Overtime Exemptions Remain Widely Misunderstood
Original Post from SHRM.org
By: Allen Smith
Even if workers’ pay is higher than the newly raised exempt salary threshold, they still might not be exempt. That’s because the new overtime rule didn’t add any requirements to the duties tests but left the existing duties tests in place. And the tests are widely misunderstood, particularly those for the administrative exemption, according to Robert Boonin, an attorney with Dykema in Detroit and a speaker at the Society for Human Resource Management 2016 Annual Conference & Exposition.
“I’m afraid you may be OD’d on overtime,” Boonin said at his presentation’s outset. But he reminded attendees that the salary level for the white-collar exemption—$455 a week, or $23,660 per year, under the 2004 overtime rule—will be raised to $913 a week, or $47,476 per year, effective Dec. 1 and walked them through potential traps in classifying workers as exempt.
Who’s In, Who’s Out
Paralegals are almost never exempt under the administrative exemption, Boonin remarked, and the same is true for help desk employees and administrative assistants. Other positions that probably don’t fit within the exemption include mortgage loan originators, customer service representatives and insurance adjustors.
To fall under the administrative exemption, an employee must have the primary duty of performing office or nonmanual work related to the employer’s management or general business operations.
He noted that areas likely to be related to management and general operations include:
- Accounting.
- Advertising.
- Auditing.
- Employee benefits.
- Finance.
- Government relations.
- Human resource management.
- Insurance.
- Labor relations.
- Marketing.
- Procurement.
- Public relations.
- Purchasing.
- Quality control.
- Research.
- Safety and health.
- Tax.
- Training and development.
That’s a wide swath of operations.
But, most important, the employee must exercise “independent judgment and discretion” on “matters of significance” to fit within this exemption, he emphasized.
An employee who falls under the exemption should not merely follow marching orders. So, while an HR coordinator who processes applications wouldn’t fit within the exemption, an HR director who oversees an HR department probably would.
‘Independent Judgment and Discretion’
When determining whether someone has discretion and independent judgment, Boonin said, HR should consider whether the employee:
- Has the authority to formulate, affect, interpret, or implement management policies or operating practices.
- Carries out major assignments in conducting the operations of the enterprise.
- Performs work that affects business operations to a substantial degree, even if assignments are related to operation of a particular segment of the business.
- Has authority to commit the employer in matters that have significant financial impact.
- Has authority to waive or deviate from established policies and procedures without prior approval.
- Has authority to negotiate and bind the institution on significant matters.
- Provides consultation or expert advice to management.
- Plans long- or short-term business objectives.
- Investigates and resolves matters of significance on behalf of management.
- Represents the institution in handling complaints, arbitrating disputes or resolving grievances.
Professional Exemption
The professional employee exemption is more straightforward. The primary duties must be in an area requiring specialized higher education and the consistent exercise of discretion and judgment, he said. These areas include:
- Engineering.
- Law.
- Medicine.
- Psychology.
- Science.
- Social work.
- Teaching.
Positions that may not fit within this exemption include accountants, stockbrokers and entry-level engineers.
While the salary threshold in general must be satisfied for white-collar employees to be exempt, the threshold does not apply to:
- Doctors.
- Lawyers.
- Teachers.
*Employees in highly skilled computer-related occupations, such as programmers and network designers who earn at least $27.63 per hour.
Other Exemptions
In addition to the administrative and professional exemptions, the executive exemption is available to employees who supervise at least two full-time workers and have the authority to hire and fire, in addition to primarily managing the enterprise, a department or subdivision.
Boonin noted that the outside sales exemption is for those whose primary duty is to sell services to customers at their place of business. There are no salary or fee requirements for exempt outside sales employees.
Special rules apply to highly compensated employees, who don’t fit within the white-collar exemptions. They perform a combination of nonexempt work (what the Department of Labor now refers to as “overtime-eligible” work) and exempt work, plus are high earners.
Take a sales director. She might not fit within the administrative exemption if the vice president of sales calls all the shots. She also wouldn’t fall under the professional exemption. Nor would she fit within the executive exemption if she supervised two full-time employees but didn’t have the authority to hire or fire them; again, the vice president might reserve that function for herself.
The sales director still would be exempt if her salary is—as of Dec. 1—at least $134,004 because she performs at least one of the duties in the executive, administrative or professional employee exemptions: supervising two full-time employees.
