HR Competitive Strategy: Compensation and Benefits Planning
This paper examines human resource competitive strategy as it relates to compensation and benefits planning, using the administrative assistant role as a practical case. It reviews average salary benchmarks from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, outlines legally required and discretionary benefits, and discusses how flexibility contributes to employee satisfaction and retention. The paper also analyzes the impact of major federal legislation—including the Affordable Care Act and the Equal Pay Act—on HR benefits obligations. It concludes with three wellness-centered recommendations: providing nutritious paid lunches, offering gym memberships, and granting employees company stock to foster engagement and productivity.
- Introduction to HR Competitive Strategy: Defines HR strategy and role of flexibility
- Compensation Benchmarks and Benefits Requirements: BLS salary data and required employee benefits
- Flexibility as a Strategic Benefit: How flexibility boosts retention and productivity
- Federal Legislation and HR Compliance: ACA and Equal Pay Act impact on benefits
- Wellness-Based Benefits Recommendations: Lunches, gym memberships, and employee stock
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What makes this paper effective
- Uses real Bureau of Labor Statistics salary data to ground the benefits discussion in concrete, verifiable figures, lending credibility to practical recommendations.
- Connects theoretical frameworks—such as Jackson, Schuler, and Jiang's aspirational HR model—to applied workplace decisions, bridging academic and professional perspectives.
- Structures recommendations around a coherent wellness theme, giving the paper a unified focus rather than a scattered list of unrelated suggestions.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper effectively integrates quoted evidence from peer-reviewed sources to support causal claims—for instance, citing Cording et al. (2013) to link organizational authenticity with productivity outcomes. This shows how direct quotation should be used sparingly and purposefully, anchoring a specific argument rather than summarizing broadly.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a definition of HR competitive strategy and introduces flexibility as a key element. It then grounds the discussion in salary data and legal benefit requirements before explaining why flexibility matters strategically. A dedicated section addresses federal legislation's impact on benefits compliance. The paper closes with three concrete, wellness-focused recommendations—paid lunches, gym memberships, and employee stock—each linked back to productivity and retention outcomes.
Introduction to HR Competitive Strategy
Human resource competitive strategy involves developing policies that foster a better environment for the most important resource of any company: its human capital. One such example is providing a flexible work schedule for employees who need it. Increased flexibility is a commonly used competitive strategy to retain employees, due to the higher work satisfaction it produces (Jackson, Schuler, & Jiang, 2014). While companies favor policies that enable innovation and open communication, flexibility is increasingly a requirement for many employees, making it a key element of human resource management to consider. Another central aspect of a competitive HR strategy is the development of a comprehensive compensation and benefits package.
Compensation Benchmarks and Benefits Requirements
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), an administrative assistant working within the industry of "Management of Companies and Enterprises" earns an average of $60,320 per year, or $29.00 per hour (BLS, 2017). A separate BLS page indicates the average salary of a secretary or administrative assistant is $36,000 per year, or $17.55 per hour (BLS, 2017). For the development of a benefits package, an administrative assistant would need the following legally required benefits:
Discretionary benefits, also called voluntary benefits, differ from legally required benefits and can include various forms of insurance such as medical and dental coverage, a wellness program, a retirement plan, or paid transportation.
Flexibility as a Strategic Benefit
Because flexibility is so important to an organizational strategy—improving both retention rates and productivity—a benefits package must incorporate some degree of flexibility. For example, a package could include paid lunches and transportation, or the option to take certain days off. This may seem counterproductive, but it can lead to higher levels of employee satisfaction. Satisfied employees typically produce higher productivity rates than dissatisfied ones. As Cording, Harrison, Hoskisson, and Jonsen (2013) found, "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" (p. 38).
References
BLS. (2017). Executive secretaries and executive administrative assistants. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes436011.htm
BLS. (2017). Secretaries and administrative assistants: Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/office-and-administrative-support/secretaries-and-administrative-assistants.htm
Cording, M., Harrison, J. S., Hoskisson, R. E., & Jonsen, K. (2013). Walking the talk: A multistakeholder exploration of organizational authenticity, employee productivity, and post-merger performance. Academy of Management Perspectives, 28(1), 38–56. doi:10.5465/amp.2013.0002
Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., & Jiang, K. (2014). An aspirational framework for strategic human resource management. The Academy of Management Annals, 8(1), 1–56. doi:10.1080/19416520.2014.872335
Kantarjian, H. M. (2016). The Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, 3 years later: A reality check. Cancer, 123(1), 25–28. doi:10.1002/cncr.30384
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