...How Flexible Are Your Flexible Benefits? By: Barbra Volpe Lisa Crass Cheryl Hurt Shaun Montalvo Karla Smith Compensation and Benefits HRM 3213 Mid – Continent University Facilitator: Dana Cosby December 5, 2012 How Flexible are flexible spending plans? Only as far as the organization will allow it to bend. Flexible spending accounts (health FSA) are very common today with major health care providers and seem to be very popular with the people enrolled in these programs. These are also known as health reimbursement accounts, health savings account and the like, are components of ways for individuals to allocated funds (Wikipedia, 2011). Funds are deducted from your weekly paycheck and may be used to pay for out-of-the pocket expenses. These funds are tax deductible and “pre-tax” dollars are a benefit to people. Flexible Benefit Program What is a flexible benefit program? A flexible benefit program is a program that allows eligible employees to choose and pay for benefits such as medical insurance, life insurance, short and long term disability, out-of-pocket medical expenses, child care or even adult day care. These benefits are paid for out of their pre-taxed income. One benefit for an employee who takes advantage of a flexible benefit program is that the insurance and other benefits that they contribute to are usually of a better quality than what they could purchase on their own. This is because the company that is going to supply these can get a...
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...graduating from a parochial high school as well as a degree from St. Norbert’s College. Don Schneider continued his education at the University of Pennsylvania and received a business degree from Wharton School of Finance and Commerce. With this excellent education, Don worked his way up in the family business and eventually in 1971 became president. Schneider National Incorporated was a fairly small sized company until the 1980s. After Don Schneider came into power, he quickly realized that his company needed to undergo large changes to keep up with the changing business culture. The two changes that Schneider needed the most were in employee relations and investing in the use of new technology. In the early 1980s Schneider began giving its drivers bonuses based on performance and eliminated reserved parking spaces for higher ranking employees. Typically, if a driver was out on the road, they would have to find a phone at a truck stop and call the company to check in and update the dispatcher on their location. This was very slow process at times because many times the pay phones would be in use, or the company dispatcher could have been unable to take the call. Schneider National spent around $50 million dollars in 1988, and installed a satellite dish and communication devices in every truck that it owned These devices allowed the company to monitor not only the location of each truck, but the driver’s sleeping patterns, fuel usage, and unloading time. This helped...
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...Health Care Coverage Plan <<your name>> <<instructor’s name>> <<course title>> <<date>> Assume you are the HR Director for a midsized company and must make a decision about the company’s employee benefits package. You have not been in this position before and must maintain the current benefits budget; there may be no increases or changes to the package that will result in additional spending. 1. Describe the selection process you would use to make the most cost-effective and employee-friendly decision. Answer – Choosing the right type of benefits package is a very critical component of being attractive employer, helping attract and retain satisfied employees, by ensuring that majority of employee needs are taken care of. Given the huge number of options that are available in the market, with many more coming up every year, it becomes very tricky to determine what benefits package would be the most beneficial to the employee. Given the constraints on budgets, there must be multiple trade offs made between the extent and variety of benefits provided, and therefore the employer has to determine which package would cover the needs of majority of its employees. In this scenario, given that the available budget is fixed and the benefit plan for the next year has to at least as good as or even better than the previous year, the HR director has to think creatively to come up with a package that best aligns with the needs of...
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...are the best company to work for in America. They offered generous benefit packages to employees; it is can make us imagine jealous and eager to work for them. There are many kinds of generous benefits they offer to their employees such as premium health insurance coverage for employees and their family, retirement plan, tuition assistance, shareholder benefit, child care assistance, daycare and nursing rooms and much more. Their goal and vision is make their company is the happy place to work and grow together. Let’s question and answers how these companies treat their employees by spending much more money on their employee benefit and how they work the same time benefit to company and employees and especially how human resource management work with this coordination successfully. 1. Describe the importance of employee benefits as a strategic component of fulfilling the goals of HRM. Human resource management is best defined as the performance of acquiring, emerging and upholding employees HRM reaches this through numerous methods of worker gratitude, including health benefits, promotions, and compensation. Though, the benefits that a business offers can define the change between having a dedicated worker and also having one who will be willing to relocate as soon as a much higher opportunity arrives. A sound compensation package is frequently extra good-looking than a high paying salary. HRM wishes to apply the requirements of the employees and consider how it will also...
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...Implementation of a Company Blog Sherry Hays Westwood College BUS 500 July 21, 2014 Table of Contents Abstract---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Executive Summary-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Benefits of a Blog----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Statistics---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Downside of Blogging------------------------------------------------------------------------ 7 Cost of a Blog---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 Recommendations----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 References-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 Abstract A business blog can be a good recruiting tool for a business. There are countless companies that have a blog and are benefiting very nicely. Blogging...
