I have to write a research paper about the following topic: Why company has to set up the qualify benefit plans and what are the tax benefits for the company and employees from the maintaining qualify plans. Also, how the company has to comply with the benefit laws and regulations in order to maintain the qualify status of the plan.

The requirements for this reseach are: Using APA style for the paper. This means a cover page, abstract, double spaced with references.The body of this project is to be at least 6 pages and no long than 9 pages double spaced. The page length does not include Cover, Abstract or Works Cited. Use the APA style outline and paper format found at

you are to submit a 4-6 page organizational compensation and benefits research paper on an organization of your choice. Your paper should include the types of compensation and benefits plans, advantages and disadvantages of the key components of the plans, and include your recommendations on how to improve the plans based on your class readings and experiences. Here are the guidelines for the research paper:


Four to six pages (not including your cover page and reference page) must have abstract page
1,200 to 1,500 words
APA format
Times new roman (10 or 12 font), double spaced

A minimum of three references.
Do not exceed 2,000 words. Points will be taken off if it exceeds 2,000

Part 1: Select and profile an organization for the benefit plan



Part 2: Statement of the issue
This section should present an analysis of the major benefits issue/issues. It should include a statement of the specific benefit plan you are addressing. Some questions to ask when formulating the statement of issue include:
Have I identified the basic issue or am I dealing with the symptoms?
What is the point of the paper?
If I have identified more than one issue, are the issues separate or related?
There are several sources from which the issues can be determined. They include business documents, such as employee surveys and competitive analysis reports; assessment questionnaires that can be created to probe for areas of benefit needs and employee desires; observations of how employees use or do not use their current benefits; and interviews with key management and selected employees to determine benefit issues.
Part 5. Issue Solutions

Create a developmental strategy. Offer several solutions or options that are appropriate for the benefits issue or issues. The solutions should follow logically from the analysis. The expected outcomes, positive and negative, should be addressed.



Part 3: Literature Review

Address what was discovered in the search of relevant literature, related articles, and the employee benefit text, as well as what was discovered in Part 2. This means not only reviewing theories, concepts, and studies discussed in the text or in class but also reviewing websites and what other writers have to say about benefit plans. Given the limited number of weeks that a term provides and the number of steps involved in the course project following the literature review, no more than two weeks should be spent in reviewing literature.

It is critical that those completing questionnaires, being interviewed, or providing information in any other manner be assured that their responses will be kept in the strictest of confidence and will not be discussed in whole or part to any member of the organization or outside the boundaries of the classroom. I recommend you begin your literature search by accessing the Kellers Online Library. While you may use information obtained from HR-related websites, you must also obtain information from current scholarly journals, business publications, and newspapers. Ten or more outside resources or references are required.
Part 4. Issue Analysis

Here, we are bringing Parts 2 and 3 together. This section should provide a detailed analysis of the benefits issue that was identified in Part 2. A major objective is to clearly illustrate how the concepts of the course and gained knowledge of benefits are being used, as well as to show what was learned from the literature review. Show that you are applying course material.


Part 6. Solution and its Implementation

This segment should outline your recommended solution to the identified issue. The solution will be one or a combination of the solutions provided in Part 5. This part should be specific, stating what benefit plans are recommended, timing for implementation, and in what sequence. It includes not only what should be done, but also how it should be done. A specific solution should indicate what benefit is most appropriate for the issue and how it will be implemented in the organization. Some questions to keep in mind when writing the solution section include the following:

Has an awareness of the problem of implementation been addressed?
Have you been too general?
Does the solution and implementation address the issues identified earlier?
Does my solution take into account the identified pros and cons?
How will you evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented benefit plan?
What process checks or procedures will I put in place to institutionalize the improvement?
Was the realism of your proposed action plan assessed? For example, is there adequate time, money, and other resources for your solution?
Part 7: Justification

This section of your analysis should, using course knowledge and concepts, tell why your solution and implementation would work. A major objective is to clearly show how you are applying course concepts and content to arrive at a workable solution and implementation for the issue identified. Some questions to ask when writing your justification segment include:

Have I applied the appropriate course material?
Do I support my conclusions and recommendations with appropriately referenced facts, quotes, readings, and class activities?
Does my justification recognize the pros and cons identified earlier?
Part 8: Reflection (

Think about this assignment and write a well thought-out reflection statement about how this assignment influenced your thinking about benefits.

Thisproject is designed to provide you with a real-life practical application of an organizations Human Resource benefits program. You will create a written analysis of a real-world organizations benefit plan design with suggested opportunities for improvement that use the concepts and knowledge introduced in this course.

I am sending Part 1 as a resource. Please complete Parts 2-8.

*Part 1: Select and profile an organization for the benefit plan*

There are a number of ways in which an organization and benefit plan can be selected. You have the option of looking at your current employers benefit plan, a previous employer, or a random organization of your choice whose benefit plan has a perceived need for either a revision of specific benefits, addition of needed benefits, or an overhaul of its benefits program. Provide a clear profile of your chosen organization as well as the organizations current benefits program. Present key facts that are important in understanding your chosen organizations benefits program.

*Part 2: Statement of the issue*
This section should present an analysis of the major benefits issue/issues. It should include a statement of the specific benefit plan you are addressing. Some questions to ask when formulating the statement of issue include:

Have I identified the basic issue or am I dealing with the symptoms?
What is the point of the paper?
If I have identified more than one issue, are the issues separate or related?
There are several sources from which the issues can be determined. They include business documents, such as employee surveys and competitive analysis reports; assessment questionnaires that can be created to probe for areas of benefit needs and employee desires; observations of how employees use or do not use their current benefits; and interviews with key management and selected employees to determine benefit issues.

*Part 3: Literature Review*

Address what was discovered in the search of relevant literature, related articles, and the employee benefit text, as well as what was discovered in Part 2. This means not only reviewing theories, concepts, and studies discussed in the text or in class but also reviewing websites and what other writers have to say about benefit plans. Given the limited number of weeks that a term provides and the number of steps involved in the course project following the literature review, no more than two weeks should be spent in reviewing literature.

It is critical that those completing questionnaires, being interviewed, or providing information in any other manner be assured that their responses will be kept in the strictest of confidence and will not be discussed in whole or part to any member of the organization or outside the boundaries of the classroom. I recommend you begin your literature search by accessing the Kellers Online Library. While you may use information obtained from HR-related websites, you must also obtain information from current scholarly journals, business publications, and newspapers. Ten or more outside resources or references are required.

*Part 4. Issue Analysis*

Here, we are bringing Parts 2 and 3 together. This section should provide a detailed analysis of the benefits issue that was identified in Part 2. A major objective is to clearly illustrate how the concepts of the course and gained knowledge of benefits are being used, as well as to show what was learned from the literature review. Show that you are applying course material.

*Part 5. Issue Solutions*

Create a developmental strategy. Offer several solutions or options that are appropriate for the benefits issue or issues. The solutions should follow logically from the analysis. The expected outcomes, positive and negative, should be addressed.

*Part 6. Solution and its Implementation*
This segment should outline your recommended solution to the identified issue. The solution will be one or a combination of the solutions provided in Part 5. This part should be specific, stating what benefit plans are recommended, timing for implementation, and in what sequence. It includes not only what should be done, but also how it should be done. A specific solution should indicate what benefit is most appropriate for the issue and how it will be implemented in the organization. Some questions to keep in mind when writing the solution section include the following:

Has an awareness of the problem of implementation been addressed?
Have you been too general?
Does the solution and implementation address the issues identified earlier?
Does my solution take into account the identified pros and cons?
How will you evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented benefit plan?
What process checks or procedures will I put in place to institutionalize the improvement?
Was the realism of your proposed action plan assessed? For example, is there adequate time, money, and other resources for your solution?

*Part 7: Justification*

This section of your analysis should, using course knowledge and concepts, tell why your solution and implementation would work. A major objective is to clearly show how you are applying course concepts and content to arrive at a workable solution and implementation for the issue identified. Some questions to ask when writing your justification segment include:

Have I applied the appropriate course material?
Do I support my conclusions and recommendations with appropriately referenced facts, quotes, readings, and class activities?
Does my justification recognize the pros and cons identified earlier?

*Part 8: Reflection*

Think about this assignment and write a well thought-out reflection statement about how this assignment influenced your thinking about benefits.


**The following are best practices that should be used in preparing this paper**

Cover Page
Table of Contents - List the main ideas and section of your paper and the pages in which they are located. The illustrations should be included separately.
Introduction - Use a header on your paper. This will indicate you are introducing your paper.
Sub-Title each section ??" Use the section titles to indicate in the body of your paper each individual section (i.e. Statement of Issue, Literature Review, Issue Analysis, etc.) Each section should be clearly marked.
Body of Your Report - Use a header titled with the name of your project. Example: The Development of Hotel X - A World Class Resort. Then proceed to break out the main ideas. State the main ideas, state major points in each idea, provide evidence. Break out each main idea you will use in the body of your paper. Sub-titles will help divide each individual section; separate group of paragraphs; or headers. Include the information you found during your research and investigation.
Summary and Conclusion - Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but presents the gist of the material in fewer words than the original. An effective summary identifies the main ideas and major support points from the body of your report. Minor details are left out. Summarize the benefits of the ideas and how they affect the industry.
Work Cited - Use the citation format specified in the Syllabus.
Additional hints on preparing the best possible project.

Papers should be formatted according to APA or MLA guidelines (12 point font; double-spaced; include a cover page, table of contents, introduction, body of the report, summary or conclusion, and works cited page).
Even though this is not a scientific-type writing assignment and is mostly creative in nature, references are still very important. At least six authoritative, outside references are required (anonymous authors or web pages are not acceptable). These should be referenced according to APA or MLA guidelines.
Appropriate citations are required following APA or MLA guidelines.

Here are the Length of pages guidelines:

Part 2: Statement of the issue 1 Page
Part 3: Literature Review 4 Pages
Part 4. Issue Analysis 1 Page
Part 5. Issue Solutions 2 Pages
Par 6. Solution and its Implementation- 4 Pages
Part 7: Justification 2 Pages
Part 8: Reflection 1 Page


There are faxes for this order.

Customer is requesting that (dlzit) completes this order.

Define the purpose and function of a benefit plan.

Define the purpose and function of a contribution plan.

What does the term vesting mean? Why is vesting important?

Compare and contrast the cash balance plan and the contribution plan.

Explain the purpose and function of simplified employee pension.

Which pension plan is best. Provide reasons.

The course project is related to the compensation and benefit strategy of an organization. Students will select an organization that is experiencing challenges with its compensation and/or benefit program. Such challenges could include high rate of employee turnover, inability to recruit talented employees because of the lack of proper compensation, inability to fund an adequate benefit program, an incentive program where few employees reach their objectives, or a retirement system that is not funded adequately or does not offer proper investment choices. These are some examples where challenges exist within the organization's compensation and benefit plan. Your paper will be graded according to how well you meet the following tasks:

Follow proper APA style/citations, grammar and punctuation, etc. An APA tutorial located on the HUB for assistance.
Identify organization to research. It could be an organization you are familiar with either personally or through the newspapers, magazines, or other book/internet sources.
Detail the compensation and/or benefit challenge at the organization. It is recommended that you concentrate on the principle compensation and/or benefit challenge within a single organization, rather than a number of less important issues. Be careful to avoid selecting a topic that is too broad. At the same time, the challenge facing the organization should be broad enough to provide for multiple strategies to help solve the problem.
Discuss the compensation and/or benefits strategies other organizations have utilized related to your challenge, along with a review of their success and failure. As an example, if you are interested in an Employee Assistance Program and why usage is less than expected, detail the strategies other organizations have followed to improve participation and see a return on their investment. Information regarding other organizations should be gathered through a research process and consist of academic quality materials rather than word of mouth information.
Recommend the strategy you propose the organization should follow to address its compensation and/or benefit challenge. Explain why you have selected this strategy.
Discuss any impediments to this strategy, including any contingency plans that should be considered.
Finally, specifically detail how the strategy you propose would address the organization's challenge (as detailed in #2 above) and its impact on both the organization and the employee. Include specific items that should be included in the action plan.

There are faxes for this order.