Office Chatter: Your Doctor Will See You In This Telemedicine Kiosk
Original Post from KHN.org
By: Phil Galewitz
On the day abdominal pain and nausea struck Jessica Christianson at the office, she discovered how far telemedicine has come.
Rushing to a large kiosk in the lobby of the Palm Beach County School District’s administrative building where she works, Christianson, 29, consulted a nurse practitioner in Miami via two-way video. The nurse examined her remotely, using a stethoscope and other instruments connected to the computer station. Then, she recommended Christianson seek an ultrasound elsewhere to check for a possible liver problem stemming from an intestinal infection.
The cost: $15. She might have paid $50 at an urgent care center.
The ultrasound Christianson got later that day confirmed the nurse practitioner’s diagnosis.
“Without the kiosk I probably would have waited to get care and that could have made things worse,” she said.
Endorsements like Christianson’s demonstrate how technology and positive consumer experiences are lending momentum to telemedicine’s adoption in the workplace.
Less than a decade ago, telemedicine was mainly used by hospitals and clinics for secure doctor-to-doctor consultations. But today, telemedicine has become a more common method for patients to receive routine care at home or wherever they are — often on their cellphones or personal computers.
In the past several years, a growing number of employers have provided insurance coverage for telemedicine services enabling employees to connect with a doctor by phone using both voice and video. One limitation of such phone-based services is physicians cannot always obtain basic vital signs such as blood pressure and heart rate.
That’s where telemedicine kiosks offer an advantage. Hundreds of employers — often supported by their health insurers — now have them installed in the workplaces, according to consultants and two telemedicine companies that make kiosks, American Well and Computerized Screening, Inc.
Employers and insurers see the kiosks as a pathway to delivering quality care, reducing lost productivity due to time spent traveling and waiting for care, and saving money by avoiding costlier visits to emergency rooms and urgent care facilities.
Jet Blue Airways is adding a kiosk later this year for its employees at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Other big employers providing kiosks in the workplace include the city of Kansas City, Missouri.
Large health insurers such as Anthem and UnitedHealthcare are promoting telemedicine’s next wave by testing the kiosks at worksites where they have contracts.
Anthem has installed 34 kiosks at 20 employers in the past 18 months. John Jesser, an Anthem vice president, said kiosks are a good option for employers too small or disinclined to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in creating an on-site clinic with doctors and nurses on standby.
“This technology should make it more affordable for employers of many sizes,” Jesser said.
Kiosks are typically used for the same maladies that lead people to see a doctor or seek urgent care — colds, sore throats, upper respiratory problems, earaches and pink eye. Telemedicine doctors or nurse practitioners can email prescriptions to clients’ local pharmacies. Employees often pay either nothing or no more than $15 per session, far less than they would pay with insurance at a doctor’s office, an urgent care clinic or an emergency room.
Despite kiosks’ growing use in telemedicine, it’s unclear whether they will be supplanted as smartphones, personal computers and tablets enable people to access health care anywhere with a Wi-Fi connection or cell service. Some employers already offer kiosk and personal device options, including MBS Textbook Exchange in Columbia, Missouri, which has 1,000 workers.
Workplace kiosks’ appeal is they are quiet, private spaces to seek care. Consumers can get their ailments diagnosed remotely because the kiosks are equipped with familiar doctors’ office instruments such as blood pressure cuffs, thermometers, pulse oximeters and other tools that peer into eyes, ears and mouths. The instrument readings, pictures and sounds are seen and heard immediately by a doctor or nurse practitioner.
“The kiosk gives the doctor more tools to diagnose a wider range of conditions,” Anthem’s Jesser said.
The downside is that the machines cost $15,000 to $60,000 apiece, which may still be too much for some employers.
“Telemedicine kiosks look promising and may still take off, but I don’t see explosive growth,” said Victor Camlek, principal analyst with Frost & Sullivan, a research firm.
Employers’ experiences are mixed.
Officials in Kansas City, Missouri, estimate the kiosk placed in city hall almost a year ago has saved the local government at least $28,000. That’s what Kansas City hasn’t spent because employees and dependents chose the telemedicine option instead of an in-person doctor visit. The city also estimates it has gained hundreds of productive work hours — that’s the time employees saved by not leaving work to see a doctor.
In contrast, fewer than 175 of the 2,000 employees at the Palm Beach County School District headquarters have used the kiosk there in its first year, said Dianne Howard, director of risk management.
Howard remains hopeful: “This is the future of health care.”
The district’s kiosk was supplied at no cost by UnitedHealthcare, as part of a test also involving two other employers in Florida.
