Definition of Terms

Various research studies indicate that human resource management (HRM) has always been crucial. Every firm wants to recruit, keep, and inspire employees to achieve the predetermined goals and objectives. The majority of businesses now view people as their most valuable asset, so managing them effectively and efficiently is essential (Gomez-Mejia, Berrone & Franco-Santos, 2014). The main strategy the company use to recruit, inspire, and keep employees by offering benefits and compensation.
Compensations can be thought of as the employer's endorsement of the work performed by employees in a company. Compensation involves all types of payments channeled to the workers which originates from their employment. On the other hand, most of the employees are not willing to only work for the cash; they expect 'extra.' The extras are known as worker benefits.
The employee benefits refer to optional, non-wage compensations offered to workers on top of their normal salaries. The benefits may include:
disability income protection,
group insurance,
daycare services,
retirement benefits,
Tuition reimbursements among others.
Additionally it is worth noting that the benefits are not performance-based; instead, they are membership based. This means that employees receive the benefits without considering their performance. The benefits have no direct affect on the performance of employees; however, research has indicated that inadequate benefits contribute to low satisfaction levels as well as increase in absenteeism
1.2 Advantages of Benefits and Compensations
An effective benefit and compensation plan helps organizations when it comes to attracting, retaining and motivating different talents within the organization. The advantages of such a plan include the following:
Work satisfaction: the employees are always happy in their jobs and enjoys working for the organization when they are given fair rewards in exchange for their services
Low absenteeism: this is so because the employees enjoy the working conditions and are always contented with their earnings as they always attain whatever they want and need.
Motivation: every organization understands that different workers have different types of needs. Some workers want money, and that is why they will always work for the company providing them a higher pay. Others workers desires achievement more than cash and will associate with organizations offering greater promotion chances (Moore, & Viscusi, 2014).A compensation and benefits plan on the employee's needs will motivate them to act in the desired way.
Lastly, an effective compensation and benefit plan leads to low turnover: no employee desires to work for another organization when provided with fair rewards which they believe they deserve.
1.3 Types of Benefits and Compensations
The research paper will deal with three types of compensation:
Basic compensations and benefits involve basic salaries and wages within the organizations. They are always constant at a given amount despite the difference in work performance.
When it comes to variable compensations, the employees are compensated as per the work done. This means that if a certain employee does a remarkable work, he or she will get a higher compensation than the one whose work is poor.
Supplementary compensations are given by employers when they wish to. It is not compulsory, and the employee has the right to deduct, add or withdraw the benefits.
The research paper will also focus on how the compensation and benefits programs in different organizations compare with the industry norm. On this sector, the paper will seek to answer the question of whether or not the companies are doing what the industry expects them to do when it comes to compensation and benefits programs (Moore, & Viscusi, 2014). Additionally, the research paper will discuss the areas that need some improvement when it comes to different compensation and benefits programs utilized by organizations.

Research Work
Compensation and Benefit Programs Offered by the Organizations
Some of the compensation and benefits offered by FirelakeJobs include medical insurances, disability insurances as well as retirement plans. Additionally, the organization offers the employees' time off to vote in times of elections, paid holidays for the New Year, Thanksgiving days and Christmas and paid leaves. Moreover, the organization provides the workers with up to 12 weeks off to celebrate the adoption or the birth of a baby (Moore, & Viscusi, 2014, p 45). Firelakejobs organization maintains a competitive compensation strategy as well as a holistic career development policy. The benefit and compensation plan addresses the interest of the high quality employee. The organization offers high wages which comes along with nonconventional benefits and comprehensive incentives. Additionally, the organization avails some benefits like retirement packages, health insurances, free meals as well as free use of the available exercise equipment and facilities. The organization's human resource management is successful when it comes to benefits and compensation strategies as it attracts excellent and qualified employees. This is so because most of the employees have indicated that the company is among the best places to work.
Unlike the compensation offered by firelakejobs, the compensation and benefits programs offered by Choctaw Nation are different and include a 401K retirement plan, health insurance plans as well as employee assistance programs. The major insurance benefit plans offered by this organization include accidental death and dismemberment, employee education assistance programs as well as short and long term disability services.
