The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) provides reports about employee satisfaction. It generally observed that organizations are not keen on the factors that contribute to employee satisfaction. The human resource (HR) personnel has the mandate to assess how best the organization can align itself to provide best practices for satisfaction. Aflac Insurance is one of the companies that SHRM has studied. It has the philosophy of emphasizing on the people for successful attainment of its objective (Reed, 2016). While the company has achieved a low employee turnover and expression of satisfaction of employees, it can be recommended that the company offers dining and shuttle services to the people.
The company effectively uses its services to enhance compensating the workers. Being in the insurance industry, the company offers its employees with policies such as life insurance at a lower cost compared to that charged on customers. The revenue the company gains from customers is used in offering the employees with salaries and benefits such as retirement benefits. In addition, employees interested in the areas of education and arts, which the company has as some of the community development agenda, are empowered appropriately (Mc Williams & Siegel 2018). Therefore, the company effectively uses its services and resources to totally compensate employees.
Aflac’s strengths and weaknesses range from resources to organizational structure, all of which have been used in the reward program. It is one of the leaders in the insurance industry, with a large customer and capital base. Accordingly, it uses the revenue to handsomely reward employees. The organization also has the strength of having a good reputation. It is renowned for integrity in its service provision, with various stakeholders providing positive reviews. Aflac also boasts a compact and dedicated workforce. It is driven by the mission, and sharing common objectives has promoted employee performance. Loyalty among employees is evident, with over 90% of the employees being retained (Reed, 2016). However, Aflac has the major weakness of specializing in insurance. It has not adequately diversified, and Gyan et al. (2017) realizes that accordingly, if the insurance and financial sectors are affected, then the company cannot continue operating. It will then imply it will lack the capacity to maintain employees.
Aflac has the external opportunity to grow. It can expand its market as a way of earning more revenues. In addition, there are cost cutting strategies it can use. The case study highlights that the organization can only reward employees given performance that will increase profits, which can be reached by cutting expenses. Use of technology and smoothening operational processes are some of the strategies that will result in reduced costs of operation. However, the company has the weakness of facing intensive competition. There are existing and emerging companies in insurance that pressurize the company to identify effective measures, some of which are draining to the organizational resources (Hamid et al., 2019). For instance, the rivals can poach performing Aflac employees, and thus the company has to offer competitive rewards.
The company applies both traditional and non-traditional rewards as a motivating factor for its employees. The traditional benefits of insurance, bonuses, and paid vacations are some of those that Aflac provides (Tung, 2016). In addition, it provides retirement plans for its employees, and discount for insurance packages. Complementing the traditional methods was inspired by the organization’s philosophy of focusing on the lifestyles employees as a strategy to grow. The company takes the responsibility of offering training across careers and personal life choices, with the mention of topics such as prevention of diabetes. Accordingly, the employees feel that the company extends beyond the interest it has in them (Reed, 2016). It is thus explainable why the company has had its high-level managers having risen up the career ladder and personal growth within Aflac.
Aligning corporate values with the benefits has greatly contributed to the success in Aflac. The company believes in corporate social responsibility, and it uses its resources to cater for societal needs (Mc Williams & Siegel, 2018). It motivates employees to take part in the programs by rewarding one of them as the “Volunteer of the Month.” The values are further inspired by Deuteronomy 24:14 that states, “You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your countrymen or one of your aliens who is in your land in your towns” (The New King James Version). Accordingly, there is just in treating all people, with empathy being the base of interaction between the company and employees.
One of the recommendations to Aflac is that it can offer transport services for its employees. It has been noted in the case study that the company provides transport allowances for the employees, and further car insurance at a low price. The company can save a significant cost by initiating shuttle services for the employees. Kwon (2014) notes that the workers will also not have to incur in fueling their cars, which saves on their personal income. In addition, the company can offer dining facilities for the employees. It ensures that employees can get healthy and affordable foods as they work. It will also raise the level of socialization among the employees.
References
Gyan, A. K., Brahmana, R., & Bakri, A. K. (2017). Diversification strategy, efficiency, and firm performance: Insight from emerging market. Research in International Business and Finance, 42, 1103–1114.
Hamid, Z., Muzamil, M., & Shah, S. A. (2019). Strategic human resource management. In Handbook of Research on Positive Organizational Behavior for Improved Workplace Performance (pp. 260–275). IGI Global.
Kwon, W. J. (2014). Human capital risk and talent management issues in the insurance market: Public policy, industry and collegiate education perspectives *. Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance: Issues and Practice, 39(1), 173–196.
Mc Williams, A., & Siegel, D. (2018). Corporate social responsibility: A theory of the firm perspective. In Business Ethics and Strategy, Volumes I and II (pp. 137–147). Taylor and Francis.
Reed, S. (2016). Benefits and Business at Aflac and L.L. Bean. Benefits and Business at Aflac and L.L. Bean. Society for Human Resource Management.
Tung, R. L. (2016). New perspectives on human resource management in a global context. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 142–152.
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