Salary is important in the most basic sense — most people would not do their jobs if they weren’t paid for it. For some positions it’s not even the largest component. It may be stock options or money paid for daycare. These other components are packaged together in what is called Total Rewards.
Total Rewards is a concept that describes all the tools available to an employer that they use to attract, motivate and retain employees. Think of it as this… the value of all the items you receive as a result of your job offer. Here is a list of some items that could be included in a Total Rewards statement.
- Vacation
- Profit-sharing
- Merit pay
- Sign-on bonuses
- Relocation bonuses
- Housing, school, and meal reimbursement
- Overtime pay
- Stock options
- 401k matches
- Pension plans
- Days off
- Free coffee and meals
Each of the items listed above have a value that can be placed on them. Let’s think about companies who provide their employees with coffee each day. One cup of coffee is about $1.50 x 5 days a week X 52 weeks a year = $390 a year. Look at it if they offer lunch each day. Spending just $8 on lunch x 5 days a week x 52 weeks = $2,080. If you are comparing 2 companies you want to work for, you want to look at the Total Rewards because some benefit packages will bring you to a higher Total Reward total than the other.
For Part 4 Assignment: You can use any resource to conduct your research (just don’t make it up).
- Outline 2 jobs specific to a company you are interested in working for.
- Look at the Salary offered for each position and company (you can try Payscale or Glassdoor or just do a google search)
- List 3 Total Rewards from each company that are different from one another
- Once you have completed it, of the 2 you researched, which to you has the best total rewards package off your findings. Then state why you have chosen the best one.
- Provide links to all websites you used to locate this information
Upload your responses in a word document.