Analysis of Employee Benefits within an Organisation The WritePass Journal

Analysis of Employee Benefits within an Organisation Introduction Analysis of Employee Benefits within an Organisation Introduction Types of Employee Benefits2.1 Disadvantages of employee benefits2.2 Advantage of employee benefits   Compensation Management Influence Over Employees and CompaniesConclusions References Bibliography   Related Introduction The purpose of this essay is to open the discussion about one of the most relevant features for the human beings these days, the payment schemes such as salaries, wages and benefits that employees receive in retribution of their work. On this paper work it will be developed the next question â€Å"If employees undervalue the cost of benefits, why should a company not drop benefits and simply add more direct compensation?† On first instance, is precisely to say that the direct compensation is the monetary benefits that employees receive in return of the service they provide to the company, such as basic salary, rent allowance, travel allowances and medical reimbursements among others; on the other hand indirect compensation is the non monetary benefits that the employees receive such as life insurance, health security, pension, vacations and flexible timings among others. Thus, the payment programs have become one of the most important issues on the human life nowadays, that ´s because they define the opportunities and choices that one person has to provide wellness, security and a future to their families or their loved ones, and in the same way feel recognition for their capabilities and efforts. Consequently, there have always been different systems of pay and compensations to suit the employees and employers requirements, for this reason there are wages with non monetary and monetary benefits. Employees typically depend on salaries and wages to get a stable income and on benefits to provide health and security. For employers, compensation decisions influence their cost of doing business and thus, their ability to sell at a competitive price in the goods and/or service markets. Far beyond that, compensation decisions determinate the employers ability to compete for qualified employees in the labour market. (Ferris, et. al, p.528) Employee compensation practices differ across employment units (e.g., organizations, business units, and facilities) on several dimensions. Dimension like Form (cash or benefits), Level (How much do people disserve to earn for their job), Structure (hierarchies and pay differential within an employee unit), Mix (how and when cash compensation is disbursed) and finally Pay Administration (pay policies and who is in charge of that process) (Ferris, et. al, p.528).The central point of the employee compensation discussion has been on defining these dimensions, researching why organizations differ on them, and considering whether such differences have consequences on employee behaviours and attitude; Along this work this topic will be developed deeply and it will be shown examples of how it can vary and how this contribute to the question above. Now then, as it was mentioned before indirect compensation refers to benefits, is essential to understand that this benefits are forms of value (non monetary) that are provided to the employee in return for his/her job. That ´s why when it refers to employee benefits the most common are: vacations-holidays, employee stock ownership plans, retirement plans, health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, pension, leisure bonuses, etc. Benefits are increasingly expensive for businesses to provide to employees, so the range and options of benefits are changing rapidly to include, for example, flexible benefit plans and timings. Despite that some employees undervalue the benefits, it ´s important to say that companies cannot drop benefits that easy because two essential reasons. The first reason is because of the law; the benefits must be given to the employees as part of the remuneration of their job or services, that ´s legal issue and must be part of the pay policies of the company. The second reason is because employees like parents or elder people prefer benefits as they find them important for their families, their retirement or their pension schemes. Other aspects that companies find important are that the indirect compensation can encourage the employee to do a better job, creates a sense of trust and loyalty between the employee and the employer. This way compensation plays such a key role because it is at the heart of the employment relationship, being of critical importance to both employees and employers; also that ´s a reason why organizations are becoming more concerned with positioning employee compensation as a strategic human resource management function in order to obtain competitive advantage. Types of Employee Benefits Each country has different forms of salaries, wages and benefits. In the UK, employee benefits are categorised by three terms: Flexible Benefits, Voluntary Benefits and Core Benefits. (Price, 2007, p.467) The first term is Flexible Benefits, also called Flex Scheme, is where employees are allowed to choose how a proportion of their remuneration is paid. This is normally delivered by allowing employees to sacrifice part of their pre-tax pay in exchange for a car, additional holiday, a shorter working week or other similar benefits, or give up benefits for additional cash remuneration. The second is Voluntary Benefits; these are the collection of benefits that employees choose to receive. These tend to be schemes such as the government-backed, Bike2Work and Childcare Vouchers (Accor Services, Busybees, Sodexho, KiddiVouchers, Early Years Vouchers Ltd). Employee Discount schemes are often setup by employers as a perk of working at the organization. (www.cipd.co.uk) Finally, Core Benefits is the term given to benefits which all staff enjoys, such as holiday, sick pay and flexible schedule. In recent years, many UK companies have used the tax and national insurance savings gained through the implementation of salary sacrifice system, to fund the implementation of flexible benefits. In a salary sacrifice arrangement, an employee gives up the right to part of the cash remuneration due under their contract of employment. Usually, the sacrifice is made in return for the employers agreement to provide them with some form of non-cash benefit. The most popular types of salary sacrifice benefits include childcare vouchers and pensions, that’s a reason why indirect compensation still being important for some workers like those who are parents or those who are close to retirement. 