Those kiosks connect employees to nurse practitioners at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami. The hospital employs an attendant at each kiosk location to help workers register and use some of the instruments, such as the stethoscope.
Other telemedicine kiosks, such as those made by America Well, are designed to be totally self-service for employees. They also offer users immediate access to a health care provider. American Well has deployed about 200 kiosks and is in midst of rolling out 500 more, mostly to employers, the company said. It also places kiosks in retail outlets and hospitals.
Telemedicine’s increasing sophistication is winning over some traditional-minded physicians.
The WEA Trust in Madison, Wisconsin, a nonprofit that offers health coverage to public employers, installed a kiosk for the benefit of its 250 workers last fall.
Dr. Tim Bartholow, a family doctor by training and chief medical officer for the trust, said he was cautious about physicians treating patients they haven’t seen in person. After observing employees using it, Bartholow is convinced it can help them get good care.
“I don’t think telemedicine is making a doctor being on site quite agnostic, but it is certainly reducing the premium on being in the same space as the patient,” Bartholow said.
Insurers declare they are moving carefully, too, recognizing that telemedicine has its limits and they must depend on practitioners to tell patients when they have to see a doctor — in person.
“We have to rely on their experience and judgment,” Jesser said.
3 Key Takeaways of Designing Employee Benefits Programs
Original Post from BenefitsPro.com
By: Nate Randall
Throughout my career, I’ve had the good fortune to work for a variety of industry leading organizations from stratospheric startup Tesla Motors to Fortune 100s Safeway and Washington Mutual.
I planted myself knee deep in managing, analyzing, and creating everything related to employee benefits and have learned more than a few finer points along the way.
The common thread across these three companies was a genuine desire and drive to apply innovative, forward-thinking approaches to change and improve the way employee benefits are delivered.
I’ve reflected on my experiences to give you three takeaways that helped these companies make the biggest impact possible with their benefits and employee experience programs.
Innovation isn’t easy
Much has been written about long work hours. Stories abound of people sleeping in their cars or under their desks and subsisting on Top Ramen and frozen vegetables. That might exist for you at some point along the path, but that’s not the type of innovative environment that I’m talking about here. I am talking about an atmosphere that applies a conscious drive for change which can lead to meaningful acceptance of new ideas.
Whether you’re rethinking the value of the way health insurance is delivered to families or trying to disrupt a 100-year-old automotive industry, mindfully striving for innovation isn’t a cakewalk.
That’s because humans are programmed not to like change, and for many, working through innovation doesn’t come naturally. It takes a laser-focused and cognizant decision to examine the way things are traditionally or typically done. To do that, you’ll need to gather data, build a team, prove a case, influence, iterate, fail, and to achieve success, you’ll need to do all of these things quickly with minimal errors and missteps.
In my experience, it all comes down to the team that you surround yourself with. When hiring or building your team, I always advise to think creatively about your problems and look for passion in those you recruit. More important than having “done it before” is an intense drive to solve problems and an underlying interest in the core subject.
Early in my career at Tesla, an HR manager said to me, “there are three reasons people come to Tesla. Either they are passionate about cars, passionate about the environment, or passionate about their chosen profession. And Tesla is the best place in the world to be for all three of those things.” Notice there is nothing about money, benefits, or perks. That brings me to the second lesson I’ve learned..
Top talent doesn’t care about perks (until you take them away)
Rarely do candidates and their families make the decision to change their lives — in some cases moving across the country or world — because of the benefits and perks you offer.
Attracting top talent is about storytelling. It’s about having a mission and purpose that a person (and his or her family) can identify with through hard work. I have literally witnessed thousands of people join a common mission early on with little more than unlimited cereal and coffee being offered as the perk. And this was in the geographic backyard of arguably the most intense company perk culture on the planet in Silicon Valley. At the end of the day, people want to feel like they are contributing to something bigger than themselves.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to imply employees don’t care about the benefits offered to them. They must be satisfied knowing that the basics — health, disability, life insurance, and retirement — are covered. But in my experience, top talent doesn’t make the decision to join a company because of free lunches and massages on Wednesdays.
Keeping that in mind, it is extremely important to construct benefits and perks with care and thought. Once implemented, any experienced HR manager will tell you his or her sad tale of trying to take something away that people are accustomed to.
