Area firms loosen their benefit plans to attract workers

Northern Nevada employers appear to be sweetening their benefits and perks packages with the exception of health coverage as they battle a tight labor market.

For instance, an increased number are providing at least 11 paid holidays a year, found a new survey by the Nevada Association of Employers.

And the sweeter packages are developed in some subtle ways.More employers, the association's survey found, allow workers to take vacation immediately, rather than requiring six months or a year of service.

The survey's findings didn't come as any surprise to James Nelson, executive director of the Nevada Association of Employers.

Employers throughout the region struggle to hire and retain workers as northern Nevada's unemployment rate stays below 4 percent, he said last week, and benefits packages can be an important recruiting tool.

About 20 percent of the 125 employers surveyed, for instance, provide flex-time scheduling for workers.

That's up from 14 percent two years ago.

"It's just one more feather in their cap when they go to recruit someone,"Nelson said.

The number of companies that allow casual dress one day a week grew to 41 percent from 36 percent two years ago.

And the number that allow casual attire every day grew to 19 percent from 15 percent in 2003.

Unlike casual dress or flexible schedules, holiday pay is a direct cost for employers.

Still, employees are getting more holiday pay than they did two years.

More than a quarter of the employers surveyed 26 percent said they provide 11 or more paid holidays a year.

Two years ago, the number was 19 percent.

And a growing number of employers 56 percent in 2005 say that they have no rules for the length of a time a worker is employed before he receives holiday pay.

"Employers are changing their policies and benefits to make them more

favorable to the workers,"Nelson said.

The clear exception is health coverage, where the employers association survey found that employers are responding to rapidly rising premium costs by trimming the benefits plan.

Two years ago, 41 percent of the companies surveyed by the association said they paid the entire health premium for employees.

Today, the number has fallen to 34 percent.

"It's what you would expect,"Nelson said.

"We're caught in an insurance catastrophe."

About 45 percent of the survey respondents said their company pays 75 percent or more of the cost of an employee's premium.

Only 8 percent said they pay less than half.

Some 38 percent of the companies surveyed have moved to programs of paid time off to replace sick and vacation time.

Larger employers, those with 100 or more workers, are some more likely to have PTO programs.

Asked if they allow employees to use company e-mail or Internet access for personal purposes, the respondants were divided nearly equally between those that allow it, those that forbid it and those that require specific permission.

(Copies of the survey results are free to members of the Nevada Association of Employers; other can purchase copies by calling the association at 329-4241.)