How to Inspire and Energize Your Workforce Every Day
In this article from the SHRM blog, Desda Moss brings up some fascinating points on how to energize your workforce, as well as provides some great examples of books and behavior. Dive in with us below.
- Listening is the highest rated inspirational behavior. We're not inspired as much when someone talks at us as we are when someone listens to us. Time spent crafting beautiful messages matters less than what happens when leaders are quiet. To be an inspiring leader, you have to listen fully, with an open mind.
- Small moments have the biggest impact. Most people recall their most inspired moments as times they were engaged in personal conversations where another person spoke authentically and focused on them. People can hold the words from an inspiring 10-minute conversation for their entire lives. Conversations create an inspirational trigger. For example, a conversation about purpose hits upon why we are at this moment in our lives and in our careers. These conversations transcend what we're doing in the here and now to reveal patterns that take us further, enhance our enjoyment, tap into our passion and spark in us the will to be in service to a larger cause.
- Identifying and vocalizing another person's potential is life-changing.People who inspire us notice and grow our potential—honestly, specifically and graciously. We are often unaware of the unique talents and value we bring. Having someone take the time to tell us is a powerful reminder and can open our minds to what's possible.
- People who inspire us are real, just like us. Contrary to common cultural myths that inspirational leaders are either charismatic iconoclasts or flawless, unflappable ideals, those who inspire us are actually relatable and down-to-earth. Truly inspirational leaders don't script their words, put on false airs or try to be perfect. They get through to us because they're authentic. To be more inspirational, you need to let any well-honed professional persona go. We connect with people on emotional terms. We want to see what they actually care about.
- Technology is killing inspiration. Distraction and distance are enemies of inspiration. One study found that just the appearance of a cellphone on the table during a conversation—even if silenced—reduces empathy. If you want to be inspiring, you need to get away from distractions, electronic or otherwise, and show up fully.
4 ways for advisers to protect and build business during fourth quarter
As the end of the year approaches, it's important for your business to thrive. In this article from Employee Benefit Advisors, Ron Goldstein addresses the fundamental ways to protect and build your business during your fourth quarter. Check it out below.
The fourth quarter is one of the busiest and most chaotic times for brokers. It is also the “make-or-break” period for protecting and building their respective books of business for the coming year.
It is wise for agents to move quickly during this busy season to help clients get a head start on health plan renewals, annual budgeting and more. Here are four tips for brokers to keep in mind:
1) Identify network disruptions. The time is now to proactively talk with clients about any network disruptions or problems they may have with their coverage. For instance, it is well-established that people want to see their own doctors, specialists, pharmacies and hospitals. But when they unexpectedly cannot — or when access requires expensive out-of-network and out-of-pocket costs — substantial upset will occur. The result can be a significant business threat for brokers. It is best, then, to identify any network “pain points” before the busy season is in full swing. This provides brokers with the needed time to work with clients to resolve any issues while also helping to assure that they are avoided and averted in the future.
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2) Understand plan disrupters and alternatives. This may seem obvious, but it is a vital point worth driving home. Whether a plan is bronze, platinum or somewhere in between, there are often adjustments made from one year to the next. Agents need to be intimately familiar with any changes, whether significant or minor, that might disrupt a client’s existing coverage. This can include network modifications, premiums, copays and so forth. So, clearly understand any variations and be prepared to discuss alternative options based on a business owner’s needs and expectations.
3) Address client budgets. Remember to talk with employers about any budgetary changes to their business. Depending on the discussion, this can be the optimal time to kick-start a conversation about alternative defined-contribution options. For instance, perhaps there are opportunities to raise the fixed-dollar amount for employees and/or to explore value-added benefits such as dental, vision, life insurance and other ancillary offerings. On the flip side, you can consider basing your client’s contribution on a different plan option that may provide costs savings if they’re looking to try and reduce their healthcare expenditure. Either way, addressing budgets early on helps brokers ensure they are tailoring plans that best meet client needs.
4) Move off a Dec. 1 renewal period: Moving off of this date may help provide clients with a better open enrollment and underwriting experience. Many renewals get stacked up right before this deadline, putting more pressure on agent customer service. At the same time, it can be easy to get bogged down and rushed with multiple clients requiring quoting, enrollment, plan administration and more to meet looming deadlines. Beginning the renewal process earlier in the quarter provides brokers and their clients with plenty of time to work together to address and select the right plan offerings. Additionally, it may make sense to also explore a larger array of options and pricing advantageous to brokers and clients alike.
