How to Hire Accountable People
Here's a good read from The Society for Human Resource Management by Bruce Weinstein
Accountable employees keep their promises, consider the consequences of their actions, take responsibility for their mistakes, and make amends for those mistakes.
The following questions may help you discern a job candidate’s level of accountability.
Describe a situation in which you took responsibility for a mistake you made. What were the consequences to you for doing so?
Brad, a mailroom worker at a large pharmaceutical company, threatened a coworker. He initially denied what he had done but eventually admitted it and added that he hadn’t intended to follow through with the threat. Geri was the HR director at the company. She believed in Brad and rebuffed efforts to have him fired.
Brad agreed to take an anger management course and went on to become Employee of the Month. In Geri’s telling of the story, Brad’s hardscrabble background made owning up to his mistake especially challenging. But he did it, and that’s why Brad is one of the Good Ones—high-character employees who consistently deliver superior results.
For doing right by an employee, Geri is a Good One too!
Have you ever taken responsibility for a mistake that a member of your team made?
One of the people I interviewed forThe Good Ones: Ten Crucial Qualities of High-Character Employees, told me that his boss Harvey took the heat for a mistake that a direct report had made that cost the company a lot of money and aggravation. The magnitude of the problem was so severe that Harvey submitted his resignation to his own boss, Suresh, but Suresh wouldn’t accept it. In fact, he promoted Harvey for doing something that not enough managers do: accept responsibility for something that occurred on their watch.
Walk me through a typical working day.
Asking a job applicant to provide details of a working day is an attempt to discover the person’s work/life balance. The point is to get the applicant’s assessment of how work fits in with his or her life. People with a strong work ethic are accountable people, because they keep their promises to their employers to do their jobs well. They’re neither lazy people nor workaholics.
“But this question is too personal to ask, even if it’s legal to do so,” one might object. Yes, it’s personal, but in an entirely appropriate way. The interviewer is trying to get a fuller sense of the person before him or her. What role does work play in the job candidate’s life? How much does he or she value having a rich and varied personal life? Asking about the candidate’s sex life or religious views are out of bounds; inquiring about work/life balance is not.
This is the second in a series of blog posts on how to hire high-character people. The first one was How to Hire Honest People. Next time, we’ll look at what it means to be a caring person and how to evaluate this quality in job applicants.
See the original article Here.
Source:
Weinstein, B. (2016 September 23). How to hire accountable people. [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://blog.shrm.org/blog/how-to-hire-accountable-people
Employee Recognition: Picking Up the Pieces
Here's an interesting article from The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) by David Kovacovich
As I enter my tenth year in the Human Capital Management space, I figured it would be beneficial to my readers to reflect on how our industry has (and has not) evolved over the last decade's time.
* The following scenarios are built on real life business engagements. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Case Study #1: A Story of Manipulation
Employee A (Let's call him Carl) had worked for Company X (let's call it Pied Piper) for a calendar year. After 3 failed endeavors at Bay Area start ups, Carl was looking for something more stable. He had a single motivating factor: MONEY!
Work at a Large Corporate Technology firm was different than the start-up world: Bureaucracy was thick, rule structure was more intense and cashing out was trumped by climbing the ladder. So how could he climb the ladder?
Achieving sales results did not come as easily in an Enterprise role at a large company and Carl struggled in this first year. The results weren't there so he needed another tool to help get him promoted. Then it hit him like a lightening bolt..... his company had announced the end of the annual performance review process to be replaced with a high touch performance management system (even large corporations cannot refute common sense). The performance management process was positioned as a pro-active measure to build the internal talent pool.
Carl's bargaining chip? Employee Recognition would be leveraged as part of the Performance Management system. Carl's job was simple, he sent an email to roughly 100 colleagues asking them to participate in an experiment (he even went-so-far as to title his email "An Experiment In Human Compassion"). Carl asked each of his colleagues to send him a recognition through their peer to peer system. He offered to return the gesture. Carl was a fun guy at happy hour so getting his peers to buy-in was no problem. Within a week, Carl shot to the top of Recognition Leaderboard. This flagged him as an 'up and comer' in the system and garnered him an opportunity to apply for a Management position.
Carl was promoted to Management, 8 employees left under his reign and he was fired less than a year later.
The company lost great performers and the recognition program was tarnished.
What's worse? The company was sued by an employee who was passed over for promotion sighting leadership development as a popularity contest. (Carl's "Human Compassion" email was submitted into evidence).
Lesson Learned: Using Recognition as a Performance Lever is Dangerous Business!
Case Study #2: A Shattered Cookie Cutter
The message was simple, "we need to cut costs so any programs that are not mission-critical are to be discontinued". The CEO was very clear in her directives so the formal recognition program was removed. This program had operated with over 90% adoption for nearly 10 years (CRM adoption hovered at about 38%).
