Employee benefits are one of the most important factors
Employee benefits are one of the most important factors in the retention of registered nurses where the threat of turnover is very high. Often, RN’s leaves a hospital for another because it offers better compensation and attractive benefits. Kennedy Hospital has offers an attractive benefits package but many other hospitals may offer much more. To determine how Kennedy compares to its competition an analysis of the components in its benefits package is presented. The benefits package compared are those of Kennedy, Virtua, Lourdes and Genesis.
In terms of health insurance, all hospitals offered multiple plans to choose from but it is Kennedy alone that includes prescription coverage, while Genesis and Kennedy has covers vision and all of them has dental insurance. For life insurance benefits, Kennedy, Virtua, Lourdes and Genesis all offers basic life, supplemental life and short term disability, however Kennedy does not have long term disability insurance while the other three hospitals have provisions for it. Kennedy and Lourdes however provides child and spouse life insurance.
Kennedy’s paid leave benefits is the most comprehensive compared to the other hospitals, it covers personal, extended sick leave, bereavement, family/medical and military leave as well as paid time off for vacations, Virtua also provided the same paid leaves while Lourdes and Genesis had less. Kennedy does not have 401k plans, provisions for elder care, on-site child care, free basic health care, quarter century club, relocation assistance and series/savings bond. Virtua and Lourdes, has on-site child care and only Virtua offers free basic health care while Virtua and Genesis has 401k.
On the other hand, Kennedy has 403b plans, has a credit union, and invests on internal career development, adequate parking and referral bonuses, as well as sign on bonus, transfer opportunities, a wellness program and workers compensation. In sum, Kennedy has a very attractive benefits program, what it does not offer can be compensated by the other benefits that they provide, for example they do not have free basic health care, but their health insurance coverage is from vision, dental and medicines. Virtua’s benefits package is comparable to Kennedy while Lourdes and Genesis have fewer benefits.
