Employment Benefits Comparison

Employment Benefits Comparison Introduction Employment benefits are the advantages which employees get from various organizations. These benefits act as incentives for workers to perform better for their own benefit and for the benefit of the organization.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Employment Benefits Comparison specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Employments benefits differ from organization to organization and they change with time. Most of the benefits offered to workers in 1980’s and 1990’s  ­ are not the same as those offered today. Some of the benefits offered to workers by their employers from the year 2000 up to now are almost the same or have not changed much. Most benefits offered to employees by 1980’s have been completely eliminated by most governments and only few employment benefits offered over two decades ago are still being offered to workers today. Various bills have been passed to protect the w elfare of workers to make sure that organizations offer various benefits to workers. These legislations include: The medical bill of 2003, Employee Retirement Income Security Act, Employees Retirement Income Security Act and Family and Medical Leave Act. Some of the employment benefits include: Health care and welfare benefits, Retirement and retrenchment benefits, family benefits, financial benefits, leave benefits, family benefits, flexible working benefits, housing and relocation benefits, employee service benefits and business travel benefits besides others. Most of these benefits have been introduced recently and in 1980’s they were non-existent. Organizations in majority of countries offer these benefits to their workers and indeed the Organization for Economic Co-corporation and Development (OECD) countries are leading in ensuring that workers get their employment benefits.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help y ou! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Healthcare and welfare benefits Healthcare and welfare benefits were offered by organizations in the 1980’s to help employee manage their healthcare and that of their dependents. Most organizations today cover the full cost of healthcare of the employee while in some organizations the cost is shared between the organization and the employee. Currently many healthcare benefits have emerged, for instance some organizations today offer healthcare and welfare benefits which focus on child wellbeing and fertility such as contraceptive coverage, infertility treatment and in-vitro fertilization and this could not happen in the 1980’s and 1990’s (2011 Employment Benefits, 2011). In the1980’s, limited benefit indemnity medical plan and free of service plans were offered to employees. This allowed each employee to compare various providers of healthcare services and then choose the one they liked most . But now very few organizations offer this kind of healthcare benefits to their workers. Currently, firms with high staff turnover or those with high number of part time workers are likely to offer mini-med-health plans to reduce the cost they are likely to incur in case an employee falls sick (2011 Employment Benefits, 2011). Most employers these days offer benefits such as mental health coverage, accidental death insurance, long term care insurance, hospital insurance and intensive insurance to their employees. A good employee-employer relationship is needed to attract and retain employee talent. Some of the benefits particularly these healthcare and welfare benefits are made to nurture such a productive relationship between employers and employees (2010 Employment Benefits, 2009).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Employment Benefits Comparison specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In 2003, Medicare bill was e nacted which led to the creation of Health Savings Accounts (OECD Employment Outlook, 2003).This bill helps employees to save money on a tax free basis for future qualified medical and retirement healthcare cost. About one third of institutions, firms and companies offer these accounts to their workers. Contribution to these accounts is maybe by the employee, employer or both of them. In addition 20% organizations today offer health reimbursement arrangements to their employees. This is aimed at contributing money to the health saving accounts so that the employees can use the money to pay for their health care services. Retirement savings and planning benefits Every organization has its own retirement benefits which cover certain amount of years which are offered to help workers plan for their future lives. Retirement and retrenchment benefits became a common object in the 1980’s and up to now these benefits are offered by organizations across the globe. There are various ty pes of retirement plans offered to employees. Some of them include: Defined contribution retirement plans and Roth 401(K) retirement plan which are two common plans nowadays (2010 Employment Benefits, 2010). Other retirement plans are the traditional defined benefit retirement pension plan and cash balance pension plans which were prevalent in the 1980’s and 1990’s (OECD Employment outlook, 