The tradition of stimulating employees to work efficiently by providing them with various bonuses and compensation originates in foreign corporate culture. In the USA and EU, the size of the so-called benefits, which are becoming increasingly extraordinary, can reach 40% of the salary. Russian companies more often use more traditional methods of motivation - they pay for health insurance, reimburse expenses for food, recreation, and sports. Inspectors are always ready to give their vision of benefits for employees in the inspection report in a way that is acceptable to the budget. We find out how to avoid additional charges for personal income tax and income tax.

Benefits for employees: tax consequences for personal income tax

Let's analyze benefits for co-workers from the point of view of tax consequences for personal income tax.

Based on the principles enshrined in Art. 41 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, income is generated if:

a) the employee receives economic benefit in cash or in kind;

b) such benefits can be assessed.

This means that for an object of taxation to arise, expenses must first of all be beneficial to the employee, and not to the employer. In this case, income must be individualized, that is, assessed in relation to a specific person, and not to the entire team. This approach is reflected in judicial practice and clarifications of regulatory authorities.

For example, earlier, when employees received free meals in a buffet format, the tax authorities insisted that the benefit could be individualized, and the employee would receive income in kind (Article 211 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). But the courts did not agree with this and did not recognize the emergence of a taxable object. Since it is impossible to identify individuals who received income in the form of free food, and also to establish the cost and quantity of food consumed, it is impossible to determine the income of each employee who would be taxed.

This position was formulated back in 2000 in the resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the North-Western District dated July 31, 2000 No. A56-4253/00, and subsequently it was consistently used in law enforcement practice. The Russian Ministry of Finance also supported her, answering questions about corporate events and the consumption of products that were publicly available in the employer’s kitchen (letters dated April 15, 2008 No. 03-04-06-01/86, dated January 30, 2013 No. 03-04 -06/6-29, dated 03/06/2013 No. 03-04-06/6715).

In 2015, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation published a review of the practice of courts considering cases related to the application of Ch. 23 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (approved by the Presidium of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on October 21, 2015). It also states (clause 5) that it is necessary to distinguish between cases when the employee’s benefit:

• can be assessed and taxed (for example, each employee receives a membership to the pool, gym and sauna);
• cannot be individualized (for example, at a festive event there is no differentiation of benefits for each employee).

Thus, if an employer arranges sports activities or other events for employees, it is important to understand whether their benefit is personalized.

Example 1

The employer pays a fixed amount for the services of the sports center, regardless of the number of days of attendance. It is not specified which specific workers attend the center. This means that the object of personal income tax does not arise (resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Ural District dated October 26, 2010 No. F09-8909/10-SZ).

If a company compensates a specific employee for the cost of a gym membership or lunch expenses, the person will have income in cash, from which personal income tax must be calculated and withheld.

Risks: income tax

Most of the disputes with tax authorities arise over the possibility of accounting for various bonuses and compensation to employees as part of income tax expenses.

As is known, for tax purposes, income can be reduced by the organization’s expenses that were actually incurred, documented and, what is important in this situation, economically justified, and their assessment is expressed in monetary form. Can expenses for “benefits” for employees be considered as such?

In accordance with paragraph 25 of Art. 255 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, labor costs include, among other things, expenses in favor of the employee provided for by an employment and (or) collective agreement, although their list is not exhaustive.

According to the terms of the labor (collective) agreement, the employer is obliged to provide employees with payment for sports activities to maintain health and physical fitness (see also How to avoid recognizing a civil contract as an employment contract ). Based on the specified provision of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, such costs are lawfully included in labor costs and, accordingly, reduce the income tax base (Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow District dated April 14, 2011 No. A40-75795/10-76-386) The Ministry of Finance of Russia also adhered to this position (letter dated March 15, 2012 No. 03-03-06/1/130).

Such expenses may also be considered justified on the basis of subparagraph. 7 clause 1 art. 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation as others related to production and sales - to ensure normal working conditions.