2.1 Disadvantages of employee benefits In the UK these benefits are often taxed at the individual’s normal tax rate,which can be expensive if there is no financial advantage to the individual from the benefit. The UK system of state pension provision is dependent upon the payment of National Insurance Contributions NIC. Salary exchange schemes will result in reduced NIC payments and so are also liable to reduce the state benefits, most notably the state second pension. (www.cipd.co.uk) 2.2 Advantage of employee benefits   The benefits are an important component of a companys remuneration package for attracting and retaining its employees. The benefits serve as incentives to the employees and encourage them to work hard for the organisation, instead of give up part of their salaries. These also help in building up job satisfaction. In the same way, there can be advantages for employers; one of the major advantages is an easing of their own cash flow. Another advantage is the option to negotiate discounts with benefit providers, this could represent savings for the company when the personnel is large, so the provision of non cash benefits can consequently be cheaper than the part of the salary that the employee is giving up. Some benefits are attractive even for young workers such as a company car or mobile phones, which can be provided by the employer and without having to make these arrangements by the employee. On the other hand, tax advantages are extended to employees as well as employers. Some benefits package provides a tax advantage; for example, if the employer pays for the mobile phone, this is treated as a non-taxable benefit, so this can represent a significant tax saving over the course of a year, for both parts. Compensation Management Influence Over Employees and Companies (Example 1) On this case, AVIVA an insurance company has proposed closing its final-salary pension scheme, because is considered inequitable and unsustainable. On this case, the reason of the closure of the final-salary pension was because it took two-thirds of Avivas contributions to UK staff pension arrangements, but only one-third of UK staff had the final-salary benefit. This proposal come after a string of businesses announced their intentions to close final-salary schemes to current members. Construction firm Taylor Wimpey, Trinity Mirror, Pirelli, Fujitsu, Barclays, Morrisons, Vodafone, BMI, Dairy Crest, IBM and Costain all said they planned to do so in the last year. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/) Now this could be a problem, as it means the typical worker will lose a third of expected pension payments, but also it can proved the high costs of indirect compensation for organizations. On the other hand, incentives and motivation programs can reduce the cost of the benefits expenses for the companies; on the following two examples it can be proved. (Example 2) The company name is Rim Hospitality, which is a hotel, resort and boutique property management company. With rising workers compensation expenses, Rim Hospitality needed to find a cost effective solution that would motivate employees to help reduce these costs, and also maximize efficiencies with employee productivity and scheduling. The plan developed by this company consisted in implementing a prepaid MasterCard card as the award to the employees, which provided the employee the freedom to choose what they want, when they want it. With this plan, Rim Hospitality experienced positive results almost immediately which have steadily increased. Thus, over two years, they reduced workers compensation claims by 29% and therefore this meant more productivity to compensate the cost of benefits and savings of $634,000 during that time. (www.hrmreport.com) (Example 3) There is another case where incentives and motivation programs can reduce the cost of the benefits expenses. This example is referred to Pepsi Bottling Group (PBG) which is the worlds largest manufacturer, seller and distributor of Pepsi-Cola beverages. In 2005, PBG was working on a better way to manage the rising cost of health care for its employees. They did that by educating their employees on various health related issues. First of all, PBG implemented an employee survey to get feedback on the interest of their employees. Thus, all the employees who had participated in the survey were rewarded with a prepaid card as an incentive; following the survey period, employees were offered a variety of healthcare educational classes to attend. When the class was completed, the employee received an additional prepaid Card as a reward for completing the class. Time after the implementation of that program, PBG has noticed that expenses generated by health disease, absence, emot ional conflicts, and health insurance costs were lowered in 47%. (www.hrmreport.com)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      Now then, sometimes a bad healthcare can drive up the cost of the benefits for employees and employers. (Example 4) Similar to the previous, this example shows that according to the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics, as of 2009, trucking had an injury rate 30 percent higher than other U.S. industries. This coupled with higher average medical and indemnity costs, makes employer costs will go higher; therefore this will lead to higher workers compensation costs and any savings employers thought they were accruing will be lost when injuries go up. So, the higher rates can be attributed in part to several factors. Because of the nature of their work many drivers are out of shape, eat badly, smoke too much, dont do exercise and hardly ever get enough sleep. As a result of this, they found themselves susceptible to heart attacks and diabetes, as well as a myriad of strains, sprains and various other muscular-skeletal injuries. This makes truckers a danger on the road but also a danger to themselves, and by the way driving up employers costs. (http://web.ebscohost.com) (Example 5) Sometimes working in a non traditional way like working from home is a benefit that workers value, especially if they have families. This example shows that an AIM survey made in 2006, indicated that 40% of companies in Massachusetts were looking at ways to decrease the compensation budget, which meant that workers wouldn’t have been happy with that news, for that reason employers found the way to offset the dissatisfaction that will cause. They proposed to give flexible hours of work, telecommuting, and other lifestyle benefits; but perhaps, one of the most important benefits was the opportunity to work from home or 50/50 (half in the office and half in home), that was a differential factor and was used even as a recruiting tool. (http://web.ebscohost.com) That is an important benefit that more and more companies have put in practice, because they can trust and rely on people, this is a management new thinking and change of attitude, where people find that they work hard when no one is looking at them, that they don’t need a supervisor all the time or someone just watching if theyre working. This aspect was very important for families and parents who wanted to expend more time with their sons and relatives. (Example 6) Another option growing in popularity is flexible time and banks system, which consist on time off available to use at any time, instead of the typical, two weeks of vacation, five sick day permission, and 10 holidays. That way, employers are not asking to the workers if are they sick today, or if do they want the day off; because with the banks system and flexible times