Benefits Package and Employees

Human Resource Competitive Strategy involves development of policies that favor a better environment for the biggest resource of any company, human capital. One such example is providing a flexible work schedule for employees that demand it. Increased flexibility is a commonly used competitive strategy to retain employees due to increased work satisfaction (Jackson, Schuler, & Jiang, 2014). While companies favor policies that enable innovation and communication, flexibility is increasingly a requirement for some employees making it a key aspect of human resource management to consider. Another key aspect of a competitive strategy is development of a comprehensive compensation and benefits package.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), an administrative assistant working within the industry of 'Management of Companies and Enterprises' earn on average, $60,320 or $29.00/hour (BLS, 2017). Although another page of the BLS site points to the average salary of a secretary or administrative assistant being $36,000 or $17.55 per hour (BLS, 2017). For development of a benefits package, an administrative assistant would need the following legally required benefits:

1. Social Security

2. Medicare

3. Federal and State Unemployment Insurance

4. Worker's Compensation

Discretionary benefits or voluntary benefits differ and can include various kinds of insurance like medical and dental, a wellness program, a retire plan, or even paid transportation.

Because flexibility is so important when it comes to an organizational strategy due to improvement of retention rates and productivity, the benefits package must include some flexibility. For example, a benefits package could include paid lunches and transportation or the option of taking certain days off. This may seem counterproductive, but can lead to a higher rate of satisfaction for the employee. Satisfied employees typically produce higher productivity rates than unsatisfied employees. "Our findings show that a lack of organizational authenticity in terms of both under-promising and over-promising to both employees and customers is associated with lower productivity, which in turn is related to long-term merger performance, thus affecting outcomes for shareholders" (Cording, Harrison, Hoskisson, & Jonsen, 2013, p. 38).

When it comes to impact of major federal employment legislation and regulations on human resource compensation and benefit packages, a couple of laws have made a large enough change in how businesses handle benefits. For example, one major change was health care reform and the introduction of the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act made it more complex to determine need employer obligation for health insurance (Kantarjian, 2016). Another key act was the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the additional Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. These laws required companies to give equal pay for equal work. This means HR departments have to increase their vigilance in assessment of their company's pay structure to avoid possible violations and thus mounting fees.