Discretionary benefits can be a hugely important part of a company, but applying all of them can be time-consuming and very costly. So many companies have to rank discretionary benefits to decide which one they can afford to implement while also seeing which ones fit with the companies views and culture.
When deciding how to rank the discretionary benefits, I found it challenging as what I deemed as something I would benefit more from maybe wouldn’t be what a person with children would require. That being said, from most likely to eliminate to least likely, this is the ranking I came up with:
- Tuition reimbursement
- Outplacement counselling
- Transportation services
- Employee assistance services (EAPs)
- Life insurance
- Family assistance
- Disability insurance
- Paid off time that is not already legally required
- Retirement programmes
I think this is a good balance that would benefit the most considerable amount of employees. As a potential employee looking at this company and its discretionary benefits would be drawn to the insurances, paid overtime and retirement programmes on offer. The advantage these could potentially give to employees means that the company should be funnelling the most money in their direction. By putting paid off time and retirement at the forefront of the company discretionary benefits, we allow it to draw in new candidates and appease all employees no matter the age or family situation. While also having family assistance and disability assistance high on our list, we care about our employees and their families and the potential struggles they may face.
For having tuition as my most likely to eliminate, I think education is necessary. Tuition reimbursement isn’t something that would be hugely beneficial to the company. I believe that many of the skills needed for many jobs can be taught on the job rather than in an educational facility.
Like I said earlier, different employees would benefit from different things, just like employees working in different sectors that might pose more danger than others might benefit from a heightened life insurance policy.
The benefit that is given can affect the productiveness of the employees, as if employees are given less than they think they deserve, they might not be willing to put in as much work. This is a complex situation to navigate as the balance of having the discretionary benefits employees want the company to be able to support it is a fine line financially.
