Business Studies

Instructions

This semester the class will review any case study within the textbook. Case Studies are located at the end of each chapter. Students will be required to analyze and submit an analysis of one (1) case from the textbook. Write a paper of 2-3 pages in length, not counting the title and reference pages, which you must include:

Guidelines

• List question # before each answer.
• Use terms, evidence, and concepts from class readings, including professional business language.
• Must include a References page.
• Cite at least one (1) credible, academic, or professional sources for this assignment, outside of the textbook. (Do not use Wikipedia as a source).
• Format your paper according to APA 7.
• Students will submit the assignment through Safe Assign.
• Students should not have a similarity report greater than 10%.

Cases 1.

Understanding Your Employee Benefits: Understanding a Job Offer

As a recent college graduate, you are excited to start the search for your first career position. You have already started interviewing for opportunities as a management trainee. You have been fortunate to have two interviews so far, and you identified several other companies to apply to at a recent job fair. From what you have learned, it seems that the starting salary for a job as a management trainee in your area is about the same at all companies. Therefore, you know that salary isn’t going to differentiate one job offer from another. It will, of course, be important to understand the work environment and future career opportunities at a given company as you compare offers. As you think back to some of the career-search seminars you’ve attended, you remember that you should also compare benefit offerings. As you look through the Web sites of the companies you have applied to, you quickly see that there are lots of different benefits plans offered. In fact, as you look at this information, you start to become concerned that comparing benefits is going to be a challenge. You think that you need to have a better understanding of the value of different benefits when you consider the total compensation you would receive from a company. You decide to start by more closely looking at the benefits offered by your current best prospect, which is a position at a large established corporation where you interviewed last week. You pull up the careers page on the company Web site and find a chart that lists the benefits offered. Old age, survivor, and   disability insurance Medicare Unemployment insurance Workers’ compensation Family and medical leave Health care Dental insurance Employee assistance program Tuition reimbursement Defined contribution retirement plan Vacation days Holidays Sick days. As you review the chart, you aren’t sure what you should pay attention to and what will make a difference in evaluating an offer. You think about lists that you’ve read on other company’s Web sites and think that other companies seem to offer benefits plans very similar to this one. At this point, you think that maybe benefit offerings don’t really make a difference. You decide you need to learn more before you go much further in the interview process. If the benefits information provided to you is unclear, you know you should be prepared to ask questions. The future is exciting, but you know that once you receive an offer, it is an important decision that you should make with full information.

1. If two different companies list the same benefits offerings, should you assume that the value of the benefits are the same?
2. What are some benefits offered from this company that you should find more information about in order to fully understand a job offer from the company? Why?
3. Why don’t all companies just offer the same benefits?

ANSWER

Employee Benefits

If two different companies list the same benefits offerings, should you assume that the value of the benefits are the same?

Benefits are considered as non-financial rewards that are given to an employee as an appreciation token for their work. Some of the most popular employee benefits include health insurance, medical benefits, paid time off, flexible working time and working remotely. Benefits do not offer direct money to the employees but they are vital since they attract talented employees to a company. Benefit programs are characterized by three features: paid time off, protection, accommodation and enhancement (Martocchio, 2003). Most employees apply for organizations depending on the benefits and perks that are offered by a company to boost their satisfaction. If there are different companies that are listing the same benefit offerings, one should not assume that the value of the benefits are the same.

Ideally, the benefits manager differently direct, plan and manage retirement plans, health insurance and other benefits that an organization provide to its employees. The companies have to decide whether they restrict the participation of the current employees, their survivors and dependent family members of the retired and current employees. Relatively, a company may sponsor different broad benefits including healthcare, paid time off and retirement plans and consider the most cost effective rather than having the defined benefits. Companies have different specifications on the least number of months than an member of staff has to remain employed within the organization for them to be eligible for certain benefits.

The benefits programs within a company match their strategic planning efforts. When reviewing the employee benefits, it’s important that an employee puts into consideration the factors of professional development, economic advantages, training opportunities, benefits offered and stability. Another important part of the benefit packages are the certain aspects of the benefits. For instance, companies might offer a retirement program with varying aspects such as the 401K and another different pension plan.

The benefits might have different values depending on the employee need. Therefore, it’s important that employees ensure that the benefits meet their needs and preferences. For instance, the young employees may benefit from the educational and family assistance program while the older workforce may benefit from the healthcare benefits and defined benefit plans that support their retirement income streams.

