Flex Bens Provision Continues to Grow
By Owain Thomas
Source: Workplace Savings and Benefits
Almost two thirds (62%) of employers currently offer flexible benefits packages and a further 21% are planning to do so in the future, research from Aon Hewitt reveals.
The survey also found that 60% of respondents opted to outsource the administration of flexible benefits with a vast majority (85%) satisfied with the service they receive.
This compares to just 50% for companies that manage the administration in house.
Aon Hewitt client director in flex administration Lorna Bradford said the study showed that the use of flexible benefits plans was widespread and on the increase.
"Offering a flexible benefits plan has very much become the norm across a number of industries," she said.
"With on-going concerns over cost and incoming challenges resulting from implementing pension auto-enrolment, we can only see the popularity of flexible benefits plans continuing to rise."
The survey questioned over 320 pensions and employee benefits managers representing around one million employees.
Overall, it showed that levels of concern around flexible benefits administration were low.
Any concerns raised tended to focus on cost and auto-enrolment, which respondents ranked as the two most important issues affecting flexible benefits over the next 12 months.
Bradford added: "With staging dates fast approaching, many employers are turning to their flex providers for help with dealing with the new requirements of auto-enrolment.
"It can be cost-effective for employers and providers to do this, by making use of the existing technology, infrastructure and data provided for flex administration.
"Our survey revealed that 35% of employers already use the same provider for both pensions and flexible benefits plan administration."
Creating the Adaptable Workforce
By Alan See
Source: Networking Exchange Blog
Cross-Training, Job Rotation, and Skills Development Prepare Employees for Business Change
“I’ve been in this business for 30 years and I’ve never seen it like this.”
I can recall hearing that statement three times over the course of my adult working life. The first time I heard it was very early in my career. My boss at the time had been a part of the Texas oil field service industry for over 30 years and the mid-80’s oil crash was taking its toll. What once had boomed was now busting. Stripper wells that had been profitable were being plugged, and new drilling activity came to a virtual standstill. Prospects in the oil business were looking pretty dim.
I also remember the second occasion as if it were yesterday. It was the early 90s and I was at lunch with a co-worker who had just received their 30-year service pin from a major computer company. The World Wide Web was just beginning to make the world a much smaller place, and Louis Gerstner stepped in to save IBM from going out of business.
A couple of years ago I heard the statement again. Let’s just say that social media, digital marketing, and mobile applications are proving to be major change agents for marketers in general. Tracking that statement for three decades, it’s obvious that change is timeless and cuts across all sectors of the economy.
How are you dealing with constant change? From my perspective I can vouch for the following:
- Don’t try to ignore the situation creating the change because that will only keep you off balance.
- Getting angry doesn’t help and often makes it worse.
- The “good old days” never really happened, and wishful thinking is a waste of time.
More importantly, top management can’t hand out “grand plan” detailed answers to address the entire transition because all the information they need simply doesn’t exist. Their new strategy in its full detail will need to evolve during the change process. In short, top management doesn’t have all the answers because some of the questions keep shifting. But that doesn’t mean they don’t need your support. In fact, broad-based, grassroots support of change can make the difference for every organization.
During a time of constant change (which is all the time!) here are five things you can do to prepare yourself and support your company:
- Volunteer for assignments that push you out of the framework of your current job responsibilities. Some projects can give you medium-term exposure to new people and new kinds of tasks, preparing you for a broader range of future responsibilities. Assignments that provide extended exposure may include such things as cross-training, job rotation, and stretch assignments.
- Take advantage of available learning and development resources. At many companies, training is available but under-utilized. Most of us feel too rushed in our current work to fit in the occasional hour or two of training. Become the exception to the rule — the employee who learns, grows, and actively prepares for new pursuits. It’s good for your image as well as your broadening skill set.
- Make it a personal goal to learn more from your boss and your colleagues. Close work relationships put you in daily contact with the parts of other people’s work you may not fully grasp at present. Management practices in today’s business world call for flexible workers who can step in to perform available tasks rather than filling a single defined role.
- Put some thought into the learning and development activities you would most like to pursue. Have an informal conversation with your boss about them. Then weave together your ideas and your boss’s ideas and bring them with you to your next performance review. After the usual evaluation of your work, turn the conversation to future growth of your skills to make you that much better of an employee.