1994).These two are not common in many organization these days. Supplement executive retirement plans (SERPs) are non-qualified plans that offer benefits above those covered in other retirement plans. These SERPs are authorized under the Employees Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More About ten years ago organizations offered financial planning benefits such as individual investment advices and retirement preparation advice. Although these programs do not contribute to employee’s income, they can help employees plan their retirement benefits wisely. However few organizations offer these programs today. On the other hand, phase retirement program is currently offered to employees which involve reduction of schedule or responsibilities for workers who are about to retire. This retirement plan helps employees to ease into retirement while passing on their valuable knowledge which they have accumulated over the years to other employees. Although retirement savings, planning benefit and defined benefit pension plans are old retirement plans they are still offered today. Most of these retirement benefits have not changed very much since the year 2000(OECD Employment outlook, 1998). Financial and compensation benefits Certain group of employees get financial and compensation benefits which help them deal with monetary transactions conveniently. Most of these benefits were non-existent in 1980’s but are common in many organizations today. These benefits include: Membership in credit unions which offer low interest rates on loans, which offer loans for emergency and disaster assistance while others offer no-interest loans for non-emergency situations. Provision of life insurance for dependents, accident insurance, accelerated death benefits, and assistance in case of terminal disease such as cancer are other benefits workers enjoy nowadays especially those in OECD countries (OECD Employment Outlook, 2003). Commuter benefits are offered to offset the cost workers incur as they move from one play to other while carrying out operations of their companies. These include transport allowances, on-site parking, parking subsidies, carpool subsidies. Other recent developments include some organization offering spending accounts, auto-insurance programs and company –owned vehicles to their employees. Education assistance to employees such as career development benefits are important as they both benefit the employee and the employer since the employees have a chance to expound their knowledge and this leads to creation of a better workforce which is a benefit to the employer. Undergraduate and graduate education assistance as well as education assistance to members of employees families are other benefits offered to workers (2010 Employment Benefits, 2010). Most organizations offer monetary bonuses through various ways. Some lay out a criteria which when met by the employees, they will receive more compensation, incentive bonuses, promotions and this leads to high performance. Other incentives include: sign-on bonuses for new workers, retentions bonus for workers who stay in the organization for a considerable period and lastly referral bonuses which are offered to workers who refer and encourage new members to be p art of the organization. In addition some organization recently have been able offer technology services and discounts to their employees such as business cell phones, personal computers, iPads and internet connections and these benefits helps employees cut down the associated costs of such services (2011 Employment Benefits, 2011). Leave benefits Leave benefits include paid time off plan which includes traditional vacation time, sick leave or personal days. Paid vacation plans these days are offered by most organizations to full-time employees which can be inform of cash-out option or a paid vacation leave donation program. Other leave benefits include paid personal leaves and floating holidays whereby employees receive payment on their leaves (2010 Employment Benefits, 2010). Personal days may be used as birthdays, for religion purposes or as mental health days. Most companies now offer these leave benefits because they recognize that there is need for employees to have time-off w ork for purposes other than vacation and illness. Floating holidays are recent development in the employee’s benefit list whereby workers are given certain amount of days of their choice during the year to use for holidays. Other leaves include paid sick leave whereby employees who are sick are paid and this protects the employees from loss of income when they are sick. Some organizations offer stand-alone sick leave plan while others provide a paid sick leave donation program to their employees. Family and Medical leave act of 1993 ensures that every employee has a 12 weeks unpaid job-protected leave for a year if the employee, his/her spouse or child has a serious medical condition. Although the act doesn’t require the various public and private organizations to pay for the leave some organization pay for the leave (OECD Employment outlook, 1999) Military leaves, leave for new parents, paid paternity and maternity leaves are other leaves which have been offered by va rious