【正文】 eekers. Similarly, employer relations representatives, who usually work in government agencies or college career centers, maintain working relationships with prospective employers and promote the use of public employment programs and services. Compensation, benefits, and job analysis. Compensation, benefits, and job analysis specialists administer pensation programs for employers and may specialize in specific areas such as pensions or position classifications. For example, job analysts, occasionally called position classifiers, collect and examine detailed information about job duties in order to prepare job descriptions. These descriptions explain the duties, training, and skills that each job requires. Whenever a large anization introduces a new job or reviews existing jobs, it calls upon the expert knowledge of job analysts. Occupational analysts research occupational classification systems and study the effects of industry and occupational trends on worker relationships. They may serve as technical liaisons between panies or departments, government, and labor unions. Establishing and maintaining a firm39。s pay structure is the principal job of pensation managers. Assisted by pensation analysts or specialists, pensation managers devise ways to ensure fair and equitable pay rates. They may participate in or purchase salary surveys to see how their firm39。s pay pares with others, and they ensure that the firm39。s pay scale plies with changing laws and regulations. In addition, pensation managers often oversee the pensation side of their pany39。s performance management system. They may design reward systems such as payforperformance plans, which might include setting merit pay guidelines and bonus or incentive pay criteria. Compensation managers also might administer executive pensation programs or determine mission rates and other incentives for corporate sales staffs. Employee benefits managers and specialists administer a pany’s employee benefits program, notably its health insurance and retirement plans. Expertise in designing, negotiating, and administering benefits programs continues to take on importance as employerprovided benefits account for a growing proportion of overall pensation costs, and as benefit plans increase in number and plexity. For example, retirement benefits might include defined benefit pension plans, defined contribution plans, such as 401(k) or thrift savings plans and profitsharing or stock ownership plans. Health benefits might include medical, dental, and vision insurance and protection against catastrophic illness. Familiarity with health benefits is a top priority for employee benefits managers and specialists, because of the rising cost of providing healthcare benefits to employees and retirees. In addition to health insurance and retirement coverage, many firms offer employees life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance, disability insurance, and benefits designed to meet the needs of a changing workforce, such as parental leave, longterm nursing or home care insurance, wellness programs, and flexible benefits plans. Benefits managers must keep abreast of changing Federal and State regulations and legislation that may affect employee benefits. Working with employee assistance plan managers or worklife coordinators, many benefits managers work to integrate the growing number of programs that deal with mental and physical health, such as employee assistance, obesity, and smoking cessation, into their health benefits programs. Employee assistance plan managers, also called employee welfare managers or worklife managers, are responsible for a wide array of programs to enhance employee safety and wellness and improve worklife balance. These may include occupational safety and health standards and practices, health promotion and physical fitness, medical examinations and minor health treatment, such as first aid, flexible work sched