Assignment 4: Human Resource Business Partner (HRBP) DevelopmentDue Week 10 and worth 250 pointsYour previous contributions addressing a variety of important topics outlined in all previous assignment
Running head: STRATEGIC VALUES OF EMPLOYEE BENEFITS PROGRAMS 0
Strategic Values of Employee Benefits Programs
Student’s Name: Gabrielle McNeely
Institutional Affiliation: Strayer University
Strategic Values of Employee Benefits Programs
Every business organization or firm is tasked with the challenge to attract, motivate, reward, and retain its good employees. This has been a primary challenge and puzzle for many managers in the rapidly evolving and competitive business world. Managers are doing what they can to reduce the rates of employees fall-outs. Thus, to motivate and retain employees, employers ought to create and offer attractive benefits to the employees. This implies that firms or organizations should have effective and functional benefits programs. The first aspect is that the benefit program should be attractive to the employees, and the second aspect is that the benefits programs should be supportive of the organization.
In every organization, employees look forward to a benefits package that is helpful and supportive to them as individuals as well as their families and those who depend on them. Thus, managers should choose only variables that are essential to the company and the employees. Such packages are known as Total reward packages, which entails six vital components. These components include compensation, benefits, recognition, performance management, talent development, and management, as well as the effectiveness of work and life. All these components create a concrete strategy for organizations to attract, reward, motivate, and retain employees (Rothaermel, 2016).
Furthermore, in the total reward program, benefits are a vital entity making it crucial for organizational managers to educate their employees as well as sensitizing them on the need for benefit programs and how it will help improve their working attitudes. In an organizational setting, managers are required to first educate and create awareness to employees before implementing any set or program in the organization. Programs that are aimed at involving employees should be effectively communicated to them regarding their impact on the employees and their job execution, the importance, and values of the program thereof. Furthermore, the managers should also explain in detail how the program is likely to benefit the general organization apart from benefiting the employees.
Another vital variable to consider when implementing a benefits program is its ability to supply and deliver quality performance to the organization's staff members. This indicates that the program should be a motivating factor to the employees in that; through it, they are pushed to work harder. Through technological advancements in the contemporary world, managers can access and choose the most effective way of analyzing and supplying employees with programs that are affordable to the employees. This way of handling the employees' benefits packages does not only benefit the employees but also benefits the staff during their staff insurance package implementation. Thus, organizations that desire to attract, motivate, and retain good employees should incorporate three essential benefits programs. These include medical, life, and retirement insurance programs. All these insurance offers security to the employees in terms of their health, life, and benefits after they retire from their jobs. Even though organizations may have a variety of other benefits at the organizational policies, health, and life insurance is crucial (Rothaermel, 2016).
Many employers offer the mentioned insurances to their employees. They cover a variety of aspects of employee life by covering things like hospital bills and cover them in case of accidents. Some organizations include surgery procedures, dental as well as vision services under the medical insurance premiums to help employees to access medical assistance in case of need. This implies that when designing the benefits program in an organization, many elements should be considered, especially regarding the type of business the organization runs. Life insurance benefits insure the employees and offer beneficial outcomes such as death benefits, which his or her family will receive if the employees were insured before dying. In case an employee dies through a car crash or any other form of accident, he or she will be compensated on the same.
Moreover, the tax code takes the responsibility of retirement benefits program. Therefore, start-up businesses can use a variety of tools in planning for retirement benefits. Tools such as the A401 (k) is crucial when companies attempt to attract or retain good employees (Mwau et al. 2019).
The benefits program has elements such as the income protection program and the pay for time not worked. Income protection programs are insurance policies that offer benefits to incapacitated employees, who find it difficult to work due to illnesses or accidents. Initially, this form of the policy was designed and regarded as Permanent Health Insurance. Through this policy, the employee gives out some portion of his or her salary to the insurance, to cater for any misfortunes or emergency occurrences such as illnesses or accidents. Therefore, this program is essential to the employees since it is designed and meant to ensure that employees receive some payment to run their livelihood in case they are befallen by circumstances that can render then unable to work (Mwau et al. 2019). The federal law requires that in case of incapacitation of an employee who is registered under the income protection program, the employer should compensate or pay the employee for the time he or she is unable to work. Thus, the income protection program assumes that even though the employee is not working in the organization premises, he or she is still under the control of the employer, who is responsible for paying the employee thereof to ensure that he or she leads a better life even when not working.