Simulation: As a Human Resource Manager (HRM) for Vanguard Industries, your assignment is to explain to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) the economic factors that guided you in the development of the company's compensation and benefit package.
Explain how the regulations discussed in chapter three affect the compensation and benefit plan
Provide an analysis of how the compensation and benefit plan will be managed
Thoroughly explain how the economic factors guide you in the development of your plan (tax implications, cost for the employee vs. cost for the company, etc.)
Purpose: This assignment is an exercise in your reasoning skills. As an HRM you must solve problems and the best way to solve a problem is to reason through them. The exercise provides you the means to think critically and to use the concepts, principles and processes that have been described in your readings, the peer discussions and the feedback in the discussions.
To be successful, you must describe the problem and then describe how your solution using the concepts from the text will help make the organization more effective. Talk about your solution from a strategic organization view (long term impact).
Explain why you are making the assumptions you are making and why you chose your point of view. Offer at least one recommended course of action that would you would assist in achieving the organization?s strategic goal. The following are your objectives (weighted at 20% per):
1. State the issue or problem clearly and form an abstract.
a. Express the problem in several ways to clarify its meaning and scope

2. Identify and justify your assumptions used for shaping your point of view.
a. Clearly identify your assumptions and explain why or why they are not justifiable
b. Explain how your assumptions are shaping your point of view

3. Identify appropriate concepts from the textbook and at least one other resource to support your ideas.
a. Identify key concepts and explain them clearly
b. Consider and explain other concepts or alternative definitions of concepts

4. Clearly stated a solution to the problem presented.
a. Explain your solution to the problem based on the data from both the situation and the concepts from your readings and your research
b. Offer alternate solutions to the problem Explain the potential outcomes for the organization for using and not using your solution

5. APA formatting and academic writing. Your submission must:
a. Be APA complaint (Times New Roman, 12 Font, 1" margins)
b. A minimum of 500 words not to exceed 1,000, and
c. Adhere to academic standards for spelling, grammar, and writing mechanics

You are to write a 1-page paper. After reading the Case Study, answer the question at the end of case study.DO NOT USE OUTSIDE SOURCES

Benefits Are Vanishing

Raymond Brice expected to retire from United Airlines and receive a $1,200 a month pension. Suddenly all ran out for Raymond Brice and 35,000 other in an airline retirees. The government Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation announced it would not guarantee the bankrupt airlines allows virtually ensuring that if the airline's parent company is to remain in business, it will have to chop away and expensive pension and retiree medical benefits. The numbers are daunting. United airlines goals $598 million in pension payments in the next six months and a total of $4.1 billion by the end of 2008, plus an additional one billion for retiree health care benefits, obligations of ailing airlines cannot begin to meet. And if United finds a way to get out of its promises, competitors American airlines, Delta Airlines, and Northwest airlines are sure to try to as well. You airline workers are about to find out what other airline employees already know: the cost of a broken retirement promises can be steep. Of the airlines many crisis, the biggest was the high pension plan, a sinkhole of unfunded liabilities. Why are the retirees being left in the cold? An unsavory brew of factors has come together to put stress on the retirement system like never before. First, there is a simple fact that Americans are living longer in retirement, and that cost more.
Next come internal corporate issues, including soaring health cost and long-term underfunding of pension promises. Perhaps most important, in the global economy, long-established US companies are competing against younger rivals here and abroad that pay little or nothing toward their workers retirement, giving the older companies a huge incentive to dump their plans. The House is not burning now, but we will have a crisis who in some of these issues are not fixed says Stephen A. Kandarian, who ended a two-year stint as the executive director of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation(the little-known federal agency that insures private pensions) in February. Kandarian is not domestic about that crises might play out, either. By that time it will be too late to save the system. Then you just play triage. As industry after industry and company after company's drive to limit, or eliminate, their so-called legacy costs, a historic shift is taking place. No one voted on it and Congress never debated the issue, but with little fanfare we have entered into a vast reorganization of our retirement system, from employer funded to employee and government-funded.
A sort of stealth nationalization of retirement. As the burden moved from companies to individuals who have traditionally been notoriously poor planners it becomes near certain that in the end, a bigger portion will fall on the shoulders tax payers. Where the develops, the government is forced to step in, says Sylvester J. Schieber, a vice president at benefit consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide. If we think we can walk away from these obligations scot-free, that is just a dream. Evidence of the shift is everywhere. Traditional pension so-called defined benefit plans and retiree health insurance or wants all bu t universal at large companies. Today experts can think of no major company that has instituted guaranteed pensions in the last decade. None of the companies that have become household names in recent times have them: Microsoft, not Wal-Mart stores, not Southwest airlines. In 1999, IBM, which has old-style benefits and contributed almost $4 billion to shore up its pension plan in 2002, get a study of its competitors and fouled 75% in that all for a pension plan and fewer still paid for retiree health care. Instead, companies are much more likely to offer defined contribution plans such as 401(k), to which they contribution a set amount.
In 1977, there were 14.6 million people with defined contribution benefits; today there are an estimated 65 .million. Part of their appeal has been that a more mobile workforce can take their benefits with them as they hark from job to job. But just as important, they cost less for employers. Donald E. Fuerst, a retirement actuary at Mercer Human Resources Consulting LLC, nope that while even a well matched 401(k) often cost no more than 3% of payroll, a typical defined benefit plan can cost 5% to 6% of payroll. Despite this MP to defined contribution plans, there are still 44 million Americans covered by old-fashioned pensions that promise a set payout at retirement.&nb sp; All told, they are old more than $1 trillion by a 30,000 different companies. Many are those employers have also promised tens of billions of dollars more in health care coverage for retirees. Even transferring a small part of the burden to individuals or the government can have a profound impact on the corporate bottom line. A decision by Congress to have Medicare cover the cost of prescription drugs, for example, will lighten corporate retiree health care obligation by millions of dollars. Equipment maker Deere & Company estimates that the move will shave $300 million to $400 million of its future health-care liabilities starting this year.
The U.S. Treasury, on the other hand, pays and pays dearly. The drug benefit, which takes effect in 2006, is expected to cost the government the equivalent of 1% of gross domestic product by 2010, and other potentially big taxpayer cost are looming, to. In mid-April, over the objection of the PBGC, Congress granted a two-year reprieve from catch pension contributions for two of the most troubled industries: Airlines and steel. Congress also Lord of the interest rate all companies used to calculate long-term obligations, barring pension liabilities. While these moves lighten the corporate burden, they increase the chance to tax payers will have to step in. The last funding required, the more risk that is shifting to the government, says Peter R. Orszag, a pension expert and senior fellow and economic studies at the Brookings institutions. The question is: how comfortable are we with the risk of failure? Company-sponsored healthcare, which generally cover retirees not yet eligible for Medicare and laments what Medicare will pay, is likely to disappear even faster than company pensions. Subject to fewer federal regulations, those benefits are easier to rescind and companies are fast doing so. It is much harder to renege on pension promises. So instead, many profitable companies are simply freezing plants and denying the benefits to new employees. Last fall, AON consulting found that 150 of the 1000 companies that surveyed had frozen their pension plans and the previous two years, a dramatic increase from earlier years, another 60 companies that that they were to be considering following suit. The government bail out the fund is $9.7 billion in the red, Social Security and personal savings are probably going to be enough.
The cost honoring PBGC's commitments could be higher than anyone is expecting. The government bailout fund has relied on having enough healthy companies to pony up premiums to cover plants that fail. But in a scenario of rising plan terminations, healthy companies with strong plants still in the PBGC system would be asked to pay more. The operations already fretting the patients have become a competitive liability and a turnoff to investors; this could be the tipping point. Faced with higher insurance costs, they could out, rapidly accelerating the system's decline as the remaining healthy participants become overwhelmed by the needy. In the end, the problem what and with Congress, which could be forced to undertake a savings and loan type bailout. It is almost too painful to think about, and so no one does. But when the bill comes due, it will almost certainly be addressed to taxpayers. Most worrisome is the record number of pension plans in danger of going under. According to the PBGC, as of September 2003, there was at least $86 billion in pension obligations promised by companies deemed financially weak. That is up from 35 billion dollars the year before. And it is on top of a record number of companies that manage to dump their troubled pension plans on the PBGC last year: 152. In 2003, a record 206,000 people became PBG C pensioners, including 95,000 from its biggest takeover ever; Bethlehem Steel Corp. companies are racing to cut or dropped retiree medical benefits to get a quick boost to their bottom lines.
And retiree health care coverage, which is easier to eliminate than pensions, is disappearing even faster. Unlike pensions, which are accrued and funded over time, retirees health care is paid for out of Kari Cash accounts, so any cuts the neatly bolster the bottom line. Estimates are that as many as half of the companies offering retiree health care or 10 years ago have thou dropped the benefit entirely. Many of those have not yet who slam the door are requiring their former workers to bear more of the cost. Some 22% of the retirees will still get such benefits are not required to pay the insurance premiums themselves, according to by Hewitt Associates & Co... Some 20% of employers told Hewitt and that they might make retry east page within the next three years. This hit hardest the old sweetheart or before 65 and are not eligible for Medicare. But even older retirees suffer when they lose supplemental health benefits like prescription coverage. It is not just struggling companies, either. IBM, which is already fighting with retirees in court over changes made to his pension plan in the 1990s, is now getting a mere four from angry retirees about health care costs. In 1999, IBM How much retiree health care or it would pay per year at who $7,500 of each employee's annual medical insurance costs. Although IBM is certainly in no financial distress the company earned $7. 6 billion on $89 billion in sales last year. Big Blue says its medical costs have been rising faster and revenue. That share the company says it spent 335 million on retiree health care.
Of this year, for the first time, many IBM retirees are beginning to hit the $7,500 limit. Sandy Anderson, who worked as a manager at IBM's semiconductor business for 32 years and today is the acting president of a group of 2000 retired called Benefits Restoration Inc., saw his own insurance bill triple this year. Sandy suspects who that the company is trying to make a works so expensive that retired each drop, eight children to savings calculated by the group at $100,000 per drop out. And but more than that, Anderson is angry that a manager, IBM Inc. urged him to talk to his staff about retirement benefits as part of their overall compensation. The job market was tight, and IBM's message was our salaries are not the highest, but we will take care of you when you stop working, he says. Now he feels that the company is reneging. I feel I have misled a lot of people, that I have lied to people, says Anderson. It does not sit well with me at all. IBM says its opt-out levels are low and that it often sees retirees returned to the plan after opting out for a period of time. The company also argues that it has not changed its approach to retiree medical benefits for more than a decade and that the rising cost of healthcare is the real issue.

Discussion Question

1.Is it ethical for a company to promise benefits and then years later walk away from the promise? Discuss.

Organizational ResearchAT&Ts compensation and benefits research paper. The research should include the types of compensation and benefits plans offered by AT&T. It should discuss advantages and disadvantages of components of the plan offered by AT&T. It also should include recommendations on how to improve them. The research should be labeled with an Introduction Body and Conclusion.
APA standards; be type written, double spaced, and in Word format.

Please answer all questions in your own words as much as possible. Please separate each question and answer.

1. What are some of the legal and regulatory influences on discretionary benefits?

2. Give a brief overview of the main provisions of HIPAA

3. Discuss the two forms of employer-sponsored disability coverage. Analyze the potential advantages of each for the employee and for the employer.

4. Your companys CEO is interested in implementing a new dental plan for employees and has asked you to do some research. The CEO wants you to report back to him in 3 weeks with the following information: What are the three main types of dental care plans? Discuss each plan and make a recommendation for your company.

5. Discuss the various FASB rulings associated with retiree health insurance.

6. You have recently been hired as an employee benefit consultant and have been asked to recommend the establishment of either a defined contribution or a defined benefit plan. Given the following employer objectives, which type of plan would you recommend? Specify the type of retirement plan you would recommend. Explain how your recommendation would handle the employer's objectives.
Employer objectives include
majority of employees are young
would like to encourage long potential service
concerned about providing retirement income, capital accumulation, and/or estate benefits
concerned about limiting their funding costs and administrative expenses


7. Discuss the concept of "good business sense" of benefits communication and the primary objectives of an organizations benefits communication program.

8. Family assistance programs help employees with caring for loved ones, both young and old. Briefly describe the three types of family assistance programs and their benefits.

You are the Compensation Manager for a large heavy equipment manufacturer. Your company has a long tradition of offering excellent benefits to employees, but your retirement plan is not flourishing. Over 70% of vested employees are not contributing to the 401K plan despite a generous matching program. Most plan participants do not allocate their assets effectively and are destined to fall short of their retirement goals if they don?t change their allocations. Over 35% of the plan?s assets are in the money market fund. Employees don?t seem to understand their options and they do not understand the plan currently offered or the importance retirement planning in general.

Your goal is to start anew with the company?s retirement benefits and re-engage employees who are not participating and are struggling financially.

You have asked to be added to the top management?s staff meeting agenda that will be held next week.

There are many things to think about?is a defined benefit plan better than a defined contributions plan? Is there a combination of retirement plans that should be offered instead? Could our retirement plan be used as a successful recruitment and retention tool? What do employees need to know in order to make effective plans toward retirement?

Develop a 2-3 page plan on what you will be covering with top management. Provide as much detail as possible. Defend why you select one or more plan(s) over others.



Please:

Reference any sources that you use in your work.

imagine that you have been hired as the Manager of Human Resources for the acute care hospital. Your first task is to create a set of policies and procedures to ensure that the organization?s HRM processes are aligned with the organization?s goals and objectives. You are also responsible for completing a hiring plan, training plan, compensation and benefits plan, and a performance appraisal.


1. Examine a significant way that the Joint Commission has influenced the basic functions of HRM and predict the likely impact of the policies and procedures at the your acute hospital. Provide support for your rationale.
2. Analyze the importance of collaboration between HR and department managers when filling open positions, indicating the most likely impact on the hiring process.
3. Create a detailed outline of a training program for managers. The outline should include, at a minimum, interviewing techniques that both help managers identify the best candidate for the job and meet the requirements of appropriate employment laws and regulations.
4. Determine the most significant factor that should be considered in order to develop compensation and benefit plan that is fair, competitive, and aligned with the organization?s strategic objectives, indicating the direct impact of each factor on the elements.
5. Recommend a performance appraisal method that you believe would be the most effective for the organization and support the reasons for your decision. Provide support for your recommendation.
6. Create a strategy to effectively manage both performance- and behavioral-based employee problems, which will lead to the desired behavior result.

