Print This PageU.S. Benefits - 2008
Work/Life Balance
We believe we can all be more effective, contributing individuals if there's a proper balance among the various demands of work, family and life.
Time Off
Vacations
During your first year of employment, you will receive vacation based on your date of hire as follows:
| Vacation Policy | |
|---|---|
| Date of Hire | Vacation Days |
| January 1 - February 29 | 10 |
| March 1 - March 31 | 9 |
| April 1 - April 30 | 8 |
| May 1 - May 31 | 7 |
| June 1 - June 30 | 6 |
| July 1 - July 31 | 5 |
| August 1 - August 31 | 4 |
| September 1 - September 30 | 3 |
| October 1 - October 31 | 2 |
| November 1 - November 30 | 1 |
| December 1 - December 31 | 0 |
In the year following your date of hire, you will receive two weeks of vacation.
You will be eligible for four weeks of vacation per year beginning in the year of your second employment anniversary date.
Vacation for people who are regular part-time will be granted on a pro-rata basis.
Holidays
Most Monsanto locations observe 13 or 14 paid holidays each year. Seven holidays — New Year's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and usually Memorial Day — are observed each year at all U.S. Monsanto locations. The remaining holidays are called “optional” holidays and vary from year to year and location to location.
To make the most of your leisure time, optional holidays are often scheduled for a Monday, a Friday, or the day before or after another holiday to create extra-long holiday breaks.
Leaves of Absence
At Monsanto, you can request a leave of absence for many reasons: military service, military reserve training and National Guard duty, family/medical/personal reasons, technical academic assignments, jury duty, death in the family, attendance at professional meetings, political or civic affairs participation, preparatory-to-disability periods, and academic pursuits.
If approved, some leaves are granted with pay, some without. For example, if you are assigned to jury duty while working for Monsanto, you will receive full pay for as long as necessary to fulfill this important civic obligation. Full salary is paid during approved absences caused by the death of an employee's close relative. Personal absences may be with or without pay.
Long-Term Care Insurance
This optional program provides benefits to pay for nursing home care and home health care for a person unable to care for himself or herself. You can cover yourself, your spouse or domestic partner — even your parents and your spouse’s parents.
Offered to Monsanto employees by MetLife, the plan pays a daily benefit ranging from $75 to $200 a day — to help cover the cost of long-term care received in a nursing home or at home.
Cost is based on the age of the applicant at the time of enrollment in the plan.
Cost is paid entirely by you.
Life Management Resource & Referral
Monsanto offers a counseling and referral service for any employee facing the challenges of balancing work and personal life. This service includes a full range of dependent and life management services, such as:
- prenatal and adoption planning,
- evaluating child care arrangements,
- locating summer camps,
- profiling schools (from preschools to colleges),
- researching financial assistance for college, and
- assisting with elder care responsibilities, from long-distance care giving to finding the right nursing home for an elderly loved one.
Outside counselors provide individuals with practical information and useful answers to a wide range of questions. And, most importantly, counselors make referrals directly to the agencies and programs that offer appropriate services in your local area or in other areas of the country. Counseling and referral services are available free of charge; however, individuals are responsible for the fees associated with the services they select.
Adoption Assistance
Monsanto's adoption policy provides financial assistance of up to $7,500 toward the cost of adopting a child.
Group Auto & Home Insurance
Monsanto also makes available to you the MetLife® Auto & Home program of group auto, home and other personal property insurance. If you elect this benefit, premiums will be deducted from your paycheck on an after-tax basis. You will be able to call to get more information about this program after your first day at work. You will be able to enroll or drop this benefit at any time during the year.
Personal Development
Development, Performance, and Rewards (DPR) System
Monsanto's DPR System is a framework in which we as Monsanto employees can develop ourselves in ways that contribute to our business success – and gain increasing rewards as we do so.
The development and performance process is built on the belief that continuous growth and development are essential to success for both the individual and the company. The more you develop yourself – the greater the contribution you can make to business success – the more valuable you become. The rewards aspect of the DPR system focuses on your total compensation, which includes base pay, annual incentives, long-term incentives and benefits.
To succeed, Monsanto needs people who are flexible, creative, courageous, results-oriented and eager to learn. The DPR system is all about strengthening these characteristics in all of us.
Training
Internal and external seminars and conferences are available to increase your technical, professional and managerial skills. One of the benefits of these sessions is the chance to exchange ideas and perspectives with professional people from different companies, locations and functions.
Tuition Refund
You will be encouraged to continue your education through Monsanto 's Tuition Refund Program. You will be reimbursed up to $7,500 annually for your tuition for eligible courses as long as an acceptable grade level is maintained. Also eligible for reimbursement are CLEP exam fees, certification courses, licensing exams and entrance exams. And of course, if Monsanto requests you take a course, you will be reimbursed for those expenses as well.
Professional Organizations
Monsanto will pay for membership in an organization of your choice that is directly related to your professional interests and job assignment. If you are requested to join one or more additional organizations, Monsanto will also pay for these memberships.
Monsanto considers the primary responsibility for your growth and development to be yours. We will provide opportunities — it's up to you to seize them!
Employee Assistance Program
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides confidential counseling for covered individuals and their dependents. Counseling services are available for a broad array of personal and emotional problems — family difficulties, marriage counseling, financial problems, alcoholism, drug dependency, depression or emotional concerns.
The EAP covers all costs associated with short-term diagnosis and counseling needs.
Matching Gifts Program
This program supports the generosity of Monsanto employees to U.S. educational and charitable organizations through a dollar-for-dollar match by the Monsanto Fund, the company's philanthropic arm. The program will match a minimum of $25 per contribution up to a maximum total of $5,000 per calendar year per active employee. Categories of charitable organizations include: arts and culture, disaster relief, education, environment, health and youth development.
Relocation Assistance
The company pays all reasonable moving expenses for you and your family: transfer of household goods, temporary living expenses and trip expenses to your new location. The Relocation Program covers newly hired individuals as well as those who transfer from one location to another.
If you later transfer from one location to another, the company will make you an offer to purchase your home if you are unable to sell it.