With the program removed a caveat was dangled. Keeping our employees engaged is job one so we are reconstructing programs that will streamline appreciation:
1. Employees would go to dinner with their supervisor if they qualified as a top quarterly achiever.
2. Employees who hit a tenure milestone would receive a letter from the CEO and a gift card.
When Employee A (let's call her Nancy) hit her 20 year anniversary with the company, she received a form letter from the CEO and a $250 gift card. She tested the signature on the letter but it did not smudge. Then she pulled out her i-phone to use the calculator.
$1.73 a month. That's what her contribution to the organization was worth.
She flipped over the form letter, wrote two words on the back, grabbed a picture of her kids from her desk and headed out the door.....
I QUIT
Lesson Learned: No Recognition is Better than Thoughtless Recognition!
Case Study #3: Leadership Jumps on the Manipulation Train
The VP of HR sent out the annual employee survey at the tail end of the 7 paragraph diatribe. The message offered a proverbial laundry list of all of the "perks and benefits" of working at Company X. Benefits packages, non-guaranteed pay increases, company functions and education aid were all mentioned as the things that made Company X a "Great Place to Work". Mr. HR Guy included a mention of half day Fridays during the summer months if the company hit their revenue goal.
Filling out the survey was mandatory. Managers received bonuses for "5" rating across the board and were regulated for examination if any of their team dipped below last year's survey results.
The survey structure was based on the following:
1. Make the Great Place to Work list and Senior Managers receive a bonus.
2. Managers who average a "5" receive a bonus.
3. Managers whose average scores wavered were consulted by HR as to what to do to ensure employees "no longer seemed discontent".
The leader of the Human Engagement process allowed his greed to override a prime opportunity to receive feedback from the trenches. He did not receive his bonus.
Managers were subjected to adversarial relationships with employees: meeting with each of them to guess who used what comment to berate them while urging employees to keep their comments in-house.
The results of the survey were skewed. Employees who wished to stay in their managers good graces "marked 5 to survive". Those who saw through the hypocrisy of the exercise gave lower scores than they otherwise would have to mock Leadership's misunderstanding of workforce engagement!
Lesson Learned: Surveys Are an Opportunity to Identify Areas of Improvement not a Meter for Compensation!
The Recognition industry was built by fulfillment houses whose strengths lie in purchasing & distribution. Times have caught up with them. It's 2016 and systems of feedback and leadership development are far more important to today's employee than a logo-ed lamp.
Surprises:
1. Companies are still investing heavy dollars in catalog-driven Service Anniversary programs (because employees still like them).
2. Performance Management has not replaced Employee Recognition.
3. Social Recognition has proven effective for a limited time if there is not a reward within the process of participating.
4. Results compensation programs are up to 100x more-invested than Recognition programs in the majority of companies.
Opportunity:
1. Diversify budgets to create more high touch, immediate recognition opportunity
- I've beat this horse to death since 2006 and I'm not giving up.
2. Make recognition initiatives performance based.
- It's incredibly simple to program technology to reward mission critical behaviors instead of off-the-shelf catch phrases.
3. Use Social Recognition to attract employees to a platform that offers a variety of performance-based programs.
- Consolidation enhances engagement and saves significant dollars.
4. Replace revenue improvement incentives with behavior-based development programs.
- Compensating the bottom line is easy to measure and easier to manipulate. Creating programs that promote responsible behavior geared toward relationship development will strengthen long-term organizational stability and improve revenue.
I believe the Human Capital Management industry (or whatever you want to call it) has the greatest opportunity for growth of any:
- Human Resource professionals need to continue a Change Management focus.
- Vendors should shift from reward fulfillment to active behavior change consulting.
Don't Forget to Remember!
Dave
See the original article Here.
Source:
Kovacovich, D. (2016 September 27). Employee recognition: picking up the pieces. [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://blog.shrm.org/blog/employee-recognition-picking-up-the-pieces
Rising Health Care Costs: Driving Factor Causing Changes to Employer Health Plans, SHRM Survey Finds
Get the latest trends in healthcare benefits in the survey conducted by SHRM.
Original Post from SHRM.org on July 13, 2016
- Ninety-six percent of organizations offered some type of health care plan to their employees.
- Mail order prescriptions have gone down by 6 percent over the past five years.
- Eighty-five percent of organizations offer mental health coverage, compared to 91 percent just last year.
- Organizations were evenly split as to whether they offered coverage to spouses who had access to health care coverage through another employer, or if there was a spousal surcharge for health care coverage.
- Several new health-related items added to the survey this year: health care services such as diagnosis, treatment or prescriptions provided by photo or video (23 percent), high deductible health plan not linked to an HSA or a health reimbursement account (HRA) (17 percent), genetic testing coverage for diseases such as cancer (12 percent) and a smoking surcharge for health care plans (20 percent).
