MGT516: Assignment
Trident University
David S. Turnage
Module 5 SLP Assignment
MGT516 Legal Implications in Human Resources Management
Dr. Peggy Swigart
23 Jan 2015
5 critical criterian of good mission statements http://smallbusiness.chron.com/five-criteria-mission-statement-24785.html http://onstrategyhq.com/resources/mission-statements/ http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c5-09.html 5 critical criteria of good vision statements http://hilo.hawaii.edu/strategicplan/documents/SPC_07_11_vision_characteristics.pdf http://onstrategyhq.com/resources/vision-statements/ http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/mission-vision-values/vision-statement/good-vision/ http://www.changefactory.com.au/our-thinking/articles/the-components-of-a-good-vision-statement/ …show more content…
Introduction In this paper, I will discuss two employee benefits, paid time off policy and Health and Wellness programs, which provide the opportunity to increase productivity of employees. I will provide details and give private sector examples to support my benefit recommendations. Also, I will describe some of the challenges of offering these specific benefits.
Paid Time off Policy One of the most anticipated and sought after work benefits that I have seen in my career is paid time off from the job.
I remember when I worked on a swing shift from 3:00 pm to midnight that Friday nights were something to behold. I would personally see a marked increase in employee productivity on the shift when I would offer something so small as leaving work two hours early. Since we were all military personnel, we still received the same amount of money regardless if we were on duty the full shift or not, so in reality this time off would be considered a noncash reward. “Recent studies show that employees respond better to noncash rewards and other incentives than they do to an extra injection of moolah” (Vaccaro, 2013, para. 2). Why is this? Could it be that time is more valuable to people than money in a sense? To many, yes it is. “More important, other research suggests that noncash incentives produce a greater measurable boost in productivity than cash does (Vaccaro, 2013, para. 2). One private sector example involves Effective Environmental which is a Texas-based environmental services organization (Vaccaro, 2013). Each year, they provide five employees an all-inclusive family vacation chosen from nominees in each of their divisions and it is based on who management believes has given the best effort on the job (Vaccaro, …show more content…
2013). “A paid time off (PTO) policy combines vacation, sick time and personal time into a single bank of days for employees to use to take paid time off from work. A PTO policy creates a pool of days that an employee may use at his or her discretion. When an employee needs to take time off from work, the PTO policy enables a certain amount of the time off to be paid time off” (Heathfield, 2015, para. 1).
Some disadvantages for this paid time off policy are that new employees accumulate paid time off at a slower rate than long term employees, employees view paid time off as a benefit and use all the days regardless resulting in more days away from the job, and employees tend to use their paid time off for vacation and come to work when they are sick (Heathfield, 2015).
Health and Wellness Programs Another great benefit that companies can offer their employees involves investing into their employee’s health and well-being with Health and Wellness programs. “Research has found that employee health directly affects work performance, attendance and productivity” (Welshhons, n.d., page 2). The reasoning for this can be explained in one simple principle and that principle is caring. If you know that someone cares about you personally, you would normally want to do your best for that person. This same principle applies in business as well. Companies that invest in their employee’s wellness demonstrate to their employees by doing this that they generally care about their employees. This, in turn, leads to employees doing their best for the company. In fact:
“Employees are more attracted to and value a business that appreciates them. In fact, companies with an employee wellness program have lower turnover. A study by the Principal Financial Group found that 45 percent of workers stay at their jobs because of wellness programs offered by their employers and 26 percent of workers miss fewer days of work. Research has shown that workers are more likely to come to work and perform well when they are in optimal physical and psychological health. Implementing wellness programs help employees strive to achieve optimal health. Less employee illness means businesses can reduce health care use, which reduces health care costs and consequently increases earnings” (Welshhons, n.d., page 2).
A private sector example of Health and Wellness program success in a company involves the supermarket chain, Safeway.
“In 2010, 11,000 employees participating in the supermarket chain’s wellness program lost a collective 45,000 pounds.
Many employees also earned health insurance premium discounts for achieving health gains. Between 2009 and 2011, there was a 73 percent increase in the number of employees who reached the benchmark for healthy blood pressure, a 25 percent increase in the number of employees who quit smoking, and a 21 percent increase in the number of employees who achieved the benchmark for a healthier body weight” (rwjf.org, 2012, page 2). Although, this example from Safeway is a great success story for adopting Health and Wellness programs in a company, there are disadvantages. One of these is upfront costs (Beck, 2014). Health and wellness programs of course have to be instituted and paid for up front, but companies typically don’t see the fruits of these programs until approximately three years into the program (Beck, 2014). So, a company has to be committed and look at these programs as an investment and if they stay the course, more than likely, they will reap positive
benefits.