While the end of 2017 is ahead, the beginning to a successful 2018 is right now for brokers, agents and benefits professionals. Those who anticipate client needs early-on and take pre-emptive efforts now will be better positioned to lock-in and expand business for the coming year.
You can read the original article here.
Source:
Goldstein R. (20 October 2017). "4 ways for advisers to protect and build business during fourth quarter" [Web Blog Post]. Retrieved from address https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/opinion/4-ways-for-employee-benefit-brokers-to-protect-and-build-business-during-fourth-quarter
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5 SIMPLE STEPS TO DEVELOPING A COMPETITIVE PAY PRACTICE
Have you struggled with employee engagement and building a competitive pay practice? Fortunately, HR Morning has provided us and you with this awesome article, including five simple steps toward a competitive pay practice. Read more below.
In today’s competitive environment, employees are more educated than ever before about the current salary rates in their location and industry. If you want your business to remain competitive, and retain top talent, you need to stay one-step ahead of your competition, and have a solid pay strategy that’s based on accurate salary data – not speculation.
Here are a few simple steps to get you closer to a compensation strategy that retains talent and keeps your company ahead of the curve.
1) Get a Pulse on Your Market
After a series of wage declines in 2009 and 2010, a number of industries are now seeing continual salary growth across multiple industries and locations. If your company’s compensation plan is based on the trends in those leaner years immediately after the recession, it’s probably time to revisit your pay strategy. Or you may be at risk of losing talent to competitors who’ve more quickly adapted to shifts in the market. Keep an eye on the PayScale Index to keep track of quarterly trends in pay by location, industry and job category.
2) Benchmark Your Job Positions
It’s great to have a pulse on the overarching pay trends in your industry and area, but it’s another thing to have confidence that you’re actually paying top employees at the right rates for their job. By engaging in at least once-per-year salary benchmarking, you’ll be able to identify employees who are at a “high flight risk” of turnover, and be able to make smarter decisions about where you allocate your labor budget. Download PayScale’s How to Perform Compensation Benchmarking and Salary Ranges whitepaper for more information.
3) Develop a Compensation Plan
Often times, businesses fear that having a compensation plan will limit their ability to make good business decisions, so they skip building a compensation plan in favor of fewer rules and less structure. But without a formalized compensation plan, companies often miss an opportunity to structure their pay decisions in a way that support business goals. As companies grow, the costs of compensation continue to rise, and without a formalized plan in place, companies often experience problems with pay inequities, employee retention, and engagement. Simply put, it’s easier, and more cost-effective to take small steps toward developing a smart compensation plan now, than it is to alter your course later down the line.
4) Identify Pay Inequities
Some people live by the motto, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” That’s a motto your organization cannot afford to live by when it comes to internal pay inequities. Without a formalized comp plan, it’s often common for pay inequities to develop across organizations and departments. Those pay inequities can most definitely hurt you and your organization in the form of heightened turnover, over payment, and even litigation. Learn how to identify and resolve these inequities with PayScale’s guide to pay inequities.
5) Communicate Your Compensation Strategy
If you go through the process of creating a compensation plan, don’t forget to let your employees know about it. In theory, your compensation strategy should reiterate and support your business goals. So, it’s important to communicate to employees how their work aligns with the goals of the organization, and how their compensation reflects that. If you share with your employees, and make your investments in talent clear to them, you’ll be surprised by the positive effect it has on employee morale. Check out PayScale’s Four Tips for Communicating Your Compensation Plan to Employees to help you get started.
Need help developing a competitive compensation strategy, or maintaining salary ranges for your workforce? PayScale offers access to the largest online salary database in the world. With data that’s updated on a daily basis, and software designed to help you maintain salary ranges, benchmark jobs, and allocate raises, PayScale is the choice for businesses who value accuracy and ROI in their pay practices. Request a demo of PayScale compensation software to learn how PayScale’s fresh, detailed data can support good compensation planning.
Read the original article here.
Source:
HRMorning.com (N.D.). "5 SIMPLE STEPS TO DEVELOPING A COMPETITIVE PAY PRACTICE" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://pbpmedia.staging.wpengine.com/5-simple-steps-to-developing-a-competitive-pay-practice/
Critical compliance changes for next year: An open enrollment checklist
Keeping up-to-date with health care is one of our top priorities. From HR Morning, here is a comprehensive list of everything you need to know so far going into 2018.