Use at least three (3) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Case Assignment:

Compensation and Strategy: Controlling Benefits Costs

The ability to adequately control employee benefit costs today is often the difference between organizations that are successful versus those that are not. This is even more complex with the recent Affordable Health Care Act that is in the horizon. Businesses today are not sure, yet, how this legislation will affect them. Discuss how a business can better control its health insurance benefit costs while still being able to use the benefit package as a recruitment and retention tool. Give practical examples and bring in real-life business examples (including employer names).

Discuss how an organization?s compensation plan (specifically health insurance benefits) might impact an organization?s strategic goal setting process.

Give specific examples of strategic organizational goals and develop Human Resource Department goals related to health insurance benefits to help the organization meet its strategic goals.

Why is it important that the administration of employer pay plans and employee benefits plans be accurate, timely and effective? Give specific examples.

Bring in at least 5 library sources to help strengthen and support your response.



Assignment Expectations:

Your paper should demonstrate critical thinking and analysis of the relevant issues and HRM actions, drawing upon all of the required background readings and relevant sources from your prior courses and your own library search. Use website information sparingly (reputable websites only).

Prepare a paper that is professionally presented (including a cover page, a "List of References," and a strong introduction and conclusion).

Proofread your paper carefully for grammar, spelling and word-usage errors.

Address all aspects of the assignment as stated.

Provide private-sector employer examples of HRM programs, systems, processes and/or procedures as you address the above assignment requirements. Provide names of the employers. Use different employer examples in your case paper than those used in your SLP paper.

Limit your web search and focus instead on your library search. Bring in information from the background readings as well to help add depth and validity to your discussion.

Give authors credit for their work. Cite sources of borrowed information in the body of your paper as footnotes, numbered end notes or APA style of referencing.

Written assignment
Using the reading, write a 3 page paper analyzing how the SAS Institute?s working environment, benefit plan, and leadership culture create a motivating working environment for its employees. Make sure you connect your analysis to your readings on motivation.

Readings

1. Textbooks:
Patterson, K., Brenny, J, Maxfield, D., Mcmillan, R., & Switzler, A., (2008). Influencer: The power to change anything. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Chapter 1: You?re an influencer
Chapter 2: Find vital behaviors
Chapter 3: Change the way you change minds

Harvard business review on the persuasive leader. (2008). Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review. ISBN-13: 978-1-4221-2499-4.
The Necessary Art of Persuasion (Conger)
Harnessing the Science of Persuasion (Cialdini)
Moving Mountains (Baker et al.)
Change the Way you Persuade, (Williams, et al.)

2. Website:
SAS Institute: www.sas.com

3. Multimedia:
You Tube Video of Dr. Cialdini
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGZhIH8CTXI&feature=related
This brief you tube video is of Dr. Cialdini?s theory of the Art of Persuasion

I would like this paper to talk about self funding employee benefit plans (healthcare). I would like it to talk about the pros and cons, where it is a good fir and where it is not, what to look out for, etc.


Here are some good articles to start:

http://milwaukee.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/2006/02/27/focus4.html

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2005/12/05/focus4.html

http://www.physicianscare.com/content/public/default.aspx?id=330 (GREAT ARTICLE!!!!)

Instructions
Situation: Your employer, Acme Inc., a medium sized industrial company, has conducted a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis and has determined the strategic goals and objectives for the organization. One of the opportunities identified from the SWOT was the current economy and the high unemployment rate. In addition, a strategic goal was established as a result of the SWOT for Acme Inc. to maintain status quo on recruiting and focus specifically on retention (keeping Acme?s best employees).

Simulation: As the HRM for Acme Inc. and based upon the situation, describe how you would develop a "Compensation Plan" for this organization. Discuss how your plan would align and be effective with the above mentioned strategic goal. In addition, discuss how you would control the costs associated with your compensation and benefits plan.

Purpose: This assignment is an exercise in your reasoning skills. As an HRM you must solve comprehensive problems by reasoning through it. This exercise provides you the means to think critically and to use the concepts, principles and processes that have been described in your readings, the peer discussions and the feedback in the discussions.

You must describe the problem and then describe how your solution, using the concepts from the textbook (and other resources), helps make the organization more effective. You are encouraged to utilize additional resources for this simulation but you must cite them in your paper. Discuss your solution from a strategic organizational perspective.
Explain why you are making the assumptions you are making and why you chose your point of view. Offer at least one recommended course of action that would you would assist in achieving the organization?s strategic goal. The following are your objectives (weighted at 20% per):
1. In the form of an abstract, clearly state the issue or problem.
a. Express the problem in multiple ways to clarify its meaning and scope.

2. Identify and justify your assumptions used for shaping your point of view.
a. Clearly identify your assumptions and explain why or why they are not justifiable.
b. Explain how your assumptions are shaping your point of view.

3. Identify appropriate concepts from the text or other research to support your ideas.
a. Identify key concepts and explain them clearly.
b. Consider and explain other concepts or alternative definitions of concepts.

4. Clearly stated a solution to the problem presented.
a. Explain your solution to the problem based on the data from both the situation and the concepts from your readings and your research.
b. Offer alternate solutions to the problem
c. Explain the consequences to the organization for using and/or not using your solution


5. APA formatting and academic writing. Your submission must:
a. Be in a word document
b. APA complaint
c. A minimum of 500 words not to exceed 1,000, and
d. Adhere to academic standards for spelling, grammar, and writing mechanics


Martocchio, J. J. (2011). Employee benefits: A primer for human resource professionals.
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Organizational ResearchWal-Marts employee compensation and benefits research paper. The research should include the types of compensation and benefits plans offered by Wal-Mart. It should discuss advantages and disadvantages of components of the plan offered by Wal-Mart. It also should include recommendations on how to improve them. The research should be labeled with an Introduction Body and Conclusion.
APA standards; be type written, double spaced, and in Word format.

(Pricing Strategies)

Specifically, please read the following article (along with other pertinent readings), then respond to the case scenario:

(required reading material ): Jones, J.D. (2003). Developing an effective generic prescription drug program. Benefits Quarterly, 19(1): 14-18.

**Suppose that you are a pharmaceutical benefit manager. First, briefly assess various pricing strategies that could be used to charge employers for prescription drugs. Select the strategy that you would personally recommend. Justify your choice.

p,s: please send me an e mail that way i can reply your e mail with the attachment (required reading material).
or you can read the below.

(Developing an effective generic prescription drug program)
John D Jones. Benefits Quarterly. Brookfield: First Quarter 2003. Vol. 19, Iss. 1; pg. 14, 5 pgs

Abstract (Summary)
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) use variety of pricing strategies. When employers have a thorough knowledge of those strategies, they can use them to their advantage to help manage pharmacy benefits. This article discusses PBM strategies in terms of what employers need to know, the questions employers need to ask and goals employers must keep in mind in order to secure the affordable cost and quality prescription drug management programs that they and their employees need and deserve. The key to an effective generic drug program is the ability to include tools for educating physicians and plan members about the value of appropriate generic drug prescribing. It is estimated that more than 80% of the time, physicians will prescribe the medications that their patients request. Only by focusing on the complete array of components that comprise an effective generic drug program can employers and plan sponsors ensure that they secure both the affordable cost and quality programs that both they and their employees need and deserve.

Jump to indexing (document details)
Full Text (2790 words)

Copyright International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists First Quarter 2003

[Headnote]
Prescription Drugs

[Headnote]
Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) use variety of pricing strategies. When employers have a thorough knowledge of those strategies, they can use them to their advantage to help manage pharmacy benefits. This article discusses PBM strategies in terms of what employers need to know, the questions employers need to ask and goals employers must keep in mind in order to secure the affordable cost and quality prescription drug management programs that they and their employees need and deserve. A


Prescription drug costs continue to rise at double-digit rates-up nearly 19% to $132 billion last year, according to a recent Los Angeles Times article. As a result, employers and their pharmacy benefit management companies are desperately trying to squeeze savings out of each and every component of their pharmacy benefit program, while at the same time looking for ways to improve clinical outcomes.

The growing number of drugs that are losing patent coverage and are becoming generically available represents a unique opportunity for employers to accomplish their goal of managing costs while helping to improve patient outcomes. On average, generic drugs cost between 30% and 60% less than their branded counterparts, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A properly structured generic program can reduce pharmacy expenses by 20% or more and keep members happy by extending their pharmacy benefit dollars. However, pricing strategies will impact the success of these initiatives.

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) use a variety of pricing strategies. When employers have a thorough understanding of the various strategies, they can use them to their advantage to help manage pharmacy benefit costs.

THE COST-SAVINGS POTENTIAL OF GENERICS

The use of a comprehensive generics program can significantly lower prescription drug costs, control utilization and play a major role in helping to improve overall patient outcomes. An estimated $35-$40 billion worth of branded drugs will lose their patent protection within the next five years, allowing them to be processed and marketed in generic form. Prescription drugs losing their patents are represented in some of the highest cost, highest utilization therapeutic categories, including depression, hypertension, gastrointestinal, pain management and antihistamines.

The key to an effective generic drug program is the ability to include tools for educating physicians and plan members about the value of appropriate generic drug prescribing. It is estimated that more than 80% of the time, physicians will prescribe the medications that their patients request. Many plan members request the drugs they see advertised on TV or in other media. The term generic drug is often misunderstood, and many physicians and patients don't fully appreciate the clinical equivalency of generics to their branded counterparts in their ability to impact a health condition. The first step of an effective generic drug program is the ability to help plan members recognize and understand that generic drugs are equally effective and, in many cases, more appropriate for treatment when compared to the heavily marketed branded drugs. As to equivalence, generic drugs given an AB rating from the FDA are designated as bio-equivalent to their brandname counterparts.

But it's not just about educating plan members about the many benefits of generic drugs. To achieve maximum benefit, employers and plan sponsors must understand that it's not about simply implementing any generics program, but about implementing the right generics program-one that is designed to meet their specific goals. Understanding what makes a successful generics program means understanding the pricing games sometimes played by PBMs that influence the value of the generics program.

THE PRICING GAME

Drug pricing by PBMs utilizes the following tools:

Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC) -The cost-basis PBMs utilize to establish the price of generic drugs. It is calculated by a national data company that averages purchase prices from a variety of wholesalers.

Maximum Allowable Cost (MAC)-The basis for generic drug pricing by the PBM or government entity. The MAC list is becoming increasingly more important as employees turn to generics as a tool to lower costs. Today, up to 50% of some employers' prescription volume consists of generic drugs. If the employer is not careful in analyzing a PBM's MAC offering, there may be hidden costs.

Average Wholesale Price (AWP)-The average of the prices charged by the national drug wholesalers for a given product. The AWP changes for drugs are published on a weekly or even daily basis.

Administrative Fees-The fees charged by the PBM to process the claim, provide basic reporting, conduct utilization reviews and perform overall account management. Administrative fees generally average $0.20 to $0.70 per claim. However, some PBMs will list administrative fees as $0 in an effort to appear more competitive, while at the same time, pulling revenue from other sources, such as markup on the MAC.

Dispensing Fees-The fees that are paid to the pharmacy that fills the prescription and adjudicates the claim. Dispensing fees vary significantly depending on the PBM offering.

Rebates-Discounts received after the sale of the prescription products, usually determined by contract and vary according to drug market share, which is calculated from the drug use. PBMs regularly negotiate rebates with pharmaceutical manufacturers for branded drugs. Typically, pharmaceutical manufacturers will offer the highest rebates to those PBMs that can demonstrate their ability to move market share. Rebates for PBMs that demonstrate the ability to increase utilization of a specific branded medication tend to be substantially greater than those for PBMs simply processing prescription claims.

PBMs use a variety of tactics to develop the price they charge employers for prescription drugs. For example, geeric pricing is based on a MAC list created by the PBM. MAC lists are common-in fact, the federal government uses a MAC list for determining payment to its pharmacy providers. Different pricing tactics can influence the MAC price so that the rate ultimately paid by plan sponsors can vary greatly. Plan sponsors also should check to ensure that the MAC price is tailored to as broad a range of generics as is desirable to suit the payers' goals and provide the maximum value-the fairest price for the maximum number of generics.

The overall goal of the PBM should be to create a favorable situation for all involved, one that provides affordable cost for the employer and plan sponsor, while giving the PBM, retail pharmacy and drug manufacturer appropriate profit as an incentive to participate in the plan provider network and promote generic drugs.

THE "GAMES" CAN BE TRICKY

Overall, employers and plan sponsors must pay close attention to the strategies used for developing the formula that determines drug prices. For example, are prices based on the AWP, MAC or WAC, or a combination? Be aware of offers to forgo administration and dispensing fees. While they may appear to be highly competitive or generous gestures, these sleight-- of-hand maneuvers frequently mask an attempt to charge clients more than they actually reimburse retail pharmacies for brand and generic drugs. These "deals" often cost the plan sponsor more than the savings they receive from the reduced administrative and dispensing fees.

