One of the pillars of the triple bottom line framework is social sustainability and requires
organizations to conduct business in a way that is “good for people”. Minimal employee benefits
with little PTO or sick time are examples of business practices that are bad for people. There is a
large cost associated with extending employee benefits. The example from our texts highlights the
story of Tony Hsieh’s mission to launch Zappos, and how he went without a profit for years to
maintain his high standard of employee benefits. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “In
March 2020, 78 percent of civilian workers had access to paid sick leave benefits. The average cost
to employers was $0.45 per employee hour worked in March 2020” (BLS, 2020). Many companies
are so focused on profit that they overlook the damage to their workforce by skimping on taking
care of their people.
c c c When employees are forced to choose between working and taking time off, they are forgoing
their personal health, a dependents health, time away from work to rest, relax, reset, and make time
for enjoyment or personal growth. They suffer. What’s more, researchers are finding that offering
paid time off may not come at such a high price in the grand scheme of operation, c
“The attrition rate for women after childbirth was twice our average attrition rate. . . . After making
the change in leave, the difference in attrition rates vanished. And moms told us that they were
often using the extra two months to transition slowly back to work, making them more effective and
happier when the leave ended. When we eventually did the math, it turned out this program cost
nothing. The cost of having a mom out of the office for an extra couple of months was more than
offset by the value of retaining her expertise and avoiding the cost of finding and training a new
hire” (Gracia, 2019).
c c c c c c c On a personal note, I choose not to return to my job after the birth of my child because I felt
let down by my company. I called SNHU out of anger because after I felt I was misled by my HR
manager. I decided I wanted to be the one in HR assisting new parents and employees’ in
transitioning back to work after a leave of absence. Five minutes into my call with SNHU I was
enrolled in courses, and in August I will complete my program. It actually turned into a happy story.
Benefits associated with paid time off and sick time off affect people, communities,
economies, and businesses. People can’t participate in extra activities within their community if they
are always at work and/or fatigued from their daily grind. They don’t have the capacity to learn,
teach, coach, tutor, mentor, parent, or volunteer. When workers are on a break from their 9-5, they
are either filling their own personal tank OR spending money on things like skiing, dining at a
restaurant or pub, spending time at a hotel, a spa, a yoga studio, or shopping. Injecting their hard-
earned money back into the economy. c
c c c c c c c c Employers can also obtain benefit such as competitive advantage to attractive and retain top
talent. Companies will see a reduction in unplanned absenteeism. They can see the boost in
productivity, morale, and company loyalty. It is a win for both people and companies, and takes they
vision of management to see the forest for the trees.
In the situation where an organization's culture is described by employees as stressful, competitive,
or alienating, some reasons for this being the culture norm is that the relationship between
employee and manager is strained due to the job positions. Another possible reason for the stressful
factor is that constant demand to be more productive or have reoccurring quick deadlines. The
reason why this becomes a problem is that it costs an organization money to be less productive. The
stress of a work relationship strain and fast approaching deadlines, and the pressure of meeting
deadlines can lead to a workplace culture that is stressful.
The possible reasoning for the workplace culture being known as competitive is that as generations
become more educationally focused, once they obtain degrees they are more qualified than those
without degrees. This leads to a constant competition of education to compete for job positions.
Another possible reason is that companies want the more effective and efficient employee which
tends to make peers become rivals in the workplace.
As for the rational of feeling alienated in the workplace, due to the specialization in many large
organizations, segregation based on skills is a common reason. Top this with feeling overwhelmed
with a need for efficiency, competition, and workplace stress this leads to a toxic workplace
environment.
In the organization, lower compensation is one of the biggest reasons for disputes between
employers and employees. Usually, the employees give most of their time, skills, knowledge, and
energy to the organization, but in return, they have not got the right amount of compensations.
Basically, the compensation is getting affected due to several internal and external factors. Of these,
the internal factors that are affecting the compensation include the employer's affordability,
compensation policy of the organization, the organizational ability to pay, worth of a job, employee-
related factors, employee's worth, and job analysis and job description. On the other hand, there are
some external factors that include the cost of living, prevailing wage level, government control,
compensation survey, globalization, demand and supply of labor, economic conditions, society,
labor unions, legislation, and cross-sector mobility (Factors affecting employee compensation.
