Find out various employee benefits that accrue to employees both when working and during retirement.
In every organization, various benefits are assigned to employees. Some are used to motivate and recognize the efforts of the workers. Others are demanded by the labor unions and the government. However, regardless of the reason for the benefit, they help the employees significantly both when they are employed by the company and later on when they leave. This employee benefits 101 guide lists some of the benefits:
After service benefits
These set of benefits provide for employees after they have retired from formal employment. They include:
- Defined contribution pension- employee and employer set aside an amount of money each year.
- Defined benefit pension- In this type, the pension benefit is calculated after evaluation of an employee’s salary and years of service.
Illness/injury benefits
These benefits provide employees with funds to take care of their health if they get ill or they are injured when at work. They include but not limited to:
- Statutory sick pay- This is given to employees who take a few days sick off. It can cover about 6 months of absence because of illness or injury.
- Occupational sick pay- It covers the employees for a long time, especially those who are susceptible to occupational sicknesses/accidents.
- Sick pay insurance- This is short-term financial assistance for employees who are absent from work due to illness or injury.
- Income protection- This is a percentage of an employee’s regular income, which is paid to them every month if they are suffering from chronic illness.
- Private medical insurance- It reimburses any money employee could have used to treat medical conditions. However, it does not cover every illness.
- Optical and dental insurance- These covers are just as the private medical insurance, only that they pay for dental and optical related expenses.
- Critical illness insurance- Employee gets a tax-free compensation if they are diagnosed with certain health conditions.
- Health screening- This pays for regular health assessment.
Benefits that provide for death
These employee benefits are given in the event of death. They include:
- Life insurance- This is a lump sum that is paid to the beneficiaries/family of employee, in the event of their death.
Other employee benefits
- Share schemes- This is where employers offer employees shares in the organization based on their years of service.
- Childcare vouchers- These help parents to pay for their children’s education and daily care.
- Car allowance- Employees gets extra money to buy a car to facilitate their work performance.
- Interest-free travel loan- Some organizations offer their employees an interest-free loan to purchase travel tickets.
- House allowance- an extra payment that allows an employee to find a home.
- Gym membership- Some companies pay for gym membership.