It’s also imperative to align benefits with perks. Trust me, employees notice if either appears alien to the company culture and mission. I learned this lesson at Safeway during a program that linked the amount of premium a person paid for health insurance to their biometric measures like blood pressure and cholesterol. Employees scratched their heads wondering why the company cafeteria featured cheap burgers and sodas in comparison to the healthy (but pricey) salad bar if poor eating habits could potentially equate to higher health insurance premiums. To promote the healthy lunch options, we had to align its costs with the culture we were trying to foster.
Silicon Valley has become legendary for perks and what many of my colleagues across the country consider frivolous and extravagant benefits. While I agree that many of the Valley’s largest and most iconic brands along with many wannabe cool kids are foolishly wasting time, resources, and money on programs that really do not serve any identifiable goal, I will argue that offering smartly aligned, personalized benefits and perks are the wave of the future. And that brings me to my third and final take-away...
Let the people choose
We have a lot of choice in our lives. We choose the items, price points, and brands to put into our carts when shopping at Safeway. Every Tesla purchase is made to order, built to the specific requirements of the buyer. Google organizes information to make it individualized and useful. Amazon provides a personalized online shopping experience. Uber and Airbnb tap into excess individual capacity in existing systems to create value. We all have different needs, priorities, family situations, and interests, so is it so difficult to offer benefits that can be personalized, too?
The traditional way of offering limited choice employee benefits and perks for everyone (i.e., group benefits) is outdated and bloated with waste. Upwards of 30 percent of compensation costs are funneled to these traditional benefits and American companies spend over a trillion and a half dollars on these inefficient benefits per year.
And that doesn’t even include any so-called perks. In my own research, most employers are paying anywhere from $7,000 to $25,000 per year for a single traditional benefits package. That’s a huge chunk of change and much of those benefits will never be used by the individual if it doesn’t apply to their situation or they find no personal value in it.
Instead of these antiquated and engorged traditional benefits, smart people are creating systems and methods whereby employees can build personalized benefits packages that meet individual needs and circumstances. Giving people the choice and ability to craft what they need can and will make a real difference in people’s daily lives.
Adoption by forward-leaning employers along with regulatory cooperation will finally result in a system for employee benefits and perks that is modern, flexible, and valued. A system that looks like the rest of our world: personalized.
Report: Make Workforce Analytics Work for Business
Original Post from SHRM.org
By: Kathy Gurchiek
More businesses will be using workforce analytics over the next three years, especially to help with retention and recruitment, according to a new report published by the SHRM Foundation.
For HR practitioners, it will be increasingly important to understand analytics and to be able to present the findings to senior executives. In a data-driven world, organizations will establish specialist HR teams and recruit data-oriented personnel, according to Use of Workforce Analytics for Competitive Advantage, released June 21 at the Society for Human Resource Management 2016 Annual Conference & Exposition in Washington, D.C.
“Workforce analytics is transforming human capital strategy,” said Mark Schmit, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP, executive director of the SHRM Foundation, in a news release. In the foreword to the report, Schmit noted that a 2015 Economist Intelligence Unit survey found 82 percent of organizations recognize the importance of talent-related data in managing recruitment, retention, and turnover, and increasingly see workforce analytics “as a critical tool to shape future business strategy.”
“This new report can help HR and business leaders prepare for the future and leverage the power of analytics to generate valuable business insights. This new report can help HR and business leaders prepare for the future and leverage the power of analytics to generate valuable business insights.”
Organizations wanting to exploit “big data” to gain a competitive advantage are setting up small specialist teams of data analysts, training their existing staff in the use of big data and recruiting college graduates with skills in workforce analytics, according to the report.
“Executives and academics interviewed for this report consistently argue that a new-style HR professional should possess a combination of two skills—a head for analytics together with the ability to present findings in the manner and language convincing to senior executives,” the report authors noted.
The first step in getting data analysis into the HR decision-making process “is having the will to do it,” the authors said, but it’s also critical for the data to be presented in a way that is clear and accessible, if the analytics are to yield results.
Organizations seeking to effectively use workforce analytics likely will encounter some obstacles. The report offers the following recommendations for overcoming these obstacles:
- Improve the analytical skills of the HR function.
- Ensure data are clean, organized and ready for analysis.
- Keep projects focused on solving key business problems.
- Maintain rigor by not confusing correlation and causation. If data show that older sales representatives sell more than younger colleagues, for example, that doesn’t necessarily mean that age is the cause.
- Avoid the pursuit of perfectionism in data; it can lead to procrastination. Organizations don’t need complete assurance that measurements are totally accurate before beginning a project.
