Employee benefits and services are the in-kind payments to employees for their membership or participation in the organization. They enable employees to enjoy a better lifestyle and maintain a reasonable work-life balance. The term benefit typically refers to payments for protection against health and accident-related problems, for income protection after retirement, and for time not spent working, such as vacations, holidays, sick days and absences, breaks, wash-up and cleanup. On the other hand, employee services refer to a wide array of auxiliary conveniences and facilities provided to employees, which generally make work life more enjoyable. They include discounts on company products and exercise and wellness center.This paper is going to present the employee benefits programs offered by three universities; St. John’s University, Webster University and Stetson University. The paper will further compare their adopted employee benefits programs, evaluate them and finally conclude by stating which university’s employee benefits program is most friendly to its employees.

The employee benefits programs put in place by St. John’s University, Webster University and Stetson University vary in many different ways. However, there are some benefit programs that are common and available to employees working in all of these universities. These common employee benefits include: Dental care, Employee assistance program, Flexible spending accounts, Healthcare/Medical insurance, Life insurance, and Long term and short term disability insurance, as well as Tuition remission. However, it is worth noting that most of these benefits are also commonly adopted by companies and professionals in other fields of career as opposed to working in a university setting. That is, they are mainly “out-house” benefits.

St John’s University’s employee benefits program is perhaps one of the most inclusive when compared to the other two universities. In addition to offering dental care, employee assistance program, flexible spending accounts, healthcare/Medical insurance, Life insurance, and Long term and short term disability insurance, as well as Tuition remission, St John’s University’s employee benefits programis the only program that offers employee benefits such as adoption assistance, auto and homeowner insurance, college savings plan, pet insurance, transportation expense plan, a wellness and disease management program and finally a ZipCar program.

The employee benefits plan for employees at Stetson University and Webster University are more or less the same. However, it worth noting that Webster University has a more all inclusive employee benefits program that is employee friendly. This is for the reason that it has incorporated benefits such as offering retirement benefits on top of the retirement plan, early retirement program, supplementary life insurance, travel insurance, and tuition exchange program. Two the programs that make Webster University stand out with its employee benefits program is the inclusion of personal days, degree bonus and the early retirement program. A personal day involves an employee earning a 1 day personal off day after 60 days of working; the degree bonus involves awarding any full time non-academic staff cash bonus upon completion of a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or doctorate degree.The one unique employee benefits program that Stetson University offers is the Recreation facilities and campus activities benefits. This involves the employee and the dependent being allowed access to the university’s recreational facilities at no cost for as long as it does not interfere with student activities.

All of the three universities offer free or reduced tuition fee for their employees in the form of tuition remissions. The employees, together with their spouses and dependent children are eligible for tuition waivers. However, this is perhaps the only “in-house” benefits that employees from these universities enjoy.

In conclusion, the employee benefits program adopted at St John’s University is perhaps the best, when compared to the employee benefits programs implemented by Webster University and Stetson University. It is however, worth noting that there are other factors to consider when deciding on where to work, besides the employee benefits programs. Such factors include job security, work environment, job satisfaction, and salary among many other factors. Nevertheless, if the employee benefits program in place was the only criteria, then St John’s University’s would definitely attract and retain many employees.

References

Human Resource Unit- Webster University. (2014, October). Employee Benefits. Retrieved October 3, 2014, from Webster University: http://www.webster.edu/human-resources/benefits.html

Human resources-St. John’s University. (2014, October). Employee Benefits. Retrieved from St. John’s University: http://www.stjohns.edu/about/administrative-offices/human-resources/employee-benefits

Stetson University. (2014, October). Employee Benefits. Retrieved October 3, 2014, from Stetson University: http://www.stetson.edu/other/benefits/

Comparison of Benefits Programs