CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
Maintaining
healthy employee relations in an organization is a pre-requisite for
organizational success. One way of maintaining good and healthy employee
relations in an organization is by attaching lucrative benefits to
every job and task carried out by every employee in that organization.
Employee benefits which are the various non-wage compensations provided
to employees in addition to their normal wages or salaries cannot be
over looked by the management of an organization, since the human
resource of an organization is the most valued resource. This current
era is highly competitive and organizations regardless of size,
technology and market focus are facing employee retention challenges. To
overcome these restraints a strong and positive relationship and
bonding should be created and maintained between employees and their
organizations. To enhance this strong and positive relationship,
employees should be motivated to put in their best by providing
employees with certain lucrative employee benefits like performance
bonuses, Christmas bonuses, study allowances, leave allowances etc.
Human resource or employees of any organization are the most central
part so they need to be influenced and persuaded towards tasks
fulfilment.
In-order to achieve organizational goals, organizations
must design various strategies to make employees happy, and place
various incentives for them to benefit from, thereby adding value to
themselves and increasing organizational performance. If employees are
not satisfied with their job or work place, they tend to put little
efforts at work or move to other organizations with better job packages.
This can cost an organization so much, especially if they are loosing a
key and very competent staff to a competitor.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY AND ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE
Employee
benefits had its roots in the industrial revolution which created the
modern employment relationship by spawning free labour markets and
large-scale industrial organizations with thousands of wage workers. As
society wrestled with these massive economic and social changes, labour
problems arose. Low wages, long working hours, monotonous and dangerous
work, and abusive supervisory practices led to high employee turnover,
violent strikes, and the threat of social instability. These led to
various labour unions calling for organizations to compensate employees
accordingly. Intellectually, industrial relations were formed at the end
of the 19th century as a middle ground between classical economics and
Marxism, with Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb’s Industrial Democracy being
the key intellectual work. Industrial relations thus rejected the
classical econ. Institutionally, employee relation was founded by John
R. Commons when he created the first academic industrial relations
program at the University of Wisconsin in 1920. Early financial support
for the field came from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who supported
progressive labour-management relations in the aftermath of the bloody
strike at a Rockefeller-owned coal mine in Colorado. In Britain, another
progressive industrialist, Montague Burton, endowed chairs in
industrial relations and employee benefits at Leeds, Cardiff and
Cambridge in 1930, and the discipline was formalized in the 1950s with
the formation of the Oxford School by Allan Flanders and Hugh Clegg.
Employee benefits and organizational relations were formed with a strong
problem-solving orientation that rejected both the classical
economists’ laissez faire solutions to labour problems and the Marxist
solution of class revolution. It is this approach that underlies the New
Deal legislation in the United States, such as the National Labour
Relations Act and the Fair Labour Standards Act.
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Designing and implementing a
good employee benefit plan is a huge challenge for most organizations
in Nigeria. A study conducted by Cascio (2003) in some West African
countries including Nigeria revealed that most organizations in
developing countries do not structure and implement their employee
benefit packages in an appropriate manner; hence employees find it
difficult to really believe they are benefiting from their workplace.
Poorly
designed benefit plans that do not actually motivate employees to put
in their best at work is a major issue in corporate Nigeria today.
Organizations that do not design their employee benefit plans based on
the personality and nature of their employees tend to be wasting
resources and efforts, as employees are not motivated to work hard if
certain benefit packages offered by the organization do not speak to
their needs. An average Nigeriaian worker places more importance to the
benefits he or she will derive from working, therefore they are very
concerned about what they are paid. Cascio (2003) opines that because of
the importance that employee benefits hold for people’s lifestyle and
self esteem, employees are very concerned about what they are paid as
benefits- a fair and competitive employee benefit, while wise
organizations are concerned about what they pay because it motivates
important employee decisions especially when it comes to job delivery
and performance.
Implementation of employee benefit is also a major
challenge in corporate Nigeria, as employee benefits are sometimes
delayed or ruled out due to cost reduction measures by the management of
an organization. This has brought about massive corruption, high
employee turnover and low employee moral/productivity.
1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The main purpose of this
study is to examine the impacts of employee benefits on the performance
of an employee in an organization. However, in line with the main
objective of the study, the specific objectives are:
- To identify employee benefit packages offered to the employees of First bank, Uyo.
- To evaluate the design and implementation of employee benefit plans/ policies of First bank, Uyo.
- To examine the effects of identified employee benefit packages on the overall performance of the employees of First bank, Uyo.
- To suggest better employee benefit packages and plans to the management of First bank, Uyo.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In-order to achieve the stated objectives of this study, the following research questions were developed by the researcher:
- What employee benefits exist in First bank Uyo?
- What processes are involved in drafting employee benefit policies,
and what factors are considered when planning and implementing these
policies?
- What effects have your company’s employee benefit packages had on your job performance?
- Considering the advancement in technology and best human resources
practices all over the world, what newer employee benefit packages do
you think if introduced to your company, it will increase your
performance?
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study seeks to
highlight and recommend best employee benefit practices that can be
adopted in an organization, by bringing out the various employee benefit
practices which First bank has undertaken to increase its productivity
and contribute its quota in the economic development of the communities
which it operates, and the country at large. This study will therefore
help enlighten management of various organizations of the various
effects of employee benefit plans and packages on the performance of an
organization. The study will also bring out specifically, the employee
benefit packages which the bank has been able to make available to its
employees. It also seeks to bring out the level of encouragement and
motivation the bank has given to its employees to work effectively,
among others. The importance of this study is therefore to highlight the
various employee benefits and how it affects the productivity of
employees in an organization. This study will go a long way to
illustrate how organizations should treat employees’ in-order to
increase productivity.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The
scope of the research will be limited to the effects of employee
benefits on the performance of employees in First bank, Uyo branch in
the Eastern region of Nigeria. The research will rely on the bank for
vital information as well as information from secondary source.
1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The
researcher encountered a limitation in regards to availability of
information. Thus due to the institutions working ethics, the researcher
could not get access to vital information since it was treated as
confidential and the targeted respondent’s number was not attained,
since some employees were on leave. Inadequate funds and availability of
time also became a limitation.
1.8 CHAPTER SCHEME
The project will be organized around following chapters;
Chapter
one gives an introduction to the research work. It gives the basic
information about the company and the research being undertaken. This
chapter therefore consists of the background of the study and
organizational profile, statement of the problem, objectives, research
questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, and
limitations encountered by the researcher.
Chapter Twoconsists of the literature review and the theoretical framework
Chapter
three gives details of the research methodology. The research
methodology represents the various ways and methods which the researcher
used in order to gain information.
Chapter Fourgives the analysis and interpretation of the information gathered by the researcher.
Chapter five gives the findings and conclusion of the researcher.
Here, conclusions will be drawn based on the findings and their
implications will also be given
his consequently will cut down on the time devoted for
the research work.