Employee Benefits and Human Resource Management
Human resource management is concerned with the issues that are associated with the human capital-the employees-of organizations. Human resource management functions in private and public organizations, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, and can have far-reaching economic and legal effects within organizations. Today, human resource managers must be prepared to develop programs that help attract and retain high-quality employees while keeping costs low. Traditional benefit programs, including pensions and health care, are increasingly viewed as high cost items by many employers, with the result that alternatives for funding and providing these benefits are being sought. At the same time, organizations are expanding their concept of benefits to include a quality work environment that includes on-site child care, the ability to telecommute, and flexible scheduling that can accommodate the needs of many different employees. This research considers employee benefit programs and the role that human resource management plays in developing and implementing these programs.
Employee benefits are generally classified as items that provide economic benefit to employees beyond their wages. Until the twentieth century, most employees received compensation for their work and no additional benefits. This compensation might have taken the form of hourly wages, or piece rates, and from that compensation, employees then were responsible for all of their expenses. During the twentieth century, new types of business emerged, including health insurance companies, that offered protection against unexpected healthcare costs. Unions negotiated for companies to pay some of these costs, and employees and companies began to realize the benefit of having employee benefits. In the case of healthcare, for example, companies were able to negotiate better rates than individuals ...