Read through your employee benefits and make copious notes regarding questions you have.
Then, schedule a meeting with a senior Human Resource (HR) representative.
HR will probably want to schedule you with an entry-level HR representative.
Insist on someone senior because this person will more fully understand the benefit plan.
Benefit plans can be complicated. Make sure you ask questions until you truly understand the answers.
Benefit plans will include some or all of the following:
1.Health insurance—It would take its own book to explain health insurance. Just make sure you fully understand your plan’s co-payments, deductibles, and coverage.
2.Vacation/personal days/sick days—Understand the requirements for each. Is a doctor’s note needed for sick days? If you don’t use your vacation days during the existing calendar year, do you lose the unused days or can you take them the following year?
4.401K plans—I covered these in this post..
5.Bonus plans—Do you have such a plan and how does it work? Do you need to be employed on the last day of the year or on the date a bonus is paid to receive it?
6.Stock options—Stock options give an employee the right to purchase shares of company stock at a specified price during a specified period of time after the option has vested (the time period is normally expressed in years).
Options are usually offered to certain individuals in major companies. If you are eligible for this benefit, your company will most likely offer a seminar or detailed explanation of the stock option plan. Without going into details on this (again, it could be a book unto itself), make sure you fully understand the details of your stock option plan.
All of these benefits will likely be new to you. Take the time to understand them and learn about the elements of the plan that are important for you.
If you manage these benefits properly, they will provide you with tens of thousands of dollars in benefits over the life of your career.
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