second facet of the total rewards structure that Geico pays close attention to maintain their employee’s quality of life. Benefits are “programs an employer uses to supplement the cash compensation that employees receive. These health, income protection, savings, and retirement programs provide security for employees and their families.” (Ruddy, 2007) Geico provides health, dental, and vision coverage. These benefits are available to the employee directly after the first pay roll. Employees also have available to them short term, and long term disability coverage as well physical fitness gym memberships and a discount to promote wellness.
The third facet of the total rewards program is Work-life “a specific setoff organizational practices, policies, and programs plus a philosophy that actively supports efforts to help employees achieve success at both work and home.” (Ruddy, 2007) important to any employee especially to the ones that have families and are planning to have families. At Geico they prepare for any leave that an employee will need. Anything from the need to take a vacation to the days you’re just under the weather. Also they prepare for the dreaded jury duty to the emotional challenges from a death of a family member or the new edition of a family member. But through it all Geico is ready for those changes an employee can rest assure that they have the support of their company.
The forth facet of the total reward frame work is the Development and Career Opportunities.
“Development: A set of learning experiences designed to enhance employees’ applied skills and competencies; development engages employees to perform better and leaders to advance their organizations’ people strategies.
Career Opportunities: A plan for employees to advance their own career goals and may include advancement into a more responsible position in an organization. The organization supports Career opportunities internally so that talented employees are deployed in positions that enable them to deliver their greatest value to their organization.” (Ruddy, 2007) At Geico they see the importance of a valued education as well as the constant need to develop and learn new ways to effectively do their job. So that’s why Geico offers up to $5,200 dollars a year reimbursements to employees as well as for the dependents for education. “This $5,200 dollars will cover tuition, application fees, books and other educational devices.” (N.A., 2012) Also Geico offers to its employees Geico University. This is a training program that Geico set up to keep all the employees trained and ready for all the changes in the industry while helping these employees grow personally.
The five facet of the total rewards program is Performance and Recognition “Performance a component of organizational success, performance is assessed in order to understand what was accomplished, and how it was accomplished. Recognition Acknowledges or gives special attention to employee actions, efforts, behavior, or performance.” (Ruddy, 2007) Gieco awards their employees for a job well done keeping the moral up within the company. These awards are posted on their web site under press releases for the whole company and world to see. These awards that are given to the employees give the other employees something to strive for helping promote a healthy competition within the company.
Total Rewards Strategy
Setting up a strategy that will help align Geicos total rewards programs to match the world at work strategies with have to start with focusing on the companies over all goals. That starts with matching employees and the skills to the company’s goals and strategies. Once employees are identified then ask the employees what would make their experience at the company more suitable and pleasurable. In my experience a comfortable employee that has their needs met at their place of employment makes for more loyal and productive employees. Managing the risk reward is another step to balance the 5 keys to a complete total rewards programs. As the decision maker at your company it’s important that the cost of the skill you hire matches the output of those employees. Typically the higher the cost you pay the more production you get from your staff. Strengthening performance management systems starts with a solid and well trained supervisory staff. Your management staff has to be well trained in their area of expertise. This will help them identify staffs potential to make a department more productive. This will in turn helping management identify their top performers from everyone else. This will help an agency develop a compensation scale that will make them a competitor among their competitors.
The Communications Plan
By reviewing Geico’s total rewards package it’s really a good program for the employees. The Compensation, Benefits, Work-Life, Development and Career Opportunities, are fairly balanced. The first change of their program that I see that can use improvement is in their Performance and Recognition. By looking into their total rewards package I don’t see much in this area. By reviewing their press release it looks like they only recognize management. In my experience the line staff is what makes a company run. It’s those individuals doing the daily input that help makes these companies run the way they do.
The second change of their program that can use a little improvement is the Benefits part of the total rewards package. This is one of those areas that will always need a close monitoring because of the constant change in benefits. With the health insurance industry on a constant rise there will be a constant need for restructuring of this program. This benefits part of the total rewards program will need a very creative approach to offset the rising cost.
Total Rewards Improvements
These days’ employees are usually unhappy about pay and benefits. “HRM is moving away from traditional personnel, administration, and transactional roles, which are increasingly outsourced.” (Heathfield, NA) This is because the rate that things are going up is too fast for our salaries to catch up. With the rising cost of everything from food, gas, and utilities the need to help your employees make ends meet is part of your issue also. The first change I will propose would be the ability to work from home. This will help an employee in a great deal reducing their expenses and increasing their quality of life. By working from home an employee spends less on gas, day care, lunch, and other things that we get on our way to work. This also helps an employer to because it increases productivity because you as an employer will have less call outs. Also your expenses for running your office will decrease and simultaneously reduce pollution because lets cars will be on the road.
The second change that will help increase an employee quality of life would be offsetting their health benefits cost. This can be done by offering an employee to trade in one hour of their leave time per pay to offset the cost of health benefits. Like most employees we carry enough leave time where 1 hour a pay won’t hurt us and to see that amount go back into our salaries will be a morale booster. This will also help an employee feel better about their company because they will feel like their listening to their problems.
The third change I think the employees are unhappy about is the Performance and Recognition that they are receiving for a job well done. I believe if you start recognizing the employees at the lower levels you will see increased productivity. The best way I see doing this is award the outstanding employees by division instead of companywide. This way you’re able to capture the little departments that usually get over looked. So these individuals can feel like they’re a part of the bigger picture of the company.

References
N.A. (2012). Total rewards program. Retrieved from http://careers.geico.com/working_at_geico/total_rewards_program
N.A. (2012). Total rewards program. Retrieved from http://careers.geico.com/about/pressreleases/2011/20110503/
Heathfield, S. (N.A.). What is human resource management? Retrieved from http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryh/f/hr_management.htm
Ruddy, A. (2007). The world at work handbook of compensation benefits & total rewards. (p. 7). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Son.