Compensation and Benefits Advisor is a web-based product that provides updates and advice on a variety of compensation and benefits issues. The product is available through The West Group´s website www.hr-esource.com. This product provides users with state specific legal updates, newsletters packed with compensation and benefits information and sample forms and policies.
This product is an excellent resource for compensation specialists and HR generalists. The Compensation and Benefits Advisor provides with an abundance of information on workers compensation, Internal Revenue Code, ERISA and international income tax treaties. Rather than having to search through the Internet, various journals and legal briefs for the compensation information they need, these HR professionals can have access to this exact information with a few clicks of the mouse.
I found the information very thorough and up to date. As with the other West Group products I have reviewed I found the amount of information and the degree of detail extremely impressive. The set up of the product is fairly straightforward and easy to navigate. The one downfall I found was sometimes it took a lot of clicking to get to a particular area of the products hierarchy.
The sample policies available through this web-based product provide companies with excellent templates that can be adapted to suit their individual needs. With a few simple inputs and some wording changes, these policies can be adjusted and implemented into organizations quickly and easily. Policies that generally take a great deal of research and writing time can now be created and implemented in a few hours. The forms, including the checklists, are also very useful. This product opens your eyes to just how many forms and policies companies should have in order to maintain efficiency and remain in compliance.
What I liked about this product was the amount of information that was available at my fingertips. I liked that I could browse through the various screens and learn something new with every click. The information is all in one location and saves the users time by eliminating the need to search through numerous sources. Whether the information needed is on the federal or state level, it seems to be available through the Compensation and Benefits Advisor. I also liked that the product was not just about numbers. Rather than being about something as obvious as sample compensation surveys, the information available is concrete data about things like child labor laws and wage and hour rules. This product is a compensation specialists dream.
What I thought could be improved about the product was an added email option. In the West Groups IHR Advisor product users were given the option of emailing information to a friend. I thought this would have been a great feature for the Compensation and Benefits Advisor. For Compensation Specialists sharing information between offices, or providing backup to other managers or HR professionals, it would be a great tool.
A guided demo and a free trail of the product can be found at http://www.hr-esource.com. Once you are at the site, you click on the Compensation and Benefits Advisor icon, located under the web products heading on the left hand navigation bar. The Compensation and Benefits Advisor can be purchased for a cost of $995.00. Although a lot of the information can be found on other sites, specifically government sites where the information is free, this product is worth the cost simply for the amount of time it can save users.The West Group is a member of the Thomson Corporation. They provide legal and regulatory information to human resources professionals, ranging from general HR, compensation and benefits and international HR.