Both employers and employees used to think about benefits as a static, predefined package that was the same for all employees of the same seniority except for a few individual insurance options. Today, benefits packages are much more flexible than they used to be. And not just flexibility in terms of more health insurance options and retirement plan choices, but flexibility in giving employees the choice to have more paid vacation and more comprehensive (and expensive) insurance coverage.
Instructions
1. Establish a total benefit amount per employee per year. Some companies use relatively simple formulas based on years of seniority, and others adopt more complex formulas assessing the relative "value" of each employee (based on job, professional qualifications, seniority and performance) and assigning a benefit amount (or total compensation amount) on that basis.
2. Create some general criteria for your benefits plan. Is it going to be a traditional vacation accrual plan based on seniority and the company matching the employee's health insurance premiums at a specific percentage (50/50 or 75 percent employer/25 percent employee, for example), or is it going to be a more flexible plan with employees "spending" their benefits allotment as they see fit, or something in between?
3. Research currently available group health insurance plans. See what plans fit into your budget based on the total number of employees in your company, and find a range of plans offering various levels of coverage.
4. Implement a benefits plan that furthers your corporate strategy and best meets the needs of the most employees of the business. No benefits plan is going to be perfect for everyone, but you can design a benefits plan that is flexible enough so that all employees can customize a benefits package to fit their lifestyles.
Tags: benefits plan, health insurance, benefit amount, benefits plan going, benefits plan that, insurance options
