provides old age insurance, unemployment insurance, survivors' insurance, disability insurance, hospital insurance and supplementary medical insurance

-SS retirement benefits are free from federal tax and free from state tax in some states

-Full benefits begin at 65 or reduced benefit at 62

-Both employers an employees assessed payroll tax

-Eligibility age for benefits and tax penalty for earning influence retirement decisions 

-Offset lost income during involuntary unemployment

-Help unemployed workers find new jobs

-Provide an incentive for employers to stabilize employment

-Preserve investments in work skills by providing workers with income during short-term layoffs 

Unemployed workers are eligible for benefits if they

-have a prior attachment to the workforce

-are available for work

-are actively seeking work

-were not discharged for cause, did not quit voluntarily and are not out of work because of a labor dispute 

(no state imposes the same tax on every employer)

Guarantees (defines) a specified retirement benefit level to employees based typicalled on a combination of years of service and age as well as on the employee's earnings level (usually the 5 highest earning years)

-Insulates employees from investment risk, which is borne by the company 

age

salary

years of service 

The 1974 act that increased the fiuciary responsibilities of pension plan trustees, established vesting rights and portability provisions, and eastablished the PBCG 

-ERISA guarantees that employees, after working a certain number of years, earn the right to a pension upon retirement, referred to as vesting rights 

-Vested employees have the right to their pension at retirement age, regardless of whether they remain with the employer until that time 

-These requirements were put in place to prevent companies from terminating employees before they reach retirement age or before they reach their length-of-service requirements in order to avoid paying pension benefits 

Do no promise a specific benefit level for employees upon retirement 

-Employers shift investment risk to employees

-No need to calculate payments based on age and service

-Most prevalent in small companies

-Either money purchase plan or 401(k) plan 

- Under which an employer specifies a level of annual contribution (10% of salary). At retirement age, the employee is entitled to the contributions plus the investment returns 

-Employees typically purchase an annuity plan rather than taking the money as a lump sum 

Permit employees to defer compensation on a pretax basis

The 1993 act that requires employers with 50 or more employees within a 75-mile radius to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave after childbirth or adoption; to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, or parent or for an employee's own serious illness 

-Employees are guaranteed the same of comparable job on their return to work 

-Employees with less than a year of service, those who work less than 25 hours a week, or who are among the 10% highest paid are not covered 

A health care plan that provides benefits on a prepaid basis for employees who are required to use only HMO medical service providers 

-Focus on preventive care and outpatient treatment

-Physicians and health-care workers paid a flat salary (to reduce incentive of raising costs), instead of using the traditional fee-for-service system, under which a physician's pay may depend on the number of patients seen 

-Paying on a salary basis is intended to reduce incentives for physicians not to schedule more patient visits or medical procedures than might be necessary 

A group of healthcare providers who contract with employers, insurance companies, and so forth to provide health care at a reduced fee

-Do not provide benefits on a prepaid basis

-Employees often are not required to use just PPOs

-Less expensive than traditional health care but more expensive than HMOs

-They differ from HMOs in that they do not provide benefits on a prepaid basis and employees often are not required to use the prefered providers 

Members have a particular skill or occupation (the elctrical workers' and carpenters' unions are craft unions)

-Craft unions are responsible fo training their members (through apprenticeships) and for supplying craft workers to employers 

-Requests for carpenters, for example, would come to the union hiring hall, which would decide which carpenters to send out 

-Thus craft workers may work for many employers over time, their constant link being to the union 

Are made up of members who are linked by their work in a particular industry (such as steel workers and autoworkers). Typically they represent many different occupations

-Membership in the union is a result of working for a particular employer in the industry 

-Changing employers is less common than it is among craft workers, and employees who change employers remain members of the union only if they happen to move to other emplyers covered by that union

-Industrial unions try to organize as many employees in as wide a range of skills as possible 

The NLRA prohibits certain activities by both employers and labor unions. Unfair labor practices by employers are listed in Section 8(a) of the NLRA 

-Prohibits employers from interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees in exercising their rights to join or assist a labor organization or to refrain from such activities 

-Prohibits employer domination of or interference with the formation or activities of a labor union 

-Prohibits discrimination in any aspect of employment that attempts to encourage or discourage union-related activity

-Prohibits discrimination against employees for providing testimony relevant to enforcement of the NLRA

-Prohibits employers from refusing to bargain collectively with a labor organization that has standing under the act 

Union activists designed to exert public, financial, or political pressure on employers during the union-organizing process 

-EXAMPLE: The ACTWU organized a boycott of JP Stevens products and threatened to withdraw its pension punds from financial institutions where JP Stevens officers acted as directors. JP Stevens subsequently agreed to a contract with the ACTWU

Distributive

Integritive

Distributive bargaining power

a procedure for resolving collective bargaining impasses by which a mediator with no formal authority acts as a facilitator and go-between in the negotiations 

-Has no formal authority to force a solution; acts as a facilitator for the parties 

A person who reports on the reasons for the labor-management dispute and the views and arguments of both sides and offers a nonbinding recommendation for settling the dispute

-Investigates and reports on the reasons for the dispute and both sides' postitions 

A procedure for resolving collective bargaining impasses by which an arbitrator chooses a solution to the dispute

-A process through which a neutral party makes a final and binding decision 

-Individualism/collectivism- degree to which people act as individuals rather than as members of a group

-Power distance- how culture deals with hierarchical power  relationships. Describes the degree of inequality among people that is considered to be normal 

-Uncertainty avoidance- how cultures deal with the fact that the future is not perfectly predictable

-Masculinity/Femininity- describes the division of roles between the sexes within a society

-Long-term/short-term- tendency of a culture to focus on long-term benefit or short-term outcomes 

-Base salary- annual salary, unadjusted

-Tax equalization allowance- payments for higher tax rates of other countries

-Benefits- continuation of, substitute for, home benefits

-Allowances- cost-of-livinf, housing, education, and relocation payments 

Transactional

Traditional 

Transformational 

the day-to-day transactions such as benefits administration, record keeping, and employee services

LOW IN STRATEGIC VALUE 

nuts and bolts of HR such as performance management, training, recruiting, selection, compensation and employee relations 

-MODERATE STRATEGIC VALUE bc they often form the practices and systems to ensure strategy execution 

Create long-term capability and adaptablility. Activities include knowledge management, management development, cultural change and strategic redirection and renewal 

GREATEST STRATEGIC VALUE 

-Marketing the function- evaluation is a sign that HR cares about the organization as a whole and supports operations, production, marketing and other functions

-Providing accountability- evaluation helps determine whether the HRM functino is meeting its objectives and effectively using its budget 

Audit approach- type of assessment of HRM effectiveness that involves review of customer satisfaction or key indicators (like turnover rate or average days to fill a position) related to an HRM functional aread (such as recruiting)

Analytic approach- Type of assessment of HRM effectiveness that involves determiningthe impact of, or the financial cost and benefits of, a program or practice 

1. Identify process to be reengineered

2. Understand process

3. Redesign process

4. Implement process 

You should outsource to countries with love level of human capital 

Low skill, cheap pay