FYI

Activities aimed at developing physical culture and sports in work teams have been added to the Standard List of measures annually implemented by the employer to improve working conditions and safety and reduce levels of occupational risks (Order of the Ministry of Labor of Russia dated June 16, 2014 No. 375n). This may serve as another argument in favor of the fact that company expenses on sports for employees should reduce taxable income.

However, it must be taken into account that the tax authorities appeal to the provisions of paragraph 29 of Art. 270 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, according to which, when determining the tax base, expenses for payment for vouchers for treatment or recreation, excursions or travel, classes in sports sections, clubs and clubs, etc., made in favor of employees are not taken into account. This list is also open, which gives vigilant and tireless inspectors room for imagination.

Based on this norm, courts and officials of the Russian Ministry of Finance in a number of cases conclude that regardless of whether the employment contract contains a provision for sports events for employees, the costs of organizing them cannot reduce the base for income tax 1 .

It is obvious that the position of the courts and regulatory authorities is based on the recognition of paragraph 29 of Art. 270 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation more special in relation to the provisions of paragraph 25 of Art. 255 and sub. 7 clause 1 art. 264 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (if we are talking specifically about sporting events).

Despite the fact that the courts give different qualifications to these rules of law, in each case they analyze for whose benefit the disputed expenses were made. If it is in favor of workers, they do not reduce the tax base. If the company itself ultimately received the benefit, then the expenses will be taken into account for income tax purposes.

One of the most common ways employee motivation , which significantly reduces the employer’s funds, is the organization of New Year’s and other corporate events (for example, trainings). Expenses for corporate events inspectors often do not allow them to be taken into account for income tax purposes, also bringing them under the provisions of paragraph 29 of Art. 270 Tax Code of the Russian Federation. However, the courts side with the companies.

Thus, the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Moscow District, in resolution dated September 24, 2009 No. KA-A40/9145-09, agreed with the taxpayer’s arguments that corporate trainings were not organized for the personal consumption of employees and not for the purposes named in paragraph 29 of Art. 270 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, but in the interests of the company itself. The agreements stated that the purpose of their conclusion was to create conditions for maximum unity of participants around a common goal for all - effective teamwork within one company; create an atmosphere of trust, mutual support and respect in the team, etc.

This example shows that courts use the benefit criterion to determine income tax consequences. It is logical to assume that all measures to improve the working conditions of employees, providing collective and individual benefits ultimately lead to the benefit of the company. Of course, costs to improve the quality of working conditions and the social package are increasing not for charitable reasons, but to increase labor efficiency and the attractiveness of the company on the market. Is it possible to fairly differentiate between the interests of the employer and the employee? And who has the burden of proving that the expense is important and necessary to the company?

Let us assume that the actions of the employer as a subject of economic activity always have an economic justification and he acts precisely in his own interests and for his own benefit. Is there a risk that the tax authority will assume the opposite due to the lack of clear criteria for separating expenses in favor of the employee and the company itself?

Example 2

The bonuses for non-smoking employees provided for in the labor and collective agreement are related to the results of the employees’ work. The purpose of these payments is to increase material interest in reducing the loss of working time from smoking breaks. This directly affects the effective use of working time by employees, their performance of work duties, and labor productivity. This means that incentive payments are related to the production activities of the company and on the basis of clause 1 of Art. 252 and paragraph 25 of Art. 255 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation reduce the income tax base (Resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the East Siberian District dated June 24, 2014 No. A33-16111/2013).

To avoid risks and protect your position, you need to carefully spell out the economic justification for spending on “benefits” for employees in contracts, orders of managers, and local acts of the organization. Then the tax inspectorate will have no room for thought on this matter.

1 For example, this position is reflected in the resolution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the West Siberian District dated January 24, 2013 No. A45-15793/2012, as well as in letters of the Ministry of Finance of Russia dated November 19, 2014 No. 03-03-06/1/58667, dated November 12, 2014 No. 03-03-06/1/57234, dated November 12, 2014 No. 03-03-06/1/57244, dated October 30, 2014 No. 03-03-06/2/54994, dated October 29, 2014 No. 03-03-06 /1/54903.

