1.    Discussion question for Week 5.  I want you to write a Discussion about compensation and benefits.  Assume you are Vice President of Human Resources for a nonprofit human services organization.  I want you to write a 300-word summary of the compensation and benefits plan that you would like to offer employees.  What forms will your compensation include?  What forms will your benefits include?  There are plenty of ideas in Chapters 7 and 8 that you can use to write your Discussion Thread.  Try to shoot for 300 words. 

Lets assume you are Senior VP of Human Resources for HelpMax, a respected regional nonprofit human services organization.  Your organizations financial position is solid, but not overflowing with money.  That means you have the financial resources necessary to recruit and retain people; you can be competitive.  The type of people you want to recruit are college educated with bachelors degrees, masters degrees or doctorates.  You want to recruit people for the long term; career employees.  Within the past year three of your organizations valuable people have resigned and joined other nonprofit organizations.  The words of one of the three departing employees reflected the feelings of all three.  The compensation and benefits structure at HelpMax is not competitive.  HelpMax seems to feel that, because we are a non-profit, workers should be satisfied to receive compensation and benefits that do not meet the workers day-to-day needs to pay their bills.  For example, some HelpMax employees have found it necessary to work a second job.  As another example, the HelpMax retirement plan is not generous, and I am concerned that it would not be adequate for me to live on when I retire.  If HelpMax wants to be a career employer of professional people, they need to build up their retirement plan.  I am moving to a nonprofit organization that uses a compensation and benefits structure that is appropriate for a professional, career workforce.  The Board of Directors was made aware of the departure of these three employees resignations.  The Board passed a resolution chartering you to draft recommendations to upgrade the compensation and benefits plan for HelpMax.  You have decided to begin your task by writing a 300-word summary of the elements that should be included in your recommendation.