Often in job advertisements, employers indicate that the employee is provided with a social package. It refers to the motivation system and is used by the organization's management in the competition for qualified personnel. Its provision can be beneficial to both employees and the employer.
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The social package should not be confused with social guarantees, which, in accordance with the Labor Code, must be provided to all employees who have concluded employment contracts with employers. Such social guarantees include, for example, annual labor leave of at least 28 calendar days, sick pay, etc. The social package in each case may be different, and it is provided to employees solely at the request of the employer. This is a set of certain benefits for staff, which may include: - free medical care in polyclinics; - provision of interest-free loans to employees; - free meals at the enterprise; - payment for trainings and advanced training courses; - preferential vouchers to sanatoriums and pioneer camps for workers and their children; - payment for housing for employees recruited from other cities; - Paid mobile telephone communication, Internet and travel to the place of work; - provision of corporate vehicles; - subscriptions to the pool, fitness center, etc.
Some of these benefits are a bonus for staff, and some, such as payment for advanced training courses, are also beneficial for the employer himself. But, despite the fact that the bulk of the social package, as a rule, is a direct benefit for employees, it cannot be attributed to charity. This is an effective and efficient management tool that allows you to increase labor motivation and achieve maximum returns from employees of an enterprise or organization, stimulating them to increase productivity. When choosing an employer for many, it is the social package that becomes the factor that is an undoubted advantage.
The provision of a social package is perceived as an additional advantage of the enterprise, its presence is considered an indicator of the seriousness of the company and the high level of its income
Since the provision of a social package is a voluntary matter, the employer himself decides the issue of its content and distribution system. Most often, benefits are provided in the form of social packages of three types: "Hierarchical", "Business lunch" and "Buffet". The content and type of benefits provided for the first hierarchical type depend only on the position occupied by the employee. In this case, he receives a guaranteed set of benefits, regardless of how much he needs them and whether they will be in demand.
Social package "Business lunch", it is also called "Cafeteria", involves some preliminary work. A survey is conducted among the employees of the enterprise, what benefits they would like to receive. Based on its results, the most demanded ones are selected, marked and several sets are formed from them, the financing of which will cost the enterprise approximately the same amount. Any employee can choose for himself a social package with the set of benefits that he needs. As an example, we can cite the most popular types of benefits, from which 3-4 packages can be formed: - monthly or annual cash payments; - providing additional days for vacation, reducing the duration of the working week or year; - insurance in case of illness, accident, disability, etc.: - increased payments to pensioners; - participation in the profits or capital of the enterprise; - concessional loans to employees; - provision of benefits in material form (apartments from the enterprise, subscriptions to the gym, company car).
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"Buffet" is a symbiosis of the first two packages. Based on the results of a survey conducted among employees, a list of benefits is formed, each of which is assigned a certain number of points, depending on the cost of this benefit. Employees belonging to each hierarchical level are entitled to a certain number of points, in accordance with it, each of them independently forms a set of benefits for himself.
Those who have faced the need to look for a job are well aware of the word “social package”, with which employers generously supply the offered vacancies. Moreover, almost superlative adjectives are usually attributed to the noun “social package”: generous, rich, full, solid, and so on.
So what is the meaning of the concept of "social package" employers, and what it really is. Approximately half of the proposed "social packages" are not. Employers transfer compulsory medical insurance, sick leave, maternity leave, annual leave, contributions to the pension fund. This is what every employee is supposed to do in accordance with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation, it only means that this company does not violate the laws.
Approximately a third of employers promise to pay for personal transport, mobile communications, and vocational training. But these are not benefits either, but only compensation for the personal funds spent by employees, which they will spend on the needs of the company. Even if you somehow save paid gas or use corporate phones for personal needs, this will not bring you tangible savings, especially since companies usually do not fork out for too large payments.
So what is included in such a seductive "social package"? Only a small part, approximately 15% of employers, offer some additional benefits as an addition to wages and what is required by law for employees. These are free meals, voluntary medical insurance (sometimes even including dental care), a corporate car, gym and swimming pool memberships, housing loans, payment for tourist or sanatorium vouchers, etc. Such components of the “social package” depend on the desire and capabilities of a particular company and therefore may change. With these additional benefits, employers are trying to attract the workers they need, so the “social package” itself is also called competitive.
What is more attractive for you - a high salary or compensation for it with some of the benefits listed above, is up to you. Although it is obvious that the money itself gives you the opportunity to choose, and you may not have to use the benefits of the “social package”. But, nevertheless, when going through an interview when applying for a job, you should ask about the content of the proposed "social package", and only then make a decision.
True, it is best to ask this question when you have already understood that the company is interested in you and is ready to make concessions. It is also useful to know what kind of benefits, depending on the proposed position, companies usually provide.
Thus, the “social package” for top managers includes a representative car, a corporate car with a driver, voluntary medical insurance (a full family insurance package), dental insurance, an additional pension from the company, an apartment (payment for housing for non-residents), vacation vouchers for whole family, mortgage loan.
For mid-level employees, the “social package” includes the following benefits: voluntary medical insurance (partial payment), vouchers, payment for a fitness center, mobile communications, gasoline, meals in an office or cafe, interest-free loan or credit, partial mortgage loan.
And ordinary employees are offered payment for travel, meals at work, overalls, partial payment for mobile communications, as well as payments in case of emergency situations: the death of relatives or a wedding.
Often in the job description, employers indicate the benefits of working in a company with a social package.
Social package, what is it? Under this concept, it is customary to understand a set of certain compensations, additional bonuses that the employer is ready to provide to the employee when working in the company.