- Seek small wins initially, which can lead to bigger wins.
- Establish cross-functional cooperation for data gathering, storage and analysis.
- Reassure staff that analytics is an aid to human decision-making, not a replacement for it.
- Understand the legal and ethical complexities of employee monitoring.
The report includes case studies that demonstrate “the need for senior decision-makers to embrace workforce analytics as an essential aspect of strategic HR,” the report authors noted.
The report was sponsored by IBM Kenexa, researched and written by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and published by the SHRM Foundation. The EIU is a research and analysis division of The Economist Group, a British-based global organization that is a sister company to The Economist.
The report is the latest in a series from the Foundation and the EIU, which launched a partnership and strategic thought leadership initiative in 2013, resulting in this report and the following previous publications:
• Evolution of Work and the Worker, which focused on the globalization of business, changing demographics and changing patterns of mobility and how these affect the , which focused on the globalization of business, changing demographics and changing patterns of mobility and how these affect the , which focused on the globalization of business, changing demographics and changing patterns of mobility and how these affect the nature of work and the worker.
• Engaging and Integrating a Global Workforce, which focused on how “clashes/unrest will continue to grow globally at both a societal and a corporate level.”
“We believe these reports provide important insights to help forward-thinking HR and business leaders plan more effectively for the future,” Schmit wrote in the foreword.
This research, he added, also provides “excellent background information for students and researchers who wish to study the many questions raised.”
Some of those questions include cultural and practical obstacles such as the skills gap, as well as ethical and legal questions about the monitoring of employees and job candidates in the process of collecting workforce analytics, according to the report.
“Legal rulings on the monitoring of employee behavior vary from region to region and are still in a state of flux,” the report noted. “Some view such monitoring to be beyond the boundaries of acceptable ethical practice.”
Additionally, the report suggested that some executives might fear that analytics will contradict their personal judgment; however, as they see competitors benefitting from HR analytics, that barrier is likely to be overcome.
The Death of an Employee's Spouse
Original Post from BenefitsPro.com
By: Amy Florian
How often does it happen? An employee has returned to work after experiencing the death of a spouse. At first, she gets hugs and people tell her they are sorry for her loss. But after a few days, you notice that co-workers talk about everything and everyone except the person who died, even when it would be natural to include something about him in the conversation. They all tiptoe around it and avoid even mentioning his name. Why is everyone so afraid?
The truth is, they are well-meaning but uninformed. Most are afraid that if they say his name, they will make her sad or spoil her day. They think it is their job to cheer their co-worker up or take her mind off the reality.
They don’t realize it is not their job to “fix it.” They can’t take her grief away anyway. The loss is always on her mind, no matter how hard others try to avoid bringing it up. Nor do they realize how much she longs to hear his name, how badly she wants to know that someone besides herself remembers, or how hungry she is to share stories and memories.
Co-workers can be much more comforting if they can acknowledge and accept her sadness, continue to give her an understanding smile or a hug for weeks afterwards, or even cry with her. Grief that is shared is diminished, but grief that is repressed or denied festers inside until it finds a way to come out.
Besides, tears are healthy. Despite our fears to the contrary, no one in the history of the world has ever started crying and not been able to stop. Most people report feeling relieved or freed or even cleansed after a good cry, because tears contain physiological chemicals that relieve stress; we are supposed to cry when we are sad.
So what can you do when you notice that people are afraid to say the name? The easiest thing is to say the name yourself. Bring up a story or a memory that involves the spouse — maybe an interaction at a company event. That gives others permission to say the name, too.
Then you can coach your colleagues to do the same by addressing the issue explicitly, saying, “Sometimes people are afraid to mention the name of a deceased family member for fear of making the person sad. We always want to follow her lead, but most survivors love to hear their loved one’s name and share stories and memories of the person’s life. Please don’t be afraid.”
Continue on to talk about tears: “It’s true that she may cry, but that doesn’t mean you made her sad. The tears are there anyway, and every once in a while, they spill over. It’s better that her inevitable tears can be shared with people who care about her.”
In spite of your efforts, you will still find that some people are uncomfortable with grief and sadness. There will be others, though, who can learn to freely share whatever their grieving co-worker is experiencing. It is good for her, and it also builds the kind of camaraderie and bonding that help the business thrive. It’s the right thing to do, all the way around.
