Little change in benefits provision in US

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Little change in benefits provision in US

Employee benefits across corporate America remained relatively stable from 2006 to 2007, despite a slight decrease in the percentage of organisations offering some financial and compensation benefits, according to the results of the Society for Human Resources Management’s 2007 benefits survey.

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The annual survey of US human resource professionals gathers information on the types of benefits employers offer to their employees. Conducted since 1996, it includes the percentages of human resource professionals whose organisations offered each benefit, comparisons across organisation staff size and industry and year-to-year trends.

Key findings

• HR professionals indicated that their organisations spent an average of 38% of payroll on total benefit costs: 20% of the costs were due to mandatory benefits and 18% due to voluntary benefits.
• The most commonly offered benefits were direct deposit of paychecks, paid holidays, professional development opportunities, payroll deductions, prescription drug programme coverage and dental insurance. Additionally, almost all organisations offered some type of health insurance plans.
• Organisations with larger staff sizes were more likely than smaller ones to offer any given benefit.
• Automobile allowance/expenses, individual investment advice, traditional defined benefit pension plan, full flexible benefits plan, retirement planning services, employee discount on company services, commission and loans to employees for emergency/disaster assistance all decreased in 2007 from 2006.
• Cell phone, pager and/or handheld device for personal use was the only financial and compensation benefit that was offered by more organisations in 2007 compared with 2006.

Want to know more?

Title: Benefits Survey 2007, Society for Human Resource Management.

Survey details: The surveys to HR professionals employed by companies in the US were emailed to randomly selected SHRM members, and yielded 590 responses.

The survey offers a comprehensive look at what benefits are being offered by US organisations. Information is provided on the following benefits: health care, family-friendly, housing, personal service, financial, travel and leave.

Availability: The survey is available to SHRM members at www.shrm.org/surveys

To read the press release online visit www.shrm.org/press_published/CMS_022025.asp#P-4_0

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the “world's largest association devoted to human resource management.” Representing more than 210,000 individual members, the Society’s mission is both to serve human resource management professionals and to advance the profession. Founded in 1948, SHRM currently has more than 550 affiliated chapters and members in more than 100 countries. Visit SHRM online at www.shrm.org