they can make some long weekends or take some time off in the middle of the week. That type of flexibility is definitely attractive to employees. (www.businesswest.com) By a short break, it has been found that the cost of the benefits could be a high risk when the PESTE factors (Political, Economical, Social, Technological and environmental) affect the organization. (Example 7) In Colombia for example, in the nineties when the government decided to open his economy to the neo liberal model of free trade and the invisible hand of Smith that in theory regulates the economy and the prices of buy and sale, a lot of Organizations in the textile industry suffered the consequences of that Governmental policy. There was a specific company that went to bankrupt in a short time after the economic opened, that company was Coltejer who had been one of the biggest companies in the textile industry in Colombia; the reason is that this company gave good benefits to their employees which made this one of the top organizations in where people desired to work, the benefits ranging from computers and household facilities provided by the company to cars that employees could acquire after have worked for some years in the company. So basically, when the Chinese and East Asia products got in the Colombian market, Coltejer could not compete with the bargaining and cheap prices of those products, that because of the high costs of benefits that Coltejer was holding with their employees, among other reasons, and the company could not bear and overcome the price difference, despite the fact that external products were low in quality; so in this case it can be seen that high costs of benefits could provide go od talents and satisfied employees, but also could be a high risk option for the organization if an external factor affect the business. (Example 8) In the same way in Chile, the shoes industry was affected by the PESTE factors; it was basically after signing the free trade agreement with China 4 years ago, and as a result of the undefeatable prices of Chinese shoes companies, many companies in Chile had to reduce staff and reduce both compensations direct and indirect, which brought turbulence and imbalance to the companies. (www.economiaynegocios.cl/) (Example 9) Although, external factors could be positive in a medium term perspective, like natural resources prices, especially the petroleum high prices; where in countries like Venezuela usually bring big wealthy to the people, such is the case of PDVSA, the Petroleum Public Company of Venezuela, which is one of the biggest companies in the petroleum industry over the world, and because the petroleum bonanza and the high prices of the barrel make that PDVSA could give spectacular and expensive benefits to their employees, such as car, housing, vacations, education (sons of PDVSA employees receive education allowances and scholarships to study abroad, and free education in Venezuela). So this shows the magnitude and the impact of the benefits on the employee’s life and in the company’s costs. (www.pdvsa.com) (Example 10) A survey made by Personnel Today found that, in half of 700 organisations who responded to the survey, take-up of childcare vouchers was less than 6%, and only 9% of organisations reported more than 30% staff take-up of the vouchers. So it means that poor communication of the benefits of the schemes is the result of the low take-up. However, the survey shows that there is growing awareness of the existence of childcare voucher schemes, which enable employers to offer working parents vouchers to pay for registered childcare without having to pay tax or National Insurance contributions. Most organisations (81%) said staff awareness of childcare vouchers had increased over the last five years, and that offering childcare vouchers could be a deciding factor in attracting working parents and retaining key staff. The final conclusion of the survey applied to the organizations, shown that 91% either agreeing or strongly agreeing that offering childcare vouchers improved an empl oyers reputation. The research also looked into employer interest in offering a similar scheme for staff that needed to look after elderly dependants and the results shown that 59% were interested in introducing them. (www.personneltoday.com) (Example 11) As it has been said along this work, good benefits are useful to attract and retain qualified staff for a company, now then, it also help the company to save money. That ´s because attractive benefits facilitate a companys bottom line on multiple levels, and one that shouldnt be ignored is the cost of replacing employees who become dissatisfied and leave. The cost to replace an employee can be anywhere from 30% to 40% of somebodys salary up to 150%, and is money that the employer is going to spend on recruiting and retraining. (web.ebscohost.com) (Example 12) On this order, employers might offer workers a motivating and attractive package that says, if you stay with me five years or 10 years, at the end of that time, Ill give you a raise that might be equal to 50% of the base salary. Because its on an individual basis, the employer cannot take a tax deduction for what he is spending, but if the employee got skills and talents that the organization needs to his optimal productivity, it would be more important to tie the employee to the organization for 5 or 10 years. That arrangement appeals to people at certain stages of life. For example, someone with two children is going to be staring to college costs in a little less than a decade. By offering to double his starting salary after 5 years, the employer can bring a little financial-planning reassurance to the worker, while not having to worry about losing the assets he brings to the company. Employees nearing retirement age might also find value in such an offer. (web.ebscoh ost.com) (Example 13) This is the case of Unisys (IT Services Company) which has had a flexible benefits scheme for 13 years. This has changed a lot over that time to reflect staff interests, and is split into three categories security, wellbeing and lifestyle. Unisys workers average salary is about  £50,000. Andrew White, reward manager, says We found high interest in security-type benefits rather than lifestyle, so tried to tailor as many as we can in the insurance sector. Security benefits include critical illness insurance, travel insurance and group income protection. The most popular benefits are critical illness, dental insurance, holiday-trading and income protection. (http://proquest.umi.com) (Example 14) In the case of retail giant Tesco, who offers its employees a wide selection of benefits, including a defined benefit (DB) pension scheme that is open to all staff, three all-employee share schemes, life assurance, childcare vouchers and discounts at theme parks. Tesco also offers all its employees a discount card (the Privilege card), which gives a 10% discount on shopping in all Tesco stores and online. Staff can save a maximum of  £730 a year. Staff feedback shows the Privilege card is top of the list of most valued benefits. The reason the Privilege