The Chickasaw Nation provides different benefits to the employees including short and long term family and catastrophic medical leave, paid leaves, supplemental vision, dental as well as life insurance plans, single and family medical and life insurances among others. Additionally, the organization provides employees with wellness centers like aerobics, youth programs, nutrition consultations and swimming (Inderbitzin, Staubli & Zweimüller, 2016).
Robust Discretionary and Flexible Benefits
Wage Comparison
The three organizations maintain different median wages. Median wage can be defined as the point where half workers earn more than that amount, and half earned less. However the median wages only indicate part of the story concerning how much employees earn. Firelakejobs maintains a median annual wage of $75,620. Choctaw nation maintains a medium annual wage of $ 77,760 while Chickasaw maintains an average annual wage of $ 70,650. The difference between the wages is because every organization has employees with unique skills and abilities. Additionally, the jobs are not the same.
The organizations pay structures refers to the methods used to administer pay philosophies. The principles of pay structure utilized by the organizations include the internal equality principle which makes use of a tightly developed grid to make sure that every work is compensated and rewarded according to the job above and below it in a hierarchy. The second principle is market pricing which ensures that every job within the organizations is tied to the prevailing market ties. The three organizations reward employees through acknowledging specific accomplishments, actions taken as well as impressive behaviors.
The benefits are not provided by the FireLakeJobs organization. However, the organization's management has indicated that there are transportation plans which will allow the workers to deposit money to pay for parking fees as well as their transport money (Moore, & Viscusi, 2014). The transport money will include tokens, passes as well as vouchers purchased for travel on buses or trains.
The major flexible benefits offered by the two companies include the health insurance, the 401 K contributions as well as some flexible spending accounts which can be used by the employees to pay medical, dependent care and other costs.
Chickasaw Nation, unlike the other organizations, offers cafeteria benefit plans which provide the employees with a choice to either receive nontaxable benefits, cash or other taxable benefits. Through the benefit plan, the organization provides benefits such as disability and dental coverage, health and life insurance, day and elder care as well as the 401 K plan (Mone & London, 2014).
Choctaw Nation provides flexible spending accounts where employees deposit money which they can later use for dependent care, health care, and other qualified expenses. The organization has three spending flexible accounts: premium-only, dependent and medical care. Through the premium-only plan, the workers can deposit money for life insurance and medical premiums. The flexible medical account allows the workers to deposit funds meant for health expenses which are not involved the health insurance. Finally, the dependent care flexible account involves savings for day care alongside other expenses.
Discretionary benefits refer to the additional health and non-health related support for the employees. All three organizations offer both health and non-health related discretionary benefits which include vision care for adults, prosthetic appliances and dental care for adults (Inderbitzin, Staubli & Zweimüller, 2016).The non-health related benefits include travel and transportation not related to health purposes, vocational training and retaining as well as different special payments or services authorized by the managers.
Analysis of Compensation and Benefits Packages Compared to the Industry Norms
The compensation and benefits packages provided by the three organizations compare to the industry norms in some ways. According to different research works, organizations are supposed to offer benefits and compensations depending on the budget available, what the workers value most and the size of the organization. For instance, most of the government and large firms will always provide comprehensive compensation packages while the small business starts with few elements (Mone & London, 2014).
The three organizations have adhered to the legal requirements as well as the norms of the industry which maintain that employers have to provide social security benefits and employee compensation insurance. The United States Social Security Act 0f 1935 holds that employers have to provide monthly benefits to the retired employees who have reached the age of sixty-two years, disabled employees, and their eligible dependents and spouses (Gomez-Mejia, Berrone & Franco-Santos, 2014). In most cases, the social security is funded by employee's contributions and matched by the employers, calculated as the percentage of the employee's earnings. The organizations also provide medical care insurance benefits as indicated by the Act to anyone who is entitled to the retirement benefits.
Some of the areas meeting expectations include the organization's rewarding programs where employees are given worker compensation insurance. The organizations have well-defined worker compensation insurance programs to compensate the employees who get hurt or become sick because of job-related reasons (Milkovich, Newman, & Milkovich, 2002).