Top 11 Employer FMLA Mistakes
Original post shrm.org
Employers should never take a holiday from dealing with the Family and Medical Leave Act’s (FMLA’s) requirements. Legal experts say the law is full of traps that can snag employers that let their guard down, and they recommend that employers shore up FMLA compliance efforts by avoiding the following common missteps.
No FMLA Policy
Employers shouldn’t skip having a written FMLA policy, Annette Idalski, an attorney with Chamberlain Hrdlicka in Atlanta, told SHRM Online. “If employers adopt a written policy and circulate it to employees, they are able to select the terms that are most advantageous to the company,” she said. For example, employers can choose to use a rolling 12-month period (rolling forward from the time any leave commences) rather than leaving the selection of the 12-month period to employees, who almost inevitably would choose the 12-month calendar period. The calendar period, unlike the rolling period, allows for employees to stack leave during the last 12 weeks of one year and the first 12 weeks of the new year. Check to see if state or local laws give employees the right to choose a 12-month period that would give them the right to stack leave.
Counting Light-Duty Work as FMLA Leave
Idalski said employers also often make the mistake of offering light-duty work to employees and counting it as FMLA leave. Light-duty work can be offered but must not be required in lieu of FMLA leave. For example, an employer can offer tasks that don’t require lifting to an employee who hurt his or her back and cannot perform heavy lifting. But if the worker wants the time off, the individual is entitled to take FMLA leave.
Silent Managers
Managers sometimes fail to tell HR right away when an employee is out on leave for an extended period, Idalski noted. If a manager waits a week to inform HR, that could delay the start of the 12-week FMLA period. The employer can’t make the FMLA leave retroactive, and letting the employee take more than 12 weeks of leave affects staffing and productivity, Idalski said. “Management must initiate the FMLA process with HR right away,” she emphasized.
Untrained Supervisors
Untrained front-line supervisors might retaliate against employees who take FMLA leave, dissuade workers from taking leave or request prohibited medical information, all of which violate the FMLA, said Sarah Flotte, an attorney with Michael Best & Friedrich in Chicago. Just because front-line supervisors shouldn’t administer FMLA leave doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be trained on the FMLA, she noted.
Missed Notices
Employers sometimes fail to provide required notices to employees, Flotte said. “The FMLA requires employers to provide four notices to employees seeking FMLA leave; thus, employers may run afoul of the law by failing to provide these notices,” Flotte remarked. Employers must give a general notice of FMLA rights. They must provide an eligibility notice within five days of the leave request. They must supply a rights and responsibilities notice at the same time as the eligibility notice. And employers must give a designation notice within five business days of determining that leave qualifies as FMLA leave.
Overly Broad Coverage
Sometimes employers provide FMLA leave in situations that are not truly FMLA-covered, such as providing leave to care for a domestic partner or a grandparent or sibling, noted Joan Casciari, an attorney with Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago. If they count that time off as FMLA leave, this could prove to be a violation of the law if the employee later has an event that is truly covered by the FMLA, she said. But the leave may count as time off under state or local FMLA laws, depending on their coverage.
Incomplete Certifications
Casciari added that employers sometimes accept certifications of a serious health condition that are incomplete and inconsistent. In particular, she said that businesses sometimes make the mistake of accepting certifications that do not state the frequency and duration of the intermittent leave that is needed.
No Exact Count of Use of FMLA Leave
Another common mistake is failing to keep an exact count of an employee’s use of FMLA leave, particularly in regards to intermittent leave, said Dana Connell, an attorney with Littler in Chicago. This failure is “highly dangerous,” he stated. An employer might give the employee more FMLA leave than he or she is entitled to. “The even greater risk is that the employer counts some time as an absence that should have been counted as FMLA, and that counted absence then plays a role—building block or otherwise—in an employee’s termination.”
No Adjustment to Sales Expectations
Some employers take too much comfort in an FMLA regulation that says that if a bonus is based on the achievement of a specific goal, and the employee has not met the goal due to FMLA leave, the payment of the bonus can be denied. “Notwithstanding that regulation regarding bonuses, courts have held that employers need to adjust sales expectations in assessing performance to avoid penalizing an employee for being absent during FMLA leave,” Connell emphasized.
Being Lax About FMLA Abuse
The FMLA is ripe for employee abuse, according to Connell, who said, “Some employers, especially in the manufacturing sector, find themselves with large numbers of employees with certified intermittent leave.” Those employers need a plan to keep all employees “honest with respect to their use of FMLA.” Connell said that surveillance may be a necessary part of an employer’s plan for dealing with potential FMLA abuse.
Overlooking the ADA
Employers sometimes fail to realize that a serious health condition that requires 12 weeks of FMLA leave will likely also constitute a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), noted Frank Morris Jr., an attorney with Epstein Becker Green in Washington, D.C. Even after 12 weeks of FMLA leave, more leave may be required by the ADA or state or local law as a reasonable accommodation.
