Flexible and Incentive Benefits: A Guide to Program Development

The easing of Internal Revenue Service constraints and the continued success of compensating through benefits have increased interest in both flexible and incentive option benefits programs. It is now incumbent upon compensation and benefits administrators to determine how to design such packages to suit the firm's particular worker composition. Attention is focused on the contributing factors to, and the direction of, recent changes in benefits programs, and on research findings that suggest a relationship between employee demographics and benefits preferences. This information is then used to establish a structure for the benefits development process. Program development steps include: 1. current program maintenance, 2. strategic benefits assessment, 3. control of the change, 4. diagnosis of the current program, 5. external research of program options, 6. analysis of feasibility and acceptability, 7. selection of implementation strategies, and 8. implementation.