Employee benefits package is a bundle of benefits that an employer may choose to extend to his/her employees in addition to wage and salary remuneration. An employee benefits package forms part of a worker’s complete compensation package in addition to the salary. They are usually indirect and not in cash form.

Many of the large organizations have extensive and lucrative employee benefits plans and so does all government employers. Smaller companies may find it hard to provide comprehensive benefits packages if any at all, as their financial clout is inferior.

A benefits package helps an employer attract and retain the best talent in the market as well as competing favorably with the other employers in the same niche. It also increases an employee’s job satisfaction and overall morale.

There is no single way that is prescribed for putting together an employee’s benefits package and this gives the employer room to customize the said package according to the target employees, needs and desires. Despite the open-ended-ness of these packages, some benefits are expected and required to be included.

Types of employees benefit packages

In today’s job market, it is almost unheard of to have an employment offer without a benefits package. Companies without such find themselves losing out employees to companies with benefit packages.

A firm that wishes to arrest a high employee turnover should improve its benefits; according to its resources of course. Benefits come in two types; those mandated by the law and those that an employer chooses to extend to the employee.

Those mandated by the law include overtime, worker compensation, leave and minimum wage. The other type of benefits package is quite diverse and the specifics are negotiable during employment. The wide array of these optional benefits enables employers to be able to structure a benefits package to suit an employee.

Employer-provided benefits

A company may decide to provide extra perks in addition to those required by the law because they feel obligated to and want to attract and retain employees. Health insurance is a common benefit among large companies and others will include perks such as vision care, retirement plans, sick leave, life insurance, fitness and dental insurance as well as other benefits for the family. In most cases, the employee is required to contribute some money towards the cost of the benefits package.

Nowadays, employees expect that the employer will give at least a one week or two weeks annual paid leave. Funerals leaves are also expected although they may not be formally written down