Can your plant nurse be replaced by a trained first-aid man who works full-time on some other assignment?

Do you rigidly distinguish between job -- and non job connected health problems and avoid treating the latter?

Are you indiscriminantly offering unnecessary medical services -- flu shots, sun lamp treatments, etc.?

If you have an annual or regular physical examination program, is it worth what it is costing you?

Consider what you can afford to spend and what your goals are before setting up or revamping your employee benefit program. Too many plant officials are all too eager to buy a package program from an insurance company simply because it works for another plant.

But even if that other plant employs the same number of workers and makes the same product, there are other facts to consider. How old is your working force? What's your profit margin? In what section of the country are you located? Are you in a rural or urban area? These factors can make the difference between waste and efficiency in any benefit program.

Above all, don't set up extravagant fringe benefits just to buy employee good will. Unions stress fringe benefits, but the individual hourly worker prefers cash every time.

Aim to balance your employee benefit package. Some plants go overboard on one type of fringe -- say a liberal retirement plan -- and find themselves vulnerable elsewhere. They're asking for union trouble.