Health Care Consumerism Is More Than A Benefit Design
Original Post from BeneftisPro.com
By: Steven Auerbach
The shift to health care consumerism is well underway. Trends continue to point to increased financial responsibility for consumers with rising deductibles, increased consumer out-of-pocket responsibilities, and accelerated adoption of consumer-directed health care plans (CDHPs), health savings accounts (HSAs), and other account-based benefit offerings.
According to Mercer, enrollment in CDHPs among large employers nearly doubled in the past three years from 15 percent to 28 percent of covered employees.
Employer adoption of these consumer-directed benefit designs will continue to grow for the foreseeable future, driven by the need for cost control, the impact of health care reform and the looming excise tax. The costs of providing health care continue to rise, surpassing $25,000 for an average family for the first time in 2016 (Milliman Medical Index).
However, the fact that the term “consumer-directed health care (CDH)” has become almost synonymous with CDHPs and HSAs is a bit of a misnomer. In reality, CDH is much more than a benefit design – it is a paradigm shift for how consumers must manage their health care and make health care decisions going forward.
Dimensions of consumer-directed health care
The underlying premise of CDH is that, if given more financial responsibility for health care and empowered to make informed decisions, consumers will make better choices – leading to improved health outcomes and decreased overall health care costs. Implicit in this definition are two equally important dimensions:
- Benefit designs that require increased consumer financial accountability
- Empowerment and engagement to support decision-making
The market has made considerable progress shifting to benefit models that increase consumer financial responsibility, as evidenced by the data above. While new plan designs have been created and successfully implemented, financial accountability is only the beginning— behavior must change too, not just costs. We have only just begun to unlock the second dimension of health care consumerism.
Giving somebody new responsibility without the education, tools and support to manage those responsibilities is like giving a teenager the keys to the car without teaching them to drive.
Unlocking consumer engagement
So where does the health care industry really stand in terms of engaging and empowering consumers to make better choices? The health care industry is still struggling to drive meaningful consumer engagement.
Consumer fluency is low. Alegeus research is clear that consumers still don’t have a good grasp on how the plans work, how to predict and manage out of pocket costs, how to determine coverage, etc. Engagement overall is low. The average consumer interacts with their health plan just one or two times per year – and more than 40 percent of members have never taken the time to log-on, dial-in, subscribe, or download any content from their benefit providers.
And in many cases, consumers are resistant to change. When asked whether they wanted to take a more active role in managing their health care, 50 percent said no thanks.
Employers are now spending nearly $700 per employee on various employee engagement programs related to health care, per Fidelity. There are more tools and resources than ever before. Yet most of these programs are delivered with a “one-size-fits-all” approach, and the consumer experience is still very fragmented.
However, by its very nature, CDH may be the key to unlocking consumer engagement. CDHP members are significantly more engaged than their counterparts in traditional coverage for one very important reason…
People pay attention to their money
According to our research, people enrolled in CDHPs scored universally higher on all measures of engagement. CDHP members:
- Are considerably more fluent in the details of health care coverage, costs and billing
- Are more value-conscious - 50 percent more likely to research and compare costs for health care purchases
- Interact more frequently– the average CDHP member interacts with their account 10-50 times per year
- Leverage available resources & channels - one-third more likely to consume content and engage with their benefit service providers through available channels
- Are more likely to participate - twice as likely to participate in employer engagement and wellness programs
Although CDHP members interact more frequently, the key to true engagement and behavior change is not just driving more interactions, it is driving strategic engagement that is targeted, timely and relevant.
Health & wealth must converge
The path to true, meaningful engagement in health care may lie in the convergence of these financial components with the traditional health care domain. No matter what age, health status, or consumer segment, the responsibility for managing finances and costs will become universal.
The convergence of claims, financial transactions and other behavioral and demographic data will provide a robust foundation for targeted engagement.
The fact that consumers pay closer attention to their finances presents a unique opportunity to tap into a captive audience with personalized offers, messages and value-added tools designed to improve engagement, influence behavior and enhance decision-making.
For the vision of consumer-directed health care to be fully realized, it is imperative that employers and benefit providers do not overlook the critical importance of education and targeted engagement to empower better decision making – and better outcomes for all stakeholders.
4 Ways Benefits Administrations Can Stop Cyberattacks
Original Post from BenefitsPro.com
By: Tom Pohl
There are reports of data breaches in the news every week, impacting a range of organizations and industries. These cyberattacks are costing businesses, both large and small, a great deal to resolve — from financial expenses to IT and legal resources to reputation recovery efforts.
