Some cities and states have passed laws that provide paid family or medical leav

Question

Some cities and states have passed laws that provide paid family or medical leave. Should the Family and Medical Leave Act be revised to require paid leave? Explain why or why not.

Explain the pros and cons of flexible work arrangements.

Discuss the differences between EAPs and wellness benefits.

Do you think it is ethical to offer financial incentives to employees who participate in a wellness program? How about penalties for choosing not to participate? Explain your answers.

Some companies do not include educational benefits in their benefits plans. Discuss reasons why this may be the case.

Companies always face budget constraints, preventing them from offering every possible benefit. Identify one accommodation and enhancement benefit that you believe is most important and another that you believe is least important. Explain your answer.

Explanation / Answer

It is indeed true that the Family &Medical Welfare Act should be amended to ensure paid leave in order to support employees in times of emergency and requirements. The provision for unpaid leave while maintaining employment status is good but it is not sufficient to tide over financial emergency and need for funds to cope with circumstances. A paid leave provisions will help the employees in these cases.

The pros of flexible work arrangements is that employees feel empowered and are motivated due to the freedom provided to them. This is especially helpful for employees who are suffering from any illness or have family commitments. It can help employee morale and increase productivity.

The cons of flexible work arrangement is that face to face meetings may decrease resulting in a decrease in team work and team activities may suffer due to the same. The efficiency of operations may also go down as a result.

EAPs or employee assistance program are facilities extended by employers wherein they engage their vendors to provide healthcare and counselling facilities to employees undergoing a difficult time. This is more reactive in nature and fulfils the need of employees to have a support system in order to cope with difficult times.

The wellness programmes are more proactive in nature and ensures that the employees are well looked after and necessary health and mental care facilities are provided to maintain employee health and productivity.

It is neither ethical to provide financial incentives nor penalise employees to get them to enrol in wellness programmes. The programmes should be well designed and that should propel the employees to enrol themselves. Any incentive or penalties would make these programmes seems as an extra burden or stress and defeat the purpose of these programmes.

The primary reasons that companies do not include educational benefits in their benefits plan is because the profile of the organization is such that upskilling may not be important to their domain of business and as such pursuing formal education is not encouraged because it does not add value to their business. These companies may also be apprehensive that employees may leave the company once they have completed an educational program at the cost of the company to pursue more lucrative prospects.

An important accommodation and enhancement benefit that a firm may provide is:

A not so important benefits are:

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