Labor legislation does not contain the definition of "social package", therefore there is no clear list of what the social package includes. Some employers include in this concept sick leave, vacation pay, official "white" salary, overtime compensation.
But do not confuse what a social package is when applying for a job. Despite the fact that not all employers comply with the law, all of the above are not additional bonuses of working in a particular company, but are provided for by labor legislation. Thus, it is more correct to call it not a social package, but social guarantees that are provided to each employee. So what is a social package? Let's figure it out.
You can consider the social package as a set of social guarantees provided for by labor legislation, and bonuses that the employer provides to its employees in excess of these guarantees. In this case, we can say that the full social package is:
Many employers believe that the employee’s social package includes precisely additional “care” for the employee, that is, the guarantees provided for by law are not included in this concept. It is worth remembering that the employer is not obliged to provide the employee with additional bonuses. If the employer indicated the presence of a social package in the vacancy, then the employee has the right to ask at the interview what is included in the employee's social package.
For its part, the employer has the right to independently decide what to include in the social package for employees. So, social package: what does it include? Typically, employers provide employees with:
Why is this method of employee compensation so popular lately? The social package is a powerful tool for motivating employees. Each employer uses their own motivation options depending on a number of factors: corporate culture, strategic objectives and goals. However, when combining various tools when building a general motivation system, it must be remembered that it is advisable to use additional tools only when the basic material expectations of employees in terms of wages are satisfied.
Often the benefits package may differ for employees: it may depend on the position held by the employee, or on the length of service in the company. The employer has the right to differentiate bonuses and determine in which case the employee receives certain privileges. For example, to establish what includes a full social package and divide bonuses for different categories of employees.
This can be a clear structure of benefits: the employee knows what is included in the full social package, and that after his work experience in the company exceeds, for example, two years, he will be paid for foreign language training and a subscription to a fitness club, and a full social package will be provided to him upon reaching five years of work experience in the company.
In addition, the issue of providing a social package can be decided individually with the employer: for example, a nonresident employee may be offered full payment for housing, and an employee who takes a long time to get to work - a corporate car.
Don't underestimate giving extra privileges to employees - it's actually very important. Employees of the company are the main resource of the organization, the care of the employer about the employee significantly increases his loyalty to the company. In addition, corporate employee training, for example, is beneficial not only to employees, but also to the employer himself.
Many employers in the announcements about the squeaks of employees write about the social package that they can receive if an employment contract is drawn up with them. Although the term itself refers to the social sphere, it has nothing to do with social guarantees from the state. And at each workplace or for certain categories of citizens, these are their own, different from other conditions for providing free assistance either by the employer themselves, or a set of certain services guaranteed by the state. In the article we will talk about what the social package includes.
And if in the distant Soviet times no one was surprised by free medicine and education, or the distribution of free vouchers to sanatoriums and rest homes, today social values have changed. And the concept has become a common bonus for providing its employees with a kind of benefits or compensation, that is, social assistance either from the employer or from government agencies.
Our working population naively confuses the term social package with social guarantees, in the latter case they are qualified by labor legislation, and guarantee all employees, for example, a normalized lunch break or sick leave payment, care for a minor family member, etc. What benefits are provided to pensioners for know old age.
Each head of an enterprise or commercial structure has the right to establish a list of assistance to his employees, because our legislation does not regulate this issue in any way, although the concept itself has long been part of our lives.
You can find out what will be provided to you by the employer under the social package from the text of the concluded labor agreement, and it depends only on how much money they can be allocated for each employee individually.
This clause of the contract significantly reduces the tax burden on the enterprise, so the controlling structures may oblige the management to list full information about possible assistance in each individual employment contract. He will tell about benefits for working pensioners.
On the video - what the social package includes:
A social package is an effective incentive for an employee to improve his performance, because if, for example, he has implemented an innovative solution that significantly increases the productivity of products, then such an employee will not only be provided with typical benefits and payment for various services at the expense of the employer, but can be given a prestigious trip to resort, or send on a trip abroad. He will tell you about insurance premiums for compulsory medical insurance.
Or if the management is important about the health of employees, then it can pay for subscriptions, for example, to a swimming pool or a gym. Although everything here is strictly individual, and absolutely everyone may not need the same free services. For what you can get a tax deduction will tell.
The full social package may include, although this is not a direct obligation of the employer:
The employer has the right to provide his employee with any benefits if he has available funds for these purposes.
Partial package benefits that are commonly available to temporary employees may include:
And again, all of them can only be established by the company's management, there are simply no legal requirements for the mandatory provision of certain guarantees. Read about article 219 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation on social tax deductions.
Since people of retirement age usually no longer work, the social package is provided to them at the expense of the state, usually it includes:
This is the main list of benefits received, but some regional authorities make an additional payment to their elderly citizens, for example, for the title of a hero or for outstanding services to their small homeland, for example, if a pensioner has patented such inventions that his region or region needs.
All this is the prerogative of local authorities, and only they can decide what social security services are available to them for implementation in relation to each person of retirement age.
Disabled people are the most vulnerable group of the population, therefore the state provides its own social package for them, which includes the following services:
On the video - general information about benefits for people with disabilities:
Some categories of people, such as, may have benefits for paying utility bills and a landline phone, a free call to a doctor at home in a narrow specialty, or a free appointment with a specialist at a medical center. But all this can only be provided by the local administration, and as services from the main package in other regions may not be available.
Whether the employer or the state provides you with services under the social package does not matter at all, the main thing is to know what you can count on in a given situation.
