The Journal of Total Rewards
First Quarter 2021 | Volume 30 | No. 1
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Journal of Total Rewards Article
Strategic Benefits: How Employee Benefits Can Create a Sustainable Competitive Edge
Benefits are generally not viewed strategically although they can have considerable impact on the attitudes and behaviors of employees and the organization, all of which can affect an organization’s sustainable competitive advantage. Mechanisms through which benefits can have a strategic impact include affecting organizational level factors such as costs, identity and reputation as well as affecting employee attitudes and behaviors. As such, employee attitudes and behaviors in turn impact: 1) the attraction and retention of employees; 2) employee well-being; 3) strategic employee behaviors;4) employee citizenship behaviors; and 5) employee performance.
Journal of Total Rewards Q1 2021 | WorldatWork
Journal of Total Rewards Q1 2021 | WorldatWork
Will 'Let's Make a Deal' Become the New Rewards Strategy?

The pandemic has affected how and where work is done, which has implications for rewards.

Journal of Total Rewards Q1 2021 | WorldatWork
Strategic Benefits to Help Survive and Thrive in Times of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic upended the essence of managing and engaging employees.Some effects of the pandemic may be short term, but experts argue that the pandemichastened the digitization of work and the use of flexible working hours and remotework. In this paper, we look at the role of strategic benefits in helping employerssurvive the pandemic and aiding organizations in remaining agile and effective oncethe pandemic is over.

Journal of Total Rewards Q1 2021 | WorldatWork
Strategic Idiosyncratic Deals (I-Deals) Policy: Individually Negotiated Arrangements as an Alternative Approach for Delivering Customized Benefits

Many managers informally tailor discretionary benefits arrangements (e.g., telecommuting, flexible work schedule) to fit individual employees’ preferences.

Journal of Total Rewards Q1 2021 | WorldatWork
Leveraging Healthy Workplaces as a Strategic Benefit

This paper demonstrates how a healthy workplace can be a valuable strategic benefit. The physical and behavioral attributes of the work environment affect employee engagement and well-being, personnel-related costs and organizations’ ability to attract and retain high-quality talent.

Journal of Total Rewards Q1 2021 | WorldatWork
Revisiting Benefits Design Approaches: The Strategic Value Of Identity-Based Benefits

When designing benefit offerings, organizations often frame the task as a trade-off: should we follow the market (do what others do) or should we focus on our employees’ preferences (let them choose)?

Journal of Total Rewards Q1 2021 | WorldatWork
Poll: Voters Overwhelmingly Want to Keep Employer-Provided Health Care

The United States has a unique health care system that is centered on job-based health insurance, with the federal and state governments filling in gaps for the aged and the needy.

Journal of Total Rewards Q1 2021 | WorldatWork
Strategic Benefits Management: What We Think, What We Know and What We Need to Know

Organizations have been aggressive and prolific in their adoption of employee benefits features. During the past two decades, a two-prong pattern of decisions has developed. On the one hand, a menu of flexible benefits and work arrangement options composed of voluntary benefits, flexible benefits programming, specialty medical benefits and flexible work arrangements has developed to enhance the attraction and retention of employees. On the other hand, a set of health and financial wellness programs, along with work-family benefits, has emerged to support the ability to engage and perform at work. Academic research, however, has not kept pace in providing the underlying evidence to support strategic employee benefits decision making. In this paper, we distinguish strategic from tactical and operational benefits decisions, examine the trends in decision making and identify the gaps in what is believed and known about employee benefits and their outcomes. We conclude with an agenda for practitioner scholar partnerships to generate evidence to support strategic decision making.

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