“Document any adverse effects on productivity, ability to timely meet client demands and extra workload on co-workers resulting from an employee on extended FMLA leave,” Morris recommended. While the FMLA doesn’t have an undue hardship provision, “The information will be necessary for a proper analysis of whether any request by an employee for further leave as an ADA accommodation is reasonable or is an undue hardship” under the ADA.
- See more at: https://www.shrm.org/legalissues/federalresources/pages/top-11-employer-fmla-mistakes.aspx#sthash.kOREknrz.dpuf
IRS: Skip Form 5500’s Optional Compliance Questions
Original post shrm.org
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently added new questions to the 2015 Form 5500 and 5500-SF (short form) annual retirement plan returns. The Form 5500 series of returns are used by retirement plans to report the financial condition, investments and operations of the plans to the Department of Labor (DOL) and IRS.
When the new IRS compliance questions were originally introduced, the IRS described the questions as optional for plan year 2015. However, in its most recent instructions, the IRS has specifically advised plan sponsors not to complete these questions for the 2015 plan year.
The IRS decision to delay completion is due to privacy and misreporting concerns raised by retirement plan administrators and advisors.
The new compliance questions are intended to aid the IRS in determining whether a retirement plan, such as a 401(k) plan, is in compliance with applicable law—in particular, how the plan is satisfying discrimination testing and making timely plan amendments. The new questions also ask whether the plan trust incurred unrelated business taxable income and if the plan made in-service distributions, such as hardships. Specifically, the following new lines were added:
Form 5500 Annual Return (Report of Employee Benefit Plan)
• Provide preparer information including name, address and telephone number.
Schedules H (Financial Informaiton) and Schedule I (Small Plan Financial Information)
• Did the plan trust incur unrelated business taxable income?
• Were in-service distributions made during the plan year?
• Provide trust information including trust name, EIN, and name and telephone number of trustee or custodian.
Schedule R (Retirement Plan Information) – New Part VII: IRS Compliance Questions
• Is the plan a 401(k) plan?
• How does the 401(k) plan satisfy the nondiscrimination requirements for employee deferrals and employer matching contributions?
• If the Average Deferral Percentage (ADP) test or Average Contribution Percentage (ACP) test is used, did the plan perform testing using the “current year testing method” for non-highly compensated employees?
• Did the plan use the ratio percentage test or the average benefit test to satisfy the coverage requirements under Section 410(b)?
• Does the plan satisfy the coverage and nondiscrimination tests by combining this plan with any other plans under the permissive aggregation rules?
• Has the plan been timely amended for all required tax law changes?
• Provide the date of the last plan amendment/restatement for the required tax law changes.
• If the plan sponsor is an adopter of a pre-approved master and prototype or volume submitter plan that is subject to a favorable IRS opinion or advisory letter, provide the date and serial number of that letter.
• If the plan is an individually-designed plan and received a favorable determination letter from the IRS, provide the date of the plan’s last favorable determination letter.
• Is the plan maintained in a U.S. territory?
Form 5500-SF Annual Return (Report of Small Employee Benefit Plan)
• Asks for all the information added to the Forms and Schedules above.
• Were required minimum distributions made to 5 percent owners who have attained age 70½?
When plan sponsors and plan administrators are eventually required to respond to these new questions, their responses could highlight plan compliance issues of which the plan sponsor or the IRS may not have been aware, and could lead to follow-up investigations from the IRS. The new questions are helpful guidance for plan sponsors to make certain that their 401(k) and 403(b) plans are in compliance.
‘Where’s My 1095?’ Addressing Tax Filing Confusion
Many employees are confused over how to report that they received health coverage when filing their income tax returns this tax season, the first in which they’re required to affirm that they had Affordable Care Act (ACA)-compliant coverage throughout the year or risk penalties under the individual coverage mandate.
Much of this confusion involves Form 1095-B (Health Coverage) and Form 1095-C (Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage).
“There are two different 1095 forms that an employee or former employee might get, depending on how coverage was provided,” explained Mike Chittenden, a counsel at Miller & Chevalier in Washington, D.C. “If it’s fully insured coverage from a large employer”—with 50 or more full-time employees or equivalents, refered to as an applicable large employer (ALE)—“then they’ll receive a Form 1095-C from their employer and a Form 1095-B from the insurance company. If it’s self-insured coverage from an employer, they’ll just receive a 1095-C that combines the information that would otherwise appear on both forms.”
These forms are also filed with the IRS by large employers; Forms 1094-B and 1094-C are transmittal forms submitted to the IRS along with Forms 1095-B and 1095-C, respectively.