It is no secret that concepts such as “compensation” and “benefits” came to the post-Soviet corporate world with foreign companies. Someone will object, they say, what are we talking about, weren’t there such concepts in the Soviet Union and in modern Belarus? Yes, of course there were. But their meaning was different. As a rule, we were talking about compensation and benefits that organizations are required to provide to employees by law. And in our case, we are talking about compensation and benefits provided by companies voluntarily in order to encourage staff to work efficiently and retain the best. We offer material on how this happens in the USA.

Goals and approaches to compensation

The system of compensation and benefits (benefits) in America is designed to follow three main goals: attracting qualified workers, motivating them to do their job well, and retaining them in the company. Let's look at each of these goals in more detail.

1. Attracting qualified workers . Most American companies pay a lot of attention to personnel selection. It is believed that if you can find a suitable employee, you can save a lot of money (there will be no conflicts in the team, the work will be done efficiently, the company will grow, and its image will improve, etc.).

2. Motivation . It is no secret that if an employee is motivated, then he will cope with his duties more effectively. Increasing employee motivation and improving work efficiency is one of the main goals of HR strategies.

3. Retention in the company . What happens to a company when qualified personnel leave? The company loses money on finding another person, but, perhaps even worse, it loses the ability to perform well and thereby help its competitors.

To attract, motivate and retain staff, American companies began to develop various compensation and benefit schemes. In addition to the regular salary, they began to offer benefits to their employees (benefits, additional remuneration). The size of benefits in American companies is 40% of the main (basic) salary.

In America, there are two approaches to remuneration - traditional and Total Rewards. According to Ruth Jones, director of SHRM's Lincoln, Nebraska office, For traditional approach to compensation Characterized by the usual standard tariff rates of wages, contributions to the pension fund, health and life insurance. As additional programs, maintaining a healthy lifestyle (wellness plan) or partial payment of tuition can be used. But the number of benefits offered is small. And each of these benefits is considered separately, and not as part of a single remuneration system.

When does a company use the approach called Total Rewards, this means that the company has a remuneration system that includes all kinds of means to attract, motivate and retain staff. This is one large package of services for staff, often consisting of such important components as salary, benefits, maintaining a balance between work and family (Work-Life), recognition for merit and excellent work (Performance and Recognition), development and career growth. The benefits are usually more varied than with the traditional approach. Many companies in America operating on the principle Total Rewards, annually develop and distribute booklets to employees about the types of compensation and benefits offered. A typical booklet includes a list of pension plans, health insurance, life insurance, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, various types of vacations, programs to provide psychological and moral assistance to employees, etc. These services are provided by different companies, but are presented as one plan with enough variety of options that each employee can choose according to their personal preferences and needs.

Thus, using Total Rewards, companies are trying to attract and retain qualified personnel not only through salaries. The benefits of this approach include a significant reduction in employee turnover, more efficient recruiting and less absenteeism (many companies offer child and elder care services). According to Ruth Jones, Total Rewards is becoming very popular, but mainly in large enterprises that have the resources to use such a complex wage system (see table 1).

Table 1

We offer you for comparison two completely different organizations: Lincoln Industries and Cornell University.

Lincoln Industries develops compensation for employees based on the effectiveness of their work. The main ones see table 2.

Table 2

Compensation Cornell University(New York State) are a little different from Lincoln Industries, because the personnel, goals and objectives of this organization are completely different. The university employs about 3 thousand first-class teachers (for example, in the 2006–2007 academic years, three Nobel laureates taught there), about 11 thousand employees and about 20 thousand students. A huge number of benefits and programs for teachers and staff allow the university to occupy a leading position among educational institutions. For a list of some benefits and rewards offered by this university, see Table 3.

Table 3

Who handles compensation?

Most often, compensation and benefits in American companies are handled by specialists from the HR department. Large companies have rework departments that develop and administer the remuneration strategy in order to ensure that it meets the company's goals and the needs of the staff. At Cornell University, for example, three departments have been created, one of which deals only with the payment of salaries, the second manages benefits, and the third department is developing a program to maintain a healthy lifestyle for teachers and staff. At Lincoln Industries, which employs about 500 people, three people handle compensation and benefits. This is Dan Krick, responsible for the entire system of compensation and benefits in the company and directly for compensation of top management, including incentive programs and privileges; Andy Timm, responsible for compensation and benefits of all personnel (with the exception of top management); Mind Stone, responsible for system administration.

