Publication Date

1968

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Novak, Ralph S.

Degree Name

M.S. (Master of Science)

Legacy Department

Department of Management

LCSH

Employee fringe benefits

Abstract

Adolph Langsner and Herbert Zollitsch state in their text, Wage and Salary Administration, "the primary purpose of supplementary compensations is to attract and to retain the best employees,..."1 The hypothesis states that fringe benefits are not the primary reasons which draw employees to jobs and retain those workers. Thus, an attempt was made to test the extent to which supplementary compensation methods can be used to attract and retain employees. The questionnaire returns established the following: most firms do not differentiate between the terms fringe benefits and supplementary compensation methods. Many firms stated that their employees were not appreciative of fringes, but an equally significant number of companies commented that appreciation of fringes could not be stated in such general terms, that is, the employees who used their benefits were grateful and those who did not use their fringes were not appreciative. The most significant finding was: that employers do not believe that their workers sought employment with them because of their fringe benefits. A smaller number of employers stated that the retention of their employees was not directly based upon supplementary compensation methods. Other questions were asked to check the validity of the above answers. All but two managers expressed their ideas with reasonable consistency. Because it was believed that supplementary compensation methods would not influence employees to any major degree, alternative questions were asked in an attempt to ascertain exactly what reason people do become employed with a specific firm. Most companies answered that the majority of new employees merely "wanted a job." The unionized firms appeared to be better informed in relation to the cost of fringe benefits. It was also quite apparent that many of the large (1,000 employees and up) firms wished to conceal the cost and nature of their business. In the same analysis, it appeared that many of the small firms simply did not know their costs. Vesting rights were also questioned in an attempt to ascertain how far industry, in general, had progressed with the idea of a universal vesting program. The data indicated that nothing has taken place. Thus, it would seem, for the firms within this study, that supplementary compensation methods are not very powerful in helping to hire or retain employees. If it were not for consideration by the older employee, fringes would definitely play a minor role in both aspects of employment. 1. Adolph Langsner and Herbert G. Zollitsch, Wage and Salary Administration (Chicago: South-Western Publishing Company, 1961), p. 598.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

85 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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