The Advantages Of Flexible Benefits

The Advantages Of Flexible Benefits According to the U.S. General Services Administration, flexible benefits are usually offered as part of a comprehensive medical care plan for workers or employees.

A Flexible Spending Account (FSA) offers its members pre-tax incentives for out-of-pocket medical costs.

Financial Discounts
Flexible benefits offered include an immediate twenty to forty percent discount for members on all eligible medical and dependent expenses. The discount is equal to the amount of taxes that would otherwise have been paid on the money used for those expenses.

Types of Flexible Spending Accounts
There are three types of Flexible Spending Accounts:

1. Health Care Flexible Spending Account (HCFSA). Designed for qualified health care and medical costs that are not reimbursed or paid for with insurance or Federal Employees Health Benefits (FEHB).
   
2. Limited Expense Health Care Flexible Spending Account (LEX HCFSA). This plan is for employees enrolling in a:
   
   FEHB - Federal Employee Health Benefits Program
   
   HDHP (High Deductible Health Plan) that includes an HSA (Health Savings Account). For the above two plans, estimated funds for the calendar year are reserved by the plan member, to later use for payment of eligible expenses. These funds are reserved using pre-tax dollars.
   
3. The Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (DCFSA). This plan is used for dependent care expenses for: 

• Children below the age of 13 
• Elders 
• People of all ages who are mentally or physically impaired
  Ref: http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/102532 

Additional Medical Costs
In addition to medical costs, flexible benefits may also be used for expenditures related to:

• Health insurance premiums 
• Retirement benefits 

Cafeteria Plans
The unique advantages of cafeteria flexible spending plans is that they may be either cover insurance premium costs or be distributed as a cash benefit. Funding for cafeteria plans can be provided by an employee, employer or both. Usually, the employee will receive a spending credit, after which he or she may either use the funds to pay for an eligible benefit, or have it distributed in a variety of ways:

• Life insurance premiums 
• Disability insurance premiums 
• Dental, vision coverage or both 
• Retirement Plans: 401(k) or IRA 
• Vacation days 
• Stock or cash 
• Education or tuition assistance

Employee Engagement: What Does It Take?

Employee engagement is a concept that can be a little tricky to articulate properly. Generally though it's thought of as a way to turn someone from a worker doing a job to a person that is actively engaged in his or her job, who enjoys it and who furthers the company by their work. It's hard to get, and there have been a lot of studies done regarding it. However, there have been some definite aspects that have been found that increase employee engagement. Some of those aspects are;

- Mental Stimulation
- Correlation Between Individual and Company Performance
- Trust and Integrity of Supervisors and Company
- Pride in Work and Company
- Good Coworker and Team Member Relationships

These are just a few of the things that have been found to consistently affect how engaged an employee is in the work place. And the more engaged an employee is, the more satisfied they will feel and the harder they work, thus the better the company will do in the long run.

Things That Disconnect Employees

If a job is just a paycheck to a given employee, that's about as disconnected as he or she can get. If they don't care about whether the company succeeds or fails, if they don't care about their own results, and if work is just a necessary chore, filled with stress and negativity, then the results a company gets from an employee will be the absolute minimum required for that employee to keep his or her job. As such a company should pay close attention, and try to nip problems in the bud before they bloom into real issues.

These issues are quite simple, on the face of them. Employers need to look for;

- Relationship Friction
- Employee Dissatisfaction
- Disconnected Results
- Poor Performance Rewards

All of these things can have a major impact on how employees view their work and their workplace. If a company wants to improve employee engagement then they have to provide avenues for that to happen.

What Can Be Done?

There are a lot of possibilities. First and foremost, employees who are awarded for good work, whether it's through a bonus or through recognition and awards, will feel more inclined to keep up that harder work. Also, if a company keeps an open door policy, and it takes all complaints from workers seriously then employees will feel as if the company is trying to make their experience as workers as good as possible. Good communication, and resolving any interpersonal conflicts quickly and efficiently is also an important point to keeping employees engaged. It isn't an easy job, but it has to be done to keep workers.