Dependent Care and the Employee Benefits Package: Human Resource Strategies for the 1990s

Subject area Human resource management; Employee benefits management. Study level/applicability It can be used at undergraduate or postgraduate level for students at institutions of higher learning taking courses related to employee benefits management or human resource management. Case overview The case is about the intention of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in purchasing health insurance for its employees in early 2011. For this purpose, a tender for group medical Takaful for UUM staff was placed in two major Malaysian newspapers on 20 February 2011. Then, after the tender closing date, a report was prepared and sent to the bursar of UUM, En Amron, on 28 April 2011. Ten companies had submitted their tenders; thus, En Amron had to identify the optimal group medical Takaful offered by the tenderers, so that he could put forward his recommendation to UUM tender committee board for its consideration and approval before the matter was brought to higher authorities for endorsement and implementation. Expected learning outcomes This teaching case will enable students to explain the reasons why an employer provides health insurance, to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of providing health insurance programme as non-contributory and contributory plans, to conduct company and plan assessment in making decision to purchase group medical Takaful and to evaluate either to purchase group health insurance directly from life insurer or to engage insurance broker. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes.

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Incentives to Encourage Worker-Friendly Organizations

Public Personnel Management ◽

10.1177/009102600203100303 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 31 (3) ◽

pp. 293-308 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Diane E. Schmidt ◽

Gilbert Duenas

Keyword(s):

Labor Market ◽

Working Conditions ◽

Employee Benefits ◽

Productive Capacity ◽

Skilled Workers ◽

Research And Practice ◽

Dependent Care ◽

Flexible Working ◽

Care Facilities ◽

Highly Skilled

To maintain organizational competitiveness, employee benefits programs must not only provide traditional benefits, but also provide unconventional benefits. Because the labor market has seen an increasing influx of employees with dependent care responsibilities and has become increasingly competitive for highly skilled workers, innovative employers have used dependent care and flexibility work options to attract employees. In this research and practice synthesis, we examine the variety of options available to employers for creating family and worker friendly organizations. In general, we found that many options are available to employers for addressing the dependent care and family pressures that most influence the productivity of their employees. By providing assistance in securing dependent care, creating flexible working conditions, and/or providing on-site care facilities, employers with or without government collaboration, can and have improved the productive capacity of their employees.

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