Employment Blog :: Work & Career » Employee Benefits

Salary And Benefits Basics

Bill Walker — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:11:56 +0000

The salary structure progresses on a snailâ€™s pace while the prices of commodities scale new heights. The question is what an individual should do in such a situation. The answer is the perks or the benefits that a company offers with the basic salary. The perks that are supplemented with the basic salary are a source of relief. A job that offers a basic salary of $90,000 per annum without any bonus should be discarded for a job that fetches you $84,000 with monthly benefits.

These perks are significant not just for the money factor but for the important aspects that they account for during our life. For instance the dental insurance takes care for all the expenses related to dental problems that the employee confronts after joining the company. Thus, perks lend the employee a more or less carefree life. They provide him with the biggest assistance i.e. financial and that too in some of the most expensive areas. Hence, perks are unbelievably significant. But all the companies and businesses do not offer these benefits. Moreover, the kinds of benefits vary from workplace to workplace. Like the bank employees are benefited with medical assistance, travel perks during vacations, insurance etc. Whereas many a multinational companies and corporations provide perks on daily basis that primarily include the expense of food and commutation charges.

Some of the chiefly significant and common benefits are listed below-

â€¢ 401(k) planâ€”is meant to relieve the employee from the burden of taxation by the government. This plan is too fruitful in the long run for it enables the employee to make good stabilized savings throughout his job. This benefit is available only to those working in the private and not the government sector.

â€¢ 403(b) planâ€”is also of tremendous helps in saving money for retirement that is purged of all taxation but only till the time of its withdrawal. For once an individual retires and starts using the money from the 403(b) account, the income through it will be subject to regular taxation. There are certain other differences also between the 401(k) and 403 (b) plans. The 403(b) plan is meant for those who are employed under as per the IRS definition of businesses that are organized and working specifically for the religious, charitable, public safety testing, scientific, literary or educational purposes. Besides this the 401(k) pan allows investment in stocks while the 403(b) does not.

â€¢ Insurance facility- many employers bestow their employees with the insurance benefits. These benefits are extremely useful during the period when the employee is incapable to work and needs financial aid by sitting at home. Some companies offer full insurance coverage to their employees while there are others that provide with a comparatively limited coverage to the new recruitments. This coverage however gradually increases with the working years of the worker. Under the insurance facility are also included insurances like- disability insurance, dental insurance, short and long term disability etc.

â€¢ Healthcare benefits are included in the compensation package. There are various healthcare packages with different scope. The usual health care plans are HMOs, PPOs, and POSs.

â€¢ Vacation packages are also offered annually by some companies. In this benefit the company provides you with a certain amount of money that you can utilize in holidaying with your family. In case a trip is not on your itinerary, the money can act as a saving, as per the rules of the company.

â€¢ The Severance Package is active under the situation when the individual loses his job without any of his fault. This is not just extremely helpful to the employee but also saves any kind of legal action against the employer.

â€¢ Besides these, many multinational companies serve their efficient and crucial employees with a house, free phone calls and pick and drop facilities.

The Most Important Purpose In Employee Awards

Hartman — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 08:34:04 +0000

Employee Awards are known to be the perfect way to improve the morale and also the productivity of the workers. For many decades various organizations have used this recognition awards to show to their employees that they are the vital part of the organization. For example gifting a golden watch to the retiring employees or the concept of Employee of the Month are some of the most popular way to pay respect to the employees. The concept of awarding the employees has now become the standard feature in todayâ€™s business. Thereby making it the most common day in the office and as a result the employee doesnâ€™t feel any special about this. In order to win back the employees some thing unique need to be done by using a special honor.

Paper award like printed certificate is disposable and some times it sends a feeling to the employee that the individual can also be disposed thereby sending a strong negative feeling into the employeeâ€™s mind. One reason for using a paper award specially the certificates is that they are very cheap or inexpensive and this cheap award is some thing that should be avoided at all cost because cheap awards can some time lead to the cheaper relation between the employer and the employee. This is the main reason that the employees no longer appreciate paper certificates.

Another kind of award is the plaques and is the next best choice to some of the biggest as well as the most reputed organization. These kinds of awards are mainly made from dark wood or wood-like plastic material along with the engraving of either gold or silver. Being made from high quality material these are very durable and also lasts long. As a result it also seems that the employer is successful on winning the heart if his or her employee. But one of the biggest drawbacks is that these high quality durable awards also fail to provide the feeling that an employee really wants to have, which is being an individual. Therefore he or she also wanted to be awarded as an individual.

It is now time to offer the employees a personalized award that is mainly the picture of the employee or may be a sports plaque. Another way to boost the morale of the employee is by adding personalized message stating the contribution of the employees to the firm. Custom awards are also considered to be the best since these kinds of awards feature contains the official logo of the company along with the achievements that the firm gained with the help of the employee. Most firms believe that customer satisfaction is the key to their success but this is not the whole truth. Employees too need to be satisfied too and to do so they must be treated like a human being.

The Most Important Purpose In Employee Awards

BernardT — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 09:34:51 +0000

Factors Influencing the Employee Relations

Fabiola — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:37:03 +0000

Globalization is one of the factors affecting the employee relations, otherwise known as the industrial relations. Strategic management is important because changes in employee relations has resulted to increased bargaining power of the employees, flexibility in working time as well as changing job functions and this has occurred due to the increase in competition, product processes changes due to consumer awareness combined with the increasing essence in quality, productivity and skills. An integration of all these factors has had impact on the practices and policies of the management. While managing change in the firm, the employee involvement in making sure the change is effected is very important while the management has to ensure that the skills processed by the employees are compatible with those required in the market to meet the customer needs.

With the increased importance of the employee relations, the human resources is has shifted it focus to quality, innovation and reduction of the cost. The importance of human resource management (HRM) is reflected in the personnel management in the firms. Employee relations (ER) is better viewed as a long term goal rather than short term because it deals with the way the HRM treats the people in long term view. In successful companies like General Motors itâ€™s noted that how the workers are treated is a key item feature in the long term beside other factors like the corporate culture and the objectives. Today in most industries, the HRM is recognized since itâ€™s of big concern to the company since itâ€™s not meant to only ensure that the employees comply with the laid down policies but also win commitment of the workers, this therefore makes the ER a worthy investment. HRM strategies are affected or influenced by the decisions made in relation to the structure, strategy and considering the external factors like the legal system, labor market position and the influence of trade unions.