Employee Benefits

Planning and Developing Employee Benefits
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Planning and Developing Employee Benefits
In the recent past, there has been an increase in the number of organizations that have adopted other employee benefit schemes apart from that are mandated by the government. Employee benefit plan plays an important role in the development of the employee’s welfare as well as that of an organization. Although organizations are obliged by the law to provide certain compensation and benefits to the workers, the companies can be motivated by other reasons into adopting various employees’ benefit schemes. The plans are used by organizations to motivate workers, to increase productivity as well as a retention strategy to discourage the employees from leaving the company (Plans, 2011). The benefit plans often vary, but there are common factors that should be taken into consideration when planning and developing these schemes. In planning and developing employee benefit plans, a company should take into consideration both internal and external factors. Internal factors include factors within an organization and all the benefits that the employer is planning to provide at his own discretion, for example, health cover and retirement benefits. Conversely, external factors, include the worker’s benefits that the organization is mandated by the law to provide such as social security and employee compensation.
It is paramount that any benefit plan developed and implemented should align with the company’s goals and objectives.

The plan must link with the mission of the organization. The aim of businesses that developing and implementing worker benefits plan is either to motivate the workers or retained them, especially the skilled and experienced workers. The workers are motivated or retained to help the company attain both short-term and long-term goals. Thus, a company should always take into consideration its goals and objectives to plan and develop an effective worker benefit schemes. Additionally, it is essential to consider strategies that will be used to track the growing needs that will be required to achieve the mission of the company.
Additionally, a company must consider the satisfaction of its employees when planning employees’ benefit scheme. For the plan to significantly motivate the workers, it should be able to satisfy their needs. Satisfied employees are more likely to remain loyal to the company than those that are not contented. Also, the productivity of a satisfied workforce is high, and there are few incidents of employee strikes making the making the business competitive and preferable by job seekers. There is a need for employers to tailor benefit packages to meet the needs of the employees. Therefore, an organization should determine the most valued benefits by both the current and the potential employees before planning and develop a compensation and benefits package. Sometimes companies have even considered the employees’ families.
Furthermore, it is essential to consider the available company resources such as finances during the planning and the development of the employee’s benefit plan. Finance is a major core in business operations, and so an organization should consider its financial status in implementing a compensation package. An organization should be able to fund the plan without sabotaging its other operations. Employee benefits can be significantly costly to the company, and it is imperative that the cost of the benefits are managed and controlled effectively and strategically especially during tight economic times.
Furthermore, to attain success in developing and planning worker’s benefit plans, an organization should determine its strengths and weakness to know where the plan will affect. The organization should also evaluate various employee’s benefit schemes that have been adopted by the company or other companies to help the managers to develop an effective plan. Likewise, it is critical to take into consideration discretionary benefits such as employees’, life insurance, health insurance, retirement’s plans, disability insurance, paid time-off, and enhancement benefits such as transport allowance, housing allowance, and risk allowance. Above all, the employer can factor in the living costs, incentive, merit, personal effort and seniority to adjust the core compensation to plan and develop an effective employee compensation and benefits scheme.
Various external factors also must be taken into consideration when developing and planning employee benefits scheme. Political and legislature influence business operations and therefore the environments should consider when making any major business decision including the development and planning of workers’ benefit plans. It is essential to determine what the law mandates the company to provide for it employees. Some benefit schemes are mandatory (Langbein, Wolk & Stabile, 2006). With globalization, a company should understand both local and international legal frameworks that affect the development and implementation of the compensation packages. Noticeably, the law entitles the workers to fair benefits. Consequently, it is essential for organizations to adopt compensation benefit schemes, which comprises hourly wage and annual salaries for all the employees.
Another external factor than an organization should consider when planning and developing a worker compensation and benefits program is the environment of operation. Different organizations operate in different industries and environment. The management should consider the industry to tailor its plan to fit the requirements in the industry. The organization should evaluate different types of benefit schemes that have been adopted by other successful players in the industry since businesses in the same industry tend to adopt similar benefit schemes.
The most important factor to be considered by employers when developing and planning the employee compensation packages is the legal framework. Operating within the law including the international law will ensure that the organization care for its employee as it will meet certain legal obligations when developing and implementing employee benefit schemes. Moreover, understanding the law and operating within it will help the company to avoid unnecessary legal suits by the government or the employees and other relevant groups. The legal suits can be costly to the organization and sometimes can lead to business closure. Workers benefits are continuously affected by ever-changing labor and tax laws, and the regulatory climate. Therefore, it is critical to take, strategic approach when implementing the benefit schemes (Sears, Klein, Qian, & Lu, 2007).
Some factors that influence the development and planning of workers’ benefits plans such as paid leave favor the employees more than the employers and the managers least consider these factors when developing an employee benefit scheme. There are many merits that accrue to paid leave plan for workers including employee retention, motivation, making the company competitive and preferable by job seekers. The paid time-off plan, however, can have adverse implications to the organization. For example, the plan could encourage absenteeism since workers know that they will still get paid despite being absent from the workplace. Additionally, the paid leave plan can be expensive due to unnecessary expenses-workers are paid yet there is no work done.
Compensation and benefits plan does not only ensure that the employees’ welfare is catered for but also plays a key role in the success of a company. Therefore, to Develop and plan effective employee compensation and benefits scheme, an organization ought to consider and integrate all factors that influence the company-internal and external factors. Organizations are motivated by other reasons apart from the legal obligation to adopt benefit plans. Managers use compensation and benefits schemes to motivate workers, increase productivity and to retain the employees in the organization. Therefore, it is critical to take, strategic approach when implementing the benefit schemes. The benefit plans that organizations can adopt include the medical cover, retirement benefits, employee compensation, disability cover, accommodation, Social security, and life insurance as well as enhancement benefits including risk allowance, and transport allowance.

ReferencesLangbein, J. H., Wolk, B. A., & Stabile, S. J. (2006). Pension and employee benefit law. Foundation Press.
Plans, E. B. (2011). Employee Benefit Plans.
Sears, T., Klein, A., Qian, H., & Lu, H. (2007). U.S. Patent Application No. 10/322,381.