One sign of a successful business is happy employees. So how do you keep employees happy? Providing good benefits for them is one top method. For an example of this, we can look at Walmart, and how they are working to make their employees happy after years of coming under fire for claims of low wage and sporadic working hours, amongst other complaints.
Recently Walmart’s employees have been lobbying for higher wages, employee discounts on food, better and more-regular hours, and additional insurance and retirement benefits from the big box store. Because of these requests from their employees and the outside pressure they were generating, Walmart has agreed to some and are considering others.
One of the major changes that Walmart has agreed to recently is the change of hours for employees. Walmart is going to start offering fixed shifts, which will allow employees to “lock in” the same weekly hours. They will also offer flex shifts, which will allow workers to set their own schedules from a set of available time slots.
Legally, as a company, you are only required to contribute to certain employee benefits, such as Social Security, Medicare, federal and state unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation. Other benefits, such as paid time off, vacation days, and leaving early on Fridays, are not required by law—each company has the prerogative to offer and change these as they see fit. However, if you are already providing these, do not expect to be able to “roll back” whatever benefits you have changed your mind about.
If you have any questions on the above article, contact Jeana Goosmann at Goosmann Law Firm by clicking below.