“Design a benefits plan that can help to attract and retain the needed talents or foster employee behaviors that can lead to business success.”

 

Assignment 12 – Overall Instruction

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Assignment 12: Benefits Plan (30 points)

Due: by 11:59 pm, Sunday, July 21st, 2019

* No assignments will be accepted late without written documentation of an unavoidable or unforeseeable event.

Why this assignment?

This assignment is intended to achieve the goal of our Module 15 learning objective, “Design a benefits plan that can help to attract and retain the needed talents or foster employee behaviors that can lead to business success.” This assignment supports Course Objective 2.

Instruction

Read Werner (2015) and watch the video Why organizations provide benefits? in Module 15. Then, follow the instructions below.

For Discussion 4: Pay secrecy, you have started a company based on the one-million-dollar prize amount for winning a lottery. Let’s assume that five years have passed, and your business has grown successfully. Now, your business has ten stores/branches in the Central Texas area. With the growth of your business, you have decided that it is the time for your company to provide some serious employee benefits other than legally-mandated-benefits, which you already had in place from the beginning of your business. For the employee group that is most important for your business, describe one or two benefits program(s) that will help your business to attract and retain the needed talents or foster employee behaviors that can lead to business success. In doing this, answer the following five questions.

Q1. What is your company’s competitive advantage in the market? How can this differentiate your company from other competitors that are already in the market? (If you have forgotten the concept of competitive advantage, you may want to watch Video 3 and Bonus Video 2 in Module 3.) (5 points)

Q2. What is the employee group that is most important to your business success? From the employee group that you have selected, what are the behaviors required to successfully achieve the competitive advantage that you have defined in Q1? Or is there a particular sub-population group that you need to attract? If so, who are they? (For example, you may want to attract more women for this job group if the employees in this job group sell women clothes.) What are some other required characteristics (e.g., personality) of the employees in the job group that you have selected? The trucking driver case in Werner (2015) can be a great example in answering this question. (5 points)

Q3. Now, what will be the benefits program(s) of your choice? How can this help your company to attract and retain workers with the behaviors and characteristics that you have identified in Q2? Or how can this foster behaviors that are identified in Q2? (10 points)

Q4. Let’s also think about the possible “unintended consequences” of this benefits program. What are some possible unintended consequences? Why? (5 points)

Assignment 12 – Overall Instruction

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Q5. What are your plans to mitigate the unintended consequences identified in Q4? How can the plans mitigate the unintended consequences? (5 points)

There is no page limit for this assignment. But try to write no more than two pages. Some Tips

An example answer for this assignment is attached. As you can see in the example, I’m not asking you for a detailed benefits plan. Just try to have a clear logical flow of ‘competitive advantage → types of talents or behaviors that are needed → benefits plan that can help to attract and retain talents or foster behaviors that are needed.’ (For some businesses, this logical flow may not be as clear as you like. But try your best!) Also, think about the unintended consequences of your benefits plan and how to mitigate this. Important Notes

1. In writing your answers, NEVER copy-and-paste any part of the textbook or any other sources. Write the answers in your own words. If more than seven consecutive words are identical to a writing from another source (including the textbook, your past works, and any other sources), it will be considered as plagiarism, and you will receive 0 points for this assignment. You will also be referred to Students Affairs.

2. See Appendix for the grading rubric.

Assignment 12 – Example Answer

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Attachment. Example Answer In this example, the business is a video game store chain. 1. What is your company’s competitive advantage in the market? How can this differentiate your company from other competitors that are already in the market? My company’s competitive advantage is providing customers with in-depth information about video games that they are trying to buy. Our employees will share their personal experience in playing the game and make recommendations to which type of players the game will be best suited for. In my experience, employees in the video game stores in Killeen does not seem to know well of the games that they are selling. A video game store with knowledgeable employees will be appreciated in Killeen and can be a key differentiator from its competitors. 2. What is the employee group that is most important for your business success? From the employee group that you have selected, what are the behaviors required to successfully achieve the competitive advantage that you have defined in Q1? Or is there a particular sub-population group that you need to attract? If so, who are they? What are some other required characteristics (e.g., personality) of the employees in the job group that you have selected? The most important employees will be the ones who sell video games within the stores. And the most important behavior or characteristic that is required of these employees is being knowledgeable about video games that they are selling. These employees are also expected to be friendly and have a customer service mindset. There is not a particular sub-population we are trying to attract, because we want the customers to understand that we can cater to a variety of video and computer game tastes, both retro and modern selections. 3. Now, what will be the benefits program(s) of your choice? How can this help your company to attract and retain workers with the behaviors and characteristics that are identified in Q2? Or how can this foster behaviors that are identified in Q2? I’ll provide a wide range of benefits. But the most important benefit to help the business to develop video-game-knowledgeable employees is to provide them with a 50% discount on new release games. This will encourage employees to buy and play new video games and gain related experience and knowledge. The store will also have a game room for employees to play new release video games for free on their non-work hours. 4. What are some possible unintended consequences of this benefits program? Why? Some employees may use the 50% discount benefits to make money by re-selling them in the market. They may also use the benefit to buy video games for their friends or relatives. These can be unintended consequences since they can reduce our sales. For example, friends or relatives may have bought video games from our stores at a full price in the absence of this employee benefit. 5. What are your plans to mitigate the unintended consequences identified in Q4? How can the plans mitigate the unintended consequences? The games to be sold as employee benefits will have a special label that cannot be detached or erased. The label will denote, “For XXX Store employees only. Not for resale.” This can discourage re-selling behaviors. Moreover, an employee will be only able to buy one copy per title as a benefits program. Because employees will not be able to buy multiple copies for a given game, this can lead to a lower chance of employees buying games for friends and relatives.

Assignment 12 – Grading Rubric

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Appendix. Grading Rubric

Questions Grading Standard Point(s)

Q1 (5 points)

The competitive advantage is defined, AND the rationale for how the company can be differentiated from other competitors is clear.

5

The competitive advantage is defined, BUT the rationale for how the company can be differentiated from other competitors is NOT clear.

2.5

The competitive advantage is NOT defined. 0

Q2 (5 points)

The behaviors and characteristics are identified, AND the rationale for how they can help to achieve the competitive advantage is clear.

5

The behaviors and characteristics are identified, BUT the rationale for how they can help to achieve the competitive advantage is NOT clear.

2.5

The behaviors and characteristics are NOT identified. 0

Q3 (10 points)

The benefits program(s) is identified, AND the rationale for how it can help to attract and retain workers or foster behaviors that are needed is clear.

10

The benefits program(s) is identified, BUT the rationale for how it can help to attract and retain workers or foster behaviors that are needed is NOT clear.

5

The benefits program(s) is NOT identified. 0

Q4 (5 points)

The possible unintended consequences are identified, AND the rationale for how they can be unintended consequences is clear.

5

The possible unintended consequences are identified, BUT the rationale for how they can be unintended consequences is NOT clear.

2.5

The possible unintended consequences are NOT identified. 0

Q5 (5 points)

The mitigation plan(s) is identified, AND the rationale for how the plan(s) can mitigate the unintended consequences is clear.

5

The mitigation plan(s) is identified, BUT the rationale for how the plan(s) can mitigate the unintended consequences is NOT clear.

2.5

The mitigation plan(s) is NOT identified. 0