organizations since 1980’s. Indeed maternity and parental benefits were introduced in the 1980’s and the companies offering them have increased greatly since then. However long-term parental benefits nowadays are restricted to the OECD countries (OECD Employment outlook, 2003). A few organizations today are even able to offer paid adoption leaves to their employees, paid time-off to serve on board of a community group, paid time off for volunteering, paid and unpaid sabbatical program and paid time off for group vacation. Other employment benefits Other employment benefits include family friendly benefits, flexible working benefits, employee service benefits, housing and relocation benefits and business travel benefits. Under family friendly benefits, most organization nowadays are able to provide dependent care flexible accounts to their employees where money is set aside which can be used later to care for the employee’s dependants. In addition some orga nizations offer child care benefits to their employees such as child care emergency, adoption or foster care assistance and child care referral services whereby a portion of companies today allow their workers to bring their babies to work on regular basis. This reduces the cost which is incurred by employees when they access services such as non-subsidized child care or back up child care services. Dependent care flexible account can be used by employees to offset cost of elder care. Other family friendly benefits include back up elder care benefits, geriatric counselling, assisted living assessments and elder care in-home assessment (2011 Employment Benefits, 2011). Employee service benefits offered by companies include provision of language skills and work/life balance benefits. Globalization is happening fast in today’s world and has prompted people of diverse cultures to move from one part of the globe to another. As a result workforce and customers of many organizations consist of people with various levels of language proficiency. Due to this many organization organize for foreign language classes for specific group of employees. On the other hand work/life balance benefits are also offered by organizations today in many OECD countries. Many organizations provide quick access to food and beverages by having automatic vending machines near work place. Banks and Post offices are likewise near workplace and this reduces time workers spend moving to use various services and this optimizes their performance for the benefit of the organization (2011 Employment Benefits, 2011). Housing and relocation employment benefits have existed since time immemorial but recently they have been modified to suit the needs of workforce in many organizations today. Most organizations offer one-time permanent relocation whereby companies offer one time simple relocation lump sum payment. Others offer local visit assistance or house hunting trips to employees, spouse rel ocation assistance, down payment assistance and temporary relocation assistance. However housing and relocation assistance have declined over the last few years. Business travel benefits offered by companies today include travel expenses and additional pay to the employees involved in the travelling (2010 Employment Benefits, 2010). Conclusion Employment benefits have changed over the years since 1980’s through 1990’s to the present day. Various employment benefits have declined and in some countries they have been completely eliminated. For instance labour market leaves existed in some countries in the 1980’s such as Belgium but they declined in the following years and in Denmark they were eliminated by 1999 (OECD Employment Outlook,1999). In most countries, employment benefits allocation in Human Resource budget is fixed or marginally flexible hence job seekers are selective in choosing their employers and are likely to work in those organizations which offer fringe employment benefits. Employment benefits are meant to improve employee’s performance, attract new personnel to an organization and improve employer-employee relation for the benefit of any organization. Governments of various states have passed various bills which act in favour of employees in both private and public organizations to make sure they get various employment benefits. Almost all organizations offer some kind benefit to their employees with big organizations offering more benefits to their employees. The kind of employment benefits offered by organizations depends on their size and workforce. For example a company with high proportion of part-time workers will chose to offer benefits which are suitable for such kind of workforce to cut down the cost spend on employment benefits. References 2010 Employee Benefits. (2010).Examining Employee Benefits in the midst of a recovering economy.pp.1-92.Retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/ 2011 Employee Benefits. (201 1). Examining Employee Benefits Amidst Uncertainty, society for human resource management. pp.1-92, Retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/ OECD Employment outlook. (1994).Work-force ageing in OECD countries. Retrieved from: oecd.org/ OECD Employment outlook. (1998). Displacement and Job Loss: The workers concerned, pp.1-34, Retrieved from: oecd.org/ OECD Employment outlook. (1999).Recent labour market developments and prospects, Special focus on the quality of part-time jobs, pp.1-33, Retrieved from: oecd.org/ OECD Employment outlook. (2003). Towards More and Better Jobs Benefits and Employment, Friend or Foe? Interactions Between Passive and Active Social Programmes, pp.1-65, Retrieved from: oecd.org/ OECD Employment Outlook. (2009).Is work the best antidote for poverty?. pp.1-46. Retrieved from: oecd.org/