Another important consideration is the depth of the PBM's MAC list. To secure true value, employers and plan sponsors should look for a PBM that offers the lowest acceptable MAC for the generic drugs that are most widely used by their covered members, and should pass those savings on to the client. For example, if the PBM's MAC list is 400 drugs, and there are 700 or 800 generic drugs that are highly utilized by the employer's membership, the employer can end up paying as high as retail for those drugs that are not on the MAC list. It is also important that the MAC be aggressively low, yet acceptably profitable to contracting pharmacies in order to maintain stable provider network agreements. Having a MAC list that is overly broad is also ill-advised. It will make little difference financially from a MAC focused on highly utilized products, since the generics with low utilization will return only minor savings and may prove a disincentive to pharmacies to carry and dispense the generic product.

Rebates are another important strategy that, when properly designed, can help employers offset costs. However, when evaluating rebates, employers and plan sponsors also should be cautious about generous rebates on "blockbuster" drugs. Often, smaller rebates or upfront savings on already proved, generic drugs will provide greater overall value.

When employers and plan sponsors educate themselves about how generic and brand pricing and discounting work, there is a greater likelihood of successfully securing maximum value from the pharmacy benefit. When evaluating a generic drug program, employers should ask the following important questions:

* Are the key components of the pharmacy benefit plan being developed by pharmacists and physicians focused on providing quality outcomes, or by administrators focused mainly on costs?

* Are we getting a true deal, or is the PBM subsidizing one component of the program by charging more for another?

* Is the PBM providing the education necessary to ensure that physicians and plan members understand the value and advantages of generic drugs?

* Is the PBM promoting higher cost blockbuster drugs that are heavily promoted by manufacturers to earn added incentives and profit to their bottom line?

* Are we promoting the prescription drugs that provide the best therapeutic outcomes at the best price, or the ones that provide the best rebates?

When employers understand the game, they can become educated "players" and obtain the maximum value from a generic drug program.

BEYOND GENERICS: OTHER PHARMACY BENEFIT STRATEGIES

In addition to a comprehensive generic drug program, there are several tactics employers and plan sponsors can use to help manage rising health care costs while improving patient quality of care. In addition to implementing a comprehensive generic drug program, employers and plan sponsors should consider the following programs:

Utilization Management

It is estimated that the average beneficiary fills eight prescriptions per year. Reducing the unnecessary or inappropriate prescription filled per employee could save the average large employer hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Specifically, an employer with 5,00 employees, paying the national average of $35 for each of the eight prescriptions filled, will save $175,000 per year simply by eliminating inappropriate use of medications by an average of one prescription per employee.

However, utilization management is not about restricting access or making copays on necessary drugs so high that they won't be purchased. This approach can easily lead to higher medical costs. The best utilization management strategies not only help employers save money, they also expand access to quality prescription medications by taking a 5-R approach to ensuring better patient outcomes-the right diagnosis at the right time, and the right medication, in the right dosage over a period of time that's right for the individual patient.

Targeted Disease Intervention

A significant portion of health care dollars are spent on several chronic and/or potentially life-threatening diseases such as asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression and migraine headaches. Over the past decade, a growing number of health plans and large employers have turned to programs to identify these and other high-cost, high-impact diseases and to help develop a proactive approach. The programs try to ensure that patients receive the appropriate medications, medical services and education needed to help manage the medical condition.

A targeted disease intervention can be highly effective in utilizing the appropriate medications to improve the patient's overall health status, avoid unnecessary health care expenses and improve the quality of life. These programs will be developed by review of extensive medical and pharmacy claims data to pinpoint the plan sponsor's specific high-cost, high-impact medical conditions that might benefit from a targeted disease intervention program. For example, the analysis may show that an employee population has a high incidence of asthma, heart disease or high cholesterol. Based on this data, the PBM can then recommend programs that target these specific disease states. This type of approach ensures that plan sponsors select programs that specifically address the highest impact (either in terms of number of employees, quality of life or other criteria identified by the employer), highest cost conditions in their employee population, thus managing costs where needed the most.

The claims and prescription data is then utilized to identify patients who should be receiving medications for their conditions but are not getting these prescription drugs. A written communication to their physician informs the doctor of this fact and includes educational information on the medical basis for using a particular drug to treat a specific condition. Educational information is also sent to the patient. This intervention results in more patients receiving the medications they need and also helps educate physicians to improve their prescribing behavior to promote better health outcomes.

Generic Sampling Program

An effective generic sampling program encourages use of first-line agents by increasing provider awareness of current treatment guidelines related to first-line drug therapy and by supplying samples of selected first-line agents to primary care prescribing providers. The ease of use and the availability of the generic samples or coupons for sample prescriptions in pharmacies provide the opportunity for providers to choose the first-line generic instead of the brand name when they reach into the sample cabinet. A generic sampling program should not only aim to decrease pharmacy costs and utilization, but should also focus on quality of care as a primary principle. As such, the program should ensure that the most appropriate medication, not necessarily the least expensive medication, is used. One six-month pilot program generated savings of up to $0.20 per member, per month and successfully increased the number of newstart patients utilizing first-line agents.

Managed Formulary

A managed formulary approach must include a system to quickly and accurately identify exceptions to the formulary because of medical necessity. Automated edits also can help to identify inappropriate dosages or medications for specific individuals that might be harmful or, at the very least, wasteful. These edits can even identify contraindicated drugs and potential medication errors while the patient is in the pharmacy, before they leave for home with the incorrect prescription.

Regardless of the type of program being implemented-comprehensive generic drug program, targeted disease intervention, utilization management or more-employers and plan sponsors should be sure to work with a PBM that offers savvy, practical and effective programs designed to help employers balance the need to manage costs with providing quality health care to plan members. How can you tell if your PBM is providing true value? Consider the following questions:

* Does the PBM understand the contribution of prescription drugs to creating positive medical outcomes?

* Can the PBM predict pharmacy and medical cost trends in health care? Can this information be adapted to relate specifically to your membership?

* Does the PBM provide responsive strategies and customized programs for clients?

* How does the PBM evaluate the hundreds of new drugs that are introduced each year? These decisions need to be made by physicians and pharmacists who take the time to evaluate new and current research and to select the drugs that offer the best value and highest contribution to improving overall health care.

* Does the PBM develop programs to encourage the use of the most appropriate therapeutic agents?

* Can the PBM measure the outcomes of its pharmacy services and programs?

* Is the PBM committed to long-term results? Many disease intervention programs produce results over time. A PBM that expects high "churn" in its membership base will be reluctant to make the kind of investment that will pay off in the long term for the plan sponsor and the employees.

* Can the PBM demonstrate a commitment to quality?

* What are the technological capabilities of the PBM? An effective program will include automation in mail service that prevents errors and improves efficiency, automated edits and predictive modeling to identify individuals and groups that are at risk for potential health conditions.

ABOVE ALL, ALWAYS REMEMBER WHY YOU'RE PLAYING THE GAME

The primary goal of any pharmacy benefit plan-including the generic drug program-- should not be simply to lower the cost of prescription drugs. Placing too much emphasis on controlling costs alone will likely lead to higher medical costs, poor patient outcomes and a pharmacy benefit that provides little true value. Only by focusing on the complete array of components that comprise an effective generic drug program can employers and plan sponsors ensure that they secure both the affordable cost and quality programs that both they and their employees need and deserve.

[Sidebar]
"Be aware of offers to forgo administration and dispensing fees .... These 'deals' often cost the plan sponsor more than the savings they receive from the reduced administrative and dispensing fees."

[Author Affiliation]
The Author

[Author Affiliation]
John D. Jones, RPh, JD, is vice president of Legal and Regulatory Affairs, Prescription Solutions, a pharmacy and medical management company that provides pharmacy benefit services for health plans, employers and union trusts.

Customer is requesting that (jowriter63) completes this order.

Customer is requesting that (jowriter63) completes this order.

Hi, I need to answer the following 2 question in one page.

1) How effective do you think stock options and bonuses tied to company performance are in motivating executives to work for the good of the company/owners? Do they motivate other employees? Do you think they were major factors in many of the recent corporate accounting and related scandals?


2) Most employees receive both a salary and benefits. By allowing employees some leeway in choosing the distribution of salary and benefits, firms can increase the wellbeing of employees without increasing labor costs. When employees are able to trade off between benefits and cash compensation, they can select combinations that maximize their utility. This rationale is the basis of many flexible benefit plans, such as cafeteria plans. Does your firm or some other firm use flexible benefits? Does this system help control payroll costs while providing better benefits for employees? Why or why not?

We will pay $120 for the completion of this order.

PLEASE EMAIL ME MY PAPER
here is the introduction and methods i wrote i need the results section and discussion section and the abstract written for me.

INTRODUCTION: As the process of benefits enrollment becomes more challenging, due to increasing numbers of choices available to the employee, employers are becoming increasingly concerned over communication and employee-engagement during the process. Traditionally, enrollment in a benefits plan involved registration-like steps and little in-depth interaction with human resources personnel. This has changed, as the goal of human resources is now focused more upon treating the employee as a customer and offering active support throughout the complex decision-making process (Engage Employees, 2007, p.2).
In order to successfully engage the employee in the benefit selection process and encourage the individual to feel comfortable asking questions, human resources personnel must understand the factors that could impact the relationship between personnel and employees. One such factor is appearance; research suggests that facial characteristics may impact the judgment of others. Little and Perrett (2007) investigated the relationship between facial cues and personality perception. Study participants were asked to rate composite facial images of individuals for agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, openness to experience, attractiveness, masculinity, and age. Results indicated that for female faces, participants associated a younger looking face with high conscientiousness. For male faces, participants associated older looking faces with high extraversion, high openness to new experiences, and low degrees of neuroticism (p.120).
Other research suggests the importance of facial characteristics in establishing credibility. Masip, Garrido, and Herrero (2003) investigated the relationship between facial babyishness and perceived impression of truthfulness and the influence of facial characteristics on credibility judgments. Prior research suggested that both facial babyishness and physical attractiveness played a role in others perceiving that individual as credible. The authors described babyishness as possessing qualities typically associated with the face of an infant, such as prominent forehead, large eyes, and thin eyebrows. Results from this study indicated that individuals possessing babyish facial qualities were judged to be more truthful than those who did not. While this study does not necessarily suggest that individuals will react in a more positive manner to those who appear younger, it does demonstrate that physical facial appearance impacts the views held by the observer.
The proposed study will investigate the impact of perceived age upon the interaction between the employee and the human resources personnel. Todays human resources professionals strive to treat employees as customers and actively engage them in the benefits selection process. Employees often have questions concerning the complex workings of benefits and may turn to human resources professionals for assistance. Ideally, employees should feel comfortable in interacting with such individuals so that questions can be quickly resolved. Prior research suggests that factors such as facial features and perceived age may play a role in the success of the interaction between two individuals. Furthermore, research also indicates that the importance placed upon the corporate value of operating in a highly ethical manner at all times varies with age, as older individuals tend to place higher importance upon this ethic (Thumin, Johnson, Kuehl, & Jiang, 1995, p.398).
Employees seek accurate information from knowledgeable individuals committed to performing their best at all times. Perceived age of the human resources service agent may be one factor that contributes to the quality of the interaction between this individual and the employee. Therefore, the hypothesis investigated in this experiment is that employees with questions regarding benefits will be more likely to ask for another service agent when the initial agent is younger and less likely to ask for another service agent when the initial agent is older. This research will be based upon a between-subject design; participants will be less likely to determine the proposed hypothesis because they will only be exposed to one condition and unaware of other conditions. The dependent variables in this experiment will be the customer service given to employees and the rate at which they ask for a different agent for assistance. The independent variables will be the difference in age between two service agents. The manipulated variables will consist of two different agents with an age difference of ten years. Results from this experiment will provide insight into ways to improve communications between employees and service agents with regards to benefits questions.

This is a good introduction. What Id like to see you do before you turn this in as part of your final paper is to make sure youve related adequately to your hypothesis each empirical study that you present. Before you move on to another idea (via new paragraph), make sure that you relate the current idea to your hypothesis (e.g. that lesser ratings of credibility may lead a person to not only discredit a source, but also dismiss that source from a role of potential support).

Nice job.
References
Engage Employees as Consumers in Benefits Enrollment. (2007). Managing Benefits Plans, 07-04, 2-3.
Little, A.C. & Perrett, D.I. (2007). Using Composite Images to Assess Accuracy in Personality Attribution to Faces. British Journal of Psychology, 98, 111-126.
Masip, J., Garrido, E., & Herrerro, C. (2003). Facial Appearance and Judgments of Credibility: The Effects of Facial Babyishness and Age on Statement Credibility. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 129(3), 269-311.
Thumin, F.J., Johnson, J.H., Kuehl, C., & Jiang, W.Y. 91995). Corporate Values as Related to Occupation, Gender, Age, and Company Size. The Journal of Psychol
METHODS:
Participants
In this experiment the sample size consisted of twenty employees of Florida International University who are visiting the Human Resources office at the University Park campus. These employees are there because they have questions regarding their benefits. They are comprised existing, past and prospective employees.
Materials
The initial representatives that are greeting the employees are both younger then most of the benefit representatives in the office. There will be a running count of participants that will be measured by the frequency in which the participants ask for another agent to help them. Repeated customer will be taken into account when analyzing the data. All participants will be addressed in the same manner so that will not be a factor.
Procedure
Employees will come to the Human Resources office on University Park campus. The employees will be greeted by a young departmental employee. The questions asked by the participants coming into the office will range from simple to complex questions regarding their benefits. The independent variable will consist of interchanging of the two benefit representatives, whose age gap is seven years. Dependent variable will be measuring the frequency that an employee asks for another benefit representative. A running count will be kept in order to identify the employees that ask for another benefit representative to answer their questions. The participants age, gender and other concerns will be taken into consideration. It is also important to note that gender should not have any meaningful influence on the results of the experiment once the study has needed.




