Employee Benefits: Job Satisfaction & Employee Loyalty - Essay Sample

Introduction

In any organization, the employee benefits entail any form of non-cash or indirect compensation that is paid to the employees. In the united states, the law may require them, just as are the contributions to the healthcare or social security benefits or even they may be discretionary, for instance, the contributions to the retirement savings or the paid off time. The firms offer benefits to their workforce since they promote job satisfaction while inspiring the employees’ loyalty, which in turn can result in better financial performance. While much has been drafted concerning the use as well as the relevance of the employees’ benefits to the organization.

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The Human resource management society in recent years has organized its overview of the benefits to the employees in the United States as revealed in the following categories; retirement savings as well as planning benefits defined contribution retirement plans. There are also financial and compensation benefits such as the free parking on-site, the life insurance of the company paid group, the educational assistance, and the service anniversary awards (Klonoski, 2016). Also, the employees get the leave benefits that incorporate the holidays paid time off, bereavement, jury duty, and also for the vacations as well as for a combined illness category. The employees may also get the family-friendly benefits, for instance, the flexible accounts which are care-dependent, which allows the workforce to set aside pretax dollars that can be used in reimbursing them for the expense of dependent care (Klonoski, 2016). In this study, a comparison will be done between the customary benefits which organizations provide to their employees in the United States in comparison to that in Germany and France.

In Germany, there has been an elaborate social security system that ensures that its citizens have lived comfortably even while they are sick, unemployed, or retired. The expatriates also have a chance of participating to a larger extent within the system. Some of the people who are employed must make payments to the following four parts of the system, which include long-range nursing insurance, health insurance, unemployment, as well as pensions. Such kinds of payments normally come to about 40% of the total gross income; however, half of the cost is usually paid by the employer hence depicting that the employee is out of pocket only by about 20% (Merkel, 2019). The company accident insurance makes up part of the other pillars of the social security program that are also paid off fully by the employer as well as the social indemnity, which is handled by the state. The premiums paid are directly proportional to the income. In Germany, the population is insured under the Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung (GKV), which is the German national health system for the employees. It usually covers such things as dental care, stays in hospitals, drugs, eyeglasses, and routine doctor visits.

Most of the modern work benefits such as healthcare retirement began to take shape in Germany as forms of social protection. Later on, the employee benefits were adopted by the organization in the United States in the stages paid time off during the industrial revolution. However, as compared to Germany, the employees’ benefits given by the organizations to their employees have declined. “Healthcare benefits have largely switched from managed care to consumer-directed programs. Absences from work are less frequently segmented into a vacation, holidays, and sick leave and are often packaged into a single inclusive “paid time off” bundle” (Klonoski, 2016). The vast majority of the employees working part-times in various organizations in Germany have a working average of about 50% and 95% of the full working hours, with the employees working in less than 80% being given partial retirement benefits (Klonoski, 2016). The age structure of the total public employment is highly skewed towards older employees. In relation to pensions insurance, various organizations in the country have a statutory old-age insurance fund, which ensures that the employees can maintain the best living standard possible after their retirement period. The time of payments begins typically when one is at the age of 65, and the current maximum payout amounts to about an average of 67 % net income in the working life of the insured ( Volmer, 2019). Besides, the employees who are not from the EU in the country may demand a resident title as well as the work permit. In every case, a statutory minimum wage of EUR 8.84 per hour generally applies to all of the employees in every business sector (Klonoski, 2016). Apart from the statutory minimum wage, there are also some of the special regulations as well as the collective bargaining agreements within certain sectors. In the country, unlike in the United States, the overtime pay is not regulated expressly by the law but is subject to the employment agreement, the works council agreement, and the collective bargaining agreement.

Concerning France, the foreign nationals working in the country may choose the law which is applicable to their employment contract with their organizations. However, in cases where the applicable law would have been the French laws, then the mandatory laws of the labor Code must apply. This is normally applicable in situations where the employees carry out their work in France. In France, special rules usually apply to the posted employees, i.e., the employees who had been sent to host a member state under the transnational provision framework services. In many cases, in every organization in the country, the employees have been given a chance of working an average of about 35 hours per week (Caroli, 2016). Some of the hours worked at the request of the supervisors are mainly regarded, and overtime work and the employees are normally paid maximum for this. The French employment laws in France, unlike in other states such as the US, offer wide power to the representative to various organizations as well as to the elected bodies of the staff representatives. The severance payments are only awarded when the employee has the minimum required length of service, which is provided by the relevant collective bargaining agreement.