Areas that need to be improved
However, there are some areas that need improvement in the three organizations. To begin with, none of them offers unemployment insurances. The unemployment compensation programs are designed to offer income to any unemployed person who loses his or her job for reasons not of their own. Any eligible worker is supposed to receive weekly stipends for twenty-six weeks. The sum of the stipend depends on the salary the employee received during the previous year.
Additionally, as growing organizations, there is a need to develop improved compensation strategies to attract the best candidates and to help the organization in terms of innovation. This means that the organizations need to ensure that their compensation plans are offering more than just the competitive salary (Milkovich, Newman, & Milkovich, 2002).The major method of ensuring this is ensuring additional compensations in a form of added financial benefits as well as non-monetary incentives. Moreover, the organizations can offer industrial, educational support which, according to different researches, elevates the work done.
Recommendations
The current benefit and compensations can be improved in different ways. For instance, the FireLakesJob organization can introduce corporate wellness programs. This is mainly because healthy working environments lead increases the productivity of the organization. When provided with the resources to maintain health on-site, the employees will always try their level best to be more aware of their health. Corporate wellness programs will boost benefits and compensation plans as well as health related costs.
Involving employees in compensation decisions ensures effective connections between the work, the plan as well as the size of the paycheck (Milkovich, Newman, & Milkovich, 2002). Employee involvement takes different forms such as skill defining, peer review, job description building as well as testing to certify skills.
The organization should also improve on the disability insurance which replaces the salary lost when an employee is unable to perform their duties after an injury or illness. The short-term disability insurance mainly starts after the accident or illness while the long-term disability provides benefits for the employee after a permanent illness or injury, which makes the employee unable to perform his or her job (Moore, & Viscusi, 2014).
The employees can also be given different types of compensations like the hourly wage which will be calculated on an hourly basis and require overtime payment for working more than 40 hours in a week. They will also receive wellness benefits which will include employer-funded allowances for different services selected by the employees.
The new compensation program can also include some mandated benefit programs which are required by the law. They include state or federal sponsored programs that provide the required needs to the employees and their families. They include social security, compensation, and employment insurance. Moreover, the employees will be granted paid vacation and holiday time to spend it with families and friends.
Conclusion
Improving and evaluating reward arrangement is always a continuous process. An effective compensation program always ensures low employee turnover and effective working conditions. The effectiveness of the new program will be evaluated regarding the desired outcomes which include evaluating whether the new compensation plan fully involves every employee (Mone & London, 2014).The new approach should be able to build skills, ability, and motivations while ensuring competency-based pay. The approach will only be legal if it follows the conditions set by the legal system which includes fairly compensating every employee and involving them in decisions concerning compensation and benefits programs. The new approach should also meet the objectives of the compensation and benefits program which include ensuring that all employees are comfortable while attracting new skills and talents.
Additionally, the employees will benefit from training in different fields. This means that the employees will be efficient and knowledgeable following the training offered by the company. Those with the required knowledge will have job promotions and increase in salaries which will, in turn, improve their daily lives.
The approach will also ensure that every hardworking employee is fairly rewarded by the organization. This ensures that employees are motivated to sustain their performance (Mone & London, 2014).The new approach will lead to a win-win situation in the organization as it will improve the employee behaviors and reduce the employee turnover, thus, being advantageous to the organization. On the other hand, given the organization's engagement and concern, the employees will have a sense of security, and they will be encouraged to continue working even in tough times.

References
Gomez-Mejia, L. R., Berrone, P., & Franco-Santos, M. (2014). Compensation and organizational performance: Theory, research, and practice. Routledge.
Inderbitzin, L., Staubli, S., & Zweimüller, J. (2016). Extended unemployment benefits and early retirement: Program complementarity and program substitution. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 8(1), 253-288.
Moore, M. J., & Viscusi, W. K. (2014). Compensation mechanisms for job risks: wages, Workers' Compensation, and product liability. Princeton University Press.
Milkovich, G. T., Newman, J. M., & Milkovich, C. (2002). Compensation (Vol. 8). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2014). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.