My results showed the test was not significant i would like that some of the reasons why it didnt work are because people do not actaully care about the age of a person, also include that another reason my expirement didnt work is becausepeople relate more to someone closer to their age also there was not a big enough age gap between the 2 reps. Theories why i did not work(if specualting write that if not it must be backed with evidence) go first followed by limitations of the methodology

Select an organization that is experiencing challenges with its compensation and/or benefit program. Such challenges could include high rate of employee turnover, inability to recruit talented employees because of the lack of proper compensation, inability to fund an adequate benefit program, an incentive program where few employees reach their objectives, or a retirement system that is not funded adequately or does not offer proper investment choices. These are some examples where challenges exist within the organization's compensation and benefit plan. Length of paper: 1,200 to 1,800 words, not including the bibliography.

Requirements:

1. Identify organization to research. It could be an organization you are familiar with either personally or through the newspapers, magazines, or other book/internet sources.
2. Detail the compensation and/or benefit challenge at the organization. It is recommended that you concentrate on the principle compensation and/or benefit challenge within a single organization, rather than a number of less important issues. Be careful to avoid selecting a topic that is too broad. At the same time, the challenge facing the organization should be broad enough to provide for multiple strategies to help solve the problem.
4. Discuss the compensation and/or benefits strategies other organizations have utilized related to your challenge, along with a review of their success and failure. As an example, if you are interested in an Employee Assistance Program and why usage is less than expected, detail the strategies other organizations have followed to improve participation and see a return on their investment. Information regarding other organizations should be gathered through a research process and consist of academic quality materials rather than word of mouth information.
5. Recommend the strategy you propose the organization should follow to address its compensation and/or benefit challenge. Explain why you have selected this strategy.
6. Discuss any impediments to this strategy, including any contingency plans that should be considered.
7. Finally, specifically detail how the strategy you propose would address the organization's challenge (as detailed in #2 above) and its impact on both the organization and the employee. Include specific items that should be included in the action plan.

Answer the following questions as you were being tested: No citing.

1. List and explain the compensation and noncompensation dimensions.




2. Explain and compare job-based, knowledge-based and competency-based pay structures.




3. Identify and describe the continuing influence of government on compensation practices.




4. Describe the Fair Labor Standards Act and its impact on compensation management administration.




5. Define and identify the differences between direct and indirect compensation.




6. Identify and explain short term incentives and long term incentives and the importance of each in a compensation strategy.




7. Explain and describe the importance of the 5 steps (Perform a job analysis, write job descriptions, evaluate jobs, design and perform a pay survey, develop a pay structure.) in how organizations determine the base pay for workers in all types of jobs.



8. Briefly explain the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and its impact on executive compensation management.


9. Describe various kinds of pay-for-performance programs and the situations in which such programs may be preferable.



10. Compare strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for various kinds of performance appraisal programs.




11. Please explain how to recognize differences in compensation opportunities for employees in different jobs and at different levels in the organization.



12. Describe the impact of legislation on the field of compensation management.




13. Identify the impact of incentives such as bonuses to a compensation program.




14. Explain how the global market affects US-based companies' compensation.



15. Describe salary/market surveys.



1. (11 points) Why is it necessary for an organization to appraise performance formally?

2. (11 points) Identify and describe the different reasons for implementing a short-term bonus.


3. (12 points) Define the differences between skill, knowledge and competencies.


4. (10 points) Describe the difference between trait-oriented and results oriented performance appraisal instruments.


5. (10 points) What are the principal differences between defined benefits plans and defined contribution plans?


6. (10 points) What is reverse discrimination and how does it influence the design of an executive compensation plan?


7. (11 points) Describe opportunities available for an organization to relate pay to job worth, seniority, merit, cost of living adjustments and geographic differentials.

Hello,

I want this assignment done by Wednesday please. I order 3 pages, however you can write more if necessary. I am a usual customer. Also please do not wait the last minute to ask questions or to tell me you can't do it. It happened twice before. If there is an issue , please contact me ASAP. I also attached the homework guideline pertaining to Human Resources. Hope you the essay come out good. here are the guidelines , in addition to the attachment.





Benefit Plan Report Outline
At this Report?s conclusion you will outline the steps for selecting, contracting and managing benefits service partners. You will have the opportunity to discuss issues that arise when deciding whether outsourcing a particular function is appropriate for the organization. You will address which type of service partner the company may need, what performance expectations are appropriate and how to know if a service partner?s resources and expertise are appropriate for the organization?s needs.
Scenario:
Sew Wright On! Ltd. ? Is a U.S. based company with 530 employees located nationwide. Although most employees are located in metropolitan areas, some reside in remote areas. The company currently offers only medical, dental, vision and life insurance and the employees want benefits for themselves and their families. There are 175 single employees, 30 employee + spouse 30 and 250 employee + family participants in the health care program, 75 employees currently waive health coverage. The average employee salary is $55,000 per year. There is one HR Generalist, Judy who handles all employee matters/benefits and Judy is overwhelmed with her HR responsibilities.
The employees are becoming frustrated as they are unable to obtain information when they need it, due to Judy?s limited ability to be everything to everyone. To this end the company has some excess funds, but not enough to hire any additional HR staff. Instead they?d like to provide Judy with some products/services that may make her more efficient in her tasks and/or be a service to its employees.
Products/Services:
What product services may add the most value for Judy and/or employees?
? Outsourcing COBRA Administration
? A new Human Resource Information System
? A new benefit(s) that will help alleviate employee stress and improve employees? personal health status ? Employee Assistance Program, Wellness Program, etc.
Your Role:
You are a benefits consultant retained by Sew Wright On! Ltd. To help utilize the limited funds they have to bring in a product/service to help HR and/or the employees. Your Benefits Report Plan should include information pertinent to the following:
? Making a decision to outsource
? Selecting a benefits service partner
? Implementation and transition to a new service partner
? Key things to look for in a service partner
? Plan design process
? Negotiating and finalizing contract
? Employee communication and product/service roll-out

Summarize the overall viewpoint of the author. Discuss ethical issues facing Wal-Mart dealing with, ?off-the-clock-work,? sexual discrimination, health benefits, the role of unions, the use of undocumented workers, as well as issues relating to child and labor laws. Then answer the four questions below
1. Are the ethical issues Wal- Mart faces really any different from other large retailers?
2. Wal- Mart officials have stated that they don?t feel women are interested in management positions at the company. Do you agree or disagree?
3. Wal- Mart is continually criticized for its health- care policy. Is this really an ethical issue? Why or why not?
4. Should Wal- Mart be concerned about unionization of stores since allowing unionization of workers in China?

