Job Affairs

A third of employers don't communicate with staff on benefits: Survey

NEW DELHI: Effective communication plays a very important role in determining the compensation package, yet almost a third of employers do not communicate with employees about their benefits, says a survey by global professional services company Towers Watson.

According to the survey, there exists a positive correlation between the perceived value of benefits and effective communication in the organizations surveyed.

Despite listing the improvement of their employees' perceived value of benefits as one of their top objectives, 31 per cent of employers still do not communicate about benefits to their workforce.

Though this number (31 per cent) is high, it is an improvement over 55 per cent in 2009.

"Communication is often overlooked when it comes to rolling out a comprehensive benefit strategy, but as we found, it is often an integral way to improve the ROI ( Return on investment) that employers strive for," Towers Watson Director -- Benefits Optimisation, Asia Pacific Matthew Jackson said.

The survey, which was conducted between February and March 2013 among 1,066 employers, said that among employers who felt they communicate effectively on benefits, 91 per cent also indicated that they believe their benefits are sufficiently or highly valued by employees.

This number drops to 67 per cent for organisations that do not communicate on benefits effectively, the report added.

The survey further noted that 22 per cent of companies still communicate using paper-based tools. Despite this, employers are beginning to embrace newer technologies while a quarter makes use of online benefit portals.

"Today, a significant slice of employees' lives are lived online, and this is how they communicate too. It's the first place they go to for information," Jackson said.

An effective communication strategy will be multi-dimensional. While paper-based communications such as mailers and posters have their place, they should be complemented with other diverse forms of messaging, he added.



In a first, govt to recruit interns for research

NEW DELHI: Government is the first time looking to recruit interns and research scholars to study issues relating to anti-corruption law, punishment to government employees for unethical behavior and exit policies for inefficient public servants among others.

 

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has called for applications from eligible candidates who could be attached within the department and supplement the process of analysis through desirable empirical collection and collation of in-house and other information.

 

“The exposure for the interns to the functioning of the Indian Government may be an add-on in furthering their own career goals in the non-profit organisation (NPO) sector or international organisations,” a press release issued today by the DoPT said.

The internship shall be for a minimum period of two months but shall not exceed six months in individual cases, it said.

 

The DoPT has identified ten topics including analysis of cases disposed of by Central Administrative Tribunal; collection of data on reservation from ministries and its analysis; issues relating to anti-corruption law, punishment of government employees for unethical behavior and exit policies for inefficient public servants.

 

Best Human Resource (HR) practices; service conditions; expectations of persons with disabilities with employees; impact evaluation of mid-career training program of Central Secretariat Service (CSS) and Central Secretariat Stenographers Service (CSSS), and revising methodology of training programme are other areas for internship.

 

As per the eligibility criteria, an applicant should be a citizen of India and a graduate or post graduate or research student enrolled in reputed university or institution and preferably specialising in HR and associated subjects in public policy.

 

“A maximum of ten interns may be hired at any given time by the department on a token remuneration basis. Department may also hire equal number of unpaid interns especially during the summer vacation months of the universities when the supply side may be very strong if it may be justified on the basis of value of such engagement for the department,” the proposal seeking applications said.

Interns may be given a stipend of Rs 10,000 per month necessary to meet their conveyance and other daily needs