10 Personification Examples in Poetry, Literature, and More

10 Personification Examples in Poetry, Literature, and More SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Personification is an important literary device- as a form of metaphor, personification compares two things quickly and efficiently, often in a poetic fashion. But what is it? In this guide, we’ll discuss what personification is, what it does, and why so many writers use it, as well as a whole bunch of examples to help you get accustomed to identifying personification when you see it. This isn't quite personification, but it is cute. What Is Personification? Personification is pretty simple, but before we can get into what it is, we need to discuss metaphors. Personification is a form of metaphor, a literary device comparing two things by applying the qualities of one thing to another. One famous example is the Walt Whitman line, â€Å"And your very flesh shall be a great poem.† Whitman isn’t suggesting that your flesh is literally a poem- that would be both impossible and uncomfortable- but rather that your entire self is a work of art. Within the context of the Leaves of Grass preface, where this quote comes from, the quote means that, through love and patience and living with meaning and purpose, your entire self will have meaning and purpose, just as a poem does. Though Whitman’s quote is a metaphor, it’s not personification. Personification is a more specific type of metaphor in which something that is not human is given human traits. Whitman’s quote compares flesh, something human, to a poem, something inhuman, meaning it’s not personification. Instead, personification will look something like this quote from John Keats’ â€Å"To Autumn†: â€Å"Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run.† Here, the thing doing the conspiring is autumn, and ‘him’ is the maturing sun. Neither of these things can conspire- autumn is a season, and the sun is a star- but for the purpose of illustrating how perfect the season is, Keats suggests that they can. In this example, Keats gives both autumn and the sun the human ability to conspire. That doesn’t mean that Keats wants you to picture the sun and autumn literally whispering in one another’s ears; he’s suggesting harmony and a natural order of things. As the sun matures (another thing it isn’t technically doing, at least not in this poem) into the later stages of the year, the fruit on the vines begins to ripen just in time for the harvest. As the sun moves further from the earth and the weather grows colder, the season switches to autumn, as if the two were consciously working together. Hence, the idea of conspiring. As you can see, personification can add a dramatic and more evocative flair to writing. If Keats’ poem had simply read, â€Å"The sun gets further away from the earth as the season changes to autumn, just in time for the fruit to ripen,† itwouldn't feel particularly inspiring or interesting. But when he suggests that the sun and autumn are conspiring, we get a much more vivid, memorable picture of what the seasons are like. This isn't personification either. Examples of Personification Keats is just one writer using personification- there are lots of different ways to use this literary device to great effect. You don’t even need to be world-renowned Romantic poet to use it! Basic Examples of Personification Since personification is just giving something that isn’t human the characteristics of a human, it’s very simple to do! Check out these examples: The stars winked in the night sky. Stars, having no eyes, cannot wink. But when you see this phrase, you know that they’re twinkling. The bridge stretched over the interstate. A bridge can’t stretch, but from this phrase, we get the mental image of it being long and gracefully curved. The cave mouth yawned. A mouth can yawn, but a cave mouth cannot. Still, we get the mental image of the cave mouth stretched wide. The smell of baking muffins welcomed us inside. A smell can’t welcome, but we can still understand that the narrator of this sentence feels welcomed by the homey smell. Poetry Examples of Personification We often encounter figurative language like personification in poetry, where a few words have to carry a lot of meaning. Some of the most famous examples in poetry are: â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death –He kindly stopped for me – The Carriage held but just Ourselves – And Immortality.