Employee services

While time off, insurance, and retirement benefit account for the lion’s share of benefit costs, most employers also provide various services, including personal services, job related services, and executive perquisites.

1.      Personal services

Many companies provide personal service that most employees need at one time. These include credit union, legal services, counseling, and social and recreational opportunities.

a.       Credit union

Credit unions are usually separate businesses established with the employer’s assistance to help employees with borrowing and saving needs. The important think to the employee, loan eligibility and the loan‘s rate of interest are usually more favorable. Many credit unions are large, multibranch operation.

b.     

Counseling services

These include:

-          Financial counseling (how to over come existing indebtedness)

-          Family counseling (for marital problem and so on)

-          Career counseling

-          Outplacement counseling (helping terminated or disenchanted employees find new job)

-          Preretirement counseling

-          Legal counseling

c.       Employee assistance programs (EAPs)

These programs are employer program for providing counseling and /or treatment for problems such as substance abuse, gambling, or stress. There are several models in use.

• In-house model, the company employs the EAP staff.
• Out-of –house model, the company contracts with a vendor to provide EAP staff and services.
• In the consortium model

 Key step for EAP program include:

Ø  Specify goals and philosophy

Ø  Develop a policy statement

Ø  Ensure professional staffing

Ø  Maintain confidential record keeping system

Ø  Train supervisors

Ø  Be aware of legal issue

4. personal services

Some employers provide social and recreational personal services including vocation facilities, cultural subsidy, and lunch and learn programs

2.       job related services

v  subsidized child care

Child care is thus an increasingly desirable benefit.  Most employees still make private provisions to take care their children. By establishing subsidized day care centers, employees can gain via improved recruiting result, lower absenteeism, improved morale, favorable publicity, lower turn over.

v  elder care

Elder care benefits are important for much the same reasons as are child care benefit. The responsibility for caring for an aging relative can affect the employee’s performance at work.  Most Company supported elder care center. Flexible work arrangements now seem to be the solutions of choice for handling elder care issue other effort include long term care insurance for elder relatives.        

v  other job related benefit

Some employee provide subsidized such as

& employee transportation

A transit system to provide free year round transportation.

& food services

provide in some form by many employers, they let employees purchase meals, snacks, or coffee, usually by relatively low price

& educational subsidies

such as tuition refunds have long been popular benefits for employees seeking to continue or complete their education. As far as tuition reimbursement programs are concerned.

Effect on performance

Many firm implement these plans do so as part of broader commitment building program. These typically include, for instance, emphasizing employee development, promotion from within, and open communications. Implemented in this manner, suggest work/life benefits in fact contribute to employees’ willingness to “go the extra mile” for their employers.

3.       Executive perquisites.

Many popular perks fall between these extreme. These include management loans, to protect executives if their firms become targets of acquisitions or mergers, salary guarantee, financial counseling, relocation benefit often including subsidized mortgages, purchase of the executive’s current house, and payment tor the actual move. this tendency continue even in the face of  a decade of corporate downsizings, restructuring, and more restrictive tax laws.

Flexible benefits programs

Flexible style benefit plan are the sorts of plans they would like to see their company offer. Most of the preferred benefit had to do with life style issues rather than financial ones.

The cafeteria approach or flexible benefit plan is one in which the employer gives each employee a benefit fund budget, and lets the person spend it on the benefit he or her prefers, subject two constrain. First, the employer must carefully limit total cost for each benefit package. Second, each benefit plan must include certain required item. Dependent care cost rice and divert more than contributions. Awarded base on an employee’s salary, length of service, age and number of dependents covered by benefit.