Benefit cafe

In many American companies, employees are offered the right to choose those benefits that best suit their needs and interests - cafeteria style. Lincoln Industries, for example, offers several types of health insurance and optional benefits such as life insurance, prepaid legal fees, short-term disability insurance, and so on. At the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, these benefits include spousal and children's insurance, dental insurance, and long-term disability insurance. Employees can refuse all these additional benefits, although their monetarization is most often not provided for. This is explained by the fact that by paying money instead of benefits, the company thereby encourages employees to refuse them.

Compensation Training

According to Professor Nancy Myers, director of organizational change at the University of Nebraska, there is no separate compensation qualification at American universities. However, many universities offer separate courses on compensation and benefits as part of the Human Resource Management program and you can obtain a certificate. In the United States, there is an organization called the Total Rewards Association, which provides training and testing in this area, followed by the awarding of CCP (Certified Compensation Professional), CBP (Certified Benefits Professional), GRP (Global Remuneration Professional) and, recently, WLCP (Work-Life Certified Professional) certificates. ).

Dan Krick, Vice President of Human Resources, Lincoln Industries, Angela Davenport, Performance Improvement Specialist, Vision College, Lincoln Industries, Ruth Jones, SHRM Country Director, Lincoln, Nebraska, Nancy Myers, Director of Organizational Change, University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Compensation- (from Latin compesatio - compensation, reward)

To the concept compensation the same applies:

Compensation for damage;

Reward for unused right;

Method of repaying obligations by offsetting counterclaims of the debtor and creditor;

Issuance of cash and one-time benefits to employees for unused vacation, price increases, upon dismissal, reinstatement, upon transfer to another job, etc.

Reward system or compensation package , which are used in the organization, consists of three elements - basic salary (basic salary), additional payment (incentive payments, bonuses, bonuses) and social benefits or benefits (benefits).
Basic salary and there is guaranteed compensation to the employee for his work in the organization or for the performance of duties in a given position, in a given workplace. It consists of the base salary (payment for time worked) and allowances (additional payments).
An employee's official salary is determined by the rank of the position held or the assigned tariff category, and allowances (additional payments) are introduced to take into account the individual characteristics of the employee.

Supplements can be: for knowledge of a foreign language, for work experience (length of service), for operational efficiency, for managing employees, etc.. Typically, bonuses are calculated as a percentage of the base salary. Supplements can be permanent or temporary (for 3-6 months).

Bonuses or incentive payments usually associated with additional remuneration for the employee’s performance. These include: commission payments, bonuses for fulfilling the plan, profit sharing, etc.. - everything that constitutes the variable part of the monetary remuneration for labor and is used to account for the performance of employees, linking the level of monetary remuneration with the overall performance of the company, division or the employee himself.

(The variable part can be piecework, i.e., for each unit of product manufactured, the employee receives a fixed remuneration. A special type of piecework payment is the sales incentive system , or commissions. This system is used to manage sales and stimulate sales personnel. With a commission incentive system, a direct relationship between the amount of remuneration and sales volumes is established.)

The variable portion of cash remuneration can be determined as a percentage of the base salary and vary depending on the performance of the company.

The ratio of the constant and variable parts of monetary remuneration may be different and is determined by the dependence of the result obtained on the labor efforts of the employee himself. For example, for sales managers the variable (commission part) of monetary remuneration can be 60, 70, or 80 percent of the total monetary remuneration, while for a secretary the variable part should not be more than 10 - 15 percent. This is based on the fact that the structure and content of the compensation package and the principles of material compensation for different categories of personnel will be different, because the contribution of different categories to the final product is also different and the differences are reflected in the remuneration system.

