Benefits and Compensation - There's More Than Moolah

I'm back for yet another learning share - this time on a topic I was definitely LESS than excited to learn about. For many potential HR generalists (myself included) the words "benefits and compensation" are a terrifying, dark place where you don't talk to people and sit and crunch numbers all day. The first thing that came to mind when I would hear those two words would immediately be "money" and "boring," and so I'm thankful that the past two months at redpepper have taught me otherwise. Through my work in researching and developing a new sabbatical program for the agency, part of their compensation package, I have learned that although salary packages are an important piece of an employee's compensation, there is so much more that a company can offer to keep employees happy and performing at their best.

My first benefits-related assignment was to audit redpepper's current sabbatical program, compare it to industry (and outside) examples, and provide recommendations for a new and improved program. I really enjoyed this task, as I knew little-to-nothing about sabbaticals previously, and found it very interesting to learn about the nuances and options when drafting a new program. I learned many fascinating facts, such as a study by the Society for Human Resource Management (2018) that shows that a combined 15% of employers in 2018 offered some form of a sabbatical (whether paid or unpaid) - way more than I thought! Furthermore, research demonstrates that sabbaticals have benefits for more than just the employee (which I didn't know); sabbaticals force organizations to test their leadership structure and plan for unanticipated role changes, such as an employee finding a new job (Burkus, 2017).


Ultimately, I spent time deep-diving into data in order to present what I thought would be one solid recommendation for "best practices" surrounding sabbaticals, but actually resulted in a larger culture-based conversation with my manager regarding what fits redpepper's core values and employee desires. Although based on my research I feel as though redpepper should expand their sabbatical program to be after both 7 and 15 years of service, and even consider adding a "special twist" (for example, The Motley Fool (n.d.) does a random monthly drawing forcing one of their employees to take two weeks of vacation on short notice), I think many more critical conversations need to occur across all levels of the organization to decide what sabbatical structure fits redpepper best.

Although I fully realize that these changes likely won't occur during my time with redpepper, I am excited to hear about them when they do occur, and see how my research was incorporated. For the time being, I think that I may have more of an interest in benefits and compensation than I previously realized. Even though it likely may never become my area of specialization - there's other areas that I'm more passionate about - I do believe that this experience opened my eyes to the cross-functionality of benefits as a department. Benefits and compensation incorporates employee motivators, corporate culture, and learning and development, which are areas that I am very interested in and I don't think are fully complete without mentioning benefits and compensation. I would be excited to be staffed on a consulting project pertaining to benefits next year in my full-time role, to see what a more drawn-out project in this field looks like - we'll see!

Stay tuned for my last blog post about my learning in corporate culture, the topic of my semester-long project here at redpepper!


References

Burkus, D. (2017, August 10). Research shows that organizations benefit when employees take sabbaticals. Retrieved from www.hbr.org  
Society for Human Resource Management (2018). 2018 employee benefits: The evolution of benefits. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/Documents/2018%20Employee%20Benefits%20Report.pdf
The Motley Fool. (n.d.). Fool's errand. Retrieved from https://thefoolrules.com/benefits/fools-errand-0



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