Pay for the time not worked in another element of benefits programs, which is characterized by offering employees paid offs. These off-days are not meant for organizational benefits but for the employee to do what he or she wishes to do. During such days, employees take part in vacations and training while others attend to medical requirements. Therefore, both income protection programs and pay for the time not worked are essential in a company setting and depends on the type of business the organization runs. Even though the two elements work parallel to each other, they can both be accessed by the employees according to their needs. Another common aspect associated with the two elements of benefits programs is that they are both aimed at retaining qualified employees by motivating them and giving the employees hopes that in case of anything, they are insured and protected. The underlying difference between the two elements is the Income protection program helps to compensate the employees for adverse occurrences such as illnesses and accidents while pay for the time did not work compensated for activities associated with work as a vacation, attending a conference or undergoing some training related to the company protocols (Rothaermel, 2016).
In organizations, other benefit programs are recommendable for managers to include in the benefits package. The aim of designing a benefits package is to increase employee attraction, motivation, and retention. Some of the other benefits include work and life benefits, recognition, career development, and insurance benefits. These 'other benefits' helps leaders or managers to understand that work and life benefits are a program that offers the employees an opportunity to take personal time off the working environment to enjoy and relax. In this case, the organizations give employees flextime offers, which include freedom to working at flexible hours and also allow employees who wish to execute their tasks away from the office premises to do so. Work-life benefit programs also allow workers to participate in activities such as social practices through the creation of flexible workplaces, paid time offs, taking part in life initiatives, and attending community services.
Recognition as 'other benefit' is a vital entity in motivating employees. Employers should recognize the efforts, hard work, and dedication from their employees and reward them according to their loyalty levels. Awarding them or starting recognition programs will be vital in helping the employees feel that they are recognized as assets in a company. Career development is also essential for employees since it helps them to grow as individuals and as assets in an organization. Development can be fostered through internships, attending short course training as recommended by an organization, promotions, and attending seminars and workshops aimed at issuing certificates to boost their experiences and CVs. Welfare benefits are also vital entities under 'other benefits.' This includes welfare services like giving discounts on products purchased by employees, especially in production organizations, and pre-tax payments that can benefit the employees all the same (Mwau et al. 2019).
In an organization, there are exempt or no-exempt position levels of employees. Top management or top organizational positions falls under the exempt positions. These are employees who receive a fixed salary range, and most do not offer overtime payments to exempt employees. That implies that benefit programs allocated to exempt employees are more lucrative than those allocated to non-exempt employees. Thus, for exempt employees, the benefits package will entail primary benefits such as full-time benefits as employees, especially those that exceed their working hours to over 30 hours in a week.
Furthermore, an employee pension plan will be vital for exempt employees. In this case, the organization will send pension money to the pension plan as long as the employee is working under the organization thereof. The pension money will be cashed into the employees when they retire. For non-exempt employees, they are paid in wages because most of them are casual workers. Such employees should be compensated through the minimum wage provisions. That is to imply that for no-exempt employees, their compensation should tie with the federal or state requirements stipulated for exempt employees (Arulrajah, 2017).
In conclusion, organizations should strategically implement benefits programs aimed at attracting, motivating, and retaining qualified employees because they are crucial in marinating the company image in the competitive world and increasing productivity. Benefits such as medical life and retirement benefits are vital in motivating and retaining employees. Income protection and pay for time not worked programs are also essential for employees retaining and motivating. More so, some benefits such as work-life, flextime, and discounted products fall under the 'other benefits' programs essential to employees.
References
Rothaermel, F. T. (2016). Strategic management: concepts (Vol. 2). McGraw-Hill Education.
Arulrajah, A. A. (2017). Productivity and quality management through human resource management: A systematic review. International Review of Management and Business Research, 6(2), 419-437.
Mwau, F. M., Binti Abdullah, N. F., & Sama, I. (2019, December). A Study of The Relationships between Compensation Package, Work Motivation, and Job Satisfaction. In Prosiding International Conference on Information Technology and Business (ICITB) (pp. 59-65).
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