Flexible Benefits: A How-To Guide (6Th Ed.)
本书为人力资源从业者提供弹性福利设计的操作指南，涵盖战略规划、成本管理及具体福利方案，帮助优化员工满意度与生产力。
Flexible Benefits: A How-To Guide (6th ed.), by Richard E. Johnson, 2002, International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, Washington, D.C. As the title aptly describes, this book is positioned as a resource for those involved with strategic planning as it relates to human resource operations. A proliferation of choices exists today for organizations desiring to customize their work environment in a manner that maximizes such interrelated goals as job satisfaction and productivity. Flexible Benefits is written to help HR professionals navigate through the morass and make the most effective and efficient use of employee benefits. The 378-page paperback book is authored by Richard E. Johnson, president of Partners in Performance, a consulting company. Johnson's primary focus is in strategic planning, organizational effectiveness, integrated programs, econometric modeling, and performance management. This sixth edition of the Flexible Benefits guide begins appropriately enough with a brief introductory section titled What Are You Trying to Accomplish? This section draws upon the attributes mentioned in Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For in America, and does a credible job of generally linking the role of a company's benefits structure to those same attributes. The next section makes the case of the human resources function as a strategic business partner. It posits that HR needs to be transformed into a department that is strategic- rather than service-oriented. This section also proposes a revision of the traditional organizational structure (including organizational charts). One interesting suggestion that is the focus of the second half of this section involves the designation of a chief people officer (CPO) to manage all human resources functions, including implementing a total compensation program, establishing performance metrics, measuring and maximizing return on investment in all HR programs. The CPO would also be heavily involved in implementing strategic change in order to sustain a competitive advantage. Many of the same arguments for the establishment of the CPO were analogous to current transformations in risk management, as that industry is similarly examining and defining the role of the chief risk officer (CRO) within the corporate structure. Section III focuses specifically on the management of workforce health care costs. As with the prior two sections, the presentation up to this point is less operational and more strategic. Johnson provides a number of statistics on the employer cost of health care, and while the numbers are not surprising to those with a specialty in the field, the dollars involved are nonetheless quite sobering. In keeping with the general theme of serving as a benefits handbook, this section provides a very useful template of practices in creating and maintaining a healthy and productive environment. In addition, best practice financial targets are provided to assist HR managers in goal-setting. Sections IV through VII gradually move into the more specific components that make up the flexible benefits structure. Qualified benefits, taxable benefits, flexible spending accounts (FSA), 401(k) plans, and others enter the discussion about one-third of the way into the book. Costs and savings of employee ownership, and the process for developing flexible benefits are other topics addressed. An extensive laundry list of issues that can be addressed and benefits/perquisites offered by employers in this section illustrates the universe of entrees that can be included in what is known by some as cafeteria plans (no mention of pet insurance on the list). Johnson also mentions the changing demographics of the workforce and a growing emphasis on job satisfaction among younger members of the workforce. This is probably the one area of the book that could have included more extensive coverage. Although Flexible Benefits does make a cursory case for implementing a flexible benefits structure from the corporation's perspective, I believe a more in-depth analysis of changing worker expectations would have made the case more convincingly. …