As HR pros immerse themselves in negotiating plan changes for this year’s open enrollment, it’s critical to keep these new 2018 regulation changes front and center.
To help, here’s a checklist of changes you’ll need to be aware of when making plan-design moves:
1. Mental Health Parity reg changes enforced
Beginning January 1, 2018, plans that require “fail first” or “step therapy” could violate the Parity Act’s “non-quantitative treatment limitation” (NQTL) rules. Under the NQTL rules, plans can’t be more restrictive for mental health/substance abuse benefits than they are for medical/surgical ones.
Here’s an example of a fail-first strategy: Requiring mental health or addiction patients to try an intensive outpatient program before admission to an inpatient treatment if the same restriction doesn’t apply to medical/surgical benefits.
2. New Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) template
Under the ACA, plans were required to start using the new SBC template on or after April 1, 2017.
For calendar year plans, that means this is the first enrollment with the new template, which includes new coverage examples and updates about cost-sharing. You can find more details on and instructions for the new form here: bit.ly/temp544
3. Women’s preventive care
The Women’s Preventive Services Guidelines were updated for 2018 calendar plans to include a number of items that must be covered without any cost-sharing. The list includes breast cancer screenings for average-risk women, screenings for cervical cancer, diabetes mellitus and more.
See the original article here.
Source:
Bilski J. (17 October 2017). "Critical compliance changes for next year: An open enrollment checklist" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.hrmorning.com/critical-compliance-changes-for-next-year-an-open-enrollment-checklist/
IRS to reject returns lacking health coverage disclosure
Where does the IRS stand on ACA (Affordable Care Act)? It's time to know. Check out this article from Benefits Pro for more information.
The Internal Revenue Service has announced that for the first time, tax returns filed electronically in 2018 will be rejected if they do not contain the information about whether the filer has coverage, including whether the filer is exempt from the individual mandate or will pay the tax penalty imposed by the law on those who don’t buy coverage.
Tax returns filed on paper could have processing suspended and thus any possible refund delayed.
The New York Times reports that the IRS appears to be acting in contradiction to the first executive order issued by the Trump White House on inauguration day, in which Trump instructed agencies to “scale back” enforcement of regulations governing the ACA.
The move by the IRS reminds people that they can’t just ignore the ACA, despite the EO. Although only those lacking coverage have to pay the penalty, everyone has to indicate their insurance coverage status on their filing.
According to legal experts cited in the report, the IRS is indicating that although the administration may have leeway in how aggressively it enforces the mandate provision, it’s still in effect unless and until Congress specifically repeals it.
While many people thought they didn’t have to bother with reporting, and many insurers have raised rates anticipating that the lack of a mandate would lead to lower enrollments and higher costs for them, that’s not the case. Initially the IRS did not reject returns because the law was new.
The penalty is pretty steep; for those who don’t have coverage, it can range from $695 for an individual to a maximum of $2,085 for a family or 2.5 percent of AGI, whichever is higher. Not everyone without coverage would be penalized, though; if their income is too low or if the lowest-priced coverage costs more than 8.16 percent of their income, they’ll avoid the penalty.
That said, it’s not known how stringently the IRS will be in enforcing the mandate. But at least taxpayers will know whether they’re exempt from the penalty or whether they’re obligated to buy coverage.
10 signs your workplace culture is toxic (and how to fix it)
Having a positive work environment is vital to the success and engagement of your employees. However, mainting that positivity, especially during busy quarters, can be dificult or even forgotten about. Today, we wanted to provide you with an informative article on staying away from toxic environments. From HRMorning.com, here are 10 signs your workplace culture is toxic (and how to fix it).
It’s a hard thing to admit … that your work culture may be toxic. But identifying the symptoms and finding the antidotes for them can quickly improve morale, engagement, retention and productivity. Let’s get started.
Here to help is Ross Kimbarovsky, founder and CEO of crowdspring, who has some unique insights into the signs of a toxic workplace and how to remedy them.
Are your employees tired? Discouraged? Burnt out?
If the answer is yes, you may have a toxic culture at work.
That’s a problem. Unhappy workers are less productive, make more mistakes, and are more likely to seek employment elsewhere.