In France, to enable the staff to meet part of their medical charges, it is common for employers to offer additional private health cover (Hartkamp, 2017). In any form, the medical insurance is mandatory since the collective bargaining agreement usually requests the employees to participate. In most of the scenarios, the costs of Medicare are usually shared between the employer and the employee. Besides, “Employees are entitled to receive part of the profits that are then kept in a fund for a minimum of five years. After this period, employees can receive the amount tax-free. In some companies, the amount could reach one month’s salary, so it’s not peanuts” ( Volmer, 2019). Therefore, most of the workers in France are promised by the law to have an array of advantages, which makes the employee benefit, for instance, the flexi-time or even working from home. Many organizations in the country have subsidized travel to their employees. This is because any of the companies working with France must be needed to make a payment of up to 50% of its workers’ monthly public transportation pass.

In comparison to what organizations give their employees, the list reported by the society of human resource management is quite extensive. This is because it includes the items which may be accurately referred to as forms of non-cash or indirect compensation, but it also incorporates some of the things, which are employee conveniences or even desirable job characteristics. While a few workers may esteem a chance to dress calmly or to have the alternative to put aside pre-charge compensation toward retirement, and so on. It may not be completely exact to utilize the expression "roundabout pay" to portray these benefits. In the United States, still, some of the programs and practices can be essential in the creation of an atmosphere where the employees may be more engaged and also motivated as compared to while they would be in an environment devoid of such practices and programs. The employee benefits differ from that of Germany and France both in degree and also in kind, relying on the extent to which the profits are controlled or even subsidized by the country’s governments. Healthcare in the United States, for instance, is mainly administered through one of the three insurance types, i.e., the national health insurance system, National Health Service, or a multi-payer insurance system (Caroli, 2016). Healthcare in the first two is mainly paid through the taxes and does enter into the employment relationship. Unlike in France, the employees and their employers do not contribute to the healthcare cost in the US and Germany.

On the contrary, the government may end up subsidizing costs for the poor or even the older people. For the paid time off, the member states of the European Union, including France and Germany, required the employees to afford their employees a minimum of at least four weeks paid time off annually. However, in the United States, there is no national requirement that an organization provides its workers paid time off, whether for illness, vacation, or any other purpose. In the United States, there is a high-income tax rate. Hence, the organizations may tend to offer some of the benefits such as the vacation benefits and even the pensions schemes to assist the employees during their retirement age.

Therefore, from the above information, I would choose Germany as a country that my organization should consider entering. This is because, unlike in the US, there are more of the benefits that the various organizations give employees. Besides, the expatriates also have a chance of participating to a larger extent within the system. Some of the people who are employed must make payments to the following four parts of the system, which include long-range nursing insurance, health insurance, unemployment, as well as pensions. Such kind of payments usually come to about 40% of the total gross income; however, half of the cost is generally paid by the employer hence depicting that the employee is out of pocket only by about 20%. The company accident insurance makes up part of the other pillars of the social security program that are also paid off fully by the employer as well as the social indemnity, which is handled by the state.

From my point of view, some of the benefits that I would recommend that the employee programs as well as services which include a collection of discounts and conveniences such as free coffee, free discounted uniforms and direct access to the vending machines. I would also add on the career as well as the professional development benefits, e.g., the professional memberships and the development opportunities and the certification and the recertification fee reimbursements. The employees also need to be allocated housing and the relocation benefits, which encompasses lump sum relocation reimbursements and the temporary relocation assistants. All the workers require business travel benefits such as cab fares reimbursement or even the car mileage for the travel to and from the place of the airport and also the meals reimbursement per diem.

References

Klonoski, R. (2016). Defining Employee Benefits: A Managerial Perspective. International Journal of Human Resource Studies, 6(2).

Hartkamp, (Eds.). (2017). XIVth Meeting of European Labour Court Judges 4 September 2006 Cour de cassation. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Volmer, J., Schulte, E. M., Handke, L., Rodenbücher, L., & Tröger, L. (2019). Do All Employees Benefit From Daily Networki...