Compensation and Benefits The Modern Workplace

Crafting a Compensation and Benefits Plan: Looking Ahead in the Modern Workplace
Increasingly, technologically-driven businesses have become more and more reliant upon attracting top talent to gain a competitive edge. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is the Google organization. Google’s Internet search engine is virtually synonymous with searching on the Internet itself. Google offers generous salaries and time off to its employees. It also offers many amenities, such as free food, medical care, dry-cleaning, fitness classes, and even buses from certain common location hubs in the surrounding area. This enable employees to remain focused on work as well as removes many of the inconveniences of modern life (Cain, 2017). To reduce stress levels about balancing personal and professional lives, Google even offers the option of allowing employees to bring pets to work and daycare (Cain, 2017).
Amazon has been taking the lead from Google, also offering catered lunches, subsidized gym memberships, and encourages team bonding by having on-site softball and basketball competitions (Cain, 2017). Amazon’s spousal benefits packages are not as generous as Google’s, as Google even offers to pay 50% of the salary of a deceased employee to the employee’s spouse for 10 years (Cain, 2017). But Amazon does offer tuition assistance and a discounted membership to the popular shopping website. In contrast, within the tech industry, Apple’s benefits are not nearly as expansive. Apple’s salary is competitive within its industry segment, but it does not offer free food or other unique perks. Its philosophy is that it pays employees enough that they should be able to afford its relatively pricey cafeteria food, if they desire to eat it (Lashinsky, 2012).
Employee Expectations
Despite the existence of companies like Google, overall, companies have been offering substantially smaller benefits packages. Employees are being offered less generous healthcare benefits packages and must manage their own 401K, if they company offers one at all (Cain, 2017). Pensions at private corporations are virtually a thing of the past. Employees still bring certain expectations to the workplace, even if there are fewer options to partake of transactional benefits. One benefit more and more employees seek is that of intrinsic benefits, or a sense of reward and feeling creatively invested in the company.
Many tech companies, by virtue of being on the societal cutting edge of products changing people’s lives, are able to honor this desire. “Millennials prefer organizations with flexible, creative work environments where they can be productive, motivated and make a measurable impact” (Bettencourt, 2017, par.1). But even non-tech companies can solicit employee input via surveys, provide leadership training, and encourage employees to offer creative input in a manner which can enhance both job satisfaction and company performance. All employees can come across insights which may help the organization in the long run. Employees can offer ways to improve products and explain from a ground’s eye view, how customers think. Finally, employees can also offer multicultural perspectives which the leadership may be lacking but which are necessary to reach customers in today’s more diverse marketplace.
Employee Engagement
Enhancing employee engagement is often seen as the key, more so than benefits, to getting employees enthusiastic about serving a larger organization. Until recently, Google even offered its engineers compensated time to pursue their own pet projects, in the hope of creating new and exciting product lines that standard marketing development might miss (Cain, 2017). But not all innovative companies do this; indeed, Apple is famously hierarchical in the manner in which it manages its employees (Lashinsky, 2012). According to Lipman (2013), in a Gallup poll study of 350,000 employees from various industry sectors, only 30% described themselves as engaged while 52% described themselves as somewhat disengaged. Engagement is critical to improving employee productivity at most organizations, and it is vital that enterprises maximize their value of their benefits to attract employees. Employees who are well-suited to their company’s needs and who are interested and engaged with their work already are invaluable assets. This engagement can and must be sustained with the atmosphere fostered by employee compensation and benefits.
For example, Amazon’s willingness to offer tuition compensation encourages workers to seek out education, which benefits both the employee and the company simultaneously (Cain, 2017). Offering physical fitness classes, facilities, and even on-site basic healthcare like Google can improve employee health (reducing healthcare costs and lost productivity due to sick days) which can also improve engagement (Cain, 2017). Just as employees become involved in their gym activities, by creating an extracurricular community at work as well as a work-driven community, employees have a greater sense of personal motivation to come to work every day and make a commitment to the workplace.
Even if it is not feasible to make the current workplace like Google, offering a competitive salary, with health insurance benefits and a 401K plan would be ideal to ensure that employees feel that the company is interested in their financial security. But it is equally important to offer tuition reimbursement and learning opportunities to employees, so workers can become involved in developing themselves as potential leaders and in their career, particularly to answer millennials’ expressed desire for emotionally fulfilling careers career. For employees from historically discriminated-against groups and women, showing particular consideration for their needs, including mentorship programs specific to their needs may be useful (Kuhl, 2018). And above all, soliciting input from employees and showing respect for their opinions is critical—an intangible benefit which can sustain workplace engagement and retention of top employees.
References
Bettencourt, S. (2017). Keeping millennials engaged requires flexibility and creativity. Forbes.
Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2017/06/15/keeping- millennials-engaged-requires-flexibility-and-creativity/#6f1d8bd8f82c
Cain, A. (2017). 8 unbelievable perks that come with working for Google. The Business Insider.
Retrieved from:
https://www.businessinsider.com/google-employee-best-perks-benefits-2017-11
Cain, A. (2017). 11 insane perks Amazon is offering its newest employees. The Business Insider.
Retrieved from:
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-employee-perks-2017-11
Kuhl, J. (2018). What do millennials want in their careers? Forbes. Retrieved from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/joankuhl/2018/07/23/what-do-millennials-want-in-their- career/#7096ddd2fcb1
Lashinsky, A. (2012). This is how Apple keeps the secrets. Fortune. Retrieved from:
http://fortune.com/2012/01/18/the-secrets-apple-keeps/
Lipman, V. (2013). Surprising, disturbing facts from the mother of all employee engagement
surveys. Forbes. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2013/09/23/surprising-disturbing-facts-from- the-mother-of-all-employee-engagement-surveys/#373bf3c93120