Wal- Mart: But We Do Give Them a 10 Percent Employee Discount
Wal- Mart began as a simple dream by its founder, Sam Walton: to provide low prices for customers every day. That philosophy has taken Wal- Mart in forty-four years from one five- and- ten store in Bentonville, Arkansas, to the largest retailer in the world with estimated annual sales of close to $ 300 billion. In 2005 it was the largest company in the world based on revenue and slipped to number two in 2006 when Exxon/ Mobil took over the number one position. Wal- Mart has more than 1.5 million employees worldwide, including 1.3 million in the United States, and generates more than 2 percent of the gross national product in the United States. On December 19, 2005, the results of a Pew Research survey showed that 81 percent of the 1,502 people who responded to the survey considered Wal- Mart a good place to shop. In addition, 69 percent of the respondents stated that they had a favorable opinion of Wal- Mart. However, 31 percent of the respondents stated that they had an unfavorable image of Wal- Mart. Furthermore, 68 percent of the respondents believed that having a Wal- Mart store in their area was good for the com-munity, and 64 percent said that Wal- Mart was good for the United States. Finally, 54 percent of the respondents stated that they believed that Wal- Mart was a good place to work.
Sam Waltons vision and beliefs still remain the cornerstone of Wal- Marts business philosophy. However, the Southern good old boy culture cultivated in rural Arkansas has created a number of twenty- first- century problems for Wal- Mart.
OFF- THE- CLOCK WORK
In 2000 Wal- Mart settled a class- action lawsuit in Colorado for $ 50 million when sixty- nine thousand current and former Wal- Mart employees claimed that they worked for Wal- Mart without receiving any compensation. The lawsuits continued in August 2001, when many additional lawsuits were filed against Wal- Mart for refusing to pay overtime for workers and failing to compensate workers when they worked during their scheduled breaks. Eleven states had lawsuits pending pertaining to Wal- Mart employees not being paid for their work. The lawsuits alleged that Wal- Mart would force the workers to work off the clock by requiring them to punch out with their time cards, yet told them they had to continue to work. By June 2002, the number of states that had off- the- clock lawsuits against Wal- Mart had risen to twenty- eight. One example was a Wal- Mart employee in Kansas City, Verette Richardson, who had clocked out and was walking to her car when her manager ordered her to go back into the store and straighten up some merchandise in the apparel department. Richardson spent the next hour, without pay, getting the inventory back in order. In other incidences, Richardson would be ordered to corral the shopping carts in the parking lot after she had clocked out.
One complaint that the Wal- Mart employees had was the lock- in procedure managers would use at night. The managers would lock the doors after the store had closed and would force the workers to stay in the store until all the work had been completed. The managers justified the lock- in procedure as a method used to try to reduce inventory theft but claimed that all employees were paid during the lock- in. However, many of the employees had stated that they had already clocked out when the lock- in took place. An example of the potential problems of a lock- in occurred in a Sams Club in Corpus Christi, Texas. An employee had his ankle hit by some heavy machinery and was not allowed to leave the store. The manager was not in the store with the keys and the employees were told not to use the fire exit unless there was a fire or else they would be dismissed. Other personal emergencies such as a woman going into labor or a natural disaster such as a hurricane could greatly hamper the potential for an employee to leave the store quickly.
The common philosophy of the store managers was that employees could not leave their positions until the work was finished, and if the employees could not complete that work in an eight- hour shift, then the employees must use their own unpaid time to complete their work. If they did not complete their daily tasks, the employees feared that they would be disciplined the next day by the manager. They were told they had to clock out so overtime pay would not show up on the store reports. In addition, twelve Wal- Mart employees, including four employees who worked in Wal- Marts payroll department, stated that managers would come in and delete overtime hours from the workers time cards so they would not have to compensate them for the additional time worked. In a deposition given by a senior payroll executive at Wal-Mart, it was revealed that the corporate headquarters gives the store managers a target total payroll expense and each store must be below the target amount. If the store goes over the target payroll expense, the store manager is disciplined and could be demoted or eventually dismissed from Wal- Mart. In addition, it was alleged that the Wal- Mart handbook stated explicitly that overtime pay would not be given to employees except during the busy Christmas season. One common practice that Wal- Mart managers would use is the one- minute clock- out. This practice occurred when Wal- Mart employees failed to clock back in after their lunch. Managers would clock out the employees one minute after their lunch breaks began. As a result, the employees would not get any payment for the hours worked after lunch. That could result in nonpayment of four hours or more per day for each employee. Wal- Mart responded by stating that it had broadcast a video to managers in April 2003 explaining to them that one- minute clock- outs would not be allowed. If the employee failed to clock back in, it was up to the manager to determine the number of hours the employee would get paid for that day. The corporate objective for Wal-Mart was to keep labor costs at 8 percent of sales, which is lower than the industry average of 9 to 10 percent for large retail chains. In addition, corporate headquarters wanted the store managers to have a reduction of between 0.2 and 0.3 percent of labor costs annually. An additional way in which Wal- Mart can reduce labor costs is to have the assistant managers take over the responsibilities of the regular employees once the employees have reached their forty-hour limit. Because the assistant managers are not required to receive overtime and are required to work at least forty- eight hours a week, Wal- Mart can shift the burden of multiple tasks to the assistant managers without any additional costs. It was estimated that an assistant manager may work up to seventy- five hours a week for a salary of between $ 30,000 and $ 45,000. In 2004 the average store manager at Wal- Mart was making $ 100,000 before any bonuses.
The average hourly rate for a Wal- Mart employee in 2002 was $ 8.50 an hour, which yielded a yearly rate of $ 17,680. However, store managers received a salary of $ 52,000 with potential annual bonuses bringing salaries to between $ 70,000 and $ 150,000. The bonuses are based in large part on the profitability of the store. As a result, there is an additional incentive for store managers to not include overtime pay in the financial performance of the store.
Wal- Marts official response was that it has a strong policy that does not allow off- the- clock work and it is explicitly stated in the Wal- Mart handbook. It described the off- the- clock problem as minimal and isolated and quickly corrected whenever it was brought to the attention of Wal- Mart management. In addition, it stated that managers who force off- the- clock work will be disciplined and possibly dismissed. Wal- Mart stated that off- the- clock work is in direct violation of the official policy of the company and is against the law. In addition, it is a direct violation of law and company policy for any supervisor or manager to demand that a Wal-Mart employee work off the clock. On December 20, 2002, a jury in Portland, Oregon, found Wal- Mart guilty of not paying its employees overtime when it was due. It was the first decision of forty outstanding lawsuits against Wal- Mart for this practice. The lawsuit represented four hundred current and former employees from eighteen Oregon stores.
On October 13, 2006, Wal- Mart was found guilty of violating Pennsylvania labor laws by requiring its employees to work through rest breaks and off the clock. The jury in Philadelphia stated that Wal- Mart must pay its employees $ 78.5 million to settle the class- action lawsuit. The lawyer for the plaintiffs also stated that the employees would seek to receive an additional $ 62 million from Wal- Mart because the jury found that Wal- Mart was acting in bad faith. Each plaintiff from the lawsuit was expected to receive from fifty to a few thousand dollars in the settlement. During the trial, Wal- Mart attorney Neal Manne stated in the closing arguments that Wal-Mart thought a lot of the employees and they had missed their breaks or had a shorter break due to their own personal choice. Evidence during the trial included computer records that showed that Wal- Mart employees in Pennsylvania had missed 33 million rest breaks from 1998 to 2001.
On January 25, 2007, Wal- Mart agreed to pay $ 33.5 million in back wages and accumulated interest to settle a lawsuit that claimed that Wal- Mart had violated federal overtime laws for 86,680 of its workers. The claims in the lawsuit included Wal- Marts failing to pay time and a half to nonmanager employees who had worked more than forty hours a week. The federal lawsuit also claimed that Wal- Mart had violated the Fair Labor Standards Act by not including bonuses and geographical differences when calculating the time and a half rate for its workers. The average payout to the more than eighty- six thousand employees was $ 375. Seventy- five employees received more than $ 10,000, and the highest amount given was $ 39,775.
SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION
In a lawsuit filed in 2001 in San Francisco, Wal- Mart was accused of sexual discrimination with regard to its promotion policies within the company. The lawsuit was based on the fact that in 2001 women employees at Wal- Mart were 65 percent of the hourly workers, yet women comprised only 33 percent of the managers at Wal- Mart. The potential lawsuit could include seven hundred thousand women employees who had worked at Wal- Mart from 1996 to 2001. In addition, the lawsuit claimed that women employees were also discriminated against based on their pay rates. The lawsuit alleged that women employees received $ 1,150 per year, or 6.2 percent less on average than men employees for similar jobs. The lawsuit also claimed that women managers also got paid less than men. Women managers received an average yearly salary of $ 89,280, which was $ 16,400 lower than men managers. Another fact presented in the lawsuit was that 89.5 percent of the cashiers, 79 percent of the department heads, 37.6 percent of the assistant store managers, and 15.5 percent of the store managers at Wal- Mart were women. The official response from Wal- Mart was that it does not discriminate against anyone. Wal- Mart stated that women did not have a high percentage of management jobs because they did not have an interest in working in management- level jobs at Wal- Mart. The example Wal- Mart gave was that whenever there is a management training program, only 43 percent of the applicants are women. Wal- Mart did admit that the companywide posting of management positions started after plaintiffs lawyers had complained that Wal- Mart did not give every employee the chance to apply for a management position, which the lawyers had argued were usually given based on favoritism. On June 22, 2004, the sex discrimination lawsuit achieved class- action status and covered 1.6 million current and former Wal- Mart employees. It was the largest class- action sex discrimination lawsuit ever to be filed in the United States.
Depositions given by Wal- Mart employees for the lawsuit showed that a man-ager told one woman that the man was promoted instead of a qualified woman be-cause the man had to support his family. In another deposition, a manager in a South Carolina Wal- Mart told a woman that men get paid more because according to the Bible, Adam was created before Eve. One plaintiff in the lawsuit claimed that a store manager told her that men work at Wal- Mart for a career and women do not. In addition, the store manager told her that retail is just for housewives who want to make some additional money. Another plaintiff stated that when she asked to work in the hardware department, the man store manager said, why do you want to work in hardware? You are a girl. You are needed in toys. Other claims in the lawsuit included a stripper performing at a store meeting to celebrate the manager?s birthday and managements calling the women employees Janie Q and girl. The executive vice president of human relations at Wal- Mart, Coleman Peterson, had warned members of the board of directors in 1999 that Wal- Mart was falling behind other companies in the number of women it promoted to managers. He told the board that Wal- Mart was behind the rest of the world when it came to the treatment of women.
HEALTH BENEFITS
In 2003 Wal- Marts policy of lower costs in every part of its operation was highlighted based on the type of health benefits that it offered its employees. Wal- Mart made new employees wait half a year before they could enroll in the health benefits plan. Wal- Mart employees who had retired were not eligible to be part of the health benefits program. In some cases the deductibles the employees had to pay for their health services went up to $ 1,000, which was three times the normal amount of deductibles. Wal- Marts response was that the employees can select the type of coverage they want. If they paid $ 13 every two weeks, then the deductible was $ 1,000. If the employee was willing to pay a higher premium, the deductible would be much lower.
In 2002 the five hundred thousand employees covered by the plan cost Wal- Mart on average $ 3,500 per employee, which was 40 percent lower than the $ 5,646 average for all companies in the United States and 30 percent lower than the $ 4,834 average in the retail industry. In addition, Wal- Mart sent out teams of advisors who examined which network of doctors and hospital had the lowest fees in every state. That program was abandoned in 2003 when an analysis was done to show that by having a national contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Wal- Mart was able to further reduce its costs. Furthermore, Wal- Mart charged an employee $ 50 every two weeks if he or she had a spouse who could enroll in his or her company?s health program but enrolled in the Wal- Mart program instead. Wal- Marts response was that it offers health benefits to part- time workers, which some other retailers do not offer. In addition, Wal- Mart, like any other company, has tried to keep health- care costs under control. Wal- Mart also does not have a lifetime maximum, so if an employee or family member under the program has a long- term illness, he or she would also be covered under Wal- Marts program. On December 12, 2003, Susan Chambers, who was the senior vice president of Benefits and Insurance for Wal- Mart, wrote a letter to the New York Times in which she stated that more than 90 percent of Wal- Mart employees have health coverage from either Wal- Marts plan or their spouse?s plans. A Wal- Mart employee can have health coverage starting at $ 15.25 every two weeks and family coverage, regardless of the number of members in the family, starting at $ 66.25 every two weeks.
In 2004 a survey done by the state of Georgia found that ten thousand children whose parents worked for Wal- Mart were part of the state health program for children. The cost to the state of Georgia was $ 10 million annually. A survey done at a hospital in North Carolina discovered that 16 percent of the 19,00 patients who worked for Wal- Mart had no health insurance coverage and 31 percent of the patients were on Medicaid.
On October 24, 2005, Wal- Mart announced that it would be offering a cheaper health insurance plan for its employees. The monthly premiums for the new plan would start at $ 11. Wal- Mart also announced that it would start a health savings ac-count program called Value Plan for its workers. Wal- Mart stated that the new pro-grams were in response to the feedback it had received from its employees, not the criticism from the media. Wal- Mart estimated that the monthly premiums for the employees would be between 40 and 60 percent lower than the previous health benefits program. The following day, an internal memo that was sent to the board of directors was released that explained how Wal- Mart could lower its health and benefit costs. Among the recommendations in the memo was for Wal- Mart to hire more part-time employees and try to discourage unhealthy people from applying at Wal- Mart. It was recommended in the memo that all jobs at Wal- Mart should include some type of physical activity to weed out unhealthy applicants. Chambers also recommended in the memo that Wal- Mart should reduce the level of contribution in the employees 401(k) retirement programs from 4 percent of wages to 3 percent. The memo also stated that 46 percent of the children of Wal- Mart employees do not have health coverage at all or are covered by Medicaid. The memo stated that 5 percent of all of Wal- Marts employees were on Medicaid, which was higher than the average of 4 percent of all companies that have a national presence. In a response to the release of the memo, Chambers stated that the purpose of the memo was not to reduce costs for Wal- Mart, but was to recommend better options that could be available for employees by redirecting costs from one benefit area to another. Wal- Mart responded by stating that another recommendation was to reduce the time for a part- time employee to be eligible for health insurance from Wal- Mart from two years to one year. Another recommendation was to put health clinics in some of its stores to reduce the costs of employees having to visit emergency rooms in hospitals.
