by jeffp | Dec 12, 2014 | Employee Benefits
You’ve probably heard the old saying “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” It basically means that the loudest wheel (or in the case of a business, employee) will be given the most maintenance (or in this case, attention). While heeding this instruction may serve you well if you’re working on a bicycle, it could actually hurt your company’s benefits program. Why is this? The answer is simply because the desires of your most vocal employees aren’t always representative of the rest of your workforce.
The Danger of Misconception
If your employee benefits package is full of offerings the majority of your team doesn’t want, participation rates will suffer. The healthiest among them may not sign up for your health insurance plan, resulting in a smaller group (of potentially unhealthy workers) and driving up costs for your entire organization. They may opt out of supplemental benefits—such as life insurance—and increase the cost per participant of providing those opportunities. Even worse, unwanted benefits don’t enhance engagement. They do nothing to improve productivity or reduce employee turnover.
Fortunately, there are ways you can reach out to your workforce—including those who rarely speak their mind—and find out what benefits really matter to the majority of your staff.
Start With a Survey
You can use free or low-cost software such as SurveyMonkey to get a baseline reading on your employees’ opinions of your current benefits package. Basic questions you might want to ask include:
- On a scale of one to five, with one being the worst and five being the best, how would you rate the benefits package at Company XYZ?
- Given your personal situation, how would you rank the benefits provided within the package from least to most important? (Provide list of current benefits.)
- What other benefits should Company XYZ offer?
- Do you know how to sign up for benefits at Company XYZ?
- How can Company XYZ make it easier for you to sign up for or utilize your benefits?
You can require employees to complete the survey or incentivize their participation by offering a prize. Make sure your workforce knows that the responses will remain confidential and anonymous.
Consider Potential Changes
If your employees indicate they are overwhelmingly satisfied with their benefits package, then congratulations! If not, it’s time to consider potential changes based on their responses. Enlist the assistance of your benefits advisor to investigate your options. You may want to choose a new employer-sponsored health insurance plan, replace less popular voluntary insurance with new options, or add a few supplemental benefits such as a workplace wellness program or group gym membership.
Make an Announcement
Whether you’ve made changes to your benefits package or are sticking with the status quo, you need to communicate the results of the evaluation to your workforce. Statistics show that most people need to receive a message seven times before they take action. Over the course of a few weeks, use a mix of mediums to announce company benefits information. Options include paycheck envelope stuffers, bathroom and break room posters, email announcements and group meetings with your benefits plan administrator. Contact your benefits advisor for additional suggestions.
by jeffp | Nov 20, 2014 | Employee Benefits
How do you measure the success of your employee benefits program? If you’re like 62 percent of the employers responding to MetLife’s annual benefits trends survey, enrollment rates are your criteria of choice. After all, even the best benefits package will fail at increasing employee engagement and decreasing turnover if too few of your workers take advantage of it.
Fortunately, many experts agree that better benefits communication is the best way to improve enrollment rate. Prudential recently conducted its “Eighth Annual Study of Employee Benefits” and discovered several communication methods that employees continue to prefer above the rest.
- Work Email – Forty-seven percent of the employees Prudential surveyed said work email was their preferred benefits communication method.
- Personal Email – Personal email was the preferred benefits communication method of 28 percent of the surveyed employees.
- In-Person – Traditional group meetings and one-on-one meetings were the preferred benefits communication method of 18 percent and 19 percent of surveyed employees, respectively.
The employers Prudential surveyed had slightly different views on the subject. Communications methods with which they’ve had the “greatest success” included group meetings and seminars (74 percent), individual one-on-one meetings (72 percent), email (68 percent), toll-free phone number (61 percent), and mail at home (60 percent).
During open enrollment periods, 21 percent of employers noted that they had the most success with communicating benefits through mail at home. Eighteen percent had success with videos and DVD presentations, while social media networking also delivered results (16 percent).
As more employers move to a year-round communication strategy, rather than just talking about benefits during the open enrollment period, 84 percent said they plan to do so through email. This was followed by home mailing (77 percent), benefits websites (76 percent), phone calls (75 percent), and text messages (46 percent).
Based on Prudential’s data, it appears that employers who want to improve their enrollment rates would be wise to choose a mix of communication methods to suit the preferences of their employees. Surveying your own workforce is the most direct way to determine a specific course of action. While younger workers may be more comfortable with learning about their options through email, Baby Boomers or those who want additional insight may prefer the opportunity to attend group or individual meetings.