card is so popular is because staff get immediate benefit from it, they get money off their shopping receipt. (http://proquest.umi.com) On the other hand, voluntary benefits include a staff tariff on the Tesco Mobile network and discounts at Tesco Bank. Each pay period, Tesco includes a new offer, for example extra deals on clothing, home ware or photo processing. With nearly 290,000 UK staff and from different nationalities, Tesco has a wide range of needs to consider. (Example 15) Telegraph Media Group is an organization who gives to their employees’ wide range of benefits, and that’s the cause of why more than 80% of the employees have declared to be satisfied with benefits. One of Telegraphs most popular benefits is the pension scheme, where the company pays a lot into that and employees don’t get charged for administration. In the same way there is a good website for the pension scheme. This is very important issue for employees therefore in the current situation, because they can save their pensions and don’t have to worry about the public pot. (http://proquest.umi.com) Another valued issue is the health and wellbeing services provided by Telegraph, such as its on-site gym, free and subsidised fitness classes, free corporate massage service, and on-site doctor with physiotherapy services. All this kind of smart compensation policies ease the life of the employees and also the productivity and work environment of the company. (Example 16) Another example is the one about the Oil and Gas Company Subsea 7, who employs 1,800 people in the UK and they consider that is essential to create a clever payment strategy to attract and retain the best people. Considering this the company first introduced tax-efficient perks offered via salary sacrifice arrangements, then built on this with a total reward statement and a flex scheme. To ensure the package is understood and appreciated by staff, it tracks a variety of measurements, including the number who has enrolled on the benefits website, the choices they make, how often they visit the site, and the take-up of different benefits. (http://proquest.umi.com) Conclusions During this essay, it has been tried to demonstrate what is better for both employees and companies in terms of compensation. As it has been shown the compensation could vary depending on the company policies and the HR strategies. As human beings we are looking always for the best choice for us, it must be a choice that satisfy the basic needs one person has and at the same time gave him/her wellbeing, comfort and happiness. In the same way companies are looking for the best way to attract and retain excellent staff, which brings quality, productivity, growth, status, competitiveness and profits to the company. Now then, compensation is just the manner in which the employees get some pay in return of the services they have given to the company. The main question of this essay put a hypothetical situation in which employees undervalue the cost of the benefits, and the company has to decide whether remove the benefits and add more direct compensation, which would means add more monetary value, more basic salary or just more allowances; now then, as it has been shown before, the needs of each employee differs depending on the age, personal aims, family type, lifestyle, culture, religion and even education level. So it’s essential that the employer knows perfectly well the characteristics and the staff behaviour, in order to offer the best compensation package for each group of workers, and also to save money and gain productivity and competitiveness. As it has been mentioned before, the company could gain productivity and competitiveness just by offering to their employees’ nice conditions, because the worker who feels that the company really care about him and give to him everything he needs could work the double in the half of time, giving better results and being committed with the business, so that’s how an employer can create loyal and good workers. On the other hand, when companies chose the right compensation packages for their employees, they will be saving money and the reason is because on one side they won’t waste money in benefits that employees don’t like or undervalue or even they are not going to use, and on the other side the save money because if they keep the employees satisfied they won’t be need to spend money on recruiting and training new staff. So, my answer to the main question is that, employers have to do everything necessary to keep employees satisfied, as they are the gears of the machine, so if in this case or in one specific company the employees undervalue the benefits and prefer more direct compensation, I must say that on first instance a general check in of the compensation program must be done, so it means to check the different dimension of payment such as form, level, structure, mix and the pay policies of the company. Is necessary to know that some benefits cannot be removed, as they must be given as a legal issue (e.g. social security or pensions), other flexible benefits could be removed or added according the characteristic of the employee, because I can’t offer a 25 years old person, whose marital status is single a childcare voucher or long term plans benefits, may be this person could be more attracted with travel allowances, or just have more cash to spend on leisure activities; on the other sid e a mother with little kids should be more interested in flexible timings, work from home, health care insurance and vacations, and in the same way an old person is probably thinking in pension schemes. Now then, for the company instead, the fact of add more direct compensation could represent a more complicated manage of the cash flow and at the same time could be more expensive, as employees are not giving up part of their salaries in exchange of the benefits, and some companies usually negotiate discounts with some benefit providers, instead it cannot be done with the employees salary; in addition, with indirect compensation employers get tax advantages, that could be relevant throughout of the year. In conclusion, if the employer adds more direct compensation he could lose money, because he won’t have tax advantages, there won’t be salary sacrifice system so there won’t be possibility to negotiate with benefit providers and as a result it will be also more complicated to manage the cash flow without those benefits. Now on the other hand, if the employees are not completely satisfied with the indirect compensation, it will mean that the work environment could be affected and as a result the productivity, competitiveness and loyalty of the staff which in a medium term could be expensive for the company. So it’s a complex situation, which I’m agree in part, because it require a smart strategy that permit the employer hold indirect compensation in order to benefit the company wealth, assets and resources, but at the same time is necessary offer good perks to employees in order to create incentives and wellbeing among them and thus boost each employ ee to get the best of them. References Books: Ferris, Gerald R., Rosen, Sherman D. And Barnum, Darold T. Handbook of Human Resources Management. (1995) Blackwell Publishers, first ed., Oxford,   pp. 528-570 Price, Alan. Human Resource Management in a Business Context. (2007) Cengage learning EMEA, third ed., London, p. 467-488. 