Work culture exists on multiple levels. It isn’t just behaviors. It’s also an infrastructure of beliefs and values. To create real and lasting change, your business must tackle cultural issues on all levels.
You must act quickly to improve a negative work environment before productivity lags and employees abandon ship.
Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you turn around a toxic work culture:
1. Identify problem behaviors
Every company is unique. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for repairing a damaged work culture.
The first step is always to examine your business’s culture to identify your specific challenges.
Start by taking a critical look around you. Before you can change for the better, you have to face uncomfortable truths head-on.
Ten common warning signs a workplace is turning toxic are:
- gossiping and/or social cliques
- aggressive bullying behavior
- poor communication and unclear expectations
- dictatorial management techniques that don’t embrace employee feedback
- excessive absenteeism, illness or fatigue
- favoritism and imbalanced working conditions (discriminatory policies/wage gaps)
- workaholic behavior that sacrifices healthy work/life balance
- unrealistic workloads or deadlines
- little (or strained interaction) between employees or employees and management, and
- unsafe or morally questionable working conditions.
You probably won’t find all of these, and you may find problems not listed here. But whatever problems you find – take note. Those issues will inform your plan to rescue your work culture.
2. Evaluate the underlying support network
A toxic culture can’t take root without a fertile environment, and its symptoms can’t survive without a supportive infrastructure.
So, it’s time to dig deeper. What shared values and actions are helping to support those behaviors?
Examine your company’s leadership and their values. Then work your way from the top of the ladder to the bottom looking for issues like:
- discriminatory beliefs
- treating employees as assets, not people
- information guarding (poor communication/unclear expectations)
- aggressive or hostile leadership styles
- belief that employees are lazy, stupid and/or expendable
- resentment of Authority
- contrariness
- lack of accountability
- lack of appreciation for (or recognition of) good work
All of these are problematic and set the foundation for a negative work culture.
3. Plan your repair strategy
With a clear understanding of the illness, you can now strategize your treatment plan.
And remember – change is hard. Don’t try to fix everything at once. Prioritize.
Tackle the problem behaviors that have the biggest impact first, and smaller issues will likely begin to right themselves. Here are some strategic antidotes to many of the most common workplace problems:
- Listen to your employees. Hear their grievances, validate their experiences and make the changes necessary to address their issues. This can come in the form of one-on-one conversations, a town hall meeting with HR, or simple blind surveys. Listen, validate, and work together to find solutions.
- Assign realistic workloads and deadlines. This means taking the time to learn what your employees actually do. What are they responsible for, and how long do those tasks take? Remember that there are only 60 minutes in every hour and assign tasks accordingly.
- Communicate transparently. Employees can’t do their jobs well without understanding the context. Having the information to do one’s job reduces confusion and frustration, making employees happier and more efficient. Hold weekly meetings, and send frequent memos or a company newsletter. Share the information they need to know.
- Acknowledge work well done. A study by the Boston Consulting Group reports “appreciation for your work” as the most important factor to job happiness. Find ways to show appreciation. Tell employees what they’re doing well – they’ll feel appreciated (and be more likely to continue doing it). Build a supportive environment by sharing employee successes and make positive encouragement a group activity.
- Treat all employees by the same rules. Playing favorites breeds resentment. Examine your company policies – do they unfairly benefit one group over others? Be open to feedback; employees may see problems that you don’t. Then even the playing field, and require all employees to follow the rules.
- Foster emotional intelligence. The BCG Study included good relationships with colleagues and superiors among the top five elements leading to job satisfaction. Banish bullying, disrespect and dismissive behavior. Prioritize emotional intelligence. Provide resources to help employees expand their emotional intelligence. Improved emotional intelligence can cure a number of ills.
While these are all great suggestions for every company, be mindful of your business’ challenges, and choose your action items accordingly.
4. Implement your plan
John Kotter of Kotter International asserts that leaders are catalysts for workplace change. If you’re in charge, you have a powerful platform for motivating change. But, be prepared to live the changes you want to see if you want anyone to take those changes seriously.
Making change easy, rewarding and socially acceptable are the keys to success. Humans have a strong drive to be a part of the group. Normalize the behaviors you seek by asking the social influencers in your business to promote those behaviors, too.
Make it easy for your employees to implement positive changes by removing barriers to success. This, again, will require that you listen to your employees to know what those barriers are.
Finally, help your employees see how the changes you’re proposing will reward them with a more positive workplace.
