How to quantify the total costs of benefits?

Assignment Overview

Type: Individual Project

Unit: Benefits Programs

Due Date: Tue, 8/22/17

Grading Type: Numeric

Points Possible: 150

Points Earned: 0

Deliverable Length: 5-8 paragraphs and 1 chart

View objectives for this assignment

Assignment Objectives

Explain the components of employee benefit programs

Construct an incentive plan for a given organization

Assignment Details

Assignment Description

After receiving a positive response from StopNShopToday, Inc. management about the recommendations for the incentives and performance appraisal projects, the HR generalist has been assigned a project that will prove to be very challenging: assessing the competitiveness of the company benefits package.

The owners of StopNShopToday, Inc. are very concerned about the escalation of health insurance costs. When they started the business in 1991, benefit costs were much less and employees were happier with what the company provided. Now, however, the owners regularly hear employee complaints about the growing health insurance premiums they pay.

In addition, the owners are tired of employees always requesting that they be allowed to take a greater number of paid personal absence days. Scheduling employee vacations and holidays is difficult because the company’s store locations are open all day and every day, except for Christmas and New Year’s day. As a result, the owners want to compare StopNShopToday, Inc.’s benefits package with other similar companies. They intend to use these facts to make better decisions and communicate their problems more accurately to employees.

As the HR generalist, you quickly realize that the corporation had never quantified the total costs of benefits. After 1 month of exhaustive review of benefits bills and payroll records, you have summarized the corporate compensation and benefits costs as seen in the following:

Percent of Total Compensation:

• Total wages and salaries: 50%
• Total benefits costs: 25%
• Paid leave: 5%
• Supplemental leave: 2%
• Insurance: 6%
• Retirement and savings: 2%
• Legally required benefits: 10%
• Other benefits: 0%

With this information, you will now attempt an external benefits comparison. To get benefits data from other companies, review the following data from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some of the most pertinent survey results are in Appendix A.

Click here to view the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics 2005 data.

Click here to view the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics 1986–2001 data.

Prepare a comparison of the compensation and benefits costs that you will deliver to the company’s owners. Create at least 1 chart to visually depict the most relevant data. Address the issues of greatest concern to the owners. Provide several paragraphs to summarize your findings. Use Appendix A or additional data provided in the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics documents.

Please submit your assignment.

Your assignment will be graded in accordance with the following criteria. Click here to view the grading rubric.

This assignment will also be assessed using the Common Assessment criteria provided here.

For assistance with your assignment, please use your text, Web resources, and all course materials.

****If you need to access my class for further reading or to access the US Dept. of Labor links above, go to “AIU Login” and my credentials are:

User Name: Brigetta.Steward

Password: Kendall2016

I am also going to attach the first part to this assignment which was from last week and the feedback that my instructor provided below:

Unit 4 – Individual Project

Brigetta,

Prepare a presentation that you, as an HR generalist, will give to the vice president of human resources and the company’s owners recommending changes to the current performance appraisal program at StopNShopToday, Inc.

• Address several different types of performance appraisal systems, and make other comments or suggestions that address the applicability of the performance assessment categories that are currently used.
• Address each of the 6 performance assessment categories ( Procedural knowledge and skill; Verbal communication skills; Creativity; Consistently good judgment; Attendance and Customer service skills) and make recommendations for changing any or all of them.

Overall you have a good start to this assignment. You chose great performance appraisal systems to discuss but you should elaborate further. You also have a good start to your analysis of the current assessment categories.

Individual Project Rubric

Grading Criteria	Percentage
Deliverable requirements addressed; understanding of material and writer’s message and intent are clear.	35%
Scholarly research supports the writer’s position and is properly acknowledged, and cited direct quotations may not exceed 10% of the word count of the body of the assignment deliverable (excluding title page, abstract, table of contents, tables, exhibits, appendices, and reference pages). Inclusion of plagiarized content will not be tolerated and may result in adverse academic consequences.	20%
Critical thinking: Position is well-justified, there is logical flow, and there are examples.	20%
Structure: Includes introduction and conclusion, proper paragraph format, and reads as a polished, academic paper or professional presentation, as appropriate for the required assignment deliverable.	10%
Mechanical: No spelling, grammatical, or punctuation errors.	10%
APA: Deliverable is cited properly according to the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.).	5%