I really enjoyed our discussion about different discretionary benefits companies offer in class this week. I’ve always planned to work for my family business after graduation and have not had the opportunity to compare different job offers and weigh the benefits offered. Based on what I know about benefits, the most important ones to me would be a 401k (and matching), paid time off (sick/vacation days)/family emergency time off, and health insurance. After listening and engaging in discussion in class there were some other benefits that I was made aware of that I would definitely want in a compensation package. Those include maternity leave, dental/vision, and reimbursement for gas. As I mentioned before I haven’t had the opportunity to weigh benefits of different compensation packages and after engaging in discussion I learned of many more benefits that would be very enticing should I be offered a job. Maternity leave wasn’t some thing that I thought of since that is not the current stage of life I’m in, but one day hopefully will be. And as for reimbursement for gas, growing up in the city of Portland I think that this would be extremely beneficial and something I would really value. On the flipside there are some benefits that I would most likely eliminate. These include disability insurance, life insurance, and child care. For the reason that they’re not applicable to me right now. Meaning if I were offered these in a compensation package right now I would not see them as valuable as the other benefits I had discussed above. However, I could definitely see these being more important to me in the future when they are more applicable to my life. So they are something I can keep in the back of my mind one day if I take a different job and I’m in different circumstances. Some factors that were discussed in the text as well as my own research that impact why an organization would offer certain benefits are based on budget, company culture, and in an effort to attract/retain a certain type of employee. A company would offer certain benefits based on the budget that they have allocated towards offering benefits and if they have the means to provide those to their employees. I also think that the company culture impacts what they offer based on the values of the company as well as how they want to attract/retain certain types of employees. Benefits are extremely valuable in compensation packages and companies have a multitude of reasons why they do or don’t offer certain benefits.
Citation:
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/alter-benefits-attract-retain.aspx
