Chapter 11 - Employee Benefits

Question 1

Strategic Benefits of Planning

Answer 1

Improve employee work satisfaction, meet employee health and security requirements, attract and motivate employees, retain top-performing employees, and maintain a favorable competitive position

Question 2

Allowing for employee involvement

Answer 2

employees helping to design benefits programs

Question 3

Benefits for a diverse workforce

Answer 3

must reflect social changes in diversity and lifestyle, tailor needs of employees

Question 4

Flexible benefits (cafeteria plans)

Answer 4

benefits plans that enable individual employees to choose the benefits that are best suited for their particular needs

Question 5

Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (CPP/QPP)

Answer 5

Both plans require employers to match the contribution made by employees. The revenues generated by these contributions are used to pay three main types of benefits - retirement pensions, disability benefits, and survivor benefits

Question 6

Employment Insurance (EI)

Answer 6

• Payable to claimants who are unemployed and actively seeking employment
• The amount of the benefit paid is determined by the number of hours of employment in the past year and the regional unemployment rate

Question 7

Workers Compensation Insurance

Answer 7

Insurance provided to workers to defray the loss of income and cost of treatment resulting from work related injuries or illness

Question 8

Workers Compensation Insurance:
Based on the principles

Answer 8

• Employers share collective liability, although contributions may vary among employers in the same industry
• This compensation is based on loss of earnings
• The system is no fault and non adversarial and thus offers no recourse to the courts

Question 9

Healthcare Benefits

Answer 9

Include prescription drugs, dental, optical, and mental healthcare

Question 10

Cost containment

Answer 10

reductions in coverage, increased deductibles or copayments, and increased coordination of benefits to ensure that the same expense is not paid by more than one insurance reimbursement

Question 11

Payment for Time Not Worked -

Answer 11

Statutory holidays, vacation days, time off for bereavement, jury duty, military duty, rest periods, coffee breaks, maternity/paternity benefits

Question 12

Severance pay

Answer 12

a lump sum payment given to terminated employees by an employer at the same time of an employer-initiated termination

Question 13

Life Insurance -

Answer 13

Provide financial security to the dependents of an employee in case of the employees death

Question 14

Silver handshake

Answer 14

• an early retirement incentive in the form of increased pensions benefits for several years of a cash bonus

Question 15

Contributory plan

Answer 15

a pension plan in which contributions are made jointly by employees and employers

Question 16

Non-contributory

Answer 16

a pension plan in which contribution are made solely by the employer

Question 17

Defined-benefit plan -

Answer 17

a pension plan in which the amount an employee is to receive on retirement is specifically set forth

Question 18

Defined - contribution plan

Answer 18

a pension plan that establishes the basis on which an employers will contribute to the pension fund

Question 19

Vesting

Answer 19

a guarantee of accrued benefits to participants at retirement age, regardless of their employment status

Question 20

Pension Portability

Answer 20

Employees who leave an organization can leave their locked-in funds in their current pension plan, or they can transfer those funds into a locked-in RRSP or into their new employer’s pension plan (if one exists).

Question 21

Pension funds

Answer 21

• Can be administered through a trusted plan or through an insured one
• In a trusted plan, the pension contributions are placed in a trust fund, the fund is then invested and administered by trustees

Question 22

Employee assistance programs (EAP)

Answer 22

services provided by employers to help workers cope with a wide variety of problems that interfere with the way they perform their jobs

Question 23

Counselling services -

Answer 23

family, marriage, mental health clinics, clinical psychologist, counselor, or comparable specialist

Question 24

Childcare and eldercare -

Answer 24

care provided to an elderly relative by an employee who remains actively at work

Question 25

Employee Benefits as Employer Branding

Answer 25

• Employee benefits are emerging as a differentiators for job applicants
• Get healthy, plan for future, flexible time, care for family time, discounts, continue education