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And Barnum, Darold T. Handbook of Human Resources Management. (1995) Blackwell Publishers, first ed., Oxford,   pp. 528-570 Price, Alan. Human Resource Management in a Business Context. (2007) Cengage learning EMEA, third ed., London, p. 467-488. Dowling, Peter and Festing, Marion and Allen D, Engle. International Human Resource Management. (2008) Cengage learning EMEA fifth ed.   Hough, Alison. Employment Law. (2006) Old Bailey Press third ed., London.   Redman, Tom and Wilkinson, Adrian. Contemporary Human Resource Management. (2009) Prentice Hall, third ed. Essex, p. 139-174. Electronic Articles and Internet:   Aviva to close final-salary pension scheme (20th April 2010). http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8633088.stm [31st March 2011] HR Management Employee Incentive, Recognition and Reward Case Study. (2005) hrmreport.com/article/HR-Management-Employee-Incentive-Recognition-and-Reward-Case-Study/ [ 1st April 2011].   HR Management Employee Incentive, Recognition and Reward Case Study. (2005) hrmreport.com/article/HR-Management-Employee-Incentive-Recognition-and-Reward-Case-Study/ [ 1st April 2011].   direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/index.htm [2nd April 2011]. human-capital-management.net/business/   [3rdApril 2011] Hudson Valley Business Journal May 17. 2010 http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=21hid=119sid=b9cb39d4-a1c7-499b-9d41-b7631902a20a%40sessionmgr104 [4th April 2011] Hudson Valley Business Journal May 17. 2010 http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=21hid=119sid=b9cb39d4-a1c7-499b-9d41-b7631902a20a%40sessionmgr104 [4th April 2011] personneltoday.com/home/default.aspx   [4th April 2011] http://businesswest.com/archive [4th April 2011] economiaynegocios.cl/mis_finanzas/detalles/home_fin.asp?seccion=3   [4th April 2011] pdvsa.com/interface.sp/database/fichero/publicacion/6409/1279.PDF[4th April 2011] personneltoday.com/home/default.aspx [4thApril 2011] cipd.co.uk/search/searchresults.aspx?recommended=TrueQuery=compensation+and+benefitsPageIndex=1sortby=relevancesitetype=REDESIGN_MAIN [8th April 2011] Hudson Valley Business Journal May 17. 2010 http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=21hid=119sid=b9cb39d4-a1c7-499b-9d41-b7631902a20a%40sessionmgr104   [10th April 2011] http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=21hid=119sid=b9cb39d4-a1c7-499b-9d41-b7631902a20a%40sessionmgr104 [10th April 2011] Employee Benefits.  Ã‚  Dec 2010.   pg.24 http://proquest.umi.com.ez.urosario.edu.co/pqdweb?index=6did=2202553811SrchMode=3sid=3Fmt=3VInst=PRODVType=PQDRQT=309VName=PQDTS=1302484952clientId=65930aid=2 [13th April 2011] Employee Benefits.  Ã‚  Jul 2010.   pg.20   http://proquest.umi.com.ez.urosario.edu.co/pqdweb?index=8did=2202553441SrchMode=3sid=3Fmt=3VInst=PRODVType=PQDRQT=309VName=PQDTS=1302485310clientId=65930aid=2 [13th April 2011] Employee Benefits.  Ã‚  May 2010.   pg.43   http://proquest.umi.com.ez.urosario.edu.co/pqdweb?index=8did=2073932571SrchMode=3sid=5Fmt=3VInst=PRODVType=PQDRQT=309VName=PQDTS=1302485541clientId=65930aid=3 [13th April 2011] Employee Benefits.  Ã‚  May 2010.   pg.44   http://proquest.umi.com.ez.urosario.edu.co/pqdweb?index=2did=2028876661SrchMode=3sid=6Fmt=3VInst=PRODVType=PQDRQT=309VName=PQDTS=1302485717clientId=65930aid=3 [14th April 2011] peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/subjects/employment-law/ [15th April 2011]

Why Teachers Deserve a Better Pay Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Why Teachers Deserve a Better Pay - Essay Example A question of budget cut Teacher’s pay freeze is right for times, read the Star Tribune’s Jan.22, 2011 editorial (Editorial, Star Tribune, 2011). Well, it is not a right time and it will never ever find a right time. The facts are clear, the US economy is still reeling from the woes of an economic recession and grappling with a $6.2 billion budget deficit (Editorial, Star Tribune, 2011). Consequently, there is diminishing subsidy to the whole US educational system , which leave school district’s no better option than either to freeze the salary of public school teacher’s or to distribute another round of pink slips amongst public school teachers. It is unfortunate that a salary freeze is proposed by no less than Sen. Thompson, Representative of ,Lakeville and were favoured by school superintendent’s. The group favouring a salary freeze argues that the current compensation system which provides an automatic salary increase to teacher’s who hav e been in service for a number of years and have taken additional college credits is the culprit for their school districts ‘overspending’ on salaries ( Editorial, Star Tribune, 2011).This is absurd and totally unjust. T... The real question at hand is why can’t the local and national government increase the funding on education? Why does the teacher’s and the students have to shoulder for the budget deficit that they did not create in the first place? It is unjust to ask the teacher’s to carry the burden of the country’s economic problems for the so called greater good. When big and private businesses fold up in the face of recession, government readily bails them out of people’s taxes and tells us that if it’s not bailed out, the economy would further shrink into recession and crisis. Education is a basic social service that government need to put its priority funding, why can’t the lawmakers shells out some more budget for the education. I believe these whole debate on teacher’s pay is a mere ploy to cover the real issue of budget cut which is unjust and uncalled for. Salary Freeze is not good for recession A better option for an economy sufferi ng from a recession is a salary increase not a salary freeze and much more not a salary cut and laying off of teachers. I don’t know why the lawmakers are finding it hard to comprehend that people need to spend more , so the economy would keep on moving. A salary freeze will definitely hinder teacher’s to get that next travel ticket for a much needed vacation. Salary freeze and cuts may result to teacher’s inability to pay for their house mortgages which in turn would hurt further the economy. On the other hand, laying off teachers would mean a dramatic decrease in the teacher’s ability to buy and afford commodities and services, which would further slows down the economy. Salary Freeze ,Cuts and Lay off would hurt the quality of education Salary freeze and cuts creates