For small businesses with fewer than 50 full-time employers or equivalents that provide employees with an ACA-compliant group plan, the rules are a bit different. If fully insured (as most small companies are), the insurance company that provides coverage is required to send enrollees a copy of Form 1095-B and to submit Forms 1995-B (along with transmittal Form 1094-B) to the IRS in order to report minimum essential coverage.
If a small company is self-insured and provides coverage, it must provide employees and the IRS with Form 1095-B. But small business that offer insurance are not required to send Form 1095-Cs to employees or to the IRS.
| Fewer than 50 full-time employees/equivalents (non-ALEs) | 50 or more full-time employees/equivalents (ALEs) | |
| No coverage offered | Not subject to reporting | |
| Fully insured plan | Insurance company completes Forms 1094-B and 1095-B | Employer completes Forms 1094-C and 1095-C (Parts l and ll only) |
| Self-insured plan | Employer completes Forms 1094-B and 1095-B | Employer completes Forms 1094-C and 1095-C (Parts l, ll and lll) |
Originally, these forms were intended to be given to employees or former employees by Feb. 1 (as Jan. 31 fell on a Sunday this year), along with Form W-2. Filers would then use them when completing Line 61 of their individual tax returns, showing that they had qualifying health coverage from their employer—referred to as minimum essential coverage—during the year. The form could be shared with tax preparers and retained with other tax documents.
But as many employers seemed unlikely to meet this deadline, the IRS issued Notice 2016-4 at the end of 2015, extending the due date for providing employees with Forms 1095-B and 1095-C until March 31, and extended other ACA reporting deadlines as well:
| Forms | Previous IRS Due Date | New IRS Due Date |
| Forms 1095-B and 1095-C due to employees. | Feb. 1, 2016 | March 31, 2016 |
| Forms 1094-B, 1095-B, 1094-C and 1095-C to be filed with the IRS if filing on paper (fewer than 250 employees). | Feb. 29, 2016 | May 31, 2016 |
| Forms 1094-B, 1095-B, 1094-C and 1095-C to be filed with the IRS if filing electronically. | March 31, 2016 | June 30, 2016 |
| Source: ADP, based on IRS Notice 2016-4 and IRS Tax Tip 2016-27. | ||
Tax Filing Conundrum
The problem is that many employees had been told that they would need these forms to prepare their 2015 income taxes. Many even believed, incorrectly, that Form 1095s were to be filed with their tax returns, along with their Form W-2s.
To mitigate these concerns, in January the IRS updated its webpage with Questions and Answers about Health Care Information Forms for Individuals. In Q&A number 3, the IRS answers the question, “Must I wait to file until I receive these forms?” as follows:
If you are expecting to receive a Form 1095-A [for those enrolled in a nongroup plan through the ACA’s Health Insurance Marketplace], you should wait to file your 2015 income tax return until you receive that form. However, it is not necessary to wait for Forms 1095-B or 1095-C in order to file.
Some taxpayers may not receive a Form 1095-B or Form 1095-C by the time they are ready to file their 2015 tax return. While the information on these forms may assist in preparing a return, they are not required. Individual taxpayers will generally not be affected by this extension and should file their returns as they normally would.
Like last year, taxpayers can prepare and file their returns using other information about their health insurance. You should not attach any of these forms to your tax return.
But employees don’t typically read the latest IRS updates posted online. Employers, therefore, should inform workers to expect these forms by March 31, and assure them they may go ahead and file their taxes—and collect any refunds that may be coming their way—without waiting until the form is in their hands.
Filing Without Form 1095
“While the form is helpful, obviously, in that it gives you all the information you need in one place, most employees won’t need the form to complete their taxes,” Chittenden explained. “For example, if an employee worked for the same company and had coverage all year, then they can go ahead and complete their taxes and check the box that indicates coverage all year. Similarly, if they changed jobs but had coverage under their old and their new employer without a gap, they also can check the box saying ‘yes.’ You don’t have to attach a copy of the form to your return, whether you’re filing paper returns or filing electronically. So you don’t actually need Form 1095-B or Form 1095-C to complete your tax return.”
Given the deadline extension for providing these forms, “employees should be reassured that they don’t need them to complete their taxes, and employers should be telling them that,” Chittenden said.
Employers should also be prepared for questions when employees do receive their 1095s in March. Many who have already submitted their returns may worry that having done so without the form will require filing a corrected return.
Ask HR
If employees think they might have had a gap in health coverage but aren’t sure, they still don’t necessarily need the form. “They could look at their pay stubs to see if they include information about coverage—for example, if there are deductions in each month for coverage, then it’s a pretty safe bet that they probably had coverage in each month,” said Chittenden. “They can also go to the employer and ask HR, which can give them the answer about whether or not they had coverage.”