- Explore career opportunities that take you to different functional units within your company. Moving employees from role to role across leadership and functional areas is common in organizations that adapt quickly to changing environments. By pursuing those opportunities, you make yourself more valuable to the company while expanding your professional horizons.
The above are practical steps for embracing change and putting you on the leading edge of your constantly evolving work life. They can give your business a leg up in dynamic times and help you become the employee who pushes ahead, rather than the one who hears about change only as it happens.
Run Your Business Like an Olympian
What the Small Business Owner Can Learn from Professional Athletes
By Mario Armstrong
Source: Networking Exchange Blog
Mario Armstrong, Digital Lifestyle Expert, is Emmy Award winning, tech commentator for the TODAY show and CNN, and the host of a tech talk radio show on SiriusXM. An entrepreneur by nature, Mario made his passion his career by quitting his day job and founding Mario Armstrong Media. Follow Mario at @MarioArmstrong. AT&T has sponsored the following blog post.
With the Olympics in full swing, a lot of focus and hope is being placed on some of the world’s top athletes. While Michael Phelps, Hope Solo, and Usain Bolt have become household names, even making it to the Olympics is an incredible achievement. All Olympians have worked incredibly hard to make it to the top of their field, whether swimming pool, tennis court, or pommel horse.
Small business owners, their employees, and entrepreneurs alike face similar challenges. For them, it’s all or nothing with the hopes and dreams of their families and friends often depending on their success. Just as nobody remembers who took home 4th place in an event, a start-up that goes under is quickly forgotten as business flows to competitors.
With that said, there are several key things to learn from the way Olympians train and conduct themselves.
1. Be prepared to do it all. Michael Phelps reportedly eats 12,000 calories a day. While his events only last a few minutes each, he swims between three and six hours a day, and that’s on top of dry-land training like weight lifting. While he used to train every day, starting in 2008 he cut back to only six days a week. That may seem inhuman, but that’s what it takes to be the absolute best at what you do. When you’re an entrepreneur you might have a coach, but ultimately only you will know if you’re putting in the hours, the time, the sweat, and the tears to truly make your dream a reality.
2. Make sacrifices. Gary Hall Jr. represented the United States for 16 years, winning 10 Olympic medals. Over that time he was incredibly lucky—unlike most Olympians, he actually made money doing what he loved. Hall Jr. earned $750,000 swimming over those 16 years, which sounds like a lot of money until you do the math—he made barely $47,000 a year before taxes, a paltry sum when you consider his achievement. A small business owner or entrepreneur has to be prepared to make huge sacrifices of not just guaranteed income but their time in order to rise to the top. This reality may mean years of prioritizing success ahead of things like material wealth or a rich family life. But if you’re prepared to make those sacrifices, you’re prepared to win gold.
3. Take pride. Noting that 205 different countries are competing in the Olympics this year, with many of them smaller countries who can only field a few individuals or teams, helps put things in perspective. While the United States, Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, and China often dominate the coverage (and medals), plenty of countries have national heroes to root for, individuals who will be heading to the Olympics and coming home empty handed. Will an inevitable loss change the love of their fans back home? Probably not, because to even make it to the Olympics is a huge achievement, one worth taking much pride in. In the business world, you may hope you’re going to become a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates someday. I hate to break it to you, but the odds are stacked against you. Where are the odds much better? Becoming a business leader in your neighborhood or your community and by taking bold strides in your field and earning the respect of your peers. You may never be on the cover of Time, but that’s no reason not to feel pride in the successes you do find along the way.
Olympians set the bar high, and often jump higher. We all struggle running our business, making sacrifices, and trying to be the best we can. When you hit rough patches, find someone to look up to—you’ll find plenty of inspiration from Olympic athletes this summer. A part of that Olympic spirit is giving back to those who helped you along the way, so feel free to share your best tips for small biz success in the comments below.
Social Network to Monitor Staff Benefits Mood
By Julia Rampen
Source: Workplace Savings and Benefits
Yammer is launching a tool to analyze employees’ reactions to company initiatives such as benefits.
The Microsoft-owned social network for businesses has introduced technology which tracks the emotions expressed in employees' comments, allowing employers to monitor the mood of staff in different departments and locations from a central dashboard.
The tool would analyze all employees' responses in order to gauge the overall reaction - allowing HR managers to quickly view the staff response to actions such as changing health benefits.
Underpinning the tool, created by digital technology company Kanjoya, is "emotion-aware sentiment analysis" which retrieves data from Yammer groups and can distinguish between 80 different emotions.