Love - Theory and Practice in Court Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Love - Theory and Practice in Court - Assignment Example Judges employ definite guidelines and philosophies when formulating their verdicts. They are; retribution, test of proportionality, rehabilitation, deterrence and restoration. The drive towards court unification can not ultimately lead to a monolithic system because this will grant the federal court system excessive power. The dual court system is a two tier judiciary system comprising of the State and Federal court structures. The dual-court system is the product of a universal agreement amongst the country's founders concerning the requirement for individual states to maintain considerable legislative power and judicial independence separate from federal control. Unification onto a monolithic court structure appears improbable to occur anytime to combine the state and federal structures, and if it did would likely not be extremely effective. In sentencing, judges are restricted by statutory requirements; guided by existing philosophical rationales, executive considerations, and pre sentence inquiry reports; and subjective to their own individual characteristics. Q1. According to Neubauer and Fradella (2010), the dual court system of the United States comprises federal and state courts, which is a product of federalism. The U.S. Constitution institutes the judicial division of the federal administration and stipulates the power of the federal courts. Federal courts have restricted authority only over definite types of cases, for instance, cases concerning arguments between states, federal laws and cases concerning foreign governments. In other areas, federal courts share authority with state courts. For instance, both federal and state courts might make decisions on cases regarding parties who reside in dissimilar states. State courts cover exclusive authority above a majority of cases. While State courts developed from early colonial arrangements, federal courts where established by the United States constitution. Dual court system has been affected by its acc ount since the model of two court structures still remains. There have been modifications to the individual courts to create them run smoother akin to the three tier homogeneous structure taken up by the state courts. The administration of state courts is by their own constitution and statutes, US Constitution and statutes, rulings and model from superior courts in the state, judgments of the federal courts in their jurisdiction, and by example from the US Supreme Court and federal petition courts in their area of jurisdiction. According to Reid (2011), US Constitution and Statutes, the US Supreme Court, and judgments from the petition courts in their jurisdiction guide the federal courts. The association between federal and state courts is viewed as judicial federalism. Judicial federalism is a hierarchical structure that is commonly understood and has a legal establishment. The federal Constitution institutes a national court structure and specifies that discrepancies between fede ral and state law. These are to be determined in preference of the former, and the judges of the state courts are compiled by this principle. Thus, state courts should give priority to federal over state law, and infer with the federal law in line with existing judgments of the Supreme Court. The Court's fundamental justice and appropriate process guidelines, enunciated to give state courts with the flexibility to extend satisfactory protections of the accused, were regarded as indistinct and subjective. Several state judges made

Student Accounting Essay Example for Free

Student Accounting Essay This paper addresses the way state funds are distributed to schools using ADA or ADM. It also addresses the advantage of using either one of these and equalizing the funds to maximize cost-quality relationships. It also focuses on preparing for changes in local area revenue and expenditures of a school district based on demographic and economic factors. Distributing state dollars to all the schools in the state is one of the most important jobs of the state department of education. There are several different ways in which the state department of education collects data to use in deciding how to allocate state dollars to public schools. The two most common methods that are used are ADA (average daily attendance) and ADM (average daily membership). These methods are sometimes refered to as pupil counting. ADA is the average total of students that are present during a certain time period. ADM is the average total of students that are on a class roll during a certain time period whether present or not. As the person in charge of distributing state dollars to all public schools, I can see how it would be easy to prefer the ADA method. The reason is simple. I would want the money going to the schools that actually have students that are present so the money would not be wasted. This would create a difference of opinion between state officials and school officials because, as an administrator of a school, I would prefer the ADM method. But, we are talking about public schools where every child is entitled to the same education. We cannot assume that a certain number of children will be absent from school a certain time period, therefore, not allocate money for them. This would be highly unfair, not only to these students , but to the schools who are have to educate children under funded. This happens enough as it is without state officials withholding state monies from certain schools. The advantage of using the ADA over the ADM is that you would get a more accurate number of students that are actually at school most of the time during the school year. Teachers would prefer the ADM method because they want the most money possible for their students. The problem with ADA is that the numbers don’t always paint a clear picture. In 1989 at a school in Alabama, a meningitis epidemic broke out. The CDC were called in and numerous students were in the hospital for over two weeks and from school up to a month. If the state was using the ADA method during this time period of the year, this particular school would not have anywhere close to accurate numbers. Whereas if the state was using the ADM method, the circumstances that caused the absences would not matter because these students were on the role of their teachers classes. The cost-equality debate goes back to the Coleman Report on Equality of Education Opportunity in 1966. Over the years opinions on the issue of how money allocated to schools affected student achievement has gone back and forth. Social scientist of national reputation have analyzed statistical findings on this issue and determined that money allocated to schools per student do not effect student performance on standardized test. Other issues such as home background account for the differences in student achievement. But, even with this information, public school children must receive the same monies per child to give them a chance to achieve and the teachers a chance to teach. I would give school systems in lower socioeconomic areas more money per child to even out the levels that some systems are able to provide extra. In preparing for changes in local areas, I would conduct studies on how past economic factors have changed the revenue and expenditures of a given school. In 2004, Alabama was in proration. There is a chance Alabama will be