† - â€Å"Because I could not stop for Death† by Emily Dickinson In this poem, Death is personified as a person driving a carriage. Within the confines of this poem, Death may in fact be a person; but Dickinson isn’t writing about a literal event that happened to her. She’s using her relationship with Death figuratively, illustrating how Death goes about its business with little regard for humanity’s work and leisure. â€Å"BlackberriesBig as the ball of my thumb, and dumb as eyesEbon in the hedges, fatWith blue-red juices. These they squander on my fingers.I had not asked for such a blood sisterhood; they must love me.They accommodate themselves to my milkbottle, flattening their sides.†- â€Å"Blackberrying† by Sylvia Plath Plathmakes a direct comparison between blackberries and humans- she says blackberries, like eyes, are 'dumb,' in that they cannot speak. But we also know that they can’t squander, they can’t be a sisterhood, and they can’t love or accommodate themselves. Plath isn’t trying to tell us that these are magic blackberries with all those traits. She’s using personification to illustrate her relationship with these blackberries, demonstrating a unique bond with them. Even without the context of the whole poem, Plath’s use of personification shows us that these blackberries aren’t just fruit to her. Literary Examples of Personification Poets aren’t the only writers using personification- it’s also valuable for prose writers! Check out these famous examples from literature: â€Å"[The eyes of TJ Eckleburg] look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a nonexistent nose. Evidently some wild wag of an oculist set them there to fatten his practice in the borough of Queens, and then sank down himself into eternal blindness or forgot them and moved away. But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground†¦." - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald If these eyes were attached to a human being, they might brood as an extension of the human. But the eyes of TJ Eckleburg are painted on a billboard, not attached to a human face. It’s impossible for them to brood, as they don’t have emotions. However, this quote demonstrates the mood that the eyes cast over the valley; it’s dark and dreary, and the way that Fitzgerald characterizes these painted eyes reflects that. "There is something subversive about this garden of Serena’s, a sense of buried things bursting upwards, wordlessly, into the light, as if to point, to say: Whatever is silenced will clamour to be heard, though silently. [†¦] Light pours down upon it from the sun, true, but also heat rises, from the flowers themselves, you can feel it: like holding your hand an inch above an arm, a shoulder. It breathes, in the warmth, breathing itself in." - The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood This paragraph has a couple of instances of personification. Buried things don’t really burst upward- they grow, but to ‘burst’ is to move suddenly, which is something that these plants don’t do. Likewise, Atwood says that the heat breathes. Because heat doesn’t have lungs, it can’t breathe, but it’s clear that Atwood is giving everything in Serena’s garden a sense of life so that even the heat has vitality. Pop Culture Examples of Personification You don’t have to look to books you’ve read in school to find personification, either! Everything from TV shows to music to video games can contain personification, such as these examples: Inside Out Though everything that happens in the movie Inside Out can be read to be happening literally- it’s a fantasy movie!- it’s also a form of metaphor. We know that in real life our emotions aren’t little humanoid figures running around pulling levers, but giving emotions like joy and sadness human characteristics encourages viewers to appreciate their complexity. Sadness isn’t bad, and joy isn’t always good- when we give them human traits, we see that any emotion can mean multiple things! "You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make itYou start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyesYou're paralyzed'Cause this is thriller, thriller nightAnd no one's gonna save you from the beast about to strike."- "Thriller" by Michael Jackson There are a few examples of personification in this song- in just this verse, terror "takes the sound" and horror "looks you right between the eyes." Logically, we know that emotions can't take or look at anything. But using that kind of language to describe fear gives it an agency that infuses this song with energy. It's not difficult to understand why this works so well; if you've ever been afraid, you know how it can affect the way your body feels, sometimes paralyzing you. That's what Jackson is tapping into in this song: the sense that fear can trap you and make you feel like you're out of control. What’s Next? Personification is just one of many literary devices at your disposal. Check out this list of literary devices and how they're used for a whole bunch more! Want to know more about how the Valley of Ashes is constructed inThe Great Gatsby? Learn more from this post all about how the Valley of Ashes works as a symbol! Understanding how personification works can help you in AP literature- just like this reading list for AP lit students! What kind of man so likes being described by his mother as the personification of "the beast" that he adopts it as his own nickname? Learn more about the strange life and times of Aleister Crowley with this article.