Users can then compare the level of different emotions expressed by employees and visualize them via a word cloud.
Its influencer analysis tool may also allow companies to pinpoint the most praised and well-liked individuals.
Yammer chief product officer Jim Patterson said: "By enabling this integration, Yammer customers will be able to recognize when something has affected employees either positively or negatively - and take action."
The tool is now available for all Yammer Enterprise users.
HHS Shaming Power Has Little Effect on Health Plans
By Lisa V. Gillespie
Last September, after the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act gave the Department of Health and Human Services authority to review premium rates in states that didn't have strong enough review programs, the agency began handing down decrees of "unreasonable" premium rates for insurers that proposed increasing rates by an average of 10% or more - meaning HHS can publically shame an insurer.
"HHS and states are really coming down hard on just about any carrier, which is creating a lot of angst at the carrier level and hand wringing. HHS seems very proud of it; so, this is a hot topic [among] insurance carriers and state-level bureaucrats," says Alan Cohen, chief strategy officer and co-founder of Liazon, a private health insurance exchange that serves mainly small employers. "But, in another realm where benefits managers live, this is a nonevent; they're not paying attention. Maybe they read it in the newspaper, but what matters to them is what the effect will be to their renewal." Cohen says that, depending on the size of the employer, rate increases may differ. Even if an employer is going with one insurer who is increasing rates, the company may not be any better off with another carrier.
Reviews politically motivated
Others experts think that the HHS reviews are politically motivated.
"Benefits managers don't pay attention to regulatory squabbles as rates are filed and improved," says Mike Turpin, executive vice president of USI, an insurance and financial services broker. "And I think they're getting conditioned [to] health care reform politics. They're not as enraged; they're kind of numb to it."
Further, employers may empathize with insurers, says Steven Friedman, chair of the employee benefits practice at Littler Mendelson. More than 13.5 million people now have health savings accounts complementing high-deductible health plans, according to the 2012 HSA Census by America's Health Insurance Plans.
"Employers often see themselves on the same side of the insurance companies in terms of trying to limit costs for participants covered under health plans," Friedman says. "The increases in annual premiums are viewed as industry wide phenomena, and employers will annually bid for the best coverage that is the most cost-efficient. I'm not sure the insurers are being tarred by the employers, because health care costs seem to rise universally."
Rate review offers transparency
PPACA requires states to report on trends in premium increases and recommend whether certain plans should be excluded from health insurance exchanges beginning in 2014, based on unjustified premium increases. HHS also may make that decision in states where rate review programs lack sufficient strength. Small employers in public exchanges will be able to see upfront which companies have been flagged for "unreasonable" hikes and be able to go to another insurer.
"[PPACA's] rate review policies bring an unprecedented level of scrutiny and transparency to health insurance rate increases. They ensure that, in every state, every proposed increase of 10% or more is evaluated by independent experts to assess whether they are based on reasonable assumptions and sound data," a CMS spokesperson tells EBN. "Rate review is expected to help moderate premium increases and provide consumers and employers with greater value for their premium dollar. Additionally, health insurance companies must provide easy-to-understand information to their customers about their reasons for significant rate increases, as well as publicly justify and post on their website any unreasonable rate increases. These protections allow consumers and employers in every state to learn more about their insurance premiums. All of this information is available at companyprofiles.healthcare.gov."
"Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, consumers are no longer in the dark about their health insurance premiums," said HHS Secretary Sebelius in a press release earlier this year. "It's time for these companies to immediately rescind these unreasonable rate hikes, issue refunds to consumers or publicly explain their refusal to do so."
However, industry groups say that it's not premium hikes that are driving up costs, but underlying medical and administrative costs. "New medical technologies that have high costs associated, new benefit mandates - all of those will drive up the cost, which is where the focus should be," says Robert Zirkelbach, press secretary for AHIP. He says the focus should be on providers, as opposed to insurers. "You saw this during reform, when [the debate] focus was on premiums and largely ignored cost drivers. If you want to bring down the cost, then that's where they lie."
The British Are Coming!
If you live in New England, like I do, you tend to look over your shoulder when someone shouts that familiar phrase. But in the case of sports these days it’s a fresh and inviting thing. With Bradley Wiggins winning the Tour de France this year, as the first Brit to win and a couple weeks later capture a gold medal in the Olympics, you would say the British are here.