What are some benefits offered from this company that you should find more information about in order to fully understand a job offer from the company? Why?

In order to fully understand a job offer from the company, there are some benefits that one needs to find more information about. Understanding these benefits allows one to have a deeper understanding of the value on job offering and the general attitude of the company towards the workforce. Ideally, an employee has to consider the importance of the benefits in achieving competitive advantage and legal compliance. Some of the benefits that one needs to find more information about include the discretionary benefits.

The discretionary benefits are benefits that have not been authorized by the law. These consist of an array of employee benefits such as sick leave, vacation leave, health insurance, pension plans, maternity leave and life insurance. Discretionary benefits make an organization look more appealing to potential workers (Balkin and Werner, 2022). Benefits are among the most important factors that employees put into consideration when deciding whether to reject or accept the offer. Ideally, it’s important to ensure that the discretionary benefits fulfill three major roles; protection programs, paid time off, accommodation and enhancements. The protection programs mean that the benefits are offering protection to the employee and family members. The paid time off gives workers time off with pay for various drives such as celebrating holidays and illness.

Enhancement and accommodation offer improvements to workers in various ways. For instance, understanding the retirement plans is important for an individual since the company may form the retirement plans as defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, or hybrid plans. The defined contribution plan ensures that employees contribute annually to their accounts on the basis of their chosen percentage. The defined benefit plan offers monthly sum equal to a percentage of preretirement pay.

In the general coverage, it’s important to find out more information on whether there are per pay period costs of the overall benefits plan, who is covered and when each component of the benefit actual starts and whether there are any taxable benefits. When evaluating the medical benefit, it’s important to consider the kind of plan, the covered expense, deductibles, and co-pays and whether the plan has a closed or open enrollment. For instance, organizations have different policies on when one qualifies for health insurance. Some companies will have a full coverage while others offer partial coverage. Some companies will allow covering the family members and offer premium pay. Therefore, it’s important to have clear information on the health insurance plans and other discretionary benefits to ensure that they meet an individual’s preferences and needs. Understanding the benefit packages shows a reflection of the company values and goals and how well they are linked to employee gains.

Why don’t all companies just offer the same benefits?

Ideally, the benefits packaged offered to employees is a collection of non-wage compensation used to supplement the salary of employees. The main aim of employee benefits is to increase the economic security of the employees while improving the work retention within the organization. Companies exist in different sizes and varying needs of employees. Companies cannot afford to offer similar benefits since it can cost too much for benefits that do not add value to their employees. Relatively, it’s very expensive to offer benefits for a small organization as compared to a company that has a high number of employees. Employee benefits also vary depending on the legal context and country. For instance, each country has their own rules regarding protection and health insurance.

Competition has been another major factor as to why companies do not offer the same benefits. Proposing benefits to the workers has been a significant stone for attractiveness (Osibanjo et al., 2014). Benefits have been considered as ways through which a company invests in the well-being of employees and showing that they are concerned with the employee’s futures. Benefits vary depending on how companies engage with their employees. This is because the corporations and companies invest in their employees differently depending on how much value they gain from their workforce. In the current job market, there is stiff competition in acquiring highly skilled personnel and maintaining them. Companies have created different benefit packages that are competitive and offer employee security as well as sense of loyalty and ownership. The benefits included in an organization’s compensation package are a significant factor when searching for jobs.

Companies can select whether to offer the common benefits like health instance, retirement plans, life insurance or paid vacation or typically offer additional benefits in order to be competitive when hiring. Companies have different strategic planning for their benefits program. The strategic planning includes a series of decisions, made under uncertainty. For instance, in strategic benefit planning, the companies that have strong standing tend to devote more financial resources to benefits programs compared to companies with a weak standing.

References

Balkin, D. B., & Werner, S. (2022). Theorizing the relationship between discretionary employee benefits and individual performance. Human Resource Management Review, 100901.

Martocchio, J. J. (2003). Employee benefits: A primer for human resource professionals. Boston, USA: McGraw-Hill.

Osibanjo, A. O., Adeniji, A. A., Falola, H. O., & Heirsmac, P. T. (2014). Compensation packages: a strategic tool for employees’ performance and retention. Leonardo Journal of Sciences, (25), 65-84.