Question: After receiving a positive response from StopNShopToday, Inc. management about the recommendations for the incentives and performance appraisal projects, the HR generalist has been assigned a project that will prove to be very challenging: assessing the competitiveness of the company benefits package.

The owners of StopNShopToday, Inc. are very concerned about the escalation of health insurance costs. When they started the business in 1991, benefit costs were much less and employees were happier with what the company provided. Now, however, the owners regularly hear employee complaints about the growing health insurance premiums they pay.

In addition, the owners are tired of employees always requesting that they be allowed to take a greater number of paid personal absence days. Scheduling employee vacations and holidays is difficult because the company's store locations are open all day and every day, except for Christmas and New Year's day. As a result, the owners want to compare StopNShopToday, Inc.'s benefits package with other similar companies. They intend to use these facts to make better decisions and communicate their problems more accurately to employees.

As the HR generalist, you quickly realize that the corporation had never quantified the total costs of benefits. After 1 month of exhaustive review of benefits bills and payroll records, you have summarized the corporate compensation and benefits costs as seen in the following:

Percent of Total Compensation:

• Total wages and salaries: 50%

• Total benefits costs: 25%

• Paid leave: 5%

• Supplemental leave: 2%

• Insurance: 6%

• Retirement and savings: 2%

• Legally required benefits: 10%

• Other benefits: 0%

With this information, you will now attempt an external benefits comparison. To get benefits data from other companies, review the following data from the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics. Some of the most pertinent survey results are in Appendix A.

Click here to view the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics 2005 data.

Click here to view the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics 1986-2001 data.

Prepare a comparison of the compensation and benefits costs that you will deliver to the company's owners. Create at least 1 chart to visually depict the most relevant data. Address the issues of greatest concern to the owners. Provide several paragraphs to summarize your findings. Use Appendix A or additional data provided in the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics document