The flexible benefits plans of most employers are normally non-taxable, elective benefits that permit an employee to design his or her benefit plan. Under a flexible benefits plan, the employer typically agrees to contribute a certain amount to a pooled fund from which employees may access funds for eligible health care spending accounts, dependent care spending accounts, and transportation costs.

In this glossary, you will learn more about flexible benefit plans like-

• What is a Flexible Benefit Plan
• Benefits of Flexible Work Schedules
• Health-related Flexible Benefits
• Brief on Flexible Benefit Programs
• Benefits of Flexible Plans

What is Flexible Benefits Plan?

Flexible benefits are the additional, non-monetary benefits an employer provides to his employees. They do not necessarily fall into any particular category but can be grouped into three main categories:

• Flexible work schedules
• Health-related flexible benefits
• Flexible benefit programs

An example of flexible work schedule is when an employee will work 9 am to 6 pm but come in just before 9 am and leave just after 3 pm some days, so they only put in 7 hours of work.

What are the benefits of flexible work schedules?

The workers could have flexible working schedules to take care of their children before or after work. This would be very good because the employee is going to spend more time with their family and will not use leave or sick days off. Moreover, they are going to be at home in case something happens to their child.

Flexitime enables everyone to gain and, in many cases, allows workers to tailor-make their programs to suit both personal and professional needs. These could be of immense use to an employee with caring responsibilities for young children or elderly dependents. Other than that, flexible work schedules can bring about a number of benefits for employers in the form of increased productivity, reduced absenteeism rates, and heightened commitment from workers.

What are health-related flexible benefits?

Health-related flexible benefits can include sabbaticals, which means that employees get a break from the regular job, but the company will still pay them. This is often done for people who are nearing retirement to take some time off and relax before retiring.

What are flexible benefit programs?

Flexible benefit programs include options where employees could choose one week of vacation over another rather than taking two weeks consecutively.

Examples of flexible benefit programs are endless. For example, flexible holiday leave is another instance where the employer will allow an employee to choose when they take their mandated holidays This way, the employee can budget their time off to spend with friends and family or other activities outside of work.

Another would be the child care benefits that are flexible. In this case, an employer would pay for a percentage of a daycare center''s fee, if not for the entire amount.

What are the benefits of flexibility or flexible plans offered by employers?

The benefits of flexible workforce are more free time with family, friends, or other activities outside of work. In addition to this, employers benefit by having more satisfied and efficient employees.

The more rounded and happier the employee is outside work, the more comfortable he will be at the workplace. This generally means that they will communicate better, be more productive, have less absenteeism, and reduced turnover.

In implementing a flexible benefits plan, it also increases the ability for the employers to attract and retain quality employees. Probably this would result in a production process being better and more efficient.

Also, in most cases, employers who offer their plans usually retain employees and increase productivity. Having some employees work at home, part-time, or working remotely may reduce office space, transportation costs, and other expenses.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, employers offer flexible benefits because they are beneficial for the company and the employees. While many benefits can be received by an employee from flexible benefits plans, examples of them here just touch the surface.

This can be painful for both employers and employees to maintain the plans. However, now, with technology advancement in the form of payroll software or complete HRMS software, this could become easy and structured for the HR department to strategize and keep track of its offered by organizations.