7.8 Flexible Benefits

Given the world is highly competitive in today’s society, employers need to be creative and flexible with benefit packages to attract and retain employees. Flexible benefits allows the employees to choose their own benefits from a “menu of choices” according to their individual needs and family needs. Some employees are offered credits to use to buy their benefit package. Other employees have benefit accounts.

The employee and employer contribute to the account or the fund. This meets the specific needs of each employee within the company. The employee has full control over what benefits to purchase, and can prioritize according to their lifestyle and situation. The employee is offered the price of each benefit and detailed information about the benefit coverage.

Employee Assistance Programs are popular with employees and employers. Employees are offered credits in an account through an extended health coverage plan. Some of these expenses include vision care, dental care, optional life insurance, massage, and physiotherapy.

Flexible benefits is a complex task for Human Resources. It is time consuming and costly. With advanced technology, some of the burden is lifted through databases that can handle the large volume of individual requests. Another complex issue for Human Resources is communicating all the choices to the employees. Employees need to take responsibility for their own education about the available benefits, and Human Resources needs to make the information readily available, in simple language. Human Resources also needs to be knowledgeable about all the products available to interpret the information to the employees.

A Final Note on Compensation and Benefits Strategy

When creating your compensation plan, of course the ability to recruit and retain should be an important factor. But also, consideration of your workforce needs is crucial to any successful compensation plan. The first step in development of a plan is to ask the employees what they care about. Some employees would rather receive more pay with fewer benefits or better benefits with fewer days off. Surveying the employees allows you, as the HR professional, to better understand the needs of your specific workforce. Once you have developed your plan, understand that it may change to best meet the needs of your business as it changes over time.

Once the plan is developed, communicating the plan with your employees is also essential. Inform your employees via an HR blog, e-mails, and traditional methods such as face to face. Your employees might not always be aware of the cost of the benefits to the company, so making sure they know is your responsibility. For example, if you pay for 80 percent of the medical insurance premiums, let your employees know this. This type of communication can go a long way to allowing the employees to see their value within the organization.

“7.8 Flexible Benefits” from Human Resources Management – 3rd Edition by Debra Patterson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.