One of the decisions that all companies must decide on are what they will eliminate in regards to their employee’s discretionary benefits. According to the Economic Research Institute, discretionary benefits are not required to be provided by employers. The Economic Research Institute describes discretionary benefits are retirement programs, health and welfare programs, payment for time not worked, and employee services. These would include programs such as medical insurance, life insurance, dental insurance, paid holidays, education assistance, paid time off, and 401k matching.
These are only a few of the discretionary benefits that are offered to employees, and there are many more depending on the type of company. Eliminating discretionary benefits would be a very hard decision for upper management of companies. Companies need to make sure that they are taking their budget into account, as well as making sure they are competitive when compared to other companies. I conducted some research on the different types of discretionary benefits, and I came up with some that I think could be eliminated if needed.
To begin, I feel that retirement programs and medical leave are two of the most important categories of discretionary benefits. Medical leave gives employees the comfort of knowing that if something did happen to them and they had to take some time off, then they would still have a job to come back to. Retirement programs are also a good way to motivate employees to grow within the company so that they can have an easier life after they retire. I also think that insurances, such as medical, dental, and life, are a great way to keep a competitive advantage against other companies.
Some programs that I feel could be eliminated would be paid holidays and education assistance. Although it is a great benefit to have paid holiday time, if a company is struggling financially then it might not be the best resource to put money towards.
https://www.erieri.com/glossary/term/discretionary-benefits