According to a new study by the Ponemon Institute, data breaches are costing the health care industry $6.2 billion annually. Nearly 90 percent of health care organizations were victims of a breach in the last two years, raising concern for patients, employees, and others involved in the health care system.
Today, the leading cause of health care data breaches are targeted criminal attacks that seek to place valuable personal information into the hands of malicious actors. The personal information given out to health care organizations can be some of the most valuable to cybercriminals. For example, when enrolling in benefits, the information submitted can include patient names, family history, Social Security numbers, and billing information.
It’s important to also note that not all breaches are malicious. Human error is often a cause of breaches, asCompTia’s International Trends in Cybersecurity report found the 58 percent of security breaches are typically due to human error.
So what can benefits administration technology providers do to keep sensitive data secure from human error and malicious threats?
Conduct extensive user testing on your security systems
Implementing user testing through a third party vendor allows benefits administration technology providers to discover gaps or holes in their security systems. This can be done via a user testing group, which is comprised of individuals trained to discover the predominant methods that cybercriminals would abuse to compromise web-based applications.
The group is given a platform with authorized access and fake scenarios, all set up to act as if the system was running as usual. As these experts go into the system and know what areas to try and hack, the organization is able to develop plans to combat or repair these issues. User testing is similar to proofreading a paper; getting a second set of eyes on a program allows companies to see the full risks of its security system.
Educate employees on cyberthreats
As data breaches become a daily concern for IT departments, educating employees on the risks and dangers of cyberattacks becomes even more of a priority. Benefits administration technology providers need to prioritize educational resources and programs to teach employees how to spot potential cyberattacks, especially as they are handling their customers’ private information.
An effective and simple way to train employees on how to spot strange activity can be done via an email phishing awareness campaign. This involves delivering emails to employees with mocked up links or downloadable materials that, if real, would have the potential to open users’ accounts up to cyberattacks. Organizations should also consistently remind its employees to report any suspicious activity and to change their passwords regularly for a more secure system.
Automate processes to reduce the risk of human error
Recently, Google was in the news for a suffered data breach via its benefits provider. Yet the reason for this incident was human error, in which an email sender accidentally sent a document to the wrong contact. Fortunately for Google, the damage was limited, but human error is not always so forgiving.
With automation, benefits administration technology providers have the ability to decrease the chances of sensitive information getting into the wrong hands. This can be done by sending dummy files before sending the actual files to contacts. Another option is to implement triggers on email accounts when certain information is involved. For example, if a file is attached to the email, prompt the sender to confirm it is the correct file before sending. Implementing automation is a key factor in combatting human errors that could increase the risk of a cyberattack, especially when it comes to personal data.
Beware of the insider threat
While public perception is that these attacks result solely from the actions of malicious hackers outside of an organization, insider threats are a growing and serious concern. Vormetric’s 2015 Insider Threat Report reveals that over 90 percent of U.S. organizations believe they are vulnerable to insider threats such as stolen passwords or email spam. In fact, the National Association of Manufacturers released a statement in April 2016 stating the theft of trade secrets has cost businesses $250 billion per year.
Benefits administration technology may want to go a step further to ensure employees are operating in the correct space. Requiring background checks and limiting access to sensitive data will provide an extra level of security for patient, employee, and others’ personal information.
OFCCP Updates Sex Discrimination Rule
From the Department of Labor.
On June 14, 2016, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced publication of a Final Rule in the Federal Register that sets forth the requirements that covered contractors must meet under the provisions of Executive Order 11246 prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. This Final Rule updates sex discrimination guidelines from 1970 with new regulations that align with current law and address the realities of today’s workplaces. The Final Rule deals with a variety of sex–based barriers to equal employment and fair pay, including compensation discrimination, sexual harassment, hostile work environments, failure to provide workplace accommodations for pregnant workers, and gender identity and family caregiving discrimination.
The Final Rule becomes effective on August 15, 2016.
Read the final rule.
Core Benefits Drive Satisfaction More Than Niche Offerings
Original Post from SHRM.org
By: Stephen Miller
Improving traditional core benefits could be the best way to increase employees’ satisfaction with their rewards mix, new research suggests.
The three offerings with the greatest effect on how employees rate their benefits are health insurance, 401(k) retirement plans and vacation/paid time off. Among these, health insurance was by far the biggest driver of employee satisfaction, according to a new study, Which Benefits Drive Employee Satisfaction?, from Glassdoor Economic Research, the research arm of career website Glassdoor.