Benefits or social allowances are considered as remunerations that are not related to the quantity and quality of labor, remunerations that employees receive for the fact of working in a given organization or at a given enterprise. In addition to direct monetary compensation, there are various forms of indirect material compensation to employees, which are called social benefits, or the company's social package. Benefits include: medical insurance, vacation pay, compensation for travel expenses, provision of interest-free loans and loans to employees, membership in sports clubs, payment for meals, payment of expenses for using a mobile phone, training, reimbursement of expenses for utilities, maintenance of children in preschool institutions and other social benefits.

Social benefits, representing additional benefits received by employees from the enterprise, increase their well-being and quality of working life. Some social benefits are provided by law and are mandatory for all enterprises (paid basic and additional leaves, payment for temporary disability, benefits for young employees and women, etc.). Part of the social package is provided by enterprises on the basis of voluntarily assumed obligations towards employees.
The goals pursued by the employer, providing in addition to the basic monetary remuneration also a certain set of social benefits and payments, are quite diverse and depend on the company’s strategy, for example: attracting and retaining highly professional personnel, indirect and direct stimulation of productive work, creating a favorable public opinion about the company ( PR goals), increasing the real well-being of its own employees.

Used by companies forms of encouragement can be divided into several groups.

First: valuable gifts are the most common, then: moral rewards (gratitude, certificates of honor, etc.), as well as: time off and additional vacations.

Second group- less common: here is the inclusion of the employee’s name in the history of the company, and hanging a portrait of the most distinguished on the honor board, and awarding memorable badges.

TO third group We can include various forms of incentives that are used quite rarely: offering employees participation in profits, selling shares to employees, etc. The range of forms of incentives is wide, as it depends only on the imagination of managers.

Thus, the main trend in the development of compensation packages for organizations is a relative increase in social benefits and payments in the general remuneration system. The developed social policy of the enterprise indicates that the strategic goals of the organization include not only maximizing business profits, but also the social security of the employee and the development of his personality. And, as experience shows, such organizations turn out to be the most effective and market successful.

Sources:

Free encyclopedia "Wikipedia": Wikipedia.org

Electronic magazine Onby.ru: E. Morgunov: “Models and methods of personnel management.”

The HeadHunter North-West research service conducted a federal survey to find out what kind of compensation package employees want to receive and what employers actually provide. More than 3,000 respondents from 82 regions of the country and 25 professional fields took part in the study.

63% of respondents noted that their company provides a compensation package. The majority of employers who provide a compensation package to their employees most often offer payment for mobile communications (43%), voluntary health insurance (42%) and organize corporate events (38%). The top five most frequently provided options by companies are dentistry and meal plans.

In the structure of personnel costs, payments for compensation packages can amount to significant amounts. It is all the more important to understand how relevant the costs are and truly meet the wishes of employees. Based on the results of the employee survey, we see slightly different priorities for benefits - the top 10 included not only voluntary health insurance and mobile communications, but also payment for fitness, nutrition, training, flexible hours and the opportunity to earn additional days for vacation or periodically work remotely. Corporate holidays, despite the fact that the time and financial costs of organizing them are often quite large, were not included in the top 10 wishes of employees at all. For example, in the IT/Telecom sector, only a third of respondents expressed a desire to include corporate holidays in the compensation package, but every second employer offers them. Respondents noted the largest gap between reality and the wishes of employees in the following options: “payment/reimbursement of fitness costs” (14% receive such an option in the compensation package, 48% would like to receive it), learning a foreign language (14% receive, 43% would like ), VHI for family members, corporate kindergarten, compensation for education costs, rental housing. This confirms the trend that more and more people want to find a balance between work and personal life, as well as the interest of employees in assistance from the employer to take care of the health of the whole family, compensation for training and housing. Another interesting point. According to a HeadHunter survey, most specialists would prefer to independently choose the benefits that suit them, rather than receive a fixed, “out-of-the-box” package. This format is also more beneficial for the employer, because allows you to redistribute the budget in a targeted manner. For employees who have moved from other regions, the issue of providing a company apartment is more relevant than paying for a fitness club or corporate events. For those whose activities involve communicating with people or public speaking, the ability to reimburse the costs of beauty salon services is important. According to the survey results, only 14% of employers are currently willing to provide an optional compensation package.

