July 2007

Little change seen in employee benefits from 2006

Employee benefits remained relatively stable from 2006 to 2007, despite a slight decrease in the percentage of organizations offering some financial and compensation benefits, according to the results of the Society for Human Resources Management’s (SHRM) 2007 Benefits Survey.

The annual survey of human resource (HR) professionals gathers information on the types of benefits employers offer their employees.

The most commonly offered benefits were direct deposit of paychecks, paid holidays, professional development opportunities, payroll deductions, prescription drug program coverage, and dental insurance. Additionally, almost all organizations offered some type of health insurance plans.

The SHRM study also noted that with a few exceptions, organizations with larger staff sizes were more likely than smaller ones to offer any given benefit. HR professionals indicated their organizations spent, on average, 38 percent of payroll on total benefit costs: 20 percent of the costs were due to mandatory benefits and 18 percent due to voluntary benefits.

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 offered by more organizations in 2007 than in 2006.

In addition, HR respondents indicated they planned within the next year to include proactive wellness programs in benefit packages, such as weight loss programs (5 percent), smoking cessation programs (6 percent), health screening programs (5 percent), and healthcare premium discount for getting an annual health risk assessment (6 percent).

A complete copy of the survey is available at www.shrm.org/surveys.

Source: Society for Human Resources Management, www.shrm.org

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