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Developing a total rewards program
Benefits & Compensation
Developing a total rewards program
Exchange ideas about health plans, retirement, work/life benefits, and employee assistance.
I have been tasked with developing a total rewards program for a new organization. My experience has always been on the admin side of comp. Help...any recommendations on where I should start?
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Forums » Topic Forums » Benefits & Compensation » Developing a total rewards program
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Developing a total rewards program
posted at 9/10/2009 5:41 AM EDT
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Posts: 11
First: 9/10/2009 Last: 11/23/2009 |
I have been tasked with developing a total rewards program for a new organization. My experience has always been on the admin side of comp. Help...any recommendations on where I should start? |
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Developing a total rewards program
posted at 9/10/2009 8:32 AM EDT
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Posts: 3870
First: 2/12/2002 Last: 11/2/2009 |
You're right that you probably need some help with this. But a project like this is well out of the scope of these forums.
There are a number of highly regarded books which address compensation and benefits in terms of strategy. worldatwork.org (formerly the American Compensation Association) might also have some publications that you may find useful. Given a choice, however, I think I'd start with a good compensation consultant. This is far too important a tasking for someone who may only have limited experience. |
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Developing a total rewards program
posted at 9/10/2009 9:10 AM EDT
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Posts: 2146
First: 2/15/2006 Last: 9/14/2011 |
If you will also be responsible for implementation and processing without a bundle of experience, then there are a lot of risks and liabilities that you can incur without really knowing it. (for example payroll/employees vs contractors/exempt vs nonexempt, qualified benefit plans vs unqualified,etc). I would suggest looking into E&O/EPLI insurance ahead of time to see what is covered under it. Therefore I would agree that it is not a DIY project especially since some benefits have stricter laws (ERISA for example) and on some you will need specific knowledge-based consultants. One book I always suggest is "compensation" by Milkovich and Newman -- it is the textbook (or was) for the CEBS test on compensation. There is also an excellent book called "executive compensation" by Bruce Ellig that I would suggest. Neither are inexpensive. However, you are also facing a different economy right now. What has worked and been standard in the past may not work now. It will depend on your locale, your industry, your competition, your ability to pay wages/taxes and benefits, etc. What I can tell you is what we did (but I didn't start from scratch --- benefits were already set a few years ago). About 1 year ago, we thought "backwards". That is we calculated the cost of an employee starting with wages, adding payroll taxes and benefits cost. Each was an individual calculation until I set up a calculator in Excel. However, it was hard to capture EVERY cost as some weren't being currently captured. Our executive board now looks at each employee based on that cost vs salary alone. With different perqs and benefits, it is amazing how two people making the same wage can cost so differently. One of the major differences in Workers Compensation premiums based on job code. So now we look more at a total package than just a salary. |
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