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...committee to explore new markets, you have received a memo from the chairperson telling you to be prepared at the next meeting to discuss key questions that need to be addressed if the company decides to look further into the possibility of marketing to the BOP segment. The ultimate goal of this meeting will be to establish a set of general guidelines to use in developing a market strategy for any one of the company’s products to be marketed to the “aspirational poor.” These guidelines need to be company or product specific at this time. In fact, think of the final guideline as a checklist – a series of questions that a company could use as a start in evaluating the potential of a specific BOP market segment for one of its products. a. What are BOP market’s needs? b. What does the BOP market lack in terms of services and/or goods? c. Where is the BOP area? i. Rural versus urban d. What are the various forms of transportation in the BOP area? i. What is the infrastructure like in the area and is it reliable/safe? e. What are the BOP’s cultural values and what is of importance to them? i. What do people in these communities do for fun? f. What are the health concerns in the BOP market? i. How can our product benefit the area and environment? g. What forms of entertainment does the BOP area have? i. What types of technology are present? ii. What is readily available? iii. What is affordable? h. What type of income do families have in the BOP area? i. What are their jobs...
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...retirement benefits to employees to provide a source of income after they retire. Employees need to invest in their own retirement while working to ensure they have enough money to cover their expenses. The benefits of participating in these plans is tax-deferred earnings, and in some cases contributions are also taxed deferred. Employees can also invest in individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to augment their companies plan or to develop their own plan. "Companies establish retirement or pension plans following one of three design configurations: a defined benefit plan, a defined contribution plan, or hybrid plans that combine features of traditional defined benefit and defined contribution plans" (Martocchio, pg 259, 2009). Once the company decides on a plan, they need to develop a communication plan to encourage employee participation for the proposed retirement plan. "Setting up an employee retirement plan can be a smart way to provide for one of your key assets - your people - as well as benefiting one's business"("Nationwide", 2013). Providing a quality retirement plan helps attract and retain employees, reduce the tax burden and allows the owner to invest in their own retirement. Employers take care of their employees through salary, health care, paid vacation, sick leave. Companies who offer retirement plan greatly enhance their benefits package. "Employees are encouraged to save for retirement through plans set-up at work because it's easy to do" ("The...
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...Keeping a company at the top of the game is no easy task for any president or CEO. They must have some of the best and brightest individuals in all areas in order to be successful. For a company to be able to fill those spots, it is extremely important to find educated people that are also motivated to help drive them forward. The best way to do this is to provide a tuition reimbursement program. Having medical, dental, and vision benefits is nice to offer to employees but, in today’s day and age it is more or less the norm. To keep employees happy and interested in coming to work or to help improve their skills, having a tuition reimbursement program is a key step in taking our company to the next level. As reported by Education-Portal.com, “Many successful companies that provide tuition reimbursement program showed that they have a low employee turnover rate while enjoying high productivities and enhanced efficiencies from the employees.” (Education-portal, 2013). This is what causes them to be at the top or run just like a well-oiled machine. This report will address the tangible and intangible benefits, the types of careers and earning potential and the new professional opportunities that a business and communication bachelor’s degree can offer. When looking at the tangible and intangible benefits to having a business and communication bachelor’s degree is how it will change the employee. The employee is adding value to his/her stock by getting the education. This meaning...
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...costs will be associated with job enrichment and tries to figure out whether they are beneficial or not. After surveying about 189 companies about job enrichment, he went in to detail just how beneficial job enrichment can be and the costs associated with those changes. The costs include raising salaries, new equipment, inventory costs, training costs (lost productivity while employee learns their new job), implementation costs, etc. After seeing the results of his studies, it is found that when a corporation implements job enrichment correctly, almost all companies will benefit from job enrichment. Obviously this depends on the corporation and whether or not the company needs to make changes to their employees’ work. The article makes it very clear that job enrichment is a good thing for companies to partake in. Three things the article brings to light are viewing job enrichment as an investment, the benefits of a satisfied employee, and not underestimating the training involved with job enrichment. We should view job enrichment as an investment into the company and its’ employees. By investing in the employees and giving them more responsibilities so they feel motivated to do a better job we will definitely see the benefits. The most important benefit is job satisfaction. By satisfying employees, all other areas of the company will benefit. Benefits of enrichment programs include increased production output (in the long-run), increased job satisfaction, improved quality as measured...
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...Abstract The purpose of this paper is to determine how innovations in employee benefits can improve the overall competitive compensation strategy of the organization. Then, it explains how innovative benefits could be tied to specific jobs. After that, it critiques the effectiveness of equity-based rewards systems versus those with more creative approaches and discusses the key elements of integrating innovation into a traditional total rewards program. And last, it recommends a process that optimizes an employee-based suggestion program to continually refresh the total rewards of the organization. 1. Determine how innovations in employee benefits can improve the overall competitive compensation strategy of the organization. In this century, every dimension of life changes so fast. In unison, the way of companies doing business, personal lives of employees and employers, and working environments change, too. To stay in the business, companies need to comply with these changes. Employees have changeable needs and companies need to make employees keep working with their comprehensive benefits. They must find innovative ways of engaging employees that encourage and support their commitment and improve their performance. Otherwise they will be out of the race. Also, in this century, in workplaces the diversity of workforce increases. Companies must understand and address the diverse needs of their workforce to survive, thrive, and stay competitive. For example...