Regardless of the benefits communication method you choose, the Society for Human Resource Management suggests that you also:
- Ensure your benefits information is easy to understand. This means providing jargon-free details on available options so employees have the information they need to make educated choices.
- Personalize the benefits information to each employee’s needs.
- Provide your employees with an opportunity to talk with a benefits expert—in person or by phone—while on company time.
As the 2015 open enrollment period approaches, now is the time to make changes to your benefits communication process and earn increases in that enrollment rate. If you’d like further assistance, please contact your benefits advisor today.
by jeffp | Nov 7, 2014 | Employee Benefits
If you’re worried about the financial burden employer-sponsored health insurance may place on you when the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate goes into effect, you may be in the process of changing your benefits package to pass more of those costs on to your employees. According to a report published by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, many employers are accomplishing this by choosing plans with higher out-of-pocket limits, in-network deductibles and copayments or coinsurance, as well as asking their workers to pay a greater percentage of the monthly premium.
Unfortunately, this means you’re exposing your staff—who may already be having trouble making ends meet post-recession—to even greater financial difficulties if they land in the hospital or have to make an unexpected trip to the emergency room. Data from the Health Care Cost Institute shows that the average facility price for a hospital stay was $15,674 in 2011. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that there are 42 emergency room visits per 100 people in the U.S. every year.
How can you help your workers manage these costs while protecting your company’s bottom line? Supplemental hospital indemnity insurance may be the answer. It offers reasonably priced coverage that employees can use to supplement that provided by their medical plan. And because employees usually pay for it, it makes it possible for employers to enhance their benefits packages without incurring additional costs.
Most group hospital indemnity plans come with a choice of flexible options. For example, employers can choose to offer an HSA-compatible plan, a plan that includes outpatient and inpatient surgical benefits, and/or a plan that covers diagnostic procedures. Other options you may select include coverage for daily hospital confinement, intensive care unit confinement, rehabilitation unit confinement, emergency room treatment and wellness. You can also tailor these plans to cover spouses and children as well as employees.
In most cases, hospital indemnity insurance pays a lump sum benefit directly to the insured employee to help cover the cost of hospital stays and other included procedures and treatments. The employee can then use the money to pay for out-of-pocket expenses associated with the hospitalization, or on whatever else he or she may wish. If you’re interested in adding such a plan to your supplemental insurance offerings, experts recommend looking for one that pays a larger upfront benefit upon admission rather than a smaller daily benefit. Depending on the demographics of your workforce, you may also want to choose a plan that provides coverage for childbirth. Most importantly, the coverage should complement the employer-sponsored healthcare plan your company already offers.
If you’d like to learn more about the many group hospital indemnity plans available, or discuss the benefits of adding this voluntary insurance product, contact your benefits advisor today.
by jeffp | Oct 20, 2014 | Employee Benefits
Workplace bullying is a rather surprisingly widespread problem. According to a recent survey by VitalSmarts, a corporate training and leadership development consulting company, 96 percent of American workers have experienced workplace bullying. Among the survey respondents, 89 percent reported bullying incidents that had persisted for more than one year. Fifty-four percent had dealt with the negative actions of a coworker or manager for more than five years.
The most common types of bullying reported in the survey were sabotage of the work or reputation of others (cited by 62 percent of respondents who had experienced bullying) and browbeating, verbal intimidation and threats (52 percent). Only 4 percent of the bullied respondents had dealt with physical intimidation or threats.
Other studies have revealed similar findings. In one, more than 25 percent of the surveyed workers reported that they had experienced abusive conduct at work. In another, 64 percent stated that workplace bullying had physically hurt them, driven them to tears or had a negative effect on their work performance. It’s easy to see why; bullying certainly creates an uncomfortable work environment. This leads to lower productivity and higher turnover—and both cost employers money.
While the development of a workplace anti-bullying policy is necessary, the process can be difficult due to both practical and legal considerations. For example, how do you distinguish malicious bullying from friendly banter or teasing? The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has further complicated the matter with challenges to employer workplace bullying policies, generally because they find the language within them to be too broad.
If you’ve yet to address bullying in your workplace, you may choose to expand your existing harassment policy to include it or create a standalone policy. Whichever course you decide to take, make sure you do the following:
- State that your company is committed to promoting a respectful, bully-free workplace.