On January 12, 2006, the state legislature in Maryland passed legislation that would have required Wal- Mart to increase the level of spending on its employee?s health benefits program. The legislature overrode the veto of Maryland?s governor, Robert Ehrich, who received $ 4,000 in reelection contributions from Wal- Mart, to pass the law. The law stated that any employer who has ten thousand or more employees in Maryland must spend at least 8 percent of payroll costs on employee health insurance. If it does not pay at least 8 percent, then the difference between the percentage paid and 8 percent would be given to Maryland?s Medicaid fund. On February 23, 2006, Wal- Mart announced that it would revise its health- care programs to allow more employees to be eligible. It stated that it would reduce the two- year waiting period be-fore part- time employees could be eligible for the program to one year and it would also allow children of full- time and part- time workers to be eligible for coverage. In April 2006 it was discovered that 46 percent of children of Wal- Mart employees were uninsured. The information was obtained when an internal Wal- Mart memo was released to the public. The children could be added to an employee?s insurance plan for $ 15 a month, and Wal- Mart would provide a 10 percent employee discount on healthy foods sold at Wal- Mart and Sams Club.
On July 19, 2006, a federal judge in Baltimore ruled that the Maryland law, which had become known as the Wal- Mart Tax, requiring Wal- Mart to provide more health- care coverage was not valid. The judge ruled that the Maryland law was in violation of the federal law known as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, which states that large companies are allowed to have uniform health-care plans across the country.
On January 11, 2007, Wal- Mart announced that the number of workers who had enrolled in the company?s health plan had increased by 8 percent, or about 82,000 employees, from the fall of 2006. Wal- Mart identified the cause of the increase was due to the introduction of cheaper insurance policies. However, Wal- Mart did admit that even with the increased level of enrollment, only 47.4 percent of employee?s received health insurance from Wal- Mart. In a Wal- Mart survey of 220,000 employees, it was found that 90 percent were covered using Wal- Marts health insurance. Of those employees who were not covered by Wal- Marts plan, 22.2 percent were covered by a spouses plan, 3.1 were covered by either Medicaid or a state- sponsored plan, and 2.3 percent were covered through a military health insurance plan. For all of Wal- Marts employees, an estimated 130,000 employees, or 10 percent, have no health insurance coverage under any plan. The lowest price Value Plan insurance program costs $ 11 per month and covers three generic prescriptions and three doctor?s visits before a deductible needs to be paid. The deductible is usually $ 1,000 for an individual worker and $ 3,000 for an employee?s family. The average yearly salary of a Wal- Mart employee is less than $ 20,000.
THE ROLE OF UNIONS
A cornerstone of Wal- Marts philosophy of Everyday Low Prices is to keep labor costs at the lowest level possible. As a result, Wal- Mart has always battled the efforts of its employees to become unionized. In February 2000 the meat department at a Wal- Mart in Jacksonville, Texas, became the one and only unionized operation within Wal- Mart in the United States. Two weeks after the union was formed, Wal- Mart disbanded the meat department in that Jacksonville store and 179 other stores by using prepackaged meat instead of butchers. On June 19, 2003, the National Labor Relations Board ruled against Wal- Mart for its handling of the meat department union in Jacksonville. The ruling ordered Wal- Mart to negotiate with the meat employees and the union about Wal- Marts decision to phase out the meat department. In addition, the judge ordered Wal- Mart to bring back the meat department in the store until the negotiation had been completed with the employees and the union.
From 1998 to 2002, the National Labor Relations Board had filed more than forty complaints against Wal- Mart for such illegal actions as firing employees who were union supporters and telling the employees that they would not receive any bonuses if they formed a union. By 2002, eight of the forty cases had been settled by Wal- Mart. In 2002 a comparison of wages for unionized workers and Wal- Mart employees showed that unionized Kroger employees would get four to five dollars an hour more than the Wal- Mart employees. An example of the global length Wal- Mart uses to ensure a nonunionized workforce occurred when Wal- Mart entered the Canadian market. Wal- Mart bought 120 stores from the struggling Woolco retail store, a subsidiary of Wool-worths. Wal- Mart bought all of Woolcos nonunionized stores and none of the seven unionized Woolco stores. Two former managers of the Canadian stores informed the corporate headquarters that union literature was given to the Canadian workers. That same day, two Wal- Mart specialists in labor relations were flown to Canada in one of Wal- Marts company jets. It was later revealed that the labor relation experts would come to a store that was considering becoming unionized and would show anti- union videos to the employees and try to convince the employees that the unions would have no benefit to them and would only cost them money in the form of union dues. In addition, they would try to determine which employees were pro union and try to discredit their efforts and would even recommend the firing of the pro- union employees.
On August 3, 2004, the Quebec Labor Board certified the formation of a union at Wal- Marts Jonqiuere, Quebec, store. Wal- Mart stated that it was disappointed that the company did not have an opportunity to express its views of unionization to the employees. Quebec law states that a union can be formed without an actual vote of the employees as long as a majority of employees sign union membership cards. A spokesman for Wal- Mart Canada, Andrew Pelletier, said that the results of a secret democratic vote on union membership failed four months before the certification. The certification by the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada Union was the first step in trying to unionize all 241 Canadian stores. The union argued that the gap between union pay and Wal- Mart pay could be from ten to twenty Canadian dollars per hour. Furthermore, the union argued that it would be available as a means to settle any disagreements that took place between the employees and management. Wal- Mart responded by stating that the pay gap was not that large and that Wal- Mart employees would have the option of profit sharing, which could significantly increase the amount of pay given to the employees. Wal- Mart Canada also stated that when-ever it opened a new store, it got ten times more applications than job openings. In addition, Wal- Mart was ranked fourteenth in the listing of Canada?s fifty best employers, published in The Globe and Mail newspaper. Wal- Mart closed the Quebec store on April 29, 2005, before it could reach a collective agreement with the union. Wal- Mart said that it had been losing money since it had opened in 2001 and the financial performance was getting worse.
In November 2004 Wal- Mart announced that it would allow trade unions in its Chinese stores. The change of heart for Wal- Mart could be due to the pressure that was put on the company by the All- China Federation of Trade Unions, controlled by the government of China. However, Wal- Mart still felt that the unions were not needed because the direct link between management and the workers was the best structure for the company.
THE GREAT UNION WALL OF CHINA
As Wal- Mart expands internationally, it must address the issues of unions in every country in which it starts operations. However, Wal- Mart admitted that China is a unique case. Wal- Marts CEO, Lee Scott, had constantly stated that China is the only other country in the world where Wal- Mart could effectively duplicate its U. S. strategy based on its population and geography. Furthermore, Wal- Mart purchased $ 18 billion in inventory directly from Chinese companies in 2005 and a large percentage of their entire worldwide inventory was made in China and had been outsourced from other companies to be manufactured in China. The Chinese government wants unions in privately held foreign companies such as Wal- Mart. The Chinese trade unions are unified under an umbrella organization named the All- China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). The ACFTU is supported by the Chinese government and has links to the chairman of the Communist Party. In addition, Chinese law forbids companies from blocking or stopping employees from starting a union. Wal- Marts biggest rival in China, Carrefour SA, is 70 percent unionized in China. The power of the Chinese market was shown on August 9, 2006, when Wal- Mart announced that it would allow unions to be formed in all of its stores in China. Wal- Mart stated that it had formed an alliance with ACFTU to create a harmonious relationship with the employees. At the time of the announcement, Wal- Mart had sixty stores in China and employed thirty thousand Chinese workers. With the apparent thumping of Sam Walton rolling in his grave, on December 18, 2006, Wal- Mart announced that its Chinese employees had established a branch of the Communist Party at its Chinese headquarters. This was quite a concession for a company that is actively involved in the Students in Free Enterprise ( SIFE) program, which encourages free enterprise education. Furthermore, Wal- Mart established a fellowship of SIFE faculty advisors named the Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellows program.
USE OF ILLEGAL ALIENS
On October 24, 2003, federal agents from the Immigration Service raided sixty Wal- Mart stores in twenty- one states for suspected use of illegal aliens as the janitorial staff at Wal- Mart. Acknowledging Wal- Marts roll back the prices marketing campaign, the name of the raid was called Operation Rollback. The janitors were hired by a third party to which Wal- Mart had outsourced their responsibilities. The federal agents also seized documents from Wal- Mart corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. It was alleged that even though a third party hired the illegal aliens, Wal- Mart was aware that illegal aliens were used to clean its stores. Wal- Marts response was that it had specific requirements for every contractor it uses to employ only legal workers. The immigration agents arrested more than 250 workers as a result of the raids. Raids arresting illegal aliens also took place at Wal- Marts in 1998 and 2001, when approximately one hundred workers who had been hired by contractors were arrested. The results of those raids were thirteen felony indictments and $ 5 million in fines for the two third- party contractors who had hired the illegal aliens. On November 9, 2003, nine illegal immigrants sued Wal- Mart, accusing the company and the contractors of failing to compensate for overtime and forcing them to work every night of the week. Two days later the nine illegal immigrants filed a new lawsuit against Wal- Mart, which alleged that Wal- Mart was in direct violation of federal racketeering laws by agreeing with the contractors to not allow the workers to receive any overtime pay.
In December 2003 Wal- Mart responded to the attacks by stating that the man-agers were aware of the illegal workers being used to clean the stores, but they were told by the government to continue to have the workers employed until the government had completed its investigation on the contractors. Wal- Mart stated that it had been cooperating with the government on the use of illegal workers and was waiting for the government?s raid to stop using the workers through the contractors.
On March 18, 2005, Wal- Mart agreed to settle the charges brought against the company for having illegal aliens clean its stores by paying a fine of $ 11 million. Wal- Mart was not charged with any criminal violations because it had cooperated with the government in the investigation. The settlement of $ 11 million was four times larger than the previous highest settlement given the government by a corporation. Wal- Mart referred to the $ 11 million payment as a voluntary payment by Wal- Mart to help the government monitor violations of immigration laws.
CHILD AND OTHER LABOR LAWS
In March 2000 the state of Maine fined Wal- Mart more than $ 205,000 for violating child labor laws in each of the states twenty Wal- Mart stores. On January 13, 2004, the results of an internal audit at Wal- Mart showed that Wal- Marts top executives had known since 2001 that they had violated child labor laws as well as state laws pertaining to time off for breaks and meals. The result of the audit that was done in July 2000 showed that in one weeks time cards of Wal- Mart employees, there were more than 13,00 violations in which employees younger than eighteen years old were working past midnight, were working during school hours, and were working more than eight hours during the day. Wal- Marts response was that the results were misleading because schools may have been closed during that day.
On February 11, 2005, Wal- Mart agreed to pay $ 135,540 to settle charges of violating child labor laws in three states. The settlement of violations filed in Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Arkansas were based on having employees who were younger than eighteen operating machinery that was dangerous, including chain saws and cardboard balers. As part of the settlement, Wal- Mart denied that it was involved in any wrongdoing with the actions of the employees. One of the employees had injured his thumb when he used a chain saw to cut Christmas trees.
The one- week audit also showed that there were more than 16,000 violations of workers not taking their required breaks and more than 15,000 violations for workers not having any time off to have a meal. Wal- Mart responded by stating the results of the audit were not meaningful because the violations could be based on the fact that the employee had failed to clock in and out for breaks and meals. On December 22, 2005, a California jury awarded the plaintiffs of a class- action lawsuit against Wal- Mart $ 172 million. Wal- Mart employees in California were not allowed to take their lunch breaks. The award included $ 57.3 million in general damages and $ 115 million in punitive damages. The plaintiffs were the 116,000 Wal- Mart employees in California. The jury decided that Wal- Mart was in direct violation of California law that required mandatory lunch breaks for all employees. The law-suit claimed that Wal- Mart had violated the mandatory lunch break law that states that every employee is entitled to thirty minutes for lunch if he or she works five hours. It was found that the break was denied more than eight million times from the beginning of 2001 until May 2005.
On September 13, 2005, a labor advocacy group named the International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit against Wal- Mart for not enforcing the company?s code of conduct with Wal- Marts suppliers. The lawsuit claimed that Wal- Mart did not verify whether suppliers from five countries China, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Swaziland, and Nicaragua were in compliance with fair labor practices. The lawsuit claimed that factory workers in these five countries had labor violations that included forced labor and nonpayment of work and overtime. The lawsuit also claimed that the suppliers obstructed any attempt to have unions formed in those factories. In addition, the workers claimed that they were physically abused by the managers of the factories and were not able to leave the factories because the doors would be locked. Wal-Mart responded by stating that it has the largest monitoring system for suppliers in the world. Wal- Mart has two hundred full- time inspectors who visit up to thirty factories a day. The inspectors are responsible for monitoring the activities of more than 5,000 factories. In 2004 Wal- Mart stated that it did not buy any goods from 12,00 of those factories for a minimum of ninety days when inspectors found violations in the factories. Furthermore, more than one hundred factories were banned permanently in 2004 for direct violations of child labor laws.
WAL- MART RESPONDS
As the pressure for the company to help improve employee relations continued to rise from Wal- Marts stakeholders, the largest retailer in the world announced a new pro-gram called Associates out in Front. The managers at Wal- Mart agreed to meet with ten rank- and- file workers every week from each of its 4,000 stores to get employee feedback. In addition, workers who have been with Wal- Mart for more than twenty years would receive a special polo shirt. Furthermore, some employees would be given a premium holiday in which Wal- Mart would pay a portion of the health insurance premiums. Finally, to show its holiday spirit during the Christmas season, Wal- Mart allowed the employees to purchase one item that would be discounted by 20 percent, twice their standard 10 percent employee discount. Wal- Marts net in-come for 2006 was $ 11.23 billion.