5. Reflect and adapt
Give your new policies and practices time to take root. Change won’t happen overnight.
After a few months, take stock. What has changed? What hasn’t?
Meet with the influencers you enlisted to help with your implementation. Reflect on how things have gone. Different perspectives can offer useful insight.
Assess your progress, and adapt your efforts as needed. Keep the lines of communication open.
Cultural change is a big undertaking; but well worth the effort. Perseverance will lead you to success.
You can read the original article here.
Source:
Guest Author (6 October 2017). "10 signs your workplace culture is toxic (and how to fix it)" [Web Blog Post]. Retrieved from address https://www.hrmorning.com/10-signs-your-workplace-culture-is-toxic-and-how-to-fix-it/
5 Health Care Terms You Need to Know
We talk about health care A TON, but sometimes it's good to refer back to the basics of it all. Do you understand the meaning of deductible, premium or HSA? If so, give yourself a pat on the back. If not, don't worry! This blog post has got you covered.
Health care is confusing, but one thing's for certain: It's expensive. And health insurance companies don't always make it easy to understand what's covered, what's not, and how much you'll be on the hook for paying.
Deductible: The amount you pay before your insurance coverage kicks in. It resets annually.
Copay: The amount you pay after you have met your deductible. It's a fixed price for services and medications, and can vary by the type of physician you visit, the class of medication you're taking, and other factors.
Out-of-pocket maximum: The top limit of what you'll spend in a year out of pocket for deductibles and copays.
Premium: Your monthly fee for health insurance. If your employer provides you coverage, then you probably pay a portion of the premium, while your employer pays the rest. A higher premium may mean a lower deductible; on the other hand, a lower premium may mean a higher deductible.
Health savings account (HSA): A type of pre-tax savings account for health expenses. Funds roll over year to year, and some accounts even gain interest.
You can read the original article here.
Source:
Health.com (4 April 2017). "5 Health Care Terms You Need to Know" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.health.com/mind-body/healthcare-terms-coinage
Health-Care Cost Expert Kathryn Votava on Buying Long-Term-Care Insurance
Health care can be an expensive matter, especially when seeking long-term solutions. We thought it'd be beneficial to find an article from the perspective of an expert on long-term insurance, enabling those looking into the solution to have a better idea of what they're getting into. From Health.com, here is an interview from Kathryn Votava.
You can read the original article here.
"The earlier you purchase a policy, the healthier you are and the more likely you are to qualify for insurance."(KATHRYN VOTAVA)
Many people rely on family and friends to provide care for them when they can no longer do it themselves. But at some point, the care required can be too much for these informal networks to handle. That's where long-term-care insurance comes in. Caregiving expenses are usually not covered by health insurance, and they can be staggeringa semi-private room in a nursing home, for instance, can run about $70,000 a year, and in-home care can reach as high as $350,000 for round-the-clock help. We asked Kathryn Votava, PhD, assistant professor of clinical nursing at the University of Rochester in New York and president of Goodcare.com, a company that analyzes health-care costs, for advice on how to shop for the best long-term insurance policy.
Q: What does long-term-care insurance cover?
A: Depending on what kind of policy you choose, it will pay for a nursing home, assisted-living facility, community programs, or for someone to come to your home to care for you. It can offset some of the costsnotice I said some. Most people think that if they have a long-term-care insurance policy, they're covered completely. Not only is the average policy not enough to cover the cost of this type of care, but people don't take health-care inflation into account. And you will still need to pay for your Medicare Part B, Medigap plan, prescription drugs, and doctor visits just as before. Those expenses don't go away and long-term-care insurance doesn't cover them.
Q: How much coverage should I get?
A: The average policy covers $149 a day. Now, if you live in some parts of Texas or Louisiana, that might cover your long-term-care needs. But in a place like New York City, the average is more than twice that. Get an understanding of what the costs are in your area. The two big surveys of nursing-home prices are from Genworth Financial and MetLife Financial. That will give you a ballpark figure, but even those underestimate how much it actually costs. I'd call a good nursing home or home health-care agency that you might like to use eventually. Find out what the daily cost might be, for example $300 a day, and buy the coverage that's closest to that daily cost. When it comes to 24-hour care at home, you will find that a long-term-care insurance benefit will not come close to covering that level of cost, because extensive in-home care is costly. Remember that once you have exceeded two to four hours a day, seven days per week of in-home care, you will probably be paying more for long-term-care than if you were in a nursing home. Therefore, if you need more than two to four hours per day of in-home care, your long-term insurance benefit may provide more long-term-care if you are in a nursing home.
