The benefit programs in a company are critical for attracting new talents as well as motivating and retaining existing staffs.

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HRM ASSIGNMENT 2

Executive summary

The benefit programs in a company are critical for attracting new talents as well as motivating and retaining existing staffs, and they should be in harmony with the company’s strategic business objectives and culture. The purpose of this report is to review some of the current employee benefit programs in Philips Electronics Singapore, identify the related problems and make recommendations to better align the benefit programs with organization’s strategic business objectives.

The HR department collected staffs’ feedback on employee benefits through online surveys and opinions contributed by managers of all levels. Based on the data collected, four issues are found to be the major concerns of both general employees and managers as they get most attentions and rank highest on priority chart. In response to staffs’ request and suggestions, this report will focus on following four issues: tuition refunds, flexible work schedule, gym membership, and holidays with family. All these four issues have been practicing by Philips Singapore since a few years back. However, both employees and HR feel that it is necessary to make some adjustment to the current practices to better serve the demands arising from the changing society.

From the standpoint of a HRM director, the recommendations tackling abovementioned issues are made with consideration of cost-effectiveness and company’s long term competitive advantages. Tuition fees can be refunded partially or fully based on individual’s situation and eligibility, and similar method applied to flexible work schedule; gym membership will be extended to all levels of employees, besides, with different standard based on seniority; holidays with family will be greatly supported in coherence with Singapore government’s call for a pro-family employer.

1. Introduction

Philips Electronics Singapore is one of the research and development centers of global electronic giant - Philips. It employs more than 5,000 staffs and conducts a wide range of research and development activities in Singapore. In these days of acknowledge based economy, employee benefit programs can go a long way toward determining how successful companies are in recruiting and keeping top employees. Benefit programs, appropriately structured, could play a significant role in the recruitment and retention of valued employees. They could also help enhance loyalty, commitment and engagement of employees in Singapore. In Philips Electronic Singapore, providing employees with competitive benefits is always among the top priorities of management concern. As Philips Singapore, employee benefits have gained increasing attention due to rising costs, increasing diversity in the demographics of the workforce and company’s aim to differentiate Philips as the “employer of choice”.

As Philips Singapore moves into a research and develop intensive centre supporting Philips’ global business activities, the importance of employee benefits has increased as Philips Singapore strives to deal with the challenges of managing the knowledge workforce and becoming the employer of choice in the war for talent. Developing and maintaining benefit programs that individuals value highly and perceive as relevant is critical for the continued strength of Philips Singapore.

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In light of this trend of “war for talent”, the HR department has reviewed the existing benefit programs. And after consulting general employees and managers of all levels through online surveys and talks, some problems related to current practices are identified and studied. These issues include tuition refunds, flexible work schedule, gym membership and holidays with family. All the feedback and suggestions by employees are carefully studied and considered. Finally, with the consideration of a balance between employee interest and company cost-effectiveness, some recommendations are made to adjust the existing benefit programs to make them stay relevant.

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