FIRST INSTRUCTIONS:ARTICLE REVIEW

This assignment will require you to read the following article and write a review of the article. The review should be 1 to 1 ? pages long (typewritten, double-spaced). Your review should focus on the following questions:
DON"T SUMMERIZE IT !
1. How does the article enhance my understanding of the control concepts addressed (productivity, operations or quality control, budgeting)?
2. Do you agree or disagree with some of the claims and opinions expressed in the article?

READING:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
IF you E-mail me asking for an attachment I will attach a regulare file that probably easier to read

OLD. SMART. PRODUCTIVE

Surprise! The graying of the workforce is better news than you think
Emma Shulman is a dynamo. The veteran social worker works up to 50 hours a week recruiting people for treatment at an Alzheimer's clinic at New York University School of Medicine. Her boss, psychiatrist Steven H. Ferris, dreads the day she decides to retire: "We'd definitely have to hire two or three people to replace her," he says. Complains Shulman: "One of my problems is excess energy, which drives me nuts."
Oh, one more thing about Emma Shulman. She's nearly 93 years old.
Shulman is more than one amazing woman. She just might be a harbinger of things to come as the leading edge of the 78 million-strong Baby Boom generation approaches its golden years. Of course, nobody's predicting that boomers will routinely work into their 90s. But Shulman -- and better-known oldsters like investor Kirk Kerkorian, 87, and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, 79 -- are proof that productive, paying work does not have to end at 55, 60, or even 65.
Old. Smart. Productive. Rather than being an economic deadweight, the next generation of older Americans is likely to make a much bigger contribution to the economy than many of today's forecasts predict. Sure, most people slow down as they get older. But new research suggests that boomers will have the ability -- and the desire -- to work productively and innovatively well beyond today's normal retirement age. If society can tap their talents, employers will benefit, living standards will be higher, and the financing problems of Social Security and Medicare will be easier to solve. The logic is so powerful that it is likely to sweep aside many of the legal barriers and corporate practices that today keep older workers from achieving their full productive potential.
INTERNET MEMORY TOOLS
In coming years, more Americans reaching their 60s and 70s are going to want to work, at least part-time. Researchers are finding that far from wearing people down, work can actually help keep them mentally and physically fit. Many highly educated and well-paid workers -- lawyers, physicians, architects -- already work to advanced ages because their skills are valued. Boomers, with more education than any generation in history, are likely to follow that pattern. And today's rapid obsolescence of knowledge can actually play to older workers' advantage: It used to be considered wasteful to train people near retirement. But if training has to be refreshed every year, then companies might as well retrain old employees as young ones.
Equally important, high-level work is getting easier for the old. Thanks to medical advances, people are staying healthy, enabling them to work longer than before. Fewer jobs require physically demanding tasks such as heavy lifting. And technology -- from memory-enhancing drugs to Internet search engines that serve as auxiliary memories -- will help senior workers compensate for the effects of aging. "Assuming that the improved health trends continue, boomers should be able to work productively into their late 70s" if they choose to, says Elizabeth Zelinski, dean of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California.
But realizing that potential requires that government and business discard the outdated rules, practices, and prejudices that prematurely retire people who would prefer to keep working. In many corporations, there's an unspoken assumption that older workers are much less capable than their younger counterparts. So in addition to ensuring older workers get their fair share of training, CEOs may also need to directly confront unintended age discrimination.
Society will also have to grapple with the tricky question of how to change the Social Security system to suit an aging but healthier population. A balanced approach might be to increase the Social Security retirement age at a more rapid clip while beefing up the Social Security disability program -- which now covers 8 million disabled workers and dependents.
This optimistic vision of aging in America stands in sharp contrast to the conventional wisdom, which looks ahead with dread to the 60th birthday parties of the first boomers in 2006. Pessimistic pundits expect that boomers will retire in droves soon after hitting 60, as their predecessors did, while those who do keep working will dial back to less challenging and less productive jobs. The fear is that boomers will finally heed Timothy Leary's call, dropping out (of the workforce) and turning on (the TV). "This explosion in the number of elderly Americans will place an unprecedented economic burden on working-age adults," investment banker Peter G. Peterson wrote last year in his latest book, Running on Empty.
But the burden won't be nearly so heavy if people's productive careers stretch out in synch with their extended lifetimes. How much could the economy benefit from people working longer and better?
An analysis by BusinessWeek finds that increased productivity of older Americans and higher labor-force participation could add 9% to gross domestic product by 2045, on top of what it otherwise would have been. (This assumes, for example, that over the next 40 years better health and technology reduce the productivity gap between older workers and their younger counterparts.) This 9% increase in gross domestic product would add more than $3 trillion a year, in today's dollars, to economic output.
The added growth would be a pure win for government finances, since a bigger economy with more productive workers yields higher tax revenues. And there's little doubt that encouraging people to work longer in step with longer life spans would do much to guarantee the solvency of Social Security.
The idea that citizens of a wealthy nation such as the U.S. would choose to work extra years is still a little new. For most of the 20th century, retirement ages fell as life spans grew. The trend seemed unstoppable: While in 1950, 46% of men 65 and older were in the labor force, by 1985 the fraction had plummeted to 16%. An influx of women into the labor force only partially offset the overall decline.
But starting in the mid-1980s, something highly unexpected began to happen: The trend reversed, and more older Americans chose to keep working. The upsurge accelerated even in the weak labor markets of recent years. The share of men 65 and over in the labor force is back up to almost 20% -- the highest since the 1970s.
In part, of course, the latest uptick in working ages can be blamed on the stock market's drop from its 2000 peak, which dented retirement savings. Also, fewer workers have good defined-benefit pension plans, which would allow them to retire young. But financial need can't be the whole reason older Americans are working more. Federal Reserve surveys show that older families have been getting richer, not poorer. The average net worth of families headed by 55- to 64-year-olds soared by 74% from 1992 to 2001, after adjusting for inflation, and likely has gone up since then.
At least as important is that many institutional barriers to working longer have been removed. In 1986, in the name of equal rights, Congress banned mandatory retirement for all but a handful of workers, such as airline pilots. And 401(k) plans, which are gradually replacing defined-benefit plans, don't induce people to retire at a certain age.
YOUNG AS YOU FEEL
Better yet, work doesn't feel like a burden to today's fit, older Americans. Many people over 60 don't think of themselves as old. A good example is Theodora Emiko "Teddy" Yoshikami, 61, who organizes cultural programs at New York's American Museum of Natural History. In her spare time, she whacks big drums in a Japanese percussion group. "People are always surprised to hear how old I am," says the former dancer.
The Baby Boom generation is even fitter for its age and more determined to stay active. Two-thirds of the people surveyed last year by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a company-backed organization, said they expect to work for pay in retirement. A survey of boomers by AARP in January found that two in five workers age 50 to 65 were interested in a gradual, "phased" retirement instead of an abrupt cessation of work -- and nearly 80% of those said that availability of phased retirement programs at work would encourage them to keep working longer. While it's likely that many boomers won't stick to those brave resolutions, the trend in work is clearly up.
Good health will help. The share of 65- to 69-year-olds with a disability affecting their ability to work fell from nearly 28% in 1995 to less than 22% last year. Advances in medicine are curing many of the problems that once forced older workers into retirement. For example, Genentech Inc. announced on May 23 that a drug undergoing trials for treatment of macular generation improves eyesight in the elderly. And better health is coinciding with less strenuous work, thanks to automation and the shrinkage of manufacturing. The share of workers 55 to 60 who said their jobs did not require lots of physical effort rose from 32% in 1992 to 38% in 2002, according to an Urban Institute study.
TRIAL AND ERROR
Mental health appears to be improving as well. USC's Zelinski has discovered that heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes directly impair brain functioning -- and she sees evidence that modern medicine is getting a better handle on those diseases. As a result, memory and other functions are improving among the elderly. Emma Shulman's boss at NYU Medical Center, Steven Ferris, expects further gains for older workers from the spreading use of memory-enhancing drugs and technological aids such as personal digital assistants and search engines. Says Ferris: "I remember my father with little scraps of paper to remember things. People don't have to do that anymore."
Older workers who thrive tend to have skills that are prized in the workplace, even if they can't easily be measured by standard tests. What matters most, according to psychologist Regina Colonia-Willner, president of consultancy Practical Intelligence at Work Inc. in Boca Raton, Fla., is the ability to solve ill-defined business problems using rules of thumb that can't be put down on paper. Example: how to deal with a difficult boss. In a study of 200 banking executives, she found that the ones who exhibited the highest "practical intelligence" were as likely to be old as young -- and the older among them excelled even though their scores on traditional intelligence tests were no better than average for their age. "Practical intelligence stays with you," says Colonia-Willner. "You don't lose it when you get older."
The rap that older workers are inflexible and uncreative is also overstated. Research by economists David W. Galenson of the University of Chicago and Bruce A. Weinberg of Ohio State University finds that the innovations of older people are more likely to be "experimental," vs. the break-the-mold "conceptual" innovations of younger types. The conceptual types tend to have a bolt from the blue, whereas the experimenters build new ideas from a lifetime of observation, trial, and error. Among the "experimental" innovators who produced some of their best work later in life: painters Henri Matisse and Paul C?zanne, author Fyodor Dostoevsky, and architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
Some enlightened companies are catching on to all of this. They're hiring or retaining older workers with flexible work schedules and ample training. United Technologies Corp. spends more than $60 million a year on its Employee Scholar Program, which pays the costs of workers of any age who study in their spare time. At UTC's Hamilton Sundstrand facility in Miramar, Fla., 61-year-old lead mechanic Ed Perez is working on a bachelor's degree in legal studies. He finished an associate's degree in aviation-maintenance management two years ago and hopes to go to law school. "If I don't run out of time and UTC doesn't run out of money, I'll keep going," he says.
UTC Chairman and Chief Executive George David, at 63 a candidate himself for discounted movie tickets, argues that an educated worker like Perez is a better worker, regardless of age or area of study. What's more, the free education incentive tends to appeal to UTC's most skilled and motivated employees, so it's a way for the company to retain the people it most wants. Retention rates among "employee scholars" are about 20% higher than for regular U.S. workers.
HOLDING ON TO EXPERIENCE
Consolidated Edison Inc., a New York power company with an aging workforce, is trying to hang on to its valuable older workers with benefits like an elder-care referral service and career-long training. It wants to retain the experience of workers like Frederick R. Simms, 67, an emergency field manager who has seen just about everything in his 49 years with the company, from water main breaks to the collapse of the World Trade Center. In a job where trust and rapport are vital, Simms is on a first-name basis with Fire Dept. officials and other emergency workers all over Manhattan. Con Ed recently sent him for a two-day "working people-smart" class. "I don't have the zip I used to have, but I'm good enough to work 16 hours if I had to today," says Simms, adding: "I know the company likes having me around."
It's common these days to find older workers on the sales floor of retailers like Home Depot Inc. and CVS Corp., but what's new is the growing presence of older workers in high-pay, high-productivity careers. MITRE Corp., a research and development outfit in Bedford, Mass., is worried about losing its expertise in fields such as radar, which is something of a lost art for young engineers. So it brings back retirees on what it calls a "part-time, on-call" basis. The Energy Dept.'s National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, W. Va., also recognizes the value of older workers with technical expertise. It has clung to chemical engineer Hugh D. Guthrie, 86, as a full-time technical adviser in part because he has ideas that younger engineers might never think of. Says Guthrie: "My experience gives me a perspective on questions, which may not always be right but nearly always will be different. The greatest service I provide is in stimulating the thinking of people involved in a project."
Unfortunately, many other companies haven't gotten the message. The Society for Human Resource Management, an association of personnel execs, says 59% of members surveyed don't actively recruit older workers and 65% don't do anything specific to retain older workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics found in 1995, the last time it looked, that workers age 55 and up got only one-third as many hours of formal training as workers 45 to 54. Marian Stoltz-Loike, CEO of SeniorThinking LLC, a consultancy, says executives often aren't even aware that older workers are getting a subtle message that training isn't for them.
Economists have found that businesses are missing an opportunity by giving less training to their older workers. Research shows that they tend to operate information technology more slowly but with fewer errors. Research on displaced workers who got retraining in community colleges in Washington State found that the pay gains were just as big for older workers who took training as for younger ones -- indicating that the training they got took hold.
Will longer-working boomers block the advancement of younger workers? Maybe. But what worries employers more is the opposite -- labor shortages that could emerge if boomers retire en masse and there aren't enough people to take their place. The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that labor-force growth will slow by almost half over the next 10 years.
The U.S. takes better advantage of the potential of its older citizens than does most of Europe, where extremely early retirement is routine because of rich retirement benefits. Six in 10 Americans are still working at ages 55 to 64, vs. just four in 10 in the European Union.
Smart policy choices, such as the abolition of most mandatory retirement rules, have helped put the U.S. in a position to tap the ability and energy of older people. Since 2000, Social Security recipients have been allowed to receive their full benefits no matter how much they earn from working after age 65. The Internal Revenue Service has proposed rules, starting next year, to allow people 59? and older to receive part of their pensions even while they are still working. Because people would not have to retire outright to get a pension, more are likely to remain on the job, experts predict. The proposed rules are a step in the right direction, although employer groups are complaining that there's too much red tape involved.
CREATING INCENTIVES
What more can be done to tap the productivity potential of older workers? The goal is to introduce more flexibility into pay and retirement systems, to create more options as workers age. Consultant Ken Dychtwald, author of Age Wave, recommends the example of Deloitte Consulting LLC, which lures highly valued older employees to stay by designating them "senior leaders" and giving them incentives such as flexible hours and work location, special projects, and opportunities for mentoring and research.
Another possibility is to allow companies to convert traditional defined-benefit pensions, which encourage retirement as early as age 55, to cash-balance plans, which have no built-in incentives to retire. Such conversions have been frozen since 1999 over legitimate age-discrimination concerns, though the Bush Administration has proposed legislation that would break the logjam. It's prudent to make sure that switching to cash-balance plans doesn't harm older workers, but such caution is also preserving a system that lures people into retiring when they still have much to contribute in the working world.
Perhaps the most controversial idea is to break the typical link between pay and seniority. As more people work into their late 60s and 70s, pay should be adjusted to match how much people work and what they accomplish on the job.
It's also critical to rethink the role of Social Security in an economy where incomes -- and life spans -- are rising. In theory, Social Security should provide a secure safety net for those who are truly too old to work and lack savings, while encouraging the huge boomer generation to stay employed and productive for the good of themselves and the economy.
The logical conclusion: raise Social Security's normal retirement age incrementally to 70. From then on, peg further increases to gains in longevity. It's also essential to increase the age, now 62, at which people can first choose to take early retirement. Research suggests that many take the official early retirement age as a signal that it's O.K. to drop out of the workforce, even though they will get much smaller checks for the rest of their lifetimes. Raising the early retirement age would signal that 62 is too young for most people to quit in an era of marathon-running septuagenarians.
Increasing Social Security's early retirement age would be hard on workers with health problems, or whose jobs require more physical exertion. A possible solution is to liberalize the qualifications for Social Security's disability insurance program. The extra expense of disability payments to aging laborers would be far outweighed by the savings from raising the normal and early retirement ages in tandem.
There's no dispute that America is graying. But the solution to the demographic shift is staring us in the face. As Urban Institute senior fellow C. Eugene Steuerle told the House Ways & Means Committee in May: "People in their late 50s, 60s, and 70s have now become the largest underutilized pool of human resources in the economy." By working longer -- and more productively -- boomers will help the U.S. economy thrive even as their personal odometers keep clicking forward.
OLDER AND WISER
Businesses often act as if older workers are a liability in an economy that prizes productivity, flexibility, and innovation. But research suggests that they are underestimating these employees.
TWO KINDS OF INNOVATION
Creativity isn't just for the young. Economist David Galenson of the University of Chicago has identified two types of innovators. Break-the-mold "conceptual" innovators (like Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer Maya Lin), do their best work when young. In contrast, "experimental" innovators (novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, sculptor Auguste Rodin) do their best work at older ages, drawing on a lifetime of observation, trial, and error.
SOUND BODIES
University of Southern California gerontologist Elizabeth Zelinski has found that ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease are key factors depressing brain function among the elderly. The ease with which we can treat these conditions now helps reduce the apparent cognitive handicap of older workers. In short, medicine is postponing mental decline.
PROBLEM SOLVING
Conventional measures of mental function don't capture abilities important in business, such as accumulated knowledge or judgment. Psychologist Regina Colonia-Willner of Practical Intelligence at Work Inc. found that managers who are successful at older ages are masters at solving ill-defined problems, even though they do no better than other older workers on standard psychometric tests.
COMPENSATION
Speed, reasoning, and memory decline steadily after age 20, while vocabulary increases to age 50. University of Virginia psychologist Timothy Salthouse found that older workers make up for their shortfalls with clever coping strategies. For example, older typists gain an edge by looking farther ahead in to-be-typed text during pauses, presumably to compensate for the slowdown in their ability to type words as read.
Data: BusinessWeek
The McGraw-Hill Companies, Copyright 2005