Q: How long should my coverage last?
A: You can purchase a policy that pays a set dollar amount per day for either some period of time or as a continuous lifetime benefit. I advise people that the most economical choice is to purchase a plan that provides benefits for five years. Only about 20% of people stay in a nursing home for five years or more. That's the minimum coverage you should have. If you have more money to spend, then certainly buy coverage for a longer time period or a bigger benefit so that if you're certain that you want in-home care, you will have more money to pay for it. Take the money you'll save on the shorter coverage period and buy a shorter waiting period, benefit for home care (as many policies pay out only 50 cents on the dollar for long-term-care at home), and compound-inflation protection riders. Don't give up coverage on the front end for something you are much less likely to collect on the back end. Once you have the minimum coverage, if you have more money to spend, then you can buy coverage for a longer time period.
Q: What additional features are worth paying for?
A: Get a compounded inflation rider. A "simple" inflation rider does not keep up with inflation nearly as well. One basic problem is that health-care inflation runs at 8.1% a year; the maximum inflation protection you can usually get in a long-term-care insurance policy is 5%thats the best you can do. While that 5% rate will not keep up entirely with health-care inflation, it will give you a better chance of being able to afford your long-term-care when the policy pays out. I also like to see people have a 30-day waiting period or lessthats the amount of time from when the insurance company determines that a person is eligible to use their long-term-care benefit to when the company begins to actually pay out for the benefit. All policies have some waiting period. People often get a 90-day or a 100-day waiting period because it lowers their premium, but you could end up paying thousands of dollars during the time you're waiting for coverage to start. Finally, I recommend a nonforfeiture-of-benefit rider. Typically, you're only eligible for the insurance benefits as long as you pay your premium. But the nonforfeiture rider lets you maintain some value in a policy even if you decide not to continue paying for it. That could be very important if the insurance company you're with decides to go out of this business and sells your policy to someone else who jacks up your premium so much you can't afford it anymore. The non-forfeiture rider means you will get some amount of the policy benefitnot all, but somedepending what you paid in over time. One last thing: Make sure the insurance company you choose has a solid track record. Call the National Association of Insurance Commissioners at (866)-470-6246 and get the phone number for your state health-insurance department. Then contact your state insurance department to find out if there are any reported problems with an insurance company you are considering.
Q: When should you buy the insurance?
A: At the latest, I'd say late 40s or early 50s. It's still affordable then. The premium is based on your heath status first, then your age. Generally speaking, the earlier you purchase a policy, the healthier you are and the more likely you are to qualify for insurance. People who have serious, chronic conditions may find their rates to be really high or they may even be uninsurable. The costs vary greatly from policy to policy, state to state, and person to person. Usually someone in his or her late 40s or early 50s will pay about $3,000 to $6,000 a year. That's for a very good policy. Someone in his 60s could pay several thousand dollars a year more for the same policy.
Q: When does the coverage start?
A: In order for the policy to kick in, you must have a certain level of need. Most providers define that as not being able to perform at least two of what are called "activities of daily living," in insurance-speak. Those are: bathing, eating, dressing, toileting, and transferring from bed to chair. So, you might have a hard time giving yourself a bath, and it might take you all day to do and then you're completely exhausted, but to the insurance company you're not compromised enough to use the insurance for that. The exception to that rule is folks with dementia. They may be able to perform those tasks, but they need supervision, so the insurance company will often pay out for their care.
Q: Can you run into problems collecting your insurance?
A: It's gotten better. Some of the companies that were the most difficult to deal with were on shaky financial ground, and they've gone out of business. Remember, the person who comes to do the assessment of whether you're able to perform the activities of daily living works for the insurance company, not for you. They'll be looking at your case through that lens. If you run into trouble getting them to pay benefits, you might want to enlist an advocate, like a geriatric care manager, if more than a simple follow-up phone call is necessary.
You can read the original article here.
