Comments on: Retain/Recruit/Inform… http://www.letstalkhealthcare.org/employer/retainrecruitinform/ Sat, 22 Nov 2008 08:01:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Barry Carol http://www.letstalkhealthcare.org/employer/retainrecruitinform/#comment-4173 Barry Carol Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:52:09 +0000 http://www.letstalkhealthcare.org/?p=165#comment-4173 I would take this a step further. Most employees can tell you to the dollar how much they are paid per year in salary. However, if you asked them to estimate the annual value of their benefit package, they would most likely be well off the mark on the low side. My prior employer used to send out an annual compensation statement that listed my salary and bonus (if any) and then separately listed how much it paid for each benefit including: the employer's share of FICA taxes, profit sharing or 401-K matching contribution, health insurance, disability and life insurance, tuition reimbursement (if applicable), and any other benefit for which the employer paid cash. At the bottom was my total compensation -- salary (plus bonus, if any) plus benefits. My current employer provides lots of information about our benefits on the employee portal portion of its website including the current cash value of our pension benefit. However, a listing of the employer's cost for each of our benefits is nowhere to be found. I don't know why all employers don't issue these statements routinely each year and post them on a secure, password protected website that employees can access. It's not hard, it's not expensive, and it makes sense. Even the Social Security Administration has been issuing annual statements similar in concept to this for a number of years now. I would take this a step further. Most employees can tell you to the dollar how much they are paid per year in salary. However, if you asked them to estimate the annual value of their benefit package, they would most likely be well off the mark on the low side.

My prior employer used to send out an annual compensation statement that listed my salary and bonus (if any) and then separately listed how much it paid for each benefit including: the employer’s share of FICA taxes, profit sharing or 401-K matching contribution, health insurance, disability and life insurance, tuition reimbursement (if applicable), and any other benefit for which the employer paid cash. At the bottom was my total compensation — salary (plus bonus, if any) plus benefits.

My current employer provides lots of information about our benefits on the employee portal portion of its website including the current cash value of our pension benefit. However, a listing of the employer’s cost for each of our benefits is nowhere to be found. I don’t know why all employers don’t issue these statements routinely each year and post them on a secure, password protected website that employees can access. It’s not hard, it’s not expensive, and it makes sense. Even the Social Security Administration has been issuing annual statements similar in concept to this for a number of years now.

]]>