Tag: Employee Benefits

Has a vendor ever approached you about offering a medical or pharmacy benefit separate from your medical plan? When you offer a program to employees other than those who participate in your medical plan, we refer to it as a ‘stand-alone’ plan. These types of programs can be an inexpensive way to provide at least…

Will They Stay or Will They Go? The seasoned HR manager/director/executive will tell you: “If you want to know what your employees are thinking, just ask them.”   Traditionally we have done this through two methods: the anonymous “employee engagement survey” or the “exit interview”. Although both can provide some useful information, they can be…

With over 300 technology providers in the market place, the search for a benefits administration (“ben admin”) solution can be quite a daunting task. One often neglected step in making this process more palatable is first assessing your organization’s current payroll platform connectivity capabilities and HR bandwidth. Committing to this initial appraisal will help make…

I was recently in an airport when I overheard a traveler talking to another passenger who had been consulting with a large company experiencing growing pains. That is, the company had great potential, but was having difficulty delivering on it. In the consultation interview he asked the CEO what had already been done to ease…

As you’re reading this article, take a moment to think about your posture. Are you leaning forward at your desk, or have your neck craned over a phone? Are you sitting upright with your head forward? Or, are you noticing tension in your neck, and an ache in your lower back?   Compared to the…

What would happen if you arrived for work on Monday to find that your company is contemplating acquiring (or selling to) another company? Do you feel confident in your ability to guide your colleagues through the employee benefits aspects of the transaction? The acquisition process is fraught with traps for the unwary, especially when it…

Rules I’ve always been a rule-follower … to the point that my own family makes fun of me for never even breaking the speed limit! So, naturally, I am attracted to the field of Human Resources where we are bombarded with over 50 categories of rules and regulations affecting virtually every aspect of the employment…

At any company, data is one of the keys to building a successful benefits strategy. But data alone isn’t enough – it’s how you use it that makes the difference. The right data analysis combined with the right benefits broker will put you ahead of the game. The first quarter of a new plan year…