Source:
Polyak I. (25 January 2011). "Health-Care Cost Expert Kathryn Votava on Buying Long-Term-Care Insurance" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20456208,00.html
Collaborative Innovation Is Necessary To Advance In Health Care
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As health needs grow, it is imperative that innovation is at the frontier of change, to keep the health needs and requirements of the 21st century scalable. For innovation in health care to be sustained at an economically and fiscally responsible pace, it has to be a collaborative effort, requiring input from diverse stakeholders and key players in the industry. A collaborative health care system that includes information sharing, cross-industry cooperation and open innovation can lead to beneficial industry practices like cost reduction and time efficiency. Together, these practices set a precedent for growth and development at a more rapid pace.
An Efficient Method Of Doing Things
Toeing the line of technology advancements, innovation within the health care system has pioneered the development of cost-efficient, highly-optimized pragmatic solutions to many industry and individual health challenges. Artificial retinas, robotic nurses and gene therapy are just a few examples of plentiful recent innovations. These innovative technologies pose solutions to medical feats that, in the past, have overwhelmed medical practitioners, and thereby are expected to permit better health care delivery to patients and the global population. However, for these new advancements to be successfully implemented and established within the health care system, they must be met with collaboration and cooperation.
Creating A Synergistic Environment
Open, collective innovation like Project Data Sphere, designed to collate big data and bridge the distant segments of the health care industry, markup the necessity of innovation in the sector. In the case of Project Data Sphere, the goal is to facilitate the creation of a connected health care network bereft of the many loopholes characteristic of the system. Interoperability between key segments of the industry has always been a rate limiting factor. A unified platform capable of linking these segments together can have a significant impact on the sector.
Multiple companies are undertaking projects to build "cloud-based, big data platform" solutions that manage data to give the health industry the necessary edge it needs to manage itself. This ranges from cloud-based platforms powered by libraries of clinical, social and behavioral analytics utilized for sharing information across multiple hospitals, to using big data and advanced analytics for clinical improvements, financial analysis and fraud and waste monitoring.
Collaborating To Go Digital
Concurrent with the world’s continued adoption of digital technologies is the rapid expansion of the digital health care market — an expansion fostered by collaboration among global leaders of digital innovation in the health care industry. The partnership between major players in both the private and public sectors has engineered a growing list of innovative digital health care solutions.
Just last year an Israeli-based pharmaceutical company joined forces with Santa Clara, California-based Intel to develop wearables that routinely record and analyze symptoms of Huntington’s disease. The data collected is processed to help grade motor symptom severity associated with the disease.
Most times, singular organizations lack the human and financial resources to orchestrate grand schemes of innovation alone — but collaboration presents a practical route to overcoming the limitations that hinder novelty, leading to quicker turnarounds and advancements.
Scaling The Barriers To Innovation
If the push for innovation in the health care system is to thrive, then the complexities and obstacles that have continually stifled progress must be confronted. Aside from collaboration, other notable barriers to innovation include:
• The immediate return mentality: By default, most leaders show a preference for innovative solutions that offer immediate financial rewards. Innovative solutions with brighter prospects but long term financial incentives are in most instances placed on a back burner.
• Bureaucracy in the distributive network:Innovators have to wade through multiple third parties if they are to stand any chance of getting their products to the end user, a process that is not only daunting but financially implicative.
• Stringent regulatory practices: In addition to scaling through the bureaucracy, innovative solutions looking to make a market appearance have to pass several screenings, some of which have been tagged redundant by experts.
Innovation is a necessary tool in the health care sector that gives an essential boost to scale insurmountable obstacles and limitations. For health care to evolve into a more sophisticated and efficient system, cross-industry collaboration and inter-professional cooperation must become the norm.
You can read the original article here.
Source:
Pando A. (19 September 2017). "Collaborative Innovation Is Necessary To Advance In Health Care" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/09/19/collaborative-innovation-is-necessary-to-advance-in-health-care/2/#6743d07669c9
Dealing with acidic attitudes: Help for your managers
It's important to have positive attitudes at the top of your employee pyramid to promote positive attitudes all around the office. Take some time today to read this helpful blog post on acidic attitudes, and how to avoid them in your managers.
Every workplace has negative people who erode morale. They’re not always easy to pick out of a crowd, but they can do an amazing amount of damage over time.
Most of the time, these folks don’t make the big mistakes that call attention to themselves. They’re frequently pretty good at their jobs, so they’re not called on the carpet too often.
But like a virus running in the background of a computer program, their acidic personalities eat away at the goals – and ultimately the bottom line – of the company week after week, year after year.