ACA reporting has been a challenge for many employers, and “they’re doing their best to get these forms out as quickly as they can,” said Chittenden. Due to the rush, “employees may subsequently receive corrected forms, if the employer determines later that they were inaccurate, so that’s something they should be aware may be coming. And employers should be aware that they have an obligation to correct incorrect forms.”
Penalties Reduced If Timely Correction Made
The penalty for not filing an information return with the IRS generally is $250 for each return. The penalty for providing an incorrect statement to employees/enrollees is $250 for each erroneous statement. Since there are separate penalties for returns filed with the IRS and for statements furnished to individuals, filing failures could easily result in “double” penalties.
The IRS has provided short-term relief from reporting penalties for 2015 filings, as long as the employer has made a good faith effort to comply with the reporting requirements, and has filed returns and provided statements on time. However, even employers that were late might be eligible for penalty relief if the IRS determines there was reasonable cause,
Is self-care the new health care?
Allowing employees more access to self diagnosis and treatment could reduce unproductive work time and save on healthcare costs.
John Scorza, an associate editor of HR Magazine, explains how selfcare could work for you via shrm.org.
Ten percent of visits to the doctor’s office are unnecessary, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA). Those appointments cost U.S. employers billions of dollars in lost productivity and unnecessary health care costs. But what if employees knew how to recognize routine medical issues that they can treat themselves? And what if companies encouraged such self-treatment?
While no one expects to turn employees into diagnosticians, providing a little education and access to health information as part of workplace wellness efforts can mitigate the need to visit a doctor for a number of common ailments.
That’s precisely what some participants at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Annual Health Care Summit want employers to do.
“Unhealthy workers are unproductive workers—and they’re expensive,” according to Scott Wallace, distinguished fellow at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth University. The cost of poor health is estimated to be 3 to 10 times the total cost of all employee benefits, he noted at the Oct. 20 summit in Washington, D.C.
“It’s essential that we continue our search for value,” added Scott Melville, CEO of the CHPA, an industry trade group.
The largest cost to employers is presenteeism: People who are at work but are unproductive because of their health problems. The cost of presenteeism is higher than the combined costs of medical care, prescription drugs and absenteeism. “By some estimates, it accounts for an estimated 10 percent of all labor costs,” according to Sean Sullivan, CEO of the Institute for Health and Productivity Management (IHPM), a nonprofit organization that advocates treating employee health as a business asset.
Promoting Self-Care, When Appropriate
The good news is that employers are in an ideal position to help employees change their behavior, Sullivan said. This is where self-care comes in. Self-care is defined by the World Health Organization as “personal health maintenance to improve or restore health and to treat preventative diseases.”
Self-care comes in various forms, according to Melville. These include:
- Prevention methods.
- Exercise.
- Healthy eating.
- Taking dietary supplements.
- Treatment of chronic conditions.
- Taking over-the-counter (OTC) medicines.
OTC drugs are a critical component of self-care because they can be an effective option to manage minor ailments and chronic conditions. One study cited by the IHPM estimated that every $1 spent on OTC medicines saved the U.S. health care system $6 to $7 due to fewer physician visits and less spending on medical care.
Lisle, Ill.-based Navistar International, which manufactures commercial trucks, buses and defense vehicles, has successfully used self-care as a strategy to manage employee wellness and productivity, according to an IHPM white paper. The company gave its 16,500 employees self-care manuals that encourage the use of OTC medicines for common health problems. As a result, the company said it has saved between $1 million and $2 million annually (excluding savings from reduced presenteeism) for more than 10 years. (Wallace suggested that www.knowyourotcs.org is a useful website for employers and employees to learn about the proper use of OTC drugs.)
Common Conditions
A handful of conditions account for the bulk of the costs of presenteeism and reduced productivity on the job. These include:
- Mental health issues, chiefly depression.
- Musculoskeletal pain, such as lower back pain and repetitive motion strain
- Respiratory problems, primarily allergies.
- Gastrointestinal problems, including heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
But all of these conditions (excluding mental health) are ripe for self-treatment, Sullivan said.
And that could add up to significant savings. Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin, a global aerospace firm with 112,000 employees, determined that lower back pain, allergies and GERD cost the company $3.25 million every year in lost productivity at work.
While brand-name pharmaceutical companies run pricey TV ads encouraging consumers to visit their doctors and ask for the latest, frequently expensive treatment (especially for GERD), these conditions generally can be self-managed by employees cost-effectively through the use of OTC medicines, Sullivan remarked.
Before making a self-care program part of a health and wellness strategy, employers first need to know the health care needs of their employees, Wallace advised. Similarly, Sullivan suggested targeting the population of workers who have common conditions that cause presenteeism. “These are all really treatable,” he said.
Tips to building a wellness champion network
Original post by shrm.org
A wellness champion network is a group of employees who work to improve the health and culture of the workplace in conjunction with an employer-sponsored wellness program. By socially connecting with others and helping to educate their co-workers about program offerings, wellness champions strive to achieve this shared goal.
