Employee Benefit Policies

Health insurance is often part of a business's benefits policy.

Employee benefits are job rewards that function outside of standard salary payments. Employee benefits include bonuses such as ownership in company stock, pension payments, vacation time and numerous types of insurance in areas such as health, life and disability. Employers offer benefits policies to attract and retain employees. Some organizations offer flexible benefits policies that allow employees to choose what benefits they'd like to include in their personal benefit plan.

Health Insurance

Health insurance is one of the most popular benefit items. A company's health insurance policy pays for all or some of the employees' medical costs. Health insurance is often extended to the employees' immediate family.

Retirement

Retirement policies, also known as pension policies, provide income to employees when they are older and their employment is completed. Some businesses give retirement payments for the duration of the employees lifetime, while other businesses pay pensions in one lump sum given to the employee directly after retirement. The appropriate retirement age is determined by the individual company's policy. Many organizations offer a retirement fund that both the employee and the business contribute to regularly.

Time Off

Employees need time off for a variety of reasons, including personal illness, family sickness, vacation and religious holidays. As part of their benefits policy, many business allow a certain number of paid days off. Business are required by law to allow employees extended time off for family medical leave, personal illness and injury, military leave and jury duty, though mandatory time off usually does not need to be paid.

Life Insurance

Many businesses include life insurance as part of their benefits policy. Life insurance provides money to the insured employee's family or beneficiaries when the insured employee dies. Similar to retirement benefits, life insurance funds may be paid all at once or over time. Some company's policies provide for life insurance that's paid into by both the employee and the business.

Severance Pay

Severance benefits are paid to employees who are fired or laid off. Most often, severance benefits are for employees who were downsized and not for employees who were fired because of poor performance or misconduct. The amount and duration of severance benefits vary depending on the employer's benefit policy.

Child Care

Many employees are working to support families and they require care for children while they're not at home. Some business provide child care as part of their benefit policies. This child care might be on-site, off-site or part of a child care voucher, redeemable at specified child care centers.

References

• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Benefits
• HRhero: Employee Benefits and Employment Law
• Free Management Library: Employee Benefits

Resources

• Inc. Magazine: 5 Atypical Employee Benefit Offerings: Mark Harbeke 1/11