in proration again during the 2008-2009 year. Files that show how each school district were effected in 2004 should be studied to get an idea of what might happen again. Local economic factors also have to be taken into consideration. Industries open and close and this effects the schools and how much tax money they receive. Proration often leads to school closings and loss of teacher units and jobs. City systems , which receive lots more tax money are usually in a lot better shape than county schools who receive less. Our students in public education and what is best for them is what must be considered in all situations, good or bad. Appropriate accommodations must be made to insure that all students receive an opportunity for an equal education . References Hall, J(2003). ADA vs. ADM: More information is needed. Retrieved from http://www. buckeyeinstitute. org/article/344 McDermott, John E. (1974). The cost equality debate in school finance litigation. Retrieved from http://www. jstor. org/pss/1191046 North Carolina Public Schools. (no date given). Data Reports- Student Accounting. Retrieved from http://www. ncpublicschools. org/fbs/accounting/data

Americas Economic Debate :: essays research papers

â€Å"Government that governs least governs best.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Thomas Jefferson 43% percent of the National Income (spending) is controlled by state and local sectors instead of the prominent private sector. Why do they immediately control how deep in debt the whole country is in? In the end it is the following generation that will unwillingly be endowed with this record high national debt and growing deficit. It is said that in America our government has marginal influence on our economy; that it does not get involved with our market. Laissez-Fair for example a core policy which America proudly claims to practice, and is included in every US History book in the nation seems to be just that... history. Such accusations are being heard across the nation as Americans are greeted every morning with a headline or two reminding us of how much more in debt our country really is. Many are quick to point the finger at someone; anyone (Bush, Iraq etc.) But the truth is that Bush inherited a receding economy from the all famous Clinton administration. In addition to his inherited downward slope, the events that occurred on the 11th of September did not help, in fact it had a cataclysmic effect on the economy. At this point America was confused; it was only a little over a year ago that politicians were bragging about a $557 billion surplus!(2001) The US was at an all time low and all it could do was sit back and wait for things to turn around, things that made our great economy work; like confidence, security, things that kept consumers want to keep spending. And like the great nation that America is; slowly but surely things did begin to turn around, but the decision to retaliate the attack on our demoralized constitutional republic proved to be just another setback on the latter of the goal to reach a strong and secure economic standard. This is not a history paper but this information will later be used to make a point. The total economy is made up of 2 basic components: the portion dependant on federal, state and local government spending is called the GOVERNMENT SECTOR, the part remaining is not dependant on government spending. In fact it depends on growth of national productivity, savings and real incomes. This portion of the economy is called the PRIVATE SECTOR. In the past the Private sector rightfully so was much larger than the Government sector, but as

Childhood Obesity And Epidemiology Health And Social Care Essay

The survey of distribution and determiners of health-related jobs or events in a specific population is epidemiology. The application of this survey is to command the wellness job ( Stanhope & A ; Lancaster, 2008, p 220 ) . Epidemiologists study wellness related jobs like infective disease, chronic unwellnesss, environmental issues, and identified hazard factors and interventions. These surveies â€Å" enable us to understand the association between larning disablements and exposure to lead-based pigment dust, asthma aggravation and air pollution, and GI disease and waterborne Cryptosporidia. Environmental surveillance, such as childhood lead registers, provides informations with which to track and analyse incidence and prevalence of wellness results † ( Stanhope & A ; Lancaster, 2008, 240 ) The epidemiology triangle long-run effects of being an fleshy stripling is that there is a 70 % opportunity of them going overweight or corpulent grownups and 80 % if one or more parent in the place A is fleshy or corpulent. When fleshiness in childhood falls over into maturity, it increases the hazard of a general hapless wellness position. â€Å" In 2000, the entire cost of fleshiness for kids and grownups in the United States was estimated to be $ 117 billion where $ 61 billion are direct medical costs. † ( The World and I, 2006 ) . Childhood fleshiness has many finding factors, the most outstanding factors being theA deficiency of physical activity, unhealthy feeding, genetic sciences and societal factors, † socio-economic position, race/ethnicity, media and selling, and the physical environment. ( Kumanyika, 2008 ) . In general, eating more foodsA at fast nutrient eating houses than they are eating at place, imbibing more sugary drinks, and noshing on more unhealthy nutrients like french friess and french friess often has become prevailing among kids and striplings. This alteration is contributed to the American demand for convenience. A big per centum of kids ‘s leisure clip comes from Americans ‘ demand for watching telecasting, utilizing the computing machine, and playing video games occupy, which are act uponing their physical activity degrees. â€Å" It is estimated that kids in the United States are passing 25 % of their waking hours watching telecasting and statistically, kids who wat ch the most hours of telecasting have the highest incidence of fleshiness. † ( Department of Health and Human Services, 2010, p1 ) . This tendency is evident and a major hazard factor to child goon fleshiness because while the sedentary activity of watching Television and picture games normally involves the composing of repasts high in fat. Along with the dietetic alterations that affect childhood fleshiness, schools are besides lending by diminishing the sum of free drama allowed for kids during school. There are merely a 3rd of American simple schools, allow kids to hold day-to-day physical instruction, and merely a 5th of the simple schools have extracurricular actives for the kids to take part in. â€Å" Daily registration in physical instruction categories among high school pupils decreased from 42 % in 1991 to 25 % in 1995, later increasing somewhat to 28 % in 2003 † ( Department of Health and Human Services, 2010, p 1 ) . Surveies have showed that when parents eat fruits and veggies and they are readily available the penchants for kids to wantA such an point as a pick of bite are increased † ( Department of Health and Human