Economics Discussion, 2019).
It is very important for an organization to look after the compensation planning strategies as it can
have a negative impact on the employees, the business or organization, and the local community.
First of all, the compensation package can come in different forms, such as flexible benefits, work-
life balance, employee perks, and medical care. When the compensation is not satisfactory for them,
it directly affects the efficiency and performance of the employees. Likely, the organization may face
low productivity, low job satisfaction, and high turnover. In addition, this can also lead to affect the
quality of work and the growth of the organization (Dirks, 2021).
Compensation management is considered as the organized practice, which balances the work-
employee relation by offering the benefits of non-monetary and monetary to employees. Moreover,
the compensation includes different kinds of payments such as profit sharing, bonuses, recognition
rewards, overtime pay, and sales commission. If a more people-friendly compensation practice was
incorporated in the organization, then it would be helpful to increase the productivity of the
organization. Also, it will help to achieve the goal of the organization and run the organization
successfully. In addition, incorporating the people-friendly compensation practice will bring
satisfaction and self-actualization among the employees to achieve the organization's goal
(Compensation management and benefits (Human Resource Management). Compensation
Management and Benefits, Compensation Management Notes, Compensation Management
Definition, 2021).
For this discussion I will focus on why employee pay is low. Many people that fall under the essential
worker category are underpaid and overworked. Gabriel Zucman an economist at the University of
California Berkeley talked about how wage practices are arbitrary and that social, political, and
economic practices are manipulated to the advantage of the few instead of the many (Ingraham,
2020).
Low paying jobs cause a domino effect of negative outcomes for employees and employers.
Employees that are earning an unlivable wage are often not able to support their households
without overworking themselves. This leave little time for them to further their educations or take
certification courses in order for them to advance in the job market. If a job is not working out
employees will not hesitate to quit, because they know that they will be able to find a similar paying
job. This effects companies because their turnover rate stays at a consent high, which increases their
cost due to paying for recruiting and onboarding expenses frequently.
The first thing that comes to mind when talking about raising the minimum wage is that the standard
of living will increase for millions of people. These individuals will also have more disposable income
that they could pump back into our economy which would benefit many companies.
A 2019 Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report projected a significant improvement in the
standard of living for at least 17 million people, assuming a minimum hourly wage of $15 by 2025,
including an estimated 1.3 million people being elevated above the poverty line (Maverick,2021).
The risks of raising the minimum wage are inflation and higher operating costs. Considering that
CEO’s and many other high-level company officials have increased their earnings since the minimum
wage was increased I believe that their are ways to counter the effects of inflation that do not
suggest leaving the working class to live on a poverty wage.
References:
Ingraham, C. (2020, April 6). Analysis | why many 'essential' workers get paid so little, according to
experts. The Washington Post. Retrieved January 14, 2022, from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/06/why-do-so-many-essential-workers-get-
paid-so-little-heres-what-economists-have-say/
Maverick, J. B. (2021, May 19). What are the pros and cons of raising the minimum wage?
Investopedia. Retrieved January 14, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets-
economy/090516/what-are-pros-and-cons-raising-minimum-wage.asp
Compensation management and benefits (Human Resource Management). Compensation
Management and Benefits, Compensation Management Notes, Compensation Management
Definition. (2021). Retrieved January 12, 2022, from
https://www.civilserviceindia.com/subject/Management/notes/compensation-management-and-
benefits.html
Dirks , E. (2021, March 31). How compensation affects employee performance. HRSoft. Retrieved
January 12, 2022, from https://hrsoft.com/how-compensation-affects-employee/
Factors affecting employee compensation. Economics Discussion. (2019, July 25). Retrieved January
12, 2022, from https://www.economicsdiscussion.net/human-resource-management/factors-
affecting-employee-compensation/31636
Gracia, A. (2019). The Changing Face of Paid Time Off. GPSolo, 36(5), 20–23.
Hsieh, T. (2020). Why I sold Zappos. In People, planet, and profit. Soomo Learning.
https://www.webtexts.com (Reprinted from “Why I sold Zappos,” 2010, Inc.)
SHRM. (2014, August). SHRM - Total Financial Impact of Employee Absences in the U.S. Retrieved
January 11, 2022, from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-
magazine/Documents/kronos_us_executive_summary_final.pdf