The greatest unity of opinion between employees and employers is observed in the terms after which new employees must be provided with a compensation package. The majority of respondents (54%) consider it correct to receive it after completing a probationary period, while 44% of survey participants noted that this is exactly what is customary in their companies.

Pay, reward, publicly praise or give gifts - what is the best way to motivate employees to work purposefully and effectively? Experts with whom Eexecutive. ru discussed this issue, they are unanimous in their opinion that the company will not go far on purely cash bonuses - it is ineffective and expensive. At the same time, exclusively cash payments, as well as “classical” incentives in the form of providing a social package, remained in the last century. Currently, these methods are successfully combined with new ways to infect an employee with work zeal. So how can you instill a cheerful work ethic in your staff? We have the answer to this question and successful examples from practice.

Deviate from the set of standard benefits

According to a recruiting agency analyst Luxoft Personnel Alena Daragan, non-material motivation as a tool for increasing employee loyalty in recent years has gradually gone beyond traditional methods of encouragement - awarding certificates, diplomas, medals or providing additional vacation days - and is becoming increasingly important compared to material motivation.

“Today, companies compete with each other in a variety of ways of non-material motivation to attract and retain employees - organizations sometimes have to show remarkable ingenuity, providing more and more intangible benefits in order to somehow stand out from others,” says Alena Daragan. - At the same time, a number of bonuses, which a few years ago could be considered a significant advantage when choosing a place to work, now do not represent effective motivation tools due to their widespread use. For example, the importance of voluntary health insurance is lost, since it is difficult to find a serious, developing company that does not provide it. In the same situation, there were such options for non-material motivation as the provision of a comfortable office, the organization of recreation areas, sports and cultural events, parties, hobby groups, and so on. We can say that these types of motivation are becoming a “mandatory program” for all large companies.”

Combine non-material and material methods of incentives

In turn, the head of the personnel selection group of a recruitment agency "Unity" Oksana Samokhina notes that in modern companies, non-material motivation is a rather complex tool, the importance of which is difficult to overestimate: “There are many examples of non-material motivation of personnel. This could be the prospect of acquiring new knowledge and skills; providing interesting work with prospects for job and professional growth; feeling of involvement in the company's business; creating conditions conducive to the formation of professional pride and personal responsibility for work; the presence of a challenge, providing opportunities to express oneself in work; personal recognition and among colleagues - presentation of valuable gifts, certificates of honor, display on the honor board for special merits, awarding orders and medals, badges, conferring honorary titles - as it was in the USSR and is still used only in a slightly modified form; stimulation with free time (providing additional days off, vacations, choice of vacation time, flexible work schedule).

At the same time, according to Samokhina, it is unacceptable to use only one of the motivation methods. Methods of material and non-material motivation should be used together in a clearly balanced proportion.

Set goals correctly for employees

The expert also points out a common mistake of companies - when developing the motivation of subordinates, management often forgets a very important point - setting tasks and goals. “The procedure for setting goals with the right approach is a powerful method of motivation, since employees develop a focus on achieving results and the performance criteria become clear to them,” the expert notes.

“Everyone is different, and everyone’s motives are also different, and if you already have a group of people, a team, who together with you implements your vision of business development, then you constantly need to maintain the spark of motivation within them, both creating a team spirit and with each individual,” says Oksana Samokhina.

Show that the company cares about each employee

Certificates are certificates, but what about the good old bonuses and the thirteenth salary? Why is this method of motivation increasingly failing? Experts commented on various aspects of this issue.

So, the CEO of the company VENTRA Marina Simonova notes that retaining employees solely by increasing wages is obviously a losing option, moreover, the most costly for the company. “Increasing wages gives a temporary effect, and then stops working altogether. Standard benefits for all employees are also not a solution: the employee does not feel that the company cares about him,” the specialist is sure.