Looking at the major accomplishments of Bradley, from France, to back home in London for the time trials there, it got me thinking about goals, measurements, and performance, and how we reward our employees.
You see where I’m going with this right?
So what do you do when it comes time for raises, or increases, or reviews as some organizations call them? Do you look at the dollars in the budget and divvy them up evenly among the workforce? Do you send out the reviews a couple weeks before they are due to your managers and tell them to fill them out the best they can? Or do you have everything documented in a Workforce Management system that shows you the employees’ profile information, tenure, past performance ratings, goals you set for them for the quarter or year and how they are doing with those documented goals, and the ability to assess your employees in a timely fashion? Then have that all tied together with your budget for the year that is sent to the managers so they can link the performance reviews with compensation reviews and send that seamlessly to payroll.
Some of you are saying “British said what?”
Performance and Compensation Management is something that every company wants to do, and at some level you do it; either through spreadsheets and Word docs, homegrown databases, or with a fully functioning system that ties all the pieces together. The key to all of it is communication.
Just as each of the members of the Tour de France teams communicated with each other in some way, shape, or form; or as far back as the militia communicated in every little township to make sure everyone was on the same page with defeating the red coats…
You too can communicate with your workforce. In the end, when the loop is closed and you have your managers talking to your employees and vice versa and HR talking with both of them; you find the trifecta of communication keeps employees informed and you’re able to use the tools provided to assess, retain, reward great employees.
In the spirit of the times – Go for the Gold !!
Employers Fear Supporting Staff Return to Work
By Owain Thomas
Source: Workplace Savings and Benefits
A large majority of employers feel ill-equipped to help staff return to work after illness while a significant minority are calling for auto-enrolment into group risk schemes, new research finds.
The Aviva survey revealed that just one in five (20%) organizations felt equipped to offer their employees rehabilitation support following long-term illness.
Nearly a quarter (22%) said they do not have the resource or expertise to manage people back into the workplace effectively and a similar number (25%) worried that they would have to carry on paying sick pay.
The survey of 500 employers also highlighted confusion about new state benefits and fears that introducing measures to respond to this could adversely affect workers.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents (63%) admitted they did not know how much benefit is paid through Employment and Support Allowance while nearly three quarters (72%), didn't know that people in the work related activity group could find their entitlement to ESA could stop after a year.
Just one in ten (11%) employers had reviewed their sick-pay arrangements following the welfare reform changes.
When the situation was explained, over a third (38%) of employers felt it would be a good idea to have a different approach for different conditions.
However, a quarter (24%) recognized the potential impact this could have on their workforce, noting that they would worry that employees would be forced back into work when they are not well enough to do so.
One in five (22%) also felt that it would be very difficult to have the correct measures in place to decide whether a person is fit for work.
In response to these problems, a significant minority (43%) said they thought employees should be auto-enrolled onto a scheme that gives them financial protection in the event of long-term sickness absence.
And around one in five (17%) added that they were already considering taking out group income protection.
Aviva head of group risk Steve Bridger said: "There is a concerning lack of awareness amongst employers about the State benefits relating to illness or injury.
"However, we're encouraged to see that employers recognize the benefit of auto-enrolling employees onto a scheme that gives them financial protection if they are unable to work due to long-term illness and aids rehabilitation."
Are You Listening to the Right Employees?
Source: www.weknownext.com
By Jason Lauritsen
Employee engagement surveys are a pretty big deal in a lot companies. It makes sense that leaders want to understand how engaged their employees are with their business. After all, who wouldn’t want employees who are switched on and putting in extra effort in their jobs? It also makes sense that an all employee survey is the most efficient way to gather this kind of information.
Then, it’s time to make some changes—presumably changes that will increase our employee engagement level and then our company results.
But, before you go and invest too much time and money in making changes based on your engagement survey results, ask yourself this one, really important question:
How do you know if you are listening to the right employees?
Not all employees are created equal. All leaders know that. There are employees who are driving our business results and those, at the other end of the spectrum, who are hanging around waiting to see if we’ll ever get up the guts to fire them. And certainly, the opinions of different employees like these shouldn’t be treated as equal when it comes to how to manage the business.