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...be a long day, but I felt good that all the products and services I'd used so far had come from companies where the employees were substantial or principal owners. Why Employee Ownership Is Popular There are a number of reasons for the popularity of employee stock plans. ESOPs provide attractive tax benefits. They allow companies to borrow money and repay it in pretax dollars. They provide a way for owners of closely held businesses to sell all or part of their interests and defer taxation on the gain. And they make it possible for companies to provide an employee benefit simply by contributing tax-deductible shares of their own stock, among other benefits. Broadly granted stock options do not provide special tax benefits but give growing companies a way to compensate employees with equity rather than more cash. Putting company stock in 401(k) plans provides a less expensive way for companies to match employee deferrals than matching in cash. Employee stock purchase plans (often called Section 423 plans, although not all such plans fall under this part of the tax code from which the name derives) allow employees to put aside part of their paychecks to buy stock, usually at a significant discount. Just as important, however, are potential productivity gains. Studies consistently show that when broad employee ownership is combined with a highly participative management style, companies perform much better than they otherwise...
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...Commissioners in a letter to Smart Point Financial Consultants dated November 20, comprehensively illustrates the economic effects of providing child care benefits to your employees and to your company. The aim of this study is to enlighten you about issues associated with providing health care to your employees’ children so that you make advised decisions on the same. This study was done to assess the effect of three main areas as illustrated below. • The cost benefit analysis of adding employees childcare to Fake Name’s benefit program • The initial cost of initiating this program • The types of coverage alternatives that is available in the market and those that are most attractive to employees. For the purpose of this study, we performed both primary and secondary research. Our research involved conducting a thorough analysis of Smart Point’s financial statements to determine the affordability of this program. Besides verifying financial statements, interviews were carried out to assess the working conditions of the Smart Point’s employees. Secondary research involved examining various insurance companies and the policies they offer. The aim of performing our research on insurance companies was to assess what insurance companies do when insuring children's health care. The data in this analysis was collected from the department of labor through their website. Results, conclusions and recommendations...
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... Training in an Organization’s development An organization that wants to grow and progress needs to understand how training fits into the puzzle of the development of the company. Training is vital as it involves acquiring and expanding the knowledge and skills of the employees required for a certain job. As job are becoming more sophisticated and being influenced by technology and corporate changes, training is starting to become more important to the organization than ever before. Training targets specific goals, for example learning how to operate a particular machine. While career development focuses on a broader set of skills, like creative thinking and decision making, that can be used in a wider range of situations. (“Art of the Start”, 2016). Training is an opportunity that some companies do not like to add to the budget as it can be expensive. There are times that an employee may have to miss work to attend any training, and this can push back work and put the company behind schedule. Even with the added expense and potential setbacks, training and development provide both the company and the employees with benefits that make it a worthwhile investment. (Frost, 2016). Some of the reasons that make training and development so important are that it can help find the companies weaknesses, improves workers performance, keeps a consistent duty performance. Helps to ensure the workers satisfaction in the organization, increases...
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...which is a privately owned company has been known for the ways it treats its employees. With a great reputation and showing 13 years in a row the company has been cited in Fortune magazine as one of the “100s Best Companies to Work for in America”. In 2009 the turnover rate was 2 percent with 10 years if tenure for the average employee showing that this company is known for the longevity of their employees. With the ability to attract, motivate and keep the most talented people out there, it makes one think how this company does it. The goal of the institute is to make sure that their employees enjoy what they do and are motivated by their work both internally and externally and what the company gives back to them. Case Study Questions With a company so popular to work for there are many ways they go about motivating their employees. All the managers believe that employees should enjoy what they are doing and that their contributions make a major impact on the company. One of the first system established is developing products in house. The institute believe that employees are more motivated by developing products internally which keeps things creative. Another system is allowing employees to change jobs within the company, even if it requires more training. By allowing employees to move from one job to another it allows for employees to get complacent or board with the work they are doing. During the economic issues the company wasn’t like other companies where they had to downsize...
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...MEMORANDUM DATE: November 29, 2010 TO: James Martin, Director of Human Resources FROM: Name, Assistant Director of Human Resources SUBJECT: Wellness Program Recommendations for Technicraft, Inc. Attached is the report on the implementation of corporate wellness programs. Due to rising health benefit costs and a rising number of health benefit claims, you requested that I investigate the implementation of corporate wellness programs as a way to reduce company costs. In order to determine whether it would be possible to improve employee health and lifestyle habits, while also cutting company costs, I analyzed the results that several companies had after launching their own wellness programs. I also considered and researched the potential disadvantages of implementing a wellness program. After a thorough investigation of all of these factors, I recommend that Technicraft, Inc. implement a corporate wellness program in order to improve employee health and productivity and reduce or stabilize company health benefit costs. I have enjoyed researching this topic and would like to meet with you to discuss my recommendation. I will call you early next week in order to schedule a meeting time or you may contact me at extension 5555. WELLNESS PROGRAM RECCOMMENDATIONS FOR TECHNICRAFT, INC. Prepared for James Martin, Director of Human Resources Technicraft, Inc. 4501 West 92nd Street Indianapolis, IN 46260 Prepared by Name, Assistant Director of Human...
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