Do you think the firm should offer benefits to part-time workers? If yes, should

Question

   Do you think the firm should offer benefits to part-time workers? If yes, should it offer paid time off, the 401(k) plan, and health insurance? Or only one or two of the benefits? Explain your recommendation. **based on the reading below**

With just under 100 employees, Jackson, Smith, and Henderson CPA (JSH) is considered one of the fastest-growing certified public accounting (CPA) firms in the area. Alan Jones was recently hired as the director of human resources and has many challenges ahead of him as he works to formalize the human resource practices of the firm.

As the benefit open enrollment period is approaching quickly, his first job is to review the benefit offerings of the firm to ensure that JSH is competitive with other area firms. Beyond the legally required benefits, the firm currently offers a fairly basic benefit package including health care insurance, a 401(k) plan, vacation days, and sick days.

Currently, all employees are full-time, and all employees are eligible for benefits. However, two employees have recently requested part-time schedules. Further, in order to meet future unique staffing needs, the firm is considering hiring part-time workers in several departments, including CPAs. Therefore, Alan must make a recommendation to the company’s board of directors on whether they should extend the benefits to part-time workers.

A recent compensation survey of businesses in the local geographic area includes information about benefits. The survey reports that about 90 percent of companies in the area offer time-off benefits to part-time employees, only 40 percent offer health care insurance, and 15 percent offer a retirement savings plan. A national survey of CPA firms showed a different picture for part-time workers: 95 percent of firms reported time-off offerings, 75 percent offered health care insurance, and 67 percent offered retirement benefits to part-time workers.

The job market for talented CPAs is competitive, and Alan knows that the firm will need to hire both full-time and part-time CPAs in the future. Alan’s initial reaction is that the firm needs to offer all benefits to both full-time and part-time workers in order to be competitive with other CPA firms. However, the costs to do so are significant. The current benefits package is approximately 30 percent of the total compensation package for full-time workers.

While time off benefits and 401(k) contributions for part-time workers would be prorated based on the number of hours each employee works, offering health care insurance is a fixed cost. That is, the firm must pay the same to cover a part-time worker as a full-time worker. As a result, benefit costs could potentially approach nearly 50 percent of the total compensation for part-time employees. Part of this cost could be offset by asking part-time workers to pay a higher percentage of the premium, but the cost would still be significant. Alan must balance recruiting needs against a tight budget, and he is concerned about the right path to take.

Explanation / Answer

The external environment factors affecting they healthcare industry are as follows:

Market
Technology
Government
Competitor
Customers
Market forces including the customers are the important factors in determining the success of health care industry. There has been an increase in the size of population. Now patients are becoming more aware of their rights and are better informed. They are more demanding now days. This means health care industry should focus on catering to such needs of the customers which would ultimately help in financing the hospitals.

There are increasingly professional and skilled competitors in the industry. The system of physicians needs to be updated with the required knowledge and continuous training. The hospitals can find high qualified trained professionals outside the major centres of large cities.

Focus is shifted from product a device to the client. Hospitals are not only involved in doing their Jon with the best of their ability but also achieving patient’s satisfaction.

Government should be involved in free market mechanism. They should regulate the drug, insurance and medical industry advertising which would bring down cost.

Technology is becoming more and more advanced with introduction on new tools and procedures to make each and every treatment possible .the industry needs to keep pace with such fast changing technology.

To cater to all these there is a need of strategic planning. Competition is directly related to patient satisfaction. As the competition increases the quality of service provided also increases. As quality increases, patient satisfaction automatically increases. This also result in decrease in health care cost

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