Services, 2010, p1 ) . Researchers besides indicate that the societal context in which a kid is introduced to or has experiences with nutrient is instrumental in determining nutrient penchants the feeding environment that a kid is involved in will find the feeding pattern the kid will do in his or her life-time ( Birch, 2006 ) . â€Å" For many kids, feeding is a societal event that frequently times occurs in the presence of parents, other grownups, older siblings and equals. Children typically observe the behaviours and penchants of others in their milieus. This becomes the function theoretical accounts. Children observation in unhealthy eating wonts and behaviours has brought a rise in childhood weight jobs † ( Department of Health and Human Services, 2010, p1 ) . i‚ ·A A A A A A A A Constraints on parent ‘s clip potentially contribute to kids ‘s weight jobs, as working parents likely rely more to a great extent than non-working parents on prepared, processed, and fast nutrients, which by and large have high Calorie, high fat, and low nutritionary content. i‚ ·A A A A A A A A Children left unsupervised after school may do hapless nutritionary picks and prosecute in more sedentary activities. i‚ ·A A A A A A A A Childcare suppliers may non offer as many chances for physical activity and may offer less alimentary nutrient options. i‚ ·A A A A A A A A Unsupervised kids may pass a great trade of clip indoors, possibly because of safety concerns, watching Television or playing video games instead than prosecuting in more active out-of-door chases. â€Å" ( Department of Health and Human Services, 2010 ) . In short, the alterations in American society, peculiarly societal and economic alterations, have encouraged unhealthy wonts of extra ingestion. â€Å" These alterations have [ influenced ] the nutrients available in the places, the grade of influence parents have when kids make nutrient choices and has led to additions in sedentary behaviours among young person. † ( Department of Health and Human Services, 2010, p1 ) . Finally there has been a big argument over whether or non overexposure to nutrient advertisement has increased the incidence rates of childhood fleshiness. â€Å" Furthermore, an accrued organic structure of research reveals that more than 50 per centum of telecasting advertizements directed at kids promote nutrients and drinks such as confect, convenience nutrients, bite nutrients, sugar sweetened drinks and sweetened breakfast cereals that are high in Calories and fat and low in fibre and alimentary denseness. The statistics on nutrient advertisement to kids indicate that: i‚ ·A A A A A A A A Annual gross revenues of nutrients and drinks to immature consumers exceeded $ 27 billion in 2002. i‚ ·A A A A A A A A Food and drink advertizers jointly spend $ 10 to $ 12 billion yearly to make kids and young person: more than $ 1 billion is spent on media publicizing to kids ( chiefly on telecasting ) ; more than $ 4.5 billion is spent on youth-targeted public dealingss ; and $ 3 billion is spent on packaging designed for kids. i‚ ·A A A A A A A A Fast nutrient mercantile establishments spend $ 3 billion in telecasting ads targeted to kids † ( Department of Health and Human Services, 2010, p1 ) . There are a figure of root causes of fleshiness in kids. However, taking merely one or two chief causes or factors is impossible given the current information because the possible influences of fleshiness have many interlacing factors. â€Å" Another research spread stems from deficiency of a perspective longitudinal survey that links dietetic and other behaviour forms to development of fleshiness. Another complication of current informations is that there is a demand for more precise and dependable steps of dietetic consumption and activity degrees, as single callback of events and diet are non the most reliable beginnings for information † ( Department of Health and Human Services, 2010, p1 ) . Early bar of fleshiness is indispensable in more is understood about how genetic sciences is involved. â€Å" Research is merely get downing to explicate how gustatory sensation penchants develop, their biochemical underpinnings and how this information may be utile in controling chi ldhood weight addition. † ( Department of Health and Human Services, 2010, p 1 ) . â€Å" Primary bar is non an option for many kids who are already fleshy. Research on successful intercessions for kids who are fleshy or at hazard of going corpulence is highly of import to cut down efficaciously childhood fleshiness in this state. † ( Maternal and Child Health Library, 2008 ) . â€Å" However, the basicss are clear, to remain healthy, eat a balanced diet and give equal clip to physical activity. † ( Department of Health and Human Services, 2010 ) . This will assist epidemiologists and maintain down the cost of going healthy.

The Appointment By Herta Muller - 1615 Words

ISU Novel Study #1: The Appointment by Herta Mà ¼ller Question: In some literary works, memories and recollections are used to give insight on a character or the society in which they reside. Choose a novel and assess the use of shifting between the present and past as it contributes to the understanding of the work as a whole. Hook: 40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan once stated, â€Å"Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.† Transition: Nicolae Ceausescu was a Romanian Communist leader who was a member of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989. While his time in office began with a relatively moderate rule, he quickly became both brutal and tyrannical. His firm stance on controlling speech†¦show more content†¦The whole book and her internal monologue add to the torturous feel of the appointments and getting the insight on her thoughts on and experiences with Albu helps a reader understand the daunting Securitate of Communist Romania. Quote 2: â€Å"He [Paul] took the brandy into the kitchen and locked himself in.† This is a quote in reference to a time when the narrator’s husband Paul’s tools and tubing were taken away. Paul enjoyed making things and two men came in and took away all his things because of â€Å"black marketeering.† This prompted Paul to locked himself in a room with brandy. This shows again the control of the state, and how abruptly they can take away things you love. This is particularly important because it explores a more emotional aspect, of the government not only instilling fear within you, but keeping you away from things you enjoy. Not only that, but they can prompt such a response from you causing you to isolate yourself and resort to forms of escapism such as alcoholism. This alcoholism causes a strain on the relationship between the narrator and Paul. Compare this to the first few pages of the novel â€Å"whenever Paul’s out on the town, barhopping late at ni ght, I’m afraid he’ll never come home again.† Showing no progression in his drinking over the course of the time he is being controlled and his wife is being constantly questioned. He even says he does it to â€Å"protect his soul.† It consumes a majority of his time so that he can forget about the