In turn, Oksana Samokhina considers material methods of motivation to be the most reliable and proven way to interest employees: “Frequently used methods of material motivation are premiums, bonuses, benefits, insurance, interest-free loans, fitness programs, foreign language training, various reimbursements for communication expenses , car, apartment and so on. Monetary remuneration provides a greater guarantee of increased employee performance. However, organizations cannot endlessly appeal only to such methods of motivation for obvious reasons, and then there is a need to move to higher-level needs and use more complex methods of motivation.”

Alena Daragan also believes that material motivation is a powerful tool for personnel management, but it is ineffective in isolation from other methods of reward: “Even employees who are confident that they are focused only on making money will not be able to last long in a company that does not use alternative methods of non-material motivation. In addition, in areas such as IT, where we observe an overheated labor market in terms of wages, material motivation ceases to play a decisive role and exclusively non-material ways of rewarding employees come to the fore.”

Introduce a flexible benefit system

Theory is great, but how does a motivation system that combines the material and non-material interests of employees work in practice? Speaking about the experience of her company, Marina Simonova also notes that the monetary factor of motivation is effective, but insufficient. “In addition to salary, many employers offer their employees a social package. At the same time, the vast majority offer fixed benefit packages: the employee cannot choose the benefits options, but has the right to refuse those that he does not plan to use. Typically, the company does not reimburse the employee for the cost of unused benefits and does not offer any replacement. That is, if an employee refuses the benefit in the form of voluntary health insurance, which employers most often offer, then he is left without any additional benefits. – says Marina Simonova. - The inflexibility of this scheme forced the management of our company to refuse to use it. The choice was made in favor of a benefit system based on the cafeteria or cafeteria plan principle.”

According to the expert, the main difference between this system and the usual corporate schemes is that the employee receives a completely customized package of benefits and chooses those offers in which he is really interested, which means that the company’s money is not wasted.

“How does this scheme work? For each category of employees, the company allocates a certain budget - in the form of money or conditional points. A special “menu” describes various options for benefits with all possible parameters and conditions, and also indicates their cost, says Marina Simonova. − At the same time, each category of employees has a certain budget, within which they select the benefits they need from an improvised “menu”. Employees have a choice of the following benefits: medical care; life and health insurance; gym membership; compensation for transportation costs; compensation for mobile communications; training financing; food compensation and others.”

According to the specialist, such a flexible benefit system gives excellent results, while the company spends the same amount of money as before. “However, for medium and large organizations with more than a hundred employees, administering such a benefit program becomes a real challenge. Our company uses its own portal solution for this, which allows us to online manage the process of employee subscription to available benefit packages and document flow with service providers (insurance companies, gyms, etc.), sums up Marina Smirnova.

Make the office a second home for employees

The motivation scheme described above assumes the presence of an appropriate budget. But what if it is limited, but you still need to motivate your staff? According to Marina Simonova, in this case the company’s task is to create the most comfortable conditions for the employee. “He should “merge” with the corporate culture of the company so much that he will not have the thought of changing his job. Give employees more freedom. Eliminate strict limits on the start and end of the working day: let the working day begin at a convenient time from a given period, for example, from 08-00 to 12-00. A person who gets enough sleep and doesn’t sit in morning traffic jams is able to work with much greater efficiency than someone who is forced to get up at midnight, not have breakfast and arrive at the required nine in the morning. – the expert recommends. − If the employee’s position and responsibilities allow it, give him the opportunity to work from home. There will be no limit to the happiness of employees, and for the company, the home office mode also provides an additional benefit by reducing office and administrative costs. Customized benefits and a comfortable corporate culture are what will help the employee and the company be together for a long time.”

Alena Daragan also notes the trend of blurring the boundaries between office and home as one of the key ones: “We can highlight a general trend in the development of non-material motivation: the transformation of an employee’s place of work into a kind of “closed system”, a microenvironment that covers all areas of his life - recreation, hobbies, family, finances, health and so on, helps him to realize himself, to be socially active - and all this in the closest possible contact with work. It is likely that in the future the best specialists on the labor market will be available to those companies that offer the candidate maximum freedom of action in all areas of life “on the job.”

Photos from the announcement:pixabay.com