“The Wellness Councils of America cite examples of current company wellness programs with an estimated cost per employee to be between $50 and $325 per year. A return on investment varies. A return of up to $4.75 for every dollar invested has been noted in some of these programs” (Beck, 2014, para. 2).
A second disadvantage to companies instituting and maintaining Health and Wellness programs is liability (Ashe-Edmunds, n.d.). One would like to think that if a company provides their employees a great benefit such as this, that all employees would be supportive. However, there will more than likely be a few who may injure themselves during exercise or become ill for some reason associated with the program who will attempt to take advantage by resorting to legal action against the company and unfortunately, could possibly have a strong case (Ashe-Edmunds, n.d.). So, the company should think of this and protect themselves in this regard.
Conclusion
In this paper, I discussed two employee benefits, paid time off policy and Health and Wellness programs, which provide the opportunity to increase productivity of employees. I provided details and gave private sector examples to support my benefit recommendations. Also, I described some of the challenges of offering these specific benefits.
References
Ashe-Edmunds, S. (n.d.). The Disadvantages of Wellness Plans. Retrieved January 20, 2015, from http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/disadvantages-wellness-plans-11518.html
Beck, E. (February 28, 2014). The Disadvantages of Wellness Programs. Retrieved January 19,
2015, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/350473-the-disadvantages-of-wellness-programs/ Heathfield, S. M. (2015). Paid Time Off Policy (PTO). Retrieved January 19, 2015, from http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryp/g/pto_policy.htm
How Can Wellness Programs Save Employers Money While Making Employees Healthier and
More Productive? (August 2012). Retrieved January 19, 2015, from http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/issue_briefs/2012/rwjf401183 Vaccaro, A. (November 14, 2013). What Motivates Employees Better Than Cash? A Break. Retrieved January 19, 2015, from http://thebuildnetwork.com/team-building/employee-incentive-travel/
Welshhons, L. (n.d.). How Employee Wellness Programs Can Generate Savings for Your Company. Retrieved January 19, 2015, from
http://www.meritresources.com/userdocs/materials/Employee_Wellness_Initiatives_Merit.pdf
David S. Turnage
Module 5 SLP Assignment
MGT516 Legal Implications in Human Resources Management
Dr. Peggy Swigart
23 Jan 2015
5 critical criterian of good mission statements http://smallbusiness.chron.com/five-criteria-mission-statement-24785.html http://onstrategyhq.com/resources/mission-statements/ http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/wholefarm/html/c5-09.html 5 critical criteria of good vision statements http://hilo.hawaii.edu/strategicplan/documents/SPC_07_11_vision_characteristics.pdf http://onstrategyhq.com/resources/vision-statements/ http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/infokits/mission-vision-values/vision-statement/good-vision/ http://www.changefactory.com.au/our-thinking/articles/the-components-of-a-good-vision-statement/ …show more content…
Introduction In this paper, I will discuss two employee benefits, paid time off policy and Health and Wellness programs, which provide the opportunity to increase productivity of employees. I will provide details and give private sector examples to support my benefit recommendations. Also, I will describe some of the challenges of offering these specific benefits.
Paid Time off Policy One of the most anticipated and sought after work benefits that I have seen in my career is paid time off from the job.
I remember when I worked on a swing shift from 3:00 pm to midnight that Friday nights were something to behold. I would personally see a marked increase in employee productivity on the shift when I would offer something so small as leaving work two hours early. Since we were all military personnel, we still received the same amount of money regardless if we were on duty the full shift or not, so in reality this time off would be considered a noncash reward. “Recent studies show that employees respond better to noncash rewards and other incentives than they do to an extra injection of moolah” (Vaccaro, 2013, para. 2). Why is this? Could it be that time is more valuable to people than money in a sense? To many, yes it is. “More important, other research suggests that noncash incentives produce a greater measurable boost in productivity than cash does (Vaccaro, 2013, para. 2). One private sector example involves Effective Environmental which is a Texas-based environmental services organization (Vaccaro, 2013). Each year, they provide five employees an all-inclusive family vacation chosen from nominees in each of their divisions and it is based on who management believes has given the best effort on the job (Vaccaro, …show more content…
2013). “A paid time off (PTO) policy combines vacation, sick time and personal time into a single bank of days for employees to use to take paid time off from work. A PTO policy creates a pool of days that an employee may use at his or her discretion. When an employee needs to take time off from work, the PTO policy enables a certain amount of the time off to be paid time off” (Heathfield, 2015, para. 1).
