| You know the key to growing your firm and reaching your strategic goals often rests with the quality of your employees, and the quality of your firms policies, procedures, and benefits is critical to hiring and retaining a top-notch workforce. But with benefits costs spiraling out of control, you also need to keep a close eye on the bottom line. How do you draw the line between offering benefits to attract the right staff to your firm and costly expenses that will break the bank?
The 2005 Policies, Procedures & Benefits Survey of A/E/P & Environmental Consulting Firms will help you benchmark your firm against industry standards so you can find out if youre overspending on benefits and compensation. The survey will also provide you with industry norms on policies and procedures so you can support your policy decisions with hard data. Get all the benchmarks you need on compensation policies, benefits, HR staff, recruiting policies, and other major HR issues. The results are broken down by firm type, size, region, and other factors so you can make comparisons between your firm and others just like it. All information is the most current available, so decisions about your firms policies and procedures can be made with confidence.
Topics covered in the 2005 Policies, Procedures & Benefits Survey include:
Health, dental & life insurance: With skyrocketing health insurance costs, are most firms still covering insurance premiums in full? If not, how much does the firm pay, and whats the employee contribution? Weve structured this section to include firm and employee contributions both as a dollar amount and as a percentage amountso no matter how your firms insurance is set up, you can compare your costs to what other firms are spending.
Compensation: By how much did salaries increase in 2004, and what are firms projecting for 2005? Whats the normal increase for a 50-person architecture or interiors firm, and whats typical for a 250-person E/A firm? Find out how much is enoughand how much is too muchfor employee raises and set your firms compensation budget with hard data from other firms just like yours.
Paid time off: When should employees be eligible for three weeks of vacation time? Do firms include sick time with vacation time, or do they use separate categories? What holidays are typically given in other firms just like yours? Whether you think employees in your firm deserve more time off or you think theyre getting too much as it is, this section will give you the hard data to make a solid argument as to why you should change your firms policies (or keep them the same).
Recruiting: Hiring is tough in any economy. There may be a larger pool to choose from now than there was a few years ago, but how do you pick out and attract the best candidates? This section includes data on everything from whether firms are using recruiting agencies or search firms (and if so, how much they pay for these services) to what kind of background checks they conduct on potential hires. To be successful, you have to hire the right people. Find out what your competition is doing to recruit, and make sure you stay one step ahead!
Time & travel: How do other firms handle employee travel? Whats charged to the project or client, and what gets included in overhead? How much do firms reimburse employees for meals, lodging, car rental, and other travel expenses? Get the answers to these questions and make sure your firms policies are consistent with the rest of the industry!
Human resources staff: Are you worried that your firm is dedicating too many, or not enough, staff to HR tasks? Find out whats normal for a firm of your size. Also get data on HR directors education, experience, responsibilities, and compensation. HR is an important function in any firmmake sure your firms staff is qualified!
|