Who are these people? They’re the employees who:
- continually find things to complain about and exaggerate the seriousness of co-workers’ mistakes
- spread gossip and start rumors that pit employees against each other
- talk behind co-workers’ backs, and
- undermine supervisors’ authority with a never-ending flow of criticism that stays under-the-radar so it’s rarely recognized and corrected.
It’s been said the only way to fix a bad attitude is through psychotherapy, religion or brain surgery. But it’s a rare manager who is a shrink, a minister and a neurosurgeon.
Still, every manager needs a strategy to deal with this constant drag on employee attitudes.
The stakes are too high to just let things slide.
Looking for answers – 4 key questions
So what’s to be done? The experts say managers should move away from the vague “bad attitude” discussion to the hard facts of employee behavior.
The key questions:
- What’s the impact of the employee’s behavior?
- How do the person’s actions differ from the standards set for overall employee behavior?
- What’s the effect of this individual’s behavior on the people who work with him/her?
- If this person acted according to our accepted standards, could it make a difference in morale and productivity?
Managers should identify the actions of negative people – and make it clear those actions will no longer be tolerated.
An example: A Midwestern company established a “no jerk” policy. It included the statement:
Each employee will demonstrate professional behavior that supports team efforts and enhances team behavior, performance and productivity.
Handling tough conversations with acidic employees
Establishing policy is a solid first step; it creates a good framework.
But managers need practical advice that gets results day to day on the front lines.
Managers need one-on-one coaching sessions to cover these points:
- Acknowledge the awkwardness. Managers can let employees know they’re providing feedback that’s difficult to discuss. It’s only human to feel that way.
- Keep it results-oriented. A phrase like “I’m bringing this up because it’s important you address this issue to be successful in your job” is helpful.
- Accentuate the positive. It’s a good idea to highlight the good things that are likely to happen when the person changes the disruptive behavior. On the other hand, if the person remains defiant, stressing the negative outcome if the person’s attitude doesn’t change can be effective, too.
It’s human nature to want to delay having a tough conversation with an employee with a bad attitude. But that only makes things worse.
And since it’s going to be a tough conversation, it’s recommended that supervisors prepare for the discussion.
Suggestions for handling the confrontation:
- Be specific about what you want. It’s a mistake to use general terms in a discussion about a specific behavior problem. For example, a manager says “I don’t like your attitude. I want you to change it.” That’s pretty safe, but it could mean anything.
Instead, the manager should say “It’s not helpful the way you talk about our customers behind their backs. It poisons the attitude of the others in customer service. From now on, if you can’t say something supportive of a customer, please don’t say anything at all.”
Managers should try to gather specific examples of negative things the employee has said in the past, and use those in the discussion for clarity. - Let people rant … a little. Once a manager has gotten through discussing the specific behaviors, it’s likely the other person is going to feel the need to blow off steam and maybe even mount a defense. To avoiding having people feel like they are on the witness stand, let them rant a bit.
It’ll help them feel like they are being heard – because they are. Then steer the conversation back to the results you want. - Try to use “we.” Work to get across the notion that the issue is a problem for everyone concerned. A manager can start by saying “We have a problem” or “We need to change.”
The helps the person realize the behavior is important, without finger-pointing. - Avoid overusing “you.” Putting all the responsibility on the employee is a conversational black hole that’s impossible to escape. The constant use of the word you, as in “You have a bad attitude and everyone knows it” is an invitation for a fight.
Instead, try “We need to talk about your attitude.”
The point here is, while it is OK to use the word “you,” using it continually in a negative way kills the conversation. - Avoid “however” and “but.” Some managers believe that if they lead with a compliment, it’s easier to wade into the problem. That conversation looks something like this: “You’ve done a pretty good job, but …” and then the manager lowers the boom.
That often angers people and leaves them thinking, “Why can’t he ever just say something positive and leave it at that?”
Consider substituting “and” for “but” and “however,” and the conversation is likely to go smoother, as in: “You’re doing a pretty good job and we need to talk about how to get you to show more respect for customers.” - Don’t feel as if you have to fill the silence. In a tense situation a manager may be tempted to fill every gap in the conversation. Don’t. Stay silent when there’s a lull. Obligate the other person to fill in the silence.
It’s surprising the amount of information a manager can get without ever asking a question … just by remaining silent.
You can read the original article here.
Source:
Gould T. (25 March 2015). "Dealing with acidic attitudes: Help for your managers" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.hrmorning.com/managers-dealing-with-negative-attitudes/