The opinions of highly accountable, emotionally inexpensive employees who exhibit a high degree of commitment to results and who seek continuous improvement are highly credible. These employees take responsibility for results even when they miss the mark. They also mitigate the risks of a plan and make great team members. They raise the bar for those around them. These are great employees. And the exciting news is that they are probably pretty engaged in your business by nature of their high personal accountability. They aren’t getting wrapped up in unnecessary drama and distraction at work because they are too busy making things happen. So, when these employees speak, you should listen intently to what they say. When they ask for something, it’s likely to be a resource that will help them create more value for you and your customers. These employees have highly credible opinions about how to make your organization not only more engaging, but more productive.
On the other hand, the opinions of employees who exhibit signs of an entitled or victim mindset are simply not credible. These employees focus on what they haven’t got, they wait for things to happen instead of making them happen, and they find excuses and blame others when things don’t go as planned. Their primary focused is on being comfortable, not being productive. And they are full of opinions, bordering on being noisy, about how you could make their working environment work better for them. And as a reward for you, if you give them what they want, they will immediately focus on what else they don’t have. These employees drag down your environment, acting like a parking brake that tries to hold you in place.
So, whose opinion are you looking for in your engagement survey?
The Silver Lining of 401(k) Fee Disclosures
By Jonathan Anderson
Source: benefitspro.com
In all of the recent – and perhaps herculean - efforts to develop and distribute fee disclosures, a proverbial “silver lining” actually exists.
Service providers have spent much time, effort, and expense (sometimes great) in complying with the Department of Labor’s service provider fee disclosures, effective July 1, 2012.
I also realize that service providers and employers, now focused on providing participants with the participant fee disclosures, generally effective August 30, 2012, are expending similar time, effort, and money it took for the service provider disclosures.
I further recognize the disclosures contain some additional fiduciary obligations that could be challenging (e.g. reporting to the DOL any service providers with deficient disclosures; possibly being penalized and/or sued for breaches of fiduciary duty; et cetera).
However, there is a silver lining surrounding the valuable and critical benefits resulting from the disclosures.
Service Provider Disclosures:
One of the first benefits is that plan fiduciaries now have a more compact and precise tool to help determine the actual services provided by a vendor, and the reasonableness of the fees for such, to a plan.
Since determining the reasonableness of the services and fees under a service provider arrangement has always been a requirement of the fiduciaries (to avoid a prohibited transaction), the disclosures should simplify what had been a complex process for most fiduciaries. For other fiduciaries, perhaps this will be the first time a formal determination of an arrangement’s reasonableness has actually been made.
With the new disclosure, the determination process has been made easier for the plan fiduciaries, and can allow them to make more informed decisions.
The same benefit applies with respect to documenting the process of determining of an arrangement’s reasonableness. By having a disclosure describing and summarizing the services, fees, and the parties providing the services and receiving the fees, the fiduciaries’ documentation process has been simplified. In addition, documenting the process could aid the plan sponsor/plan fiduciaries defend any legal claim that the services and fees were not reasonable.
Another benefit is that the disclosures allow fiduciaries to use more of an “apples-to-apples” comparison of one service provider’s services and fees to another service provider’s services and fees. Comparisons may be used to further justify staying with the current service provider, or to explore whether switching to a different provider might be better.
Yet another benefit is the disclosures allow fiduciaries to help identify whether any changes to the current arrangement should be explored and/or made. For instance, after reviewing the disclosures made about the investment alternatives in the required summary chart format, perhaps the plan fiduciaries may decide to add or modify the investment alternatives from which a participant may choose to invest his/her account balances.
Pay or play? A strategic HR response to PPACA
By Timothy Wojcik
Source: eba.benefitnews.com
With the recent Supreme Court ruling now finalized and the minimum essential health insurance provisions in place, companies have begun to ask us “What’s next?” or “What will the financial impact be for our company in 2014?” My belief is that by taking a proactive approach to the individual mandate and understanding the impact on your company’s financials, you will be able to make that critical decision whether to continue offering a group health care plan or allow employees to elect coverage through the state mandated exchanges.
Based on external research, a recent study by Deloitte has found that approximately one in ten employers in the U.S. intend to “Pay” the penalty imposed on employers for opting out of group health coverage. This number, however, does not reflect an additional 10% of employers who weren’t sure if they would continue coverage. An overarching theme heard from our clients is that the benefits program offered today is instrumental in attracting, retaining, and engaging employees.
Ultimately, the decision to Pay or Play is a strategic HR decision which will not only impact the company’s fixed costs, but also the level of engagement and retention within the company. A thorough analysis delicately weighing the financial and non-financial factors must occur to ensure that the decision falls in line with the company’s overall business and HR strategy.