the employee benefit plans

The aim of this research is to identify the different forms of details used to create an employee compensation package. There are two kinds of records: external information and internal information. The former consists of information that the employer must obtain from outside the business and is frequently beyond their control, such as legal requirements, such as social security and workers compensation schemes that are required by law and must be obtained from government agencies, as well as updates. Internal knowledge, on the other hand, is data that the employer can collect from inside his premises, such as data used to determine the voluntary employer contribution to employee insurance cover and ages of employees sued in determining their retirement dates. All these information is important and should be considered in developing employee benefits. Additionally, the employee benefits plan should be in synchronization with the organizational mission, goals, and objectives which are both internally obtainable pieces of information. This paper shall look at the various types of information required when developing an employee benefits plan, both internal and external, then it shall analyze the most important and least important of this information.







Employee Benefit Plans
Planning and Developing Employee Benefits
The plan for Employees’ benefits plays a major role in the development and well-being of all the employees within the organization (Downing, 2000). It also motivates employees to ensure they are more productive and works towards retaining them within the organization. In planning and developing this plan, there are two types of information to be considered; That is, external and internal information. The external information comprises of the data that the employer is required to obtain from without the business and is often out of their control, such as legal requirements regarding compensation schemes. This type of data can be obtained from government agencies and independent bureaus. The internal information comprises of the data which the employer can obtain from within his premises, for example, information used to determine the voluntary employer contribution to employee insurance cover and ages of employees sued in determining their retirement dates. employer to provide, for example, health insurance cover and retirement benefits. The human resource department can get this data by simply checking employee records for such aspects such as their age and by observing their characteristics such as those with a disability. Often, the information integrates and overlaps in order to come up with a comprehensive scheme that can guide the organization in developing its comprehensive plan.
Internal Information
First and foremost, the organization’s mission, goals, and objectives must be aligned with the plan and be actively checked against it to ensure the fidelity of the plan (Ghio, 2002). The company goals provide a framework that guides each and every activity of the organization. From this standpoint, it is crucial that they are considered and deliberately set as the basis for developing the plan. This is information that management has from within its archives and can best interpret along with its relevance to the case. Failure to do this alignment would result in sub optimization which is harmful to the business.
The policy of the organization comprises of information formulated to ensure that the operations of the company are within acceptable limits set by the management and the goals and mission of the organization. The policy document often integrates the internal and external factors but is predominantly an internal source of information. In the event that it incorporates external data such as legal regulations, it is in a manner of accommodating them and customizing them to fit within the local company arrangements. This is information can be obtained from the company’s policy handbook and is instrumental in determining the conditions for granting certain benefits and the circumstances under which some may be withdrawn. From this standpoint, we see that the corporation policy is a valuable source of information that is key in guiding the formulation of a company’s benefit’s scheme.
Additionally, it is necessary to consider all the resources that are needed to cater for the expenses of the plan. These take the form of financial resources, system resources and the manpower for maintaining such schemes. The resources available for any given project are well within the company’s scope of determination and that is what makes this an internal source of information for the benefit’s plan. (Downing, 2000). It is important for the company to determine whether it has the necessary capacity to implement the benefits plan and how ambitious it can get with the plan before it gets impractical. Resource base consideration is a factor that determines where the benefits plan sails or not and poor appropriation can result in a failed/ incomplete plan.
Penultimately, employee statistics are within the reach of the company and can be fully exploited to formulate a specific and detailed benefits plan. Regardless of the type of benefits plan, employee data has to be collected and analyzed, after all, it is a scheme for these employees. From this standpoint, the company is a goldmine of information and it needs to look no further. The statistics relevant are the age of employees, their heights, their ethnicities, gender, places of residence and marital statuses. Every one of these data elements ensures that the plan is gender sensitive, tolerant to ethnicity and considerate to those who live across states.
Lastly, evaluation mechanisms and tools are within the company’s grasp. The information necessary for the company to determine the success or failure of the benefits plan is within its grasp. As a matter of fact, the human resource department shall come up with a schedule which shall be used in evaluating and monitoring the plan based on certain well tested and identified benchmarks. The information that is contained in such areas takes the form if progress charts for checking the pace and time frame of the plan and system design flow charts that detail each step of the process form inception to implementation. This information is important to the organization as it helps it keep track of its benefits plana and its feasibility at various stages. Failure to carefully include this within bases of the benefits plan shall result in a failed benefits system.
External Information
The external information to be considered when developing and planning the employees’ benefits plan are the legal, religious, interagency and political environments where the business operates. When planning and developing employees’ benefit, it is important to consider the necessity to provide for the employee as an employer according to the required laws (Storms, 2002). As a matter of fact, all the employees are correctly entitled to a fair compensation as indicated by the law, which can include benefit’s schemes. It is, therefore, important to plan and to develop a model of compensation referred to as compensation benefits plan, which will include hourly wage and annual salary for all the organizational employees. The legal requirements that are necessary her are the company’s act, the wage bill and the equal employment opportunity regulations.
Secondly, religious demands of individuals go a long way in determining the implementation of a benefits scheme. The company should not discriminate against the employee based on religion, race, gender and ethnicity in any aspect, including benefits schemes. The information on the religious state of an individual is internal and easily obtainable, however, this section looks at the research that is required to be conducted by the organization into the various religions of their employees in order to be informed while accommodating these individuals. This helps the plan account for events in these religions and determine how the business can recover from absenteeism that is legal in nature. This may seem simple and naïve but is powerful.
Rank of Importance
The most important consideration to the planning process is the legal underpinnings that the organization has to navigate and stand by. This is due to the fact that every business of the organization is regulated by the laws of the land and violation of these laws shall have catastrophic effects. additionally, employees are likely to feel at ease with legal provisions followed rather than illegal activities that can result in numerous lawsuits and jeopardize the company’s reputation as a going concern. The least important consideration, on the other hand, is the time paid off and similar considerations. This is where employees are paid for the time that they are absent from duty as a provision of the business. This covers aspects such as fully paid leave and other forms of payment for employees that are not at work such as sabbaticals. the rationale behind this being the least important consideration is the fact that it can be damaging to the business and is largely optional. Despite the fact that leave days are a requirement for businesses, pay on eave is often at the discretion of the enterprise.
Conclusion
The planning and development of an employee benefits plan would require bringing together both internal and external information within the organization. Indeed, this plan plays a very important role in ensuring a platform of the wellbeing and welfare of the organization and the employees are well catered for. There are various reasons that motivate an organization to come up with, plan and develop an employee benefits plan. For instance, it ensures employees’ motivation, production, retention, and fulfillment of the organization's legal obligations. The benefits plan includes social security, workers’ compensation, retirement benefits, health insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, accommodation, retirements plans, personal time-off and enhancement benefits including transport allowance, housing allowance, and risk allowance. Whichever form this plan takes, it is often a vital form of business operations and should be taken up by every business. 
 





References
 Downing, N. (2000). Maximize your benefits a guide for all employees. Chicago, IL: Dearborn
Trade Pub.
Ghio, R. S. (2002). Contingent workers and employee benefits: do you know who your employees are? Compensation & Benefits Review, 34(3), 68-73.
Storms, R. (2002). Benefits that save retirement: Employees value their benefits more when they understand how their benefits protect their retirement savings. Compensation & Benefits Review, 34(1), 33-37.