At organizations where employee ratings of the employer-provided health coverage increased by 1 star (out of 5), there was also a statistically significant increase in average employee satisfaction with the overall benefits package. (See graph above, from Glassdoor Economic Research. *Denotes that the increase in the overall benefits rating was statistically significant.)
Notably, 4 in 5 U.S. workers report they prefer new benefits or perks to a pay raise. This finding supports a recent Glassdoor survey that found health insurance, paid time off and 401(k) plans are among the top benefits employees would prefer over a pay increase.
Benefits with Narrower Appeal
Two benefits that did not seem to have a significant impact on overall employee satisfaction were maternity/paternity leave and employee discounts.
“Though many employers have added generous maternity/paternity leave plans, it is possible benefits that are not used by a large subset of employees do not impact overall benefits package satisfaction,” the researchers suggested.
“We know benefits and perks are an important recruiting tool in today’s challenging hiring landscape, and this study shows that the flashiest or trendy benefits aren’t always better,” said Andrew Chamberlain, chief economist of Glassdoor. “Investing in core benefits programs like health care coverage, retirement plans and paid time off will go far with new and current employees. Other benefits, like maternity/paternity leave, are important to recruit and retain smaller subsets of employees—like new parents—though we saw little impact on overall satisfaction related to benefits that don’t touch a wide variety of employees.”
He advised, “Employers who have well-rounded compensation plans that include core benefits, fair and competitive pay, and desirable perks stand to attract and retain top talent.”
A separate Glassdoor Economic Research study, The Best Industries for Benefits, found that the best benefits packages, according to employees, are found in the finance and technology industries.
Stephen Miller, CEBS, is an online editor/manager for SHRM. Follow him on Twitter @SHRMsmiller.
8 Common But Costly Benefits Communication Mistakes
Original Post from HRMorning.com
By: Tim Gould
Here are a few stats that really drive home just how critical benefits communication is for HR pros.
When employees that were offered rich employer benefits received poor communication, just 22% of those workers reported being satisfied with their benefits.
On the other hand, when employers with less-rich benefits communicated those benefits effectively, 76% of workers reported being satisfied with their employers’ benefit offerings.
These stats were part of a recent study by Towers Watson WorkUSA.
At the 2015 Mid-Sized Retirement & Healthcare Plan Management Conference in San Diego, Benefits Strategist Julie Adamik used those surprising stats as an opening to launch into a presentation about effective benefits communication.
What to avoid
During the presentation, Adamik covered some of the most common — and costly — benefits communication mistakes, which included:
1. Holding a boring benefits presentation. There’s a common misconception among workers that anything about benefits is going to be boring. But when HR pros don’t make the effort to make their benefits presentations interesting, the message is bound to be lost on employees.
2. Letting Legal draft all of your benefit communications. When employers let a legal department write all your benefits communications, there’s a very good chance the documents will be littered with legalese that confuses employees, bores them to the point of tuning out or both.
3. Not allotting enough of the budget to the benefits communications. Upper management often doesn’t have a handle on just how much solid benefits communications are going to cost — at least not in the same way HR does.
Benefits communication must be more detailed than standard inter-office communications, so it’s likely to take more time to prepare and produce.
4. Relying on workers will bring their benefits info home and discuss it with their family members.Effective benefits communication should always try to include spouses and family members.
5. Assuming employees will simply act on the messages in the benefit communications. It’s up to HR to specifically tell staffers what they should do with the benefits info as well as why.
6. Thinking workers will read their open enrollment materials cover to cover on their own time. The more HR can go over during the actual open enrollment meeting, the better. Of course, enrollment time shouldn’t be the only time benefits info should be addressed. Communication should be a year-long process.
7. Opting for “professional-sounding” language instead of simple “plain-speak” English. Sure, HR pros’ world is filled with jargon, buzzwords and benefits-related acronyms, but rank-and-file employees’ worlds are not. Keep the benefit communications as simple as possible.
8. Covering too much info. It’s only natural to try and cram everything possible into your open enrollment materials, but when there’s just too much being thrown at employees, they suffer from information overload — and retain little (if any) of what was covered.
Remember, continuous education is a proven way to improve employees’ decision-making regarding their benefits, which should be the goal of every communication effort..
Adapted from “Effective Benefit Communications” by Julie Adamik, CEBS, CCP, CBP, as presented at the 2015 Mid-Sized Retirement & Healthcare Plan Management Conference in San Diego.