I need an answer for this to do my term paper.
Have to propose a benefits system that is fair,equitable and workable
For employees and employers?
Yes its school work but I am lost. Don't know where to start or look.:( :(

This seems like a very large project -- hope this will be helpful

http://www.successacademyonline.com/Documents/EmpHB2003.pdf

Good Luck

What is the name of the class? Do you have a text book?

Yes George I have a textbook but it does not cover this we are to look up web site and build it on our own which I have been doing. But I thought maybe a little imput would help me THANKS

That is a huge assignment.

I don't know if I can help or not, but I will give it a shot.

There are different types of benefits in a benefit systems. What you are trying to do is to build something that the company can afford in it's budget but yet it does the most good for the employees. It must also be something that both groups can agree on.

Most employee benefit systems have the following components:

Health Insurance (Medical, Dental, Vision)
Life and Disability Insurance
Child Care
Pension Plans

Health Insurance:

The most common health insurance concept today is the Consumer Driven Health Insurance concept. It is helping companies save money and providing worthwhile benefits to their employees. We were very skeptical at first but we took the plunge and 4 years later it is working well.

The Company buys a high deductible insurance from a company such as Blue Shield or another insurance company. That makes the deductible around 1000.000 per person or 2,000.00 per family. (this can be different amounts)

Now the company sets up an HRA Account which is called Health Reimbursement Account. The HRA is a bridge between the high deductible and the employee. The company puts in 500.00 per person or 1000.00 per family. When the employee reaches his 500.00 amount than he may draw on the 500.00 in the HRA to make the 1000.00 amount. The Employee is required to reach the 500.00 deductible first, and it would be 1000.00 for a family. If the employee never uses the insurance he may use the 500.00 for wellness checkups, or vision hardware. This would take the place of the company providing a vision insurance. It also puts the employee somewhat in charge of how he wishes to spend his insurance dollars.

Dental Insurance is purchased by the company with a reasonable deductible.

An FSA account is set up for the employees. (Federal Savings Account) They may put pretaxed dollars into this fund. Now they may draw out these funds for medical, dental and vision expenses not covered by the other plans or in excess of coverage. The FSA may be used for the co pay on doctors and pharmacies. A childcare FSA may also be set up pretaxed to pay child care expenses pretaxed.
All FSA money comes from the employee.

Different employers cover the costs of health insurance in a different ways. Some employers cover all of the employee cost and none of the dependent coverage. Some employers cover all the employee cost and a portion of the dependent coverage. Some employers only cover a portion of the employee cost and none of the dependent cost.

Our company pays 100% of medical, dental, life and disability insurance. The HRA covers vision costs. We also cover 50% of the dependent costs and the employee pays 50% of the dependent costs.

A reasonable co pay is 30.00 for regular doctor visits and 45.00 for specialist. 3500.00 is a maximum out of pocket. For all other expenses the insurance pays 80/20 in network and 60/40 out of network. This means if you use the doctors in network of the PPO systems than you receive a discounted price.

Dental insurance is usually 25.00 per person deductible, 1,000 a year limit, and no orthodontic services. It pays 100% on cleaning, 80/20 on basic fillings, 50% on crowns and plates.

The easiest Pension Plan is the 401K. You contribute pre-taxed (fed and state) dollars to the plan and your employer matches a percent and puts in the plan. The plan is vested depending on the years you work as far as the employer match is concerned but full vesting must occur within 4 years. You can allow loans on the plan up to the amount the employee has contributed for certain life events.

Life Insurance is usually up to the annual amount of the employee's wages capped at 50,000.00 to keep from paying the extra taxes on the amount over 50,000.00. They can be offered additional life insurance which they can purchase on their own from the insurance company. Some companies offer short term disability which covers up to 18 weeks at 60% of the employee's salary should they become unable to work.
Some companies even offer long term disability which covers disability for a longer period.

Often companies offer wellness programs which promote well employees. They will pay 1/2 of gym dues for employees that show proof they have attended the gym for at least two days a week. Some offer rewards for enrollment and completion of weight loss programs and smoking cessation programs.

Our company pays registration fees for community walks such as the Harvest Walk or the Women's Fitness Walk or other sanctioned walks.

Promoting good health by replacing the pop machine with a juice machine. Have brown bag lunches on nutrition and safety.

Planning a Summer Activity for employees and families and or an annual Christmas Party.

These are all benefits and they can come in all shapes or forms. Put together a package of benefits that you think would make employees want to stay with a company and which you think at the same time the company would gain some benefit from such as healthy employees and at the same time would meet the budget needs of the company.

Sit and write down what you personally would like a company to offer as benefits.

You might also ask relatives, friends or other classmates what benefits are offered at their company or their parent's companies. Call the HR manager of local companies and ask what benefits the company is offering it's employees.

I wish you luck.

Shirley

Nice job, Wildsporty; the only thing that comes to mind is vacation, paid or not; usually as an employee stays with a company, he will have additional time off, up to four or five weeks (paid) after ten to fifteen years service.

George,
We do not have vacation as such... We are an international company with offices in several countries. We have 3 in Canada, one in US, one in SA, one in AU, one in NZ and one in UK.

Because the countries are so much different in their vacation and sick policies we have offered a generous PTO to our employees instead. We make sure the amount offered matches the country and is above the country limits in order to comply with their complicated regulations.

Yes to the person doing the report the Vacation time would be considered a benefit so you should also add some vacation time to your benefits package.

Here is a good ratio you might want to consider it has worked well:

1-4 years 10 days (80 hours)
5-9 years 23 days (184 hours)
10-19 years 28 days (224 hours)
10+ years 30 days (240 hours)

If you wish to add an extra incentive to the employees to stay with the company than you might allow them to put a portion of unused PTO into their 401k retirement plan at the end of their anniversary date. You need to set the 401K up as a profit sharing plan.

This ratio works well for the time to roll over into the 401K Plan
1-4 years 40 hours (5) days
5-9 year 80 hours (10) days
10-19 years 120 hours (15 days)
20+ year 160 hours (20 days)

All other time is use it or lose it. The anniversary year usually goes from Hire date to the same date the next year and is called the Anniversary Date of the Employee, however, if your company should so with they may go from Calendar year to Calendar year prorating the 1st year of employment.

Thanks George for catching that.. I think I got writer's cramp before I covered all the benefits... just didn't think about the PTO.

Shirley

Also you might wish to add 6 holidays a year... the most common are New Years, Memorial Day, Independence Day , Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. It is always a good idea to add 1 floating holiday that can be used at any time for those that have different religious beliefs.

Shirley