- Define workplace bullying as clearly as you can and include a statement that shows you are aware of the levels of bullying that may take place (between managers and workers, between coworkers, between clients and workers, etc.).
- Include a detailed list of the types of behavior you will not tolerate under the new policy.
- Describe the procedure for reporting bullying incidents. Because employees may be fearful of bully retaliation, consider an anonymous reporting system.
- Outline the consequences of violating the anti-bullying policy. This includes how you intend to document the disciplinary process and the types of discipline you will enforce.
- Communicate the policy to employees at all levels within your organization.
- Take all complaints of bullying seriously, regardless of whether a legally protected class of worker is involved or not.
The Society for Human Resource Management has a sample policy online that includes a relatively broad definition of workplace bullying coupled with a list of examples of bullying actions. The American Bar Association offers a similar template online as well—and this one includes instructions for reporting workplace-bullying incidents to management.
Enforcing a workplace anti-bullying policy shows you value and respect your employees and will protect their right to a pleasant workplace. For further assistance with its development, contact your benefits advisor and/or legal counsel.
by jeffp | Oct 6, 2014 | Employee Benefits
If you think your senior employees are counting down the days until they can enjoy a life of pure leisure, you may be wrong. A new survey conducted by Merrill Lynch, a financial management and advisory company, found that 72 percent of pre-retirees over the age of 50 plan to work in retirement. Add to these the 47 percent of current retirees who have worked or are planning to work during their golden years and it’s likely that employers who want to take full advantage of this demographic will increasingly need to find ways to engage older workers.
Offer the right benefits and it will be easier to retain senior staff members after they reach retirement age as well as attract senior jobseekers to available positions. Benefits popular with Baby Boomers include:
- Flexible Hours – Flexible schedules are popular with seniors. In fact, in a 2013 survey by AARP, 72 percent cited schedule flexibility as absolutely necessary in their ideal job. If you’re employing seniors who want to work full time, offer them their choice of standard shifts, or consider 10- or 12-hour shifts that reduce the number of days they need to report to the office.
- Part-Time Opportunities – Not all retirees want to work full time. If your business includes part-time positions, senior jobseekers may be eager to fill them. You can also consider reduced schedules that won’t interfere with their ability to collect Social Security, or job-sharing programs that allow two or more seniors to divide up the hours required for one position.
- Mentoring Opportunities – Your older workers are valuable repositories of knowledge. Set up a mentorship program that will enable them to share their expertise with your younger and newer employees. This will show them you appreciate their proficiencies and they are still a valued member of the team.
- Health Insurance Coverage for Part-Time Workers – Medicare doesn’t cover every health expense, and healthcare can take a big bite out of seniors’ retirement savings. Offering health insurance coverage for your part-time workers will make your company more attractive to older applicants.
- Workplace Wellness Program – Studies have shown that exercise and diet can affect the aging process. Provide your workers with a wellness program that includes perks such as nutrition counseling, healthy cafeteria options, gym memberships or onsite workout equipment and you’ll help them keep their bodies and minds healthier for longer.
- Phased Retirement Program – Unlike a tradition retirement program, a phased program is set up to enable older employees to work part-time while drawing a portion of their retirement income, providing them with the equivalent of a full salary and benefits.
- Financial Planning Assistance – Older employees often appreciate the opportunity to obtain the advice of financial planning experts, whether they intend to continue working after retirement because they haven’t saved enough yet or just don’t want to become bored.
- Long-Term Care Insurance – Designed to help older individuals pay for long-term care and support in their home, an assisted living community or nursing home, long-term care insurance is often a popular supplemental product with seniors.
- Legal Assistance – Seniors who have not yet created a will or estate plan will appreciate the opportunity to obtain free or low-cost advice and assistance from a legal professional.
- Concierge Service – From picking up groceries to wrapping holiday presents, some employers are providing their older workers with the assistance of a concierge service to help with personal errands.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record 22.2 percent of the U.S. workforce was age 55 or older as of July 2014. By 2020, they expect 29.3 million of the nation’s workers will be between the ages of 55 and 65. It’s easy to see why it’s in your best interest to engage this demographic of employee. If you’d like additional advice on adjusting your benefits package accordingly, contact your benefits advisor
