Part of what makes providing employee benefits to an entire workforce so difficult is that it's hard to know what's important to workers. What's more, personnel don't always understand why companies are giving or taking away particular services, which can cause a lot of acrimony in meetings and negotiations convened to bring management and labor together to make everyone happy.
This is especially true when it comes to unionized staffs, but it is also important to consider in private industries. Knowing what to include in terms of compensation for workers is a difficult task when there's no leadership involved, so the services of an employee benefit consulting service can be invaluable in aid of keeping personnel costs down while ensuring staff members are content.
One useful method for bridging this expectation gap is some system of bartering. Employers need to make it clear they are in charge, but a little give-and-take will help supervisors and company leaders get what they want out of a benefits agreement while guaranteeing workers aren't unhappy with the tools used to compensate them for their efforts.
For instance, an organization might decide drug testing is a good way to combat problems in the workplace and ensure hiring practices are a bit easier. Employees, unionized or not, will likely rankle at this suggestion and be bitter that it has to be performed at all. However, by indicating drug tests will help keep insurance premiums down and do a great deal in terms of fleshing out benefit packages, a company can help its workers to see the value in such a practice. Discuss this possibility with an employee benefit consultant to make sure any government regulations and financial constraints don't preclude this from being an option.
