Employee Benefits: What are they?

What is an Employee Benefit Plan?

An employee benefit plan protects employees and their families from the unknown econonmic bumps in the road that are brought to your attention through occurances like sickness, disability, death, or unemployment. They can provide retirement income to employees and their families. Most employee benefit plans will provide a system of leave or time off from work.

Most comprehensive benefit plans would consist of health insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, retirement plan, flexible compensation (cafeteria plans), and leave from work. Broadly defined, a benefit plan can include other components such as bonuses, service awards, reimbursement of employee educational expenses, and other benefits appropriate to employee responsibility.

Why Offer Your Employees Benefits?

Here are some of the reasons employers offer benefits:

-attract and hold quality employees
-keep up with competition.
-bring about good employee morale.
-provide opportunities for advancement and promotion.

You will find that a combination of benefits programs is the most effective and efficient manner of meeting employees' economic security needs. Most employers look at a benefit plan as an integral part of total compensation, because employers either pay the entire cost of a benefit plan or have employees contribute a small portion of premium costs for their coverage