Domestic Partner Benefits

Domestic Partner Benefits

The values and the benefits of domestic partner and how business owners and employers can benefit from this.

Domestic partnership is a personal or legal relationship that exists between two persons who a share a domestic life or live together but are not joined by either a civil union or marriage. However in some countries they view domestic partnership as the legally recognized different sex or same sex marriage. The structure of traditional benefits only covers the children or spouse of opposite sex employees. however due to the ever growing volumes of employers the majority of companies now extend the benefits to gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual employees and their families as well as the same sex partner of the employee and their children. This can be associated to the advantages such benefits have on both the employer and the employee.

Offering domestic benefits within a company has the potential to enhance the company’s business and profile. Taking into account the ever changing world of business, a company needs to market itself as a prospective employer to employees worldwide including the lesbian and gay community, this will give the company a hiring edge over the other competitors. Such benefits will improve the public image of the company; it shows the company’s commitment in identifying the significance of its relationship with its workforce and will market the company as a business that is focused on the future by supporting a progressive culture. These benefits attract new and fresh employees with different experiences and backgrounds. (Pierce, 2003)

Domestic partnership benefit program boosts the overall morale of employees and this consequently leads to increased production in the company. For any successful company recruiting and retaining highly skilled and qualified is one of the major priorities. The maintenance of employee motivation is very crucial and more so for unmarried, lesbian or gay employees. If for instance one employee has a low morale or they are not happy, it can directly affect the rest of the employees in the company and more so the employees that deal with the company directly as well. This means that it only takes a single employee to be unhappy to initiate the domino effect in the whole organization. The domino effect will lead to less

Domestic Partner Benefits

accountability in the place of work and unproductivity of the workers. Low employee morale creates a stifling atmosphere and an environment that is hard to work in; the employees will not focus fully on the company’s work at hand. (Pierce, 2003)

Domestic partner programs offers a safety net for workers and their families, hence facilitating better focus on work by the employees. Advocates for the workplace argue that domestic partner benefits program have the potential of reducing personal stress that unmarried, lesbian or gay employees have and which prevent them from focusing fully on their work.

The other benefit of domestic partner program for the legal perspective is that, it can be helpful in staving off or defending lawsuits that are employment related. As it is unlikely for an employee to succeed in a discrimination suite under the common law, inequities on benefits can invite claims by lesbian and gay employees which would have to be defended at the expense of the company. Policies on equal benefits can be used in supporting the employer himself in lawsuits against other claims that are non-benefit related. In addition certain state laws require a company to have such a program and some government entities require the company to have this program before entering into a business agreement.

Domestic Partner Benefits

REFERENCE:

Pierce, Robin. (2003): Domestic partner benefits. Retrieved on February 27, 2010 from http://w ww.arbitratorwilliams.com/robynpierce.htm

.