WHEN SELLING
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS,
EMPHASIZE YOUR
EXPERTISE RATHER THAN
YOUR SALESMANSHIP,
OFFER VOLUNTARY PRODUCTS
AND DON’T FORGET
TO SEE THE PEOPLE.
What
“It is enacted by the Court that if any man
shall be sent forth as a soldier and shall
return maimed, he shall be maintained
competently by the Colony during his life.”
These are the words of the first known employee- benefits plan in America, created by the people of the Plymouth Colony in 1636. At the time, the colony was
fighting the Pequot Indians all over New England and needed
to attract bodies and talent; so it did what it could to make the
job enticing. The colonists won the war.
About 140 years later, this idea of offering more than
just a salary was alive and well, and on Aug. 26, 1776,
Congress passed one of the first federal-benefits laws,
essentially giving disability income insurance to men who
joined the military.