For companies that have champion networks in place, their champions are crucial to how program information is communicated to employees—and the level of acceptance their programs receive.
Research by StayWell, a health engagement firm, has shown promising connections between the use of wellness champion networks as a part of organizational culture and wellness program outcomes, such as health risk assessment completion rates. Employers are recognizing the potential impact of the social influence of wellness champions.
RELATED: 14 tips to help your company implement wearables in wellness programs
Employer Guidance at a Glance
Wellness champions generally volunteer for this role; it is not part of their paid position. And a company can have a handful of champions or it can have hundreds, depending on the company size and number of locations.
Though there is no clear evidence to indicate what constitutes an optimal number of champions, experienced wellness practitioners often recommend setting a target of a representative 1 percent of your workplace population to serve as champions. A “stretch goal” could be to have up to 3 percent of your workforce serving as champions.
What does it take to be a wellness champion? The one essential characteristic for an individual to possess is a passion for good health. Whether champions aim to lose weight, manage their diabetes, become more active or stop smoking, or if they have already achieved their health goals, champions need to believe in the value of health improvement and be willing to support the benefits of corporate wellness programs—and to share both their passion and experiences with others. These are individuals who truly embrace the notion of “walking the talk” and strive to be positive health role models to their peers.
Creating a Wellness Champion Network
If you think your organization would benefit from a wellness champion network, or if you already have a network in place and are looking to enhance or improve on how the group currently operates, think about the following questions:
Who are your top wellness champion candidates?
Seek out employees with the following characteristics:
- Passionate—Employees who aspire to be champions and have enthusiasm for enhancing the culture of health at their workplace.
- Social skills—Employees who naturally make connections with and show compassion for their co-workers. Champions should be easy to approach, have strong communication and leadership skills, and be looked up to by their co-workers.
- Role model qualities—Employees who express a personal interest in healthy lifestyles, regardless of their current health status, can be excellent advocates for healthy behavior change.
What roles and responsibilities will you assign your wellness network champions at various levels?
This is closely tied to the goals and objectives employers hope to achieve. For example, tasking wellness champions with helping to improve awareness of wellness programs and increasing engagement in health education opportunities across the employee population can help create or enhance a culture of health at the workplace, as well as improve program participation. In addition, wellness champions can be responsible for:
- Collaboration with established groups within the workforce.
- Communication with location-specific leadership.
- Providing feedback to corporate benefits/HR departments regarding program implementation and offerings.
What internal communications systems need to be in place?
Establish a communication structure for the network that aims to empower employees with information worth sharing among their peers. To do this:
- Ensure that champions are provided clear expectations from a wellness leader about the responsibilities of network membership and how expectations fluctuate based on program-year initiatives.
- Ask about conflicts of interest. Consider screening volunteers about interests outside of the company related to commercial health products or programs.
- Encourage network members to consider how they can effectively reach out to employees and keep management informed around the feedback they receive.
- Consider establishing reporting metrics, giving your wellness champions and leaders known targets and a consistent structure for reporting their initiatives.
For example, you may choose to tie results of your wellness network to your overarching employee health management goals, or to the three pillars of a comprehensive wellness program: communications, culture and incentives.
Employees involved in the network need to be able and willing to dedicate time to the role, and they need to have the support of their supervisor or manager for the responsibilities and expected time commitment of being a champion. StayWell’s research indicates champions average about 12 hours per month on wellness activities at their locations.
What metrics should be used to measure increase in wellness events/programs?
Metrics should align with the overall goals and objectives established for your wellness champion network. These may include:
- Program participation rates, overall and/or tracked by location or facility.
- Employee satisfaction with specific aspects of the program (that may be influenced by the wellness champions).
- Changing cultural norms, such as food orders for meetings and events and vending machine sales, through the use of a culture assessment.
Tips to Ensure Network Success
The following are examples of what champions can do to promote improved health throughout an organization:
- Routinely communicate. Ensure that wellness program and policy information/updates are received and understood by their fellow employees.
- Be visible. Serve as role models to other employees by implementing and actively participating in program offerings.
- Share wellness stories. Testimonials can be a profoundly effective motivation tool.
- Host wellness-related educational events. These can include “lunch and learns” to promote healthy behaviors (healthy eating, exercise) and stress management techniques.
- Organize physical activity. Mid-day walks and after-work exercise are examples.
- Coordinate health fairs and onsite screenings. This will involve working closing with HR staff and management.
- Keep the program fun!
This wellness champion network tip sheet poster can be printed and posted at your worksite.
A final point: Once you establish a wellness champion network, it’s essential to nurture it so the team can continue to support your corporate health initiatives.