Some disadvantages for this paid time off policy are that new employees accumulate paid time off at a slower rate than long term employees, employees view paid time off as a benefit and use all the days regardless resulting in more days away from the job, and employees tend to use their paid time off for vacation and come to work when they are sick (Heathfield, 2015).
Health and Wellness Programs Another great benefit that companies can offer their employees involves investing into their employee’s health and well-being with Health and Wellness programs. “Research has found that employee health directly affects work performance, attendance and productivity” (Welshhons, n.d., page 2). The reasoning for this can be explained in one simple principle and that principle is caring. If you know that someone cares about you personally, you would normally want to do your best for that person. This same principle applies in business as well. Companies that invest in their employee’s wellness demonstrate to their employees by doing this that they generally care about their employees. This, in turn, leads to employees doing their best for the company. In fact:
“Employees are more attracted to and value a business that appreciates them. In fact, companies with an employee wellness program have lower turnover. A study by the Principal Financial Group found that 45 percent of workers stay at their jobs because of wellness programs offered by their employers and 26 percent of workers miss fewer days of work. Research has shown that workers are more likely to come to work and perform well when they are in optimal physical and psychological health. Implementing wellness programs help employees strive to achieve optimal health. Less employee illness means businesses can reduce health care use, which reduces health care costs and consequently increases earnings” (Welshhons, n.d., page 2).
A private sector example of Health and Wellness program success in a company involves the supermarket chain, Safeway.
“In 2010, 11,000 employees participating in the supermarket chain’s wellness program lost a collective 45,000 pounds.
Many employees also earned health insurance premium discounts for achieving health gains. Between 2009 and 2011, there was a 73 percent increase in the number of employees who reached the benchmark for healthy blood pressure, a 25 percent increase in the number of employees who quit smoking, and a 21 percent increase in the number of employees who achieved the benchmark for a healthier body weight” (rwjf.org, 2012, page 2). Although, this example from Safeway is a great success story for adopting Health and Wellness programs in a company, there are disadvantages. One of these is upfront costs (Beck, 2014). Health and wellness programs of course have to be instituted and paid for up front, but companies typically don’t see the fruits of these programs until approximately three years into the program (Beck, 2014). So, a company has to be committed and look at these programs as an investment and if they stay the course, more than likely, they will reap positive
benefits.
“The Wellness Councils of America cite examples of current company wellness programs with an estimated cost per employee to be between $50 and $325 per year. A return on investment varies. A return of up to $4.75 for every dollar invested has been noted in some of these programs” (Beck, 2014, para. 2).
A second disadvantage to companies instituting and maintaining Health and Wellness programs is liability (Ashe-Edmunds, n.d.). One would like to think that if a company provides their employees a great benefit such as this, that all employees would be supportive. However, there will more than likely be a few who may injure themselves during exercise or become ill for some reason associated with the program who will attempt to take advantage by resorting to legal action against the company and unfortunately, could possibly have a strong case (Ashe-Edmunds, n.d.). So, the company should think of this and protect themselves in this regard.
Conclusion
In this paper, I discussed two employee benefits, paid time off policy and Health and Wellness programs, which provide the opportunity to increase productivity of employees. I provided details and gave private sector examples to support my benefit recommendations. Also, I described some of the challenges of offering these specific benefits.
References
Ashe-Edmunds, S. (n.d.). The Disadvantages of Wellness Plans. Retrieved January 20, 2015, from http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/disadvantages-wellness-plans-11518.html
Beck, E. (February 28, 2014). The Disadvantages of Wellness Programs. Retrieved January 19,
2015, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/350473-the-disadvantages-of-wellness-programs/ Heathfield, S. M. (2015). Paid Time Off Policy (PTO). Retrieved January 19, 2015, from http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryp/g/pto_policy.htm
How Can Wellness Programs Save Employers Money While Making Employees Healthier and
More Productive? (August 2012). Retrieved January 19, 2015, from http://www.rwjf.org/content/dam/farm/reports/issue_briefs/2012/rwjf401183 Vaccaro, A. (November 14, 2013). What Motivates Employees Better Than Cash? A Break. Retrieved January 19, 2015, from http://thebuildnetwork.com/team-building/employee-incentive-travel/
Welshhons, L. (n.d.). How Employee Wellness Programs Can Generate Savings for Your Company. Retrieved January 19, 2015, from
http://www.meritresources.com/userdocs/materials/Employee_Wellness_Initiatives_Merit.pdf