1. What is the "bandwagon" effect in benefits administration? When is it most apparent?
The bandwagon effect is when new benefits offered by a competitor are adopted without careful consideration, simply because the employer wants to avoid hard feelings. This is most apparent when an employer has strong commitments to maintain a totally or partially nonunion workforce. 2. What is the most frequent method of communicating benefits to employees? How can this method be most effective
The employee benefit handbook is the most frequent form of communicating benefits to employees. To be most effective the benefit manual should be accompanied by group meetings and videotape. 3. Which is the most popular empirical method of identifying individual preferences in benefits packages? Explain how this method works
The flexible benefit plan is the most popular also known as cafeteria style plan or the super market plan. Employees are allotted a fixed amount of money and permitted to spend that amount in the purchase of benefit options. Employees directly identify the benefits of greatest value to them, and by constraining the dollars employees have to spend, benefits managers are able to control benefits costs. 4. Discuss what psychological contracts mean in employee benefit practices
Psychological contracts are an articulation of the exchange relationship between the employer and the employee. A psychological contract has been defined as an employee’s subjective perceptions of the relationship of mutual obligations with the employer and the company. Employee benefits can be a part of the psychological contract employees hold about the employer’s obligations to them in exchange for their work efforts. 5. Briefly discuss how workforce demographic changes can influence the employment relationship. (Workforce Changes and the Employment Relationship)
Jobs are