SHRM Research Spotlights Health Care Reform Strategies
Originally posted by Stephen Miller on the SHRM website.
New survey reports detailing how U.S. employers are responding to health care reform were released by the Society for Human Resource Management on June 16, 2013, in conjunction with its Annual Conference & Exposition.
Part one, Health Care Reform—Challenges and Strategies, examines the difficulties that HR professionals are facing and the strategies they are using to handle the new regulations. Part two, Health Care Reform—Impact of Health Care Coverage and Costs, focuses on future health care coverage benefits and expected costs.
In addition, a two-page summary of the survey findings is presented in SHRM Research Spotlight: Health Care Reform—Challenges and Costs.
The research was conducted in May 2013, using a randomly selected sample of SHRM members. The Society received 818 responses, half from members with the job function of benefits and compensation and half with the job title of HR manager or higher.
Increased Costs, Cost-Sharing Expected
A large majority of those surveyed (84 percent) expect their health care coverage costs to increase in 2014. Among these respondents, more than half (55 percent) predicted an increase of up to 10 percent, 19 percent forecast a 10 percent to 15 percent increase, and one-quarter (26 percent) expected an increase of 16 percent or more. Generally, small organizations expect greater jumps in costs.
Most responding organizations (83 percent) are likely or highly likely to pass on higher costs to their employees.
When asked what actions their companies are taking as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), respondents mentioned the following:
- HR staff education. Nearly three-quarters of organizations are educating HR staff members through classes (74 percent) or working with legal/benefits counsel (73 percent) to help them understand the health care law.
- Redesigned plans. More than one-half are working with their benefits provider to design a compliant health care plan for 2014 (61 percent) or analyzing the short-term financial impact of the law (60 percent).
- Alternative plan options. More than one-half (56 percent) already offer (37 percent) or plan to offer (19 percent) their employees alternative, lower-premium coverage, including high-deductible plans with health savings accounts or health reimbursement arrangements.
- Self-insurance. Just over half of organizations (52 percent) have fully insured medical benefits. Larger businesses are more likely to be self-insured, as are publicly owned, for-profit companies.
- Spousal coverage. Thirteen percent of organizations have provisions to limit coverage for employees' working spouses, such as applying surcharges or exclusions, and 9 percent plan to implement them in 2014.
- Grandfathered status. About one-quarter (26 percent) indicated they will try to keep a grandfathered health plan, which is exempt from certain PPACA provisions. Fifty-five percent will not maintain grandfathered status, and 19 percent are unsure.
- Staff and hour reductions. Few organizations (3 percent) have reduced or plan to reduce their staff. However, 9 percent have already limited part-time workers to less than 30 hours per week, and another 12 percent plan to do so.
- Resources. To help them comply with reform provisions, employers are turning to their insurance brokers (78 percent), SHRM resources (62 percent), legal counsel (48 percent), consultants (34 percent) and internal experts (20 percent).
Employers Backtrack on Background Checks
New regulations on criminal background checks are raising questions among employers about the balance between a safe workplace and following the rules.
The practice of conducting criminal background checks is still common among U.S. employers, but the rate is dropping. Fourteen percent of employers polled by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) do not conduct any criminal background checks on candidates, according to a Workforce report. That compares with 7 percent in 2010.
The SHRM study found complying with state laws and reducing legal liability for negligent hiring were the top reasons companies employ background checks.
"[Employers] are looking more closely at the job-relatedness of these practices," said Mark Schmit, SHRM's vice president of research. "As a result, fewer employers are using background checks, and checks are often done for specific jobs or to comply with the law."
The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) seems to back this trend, according to recent guidance released by the agency. The EEOC recommends that companies skip the screenings unless they are relevant to the job and that HR and managers conduct "individualized" reviews of candidates with criminal backgrounds to avoid running afoul with Title VII, according to Human Resource Executive Online.
While those rules may lead to fewer but more targeted background checks, employers see a "Catch-22" scenario brewing, Gerald L. Maatman Jr. of law firm Seyfarth Shaw LLP told HREO.
"You either hire someone who could hurt your workforce, or you get in trouble for not complying with the EEOC mandate and EEOC enforcement," Maatman said.
In addition to the safety fears, employers have to deal with the costs associated with "individualized" analysis of each job candidate with a criminal record, Mattman added.
"A lot of my clients are saying, 'I could comply if I had buckets of money to spend to administer this,'" he said.
Some employers simply are refusing to comply with the rules, William Tate of HR Plus told HREO. But he cautions against this move, noting that there's a way for employers to appease the EEOC and maintain a safe and productive workforce.
The costs to satisfy Title VII aren't exorbitant, and the EEOC provides a good checklist that will help employers when making individualized assessments, Tate said. For compliance tips on this issue, visit:https://www.shrm.org/legalissues/federalresources/pages/eeocguidancecrime.aspx