For too many employers, benefits communication consists of handing an annual statement to workers and saying, "See you next year."
However, a new Hewitt Associates survey says U.S. workers' biggest complaint about their employee benefits isn't cost or access-it's that employees don't really understand the benefits that they already have. Lack of understanding leads to lack of appreciation for their benefits . and eventually more turnover. Ongoing education is
crucial. Reason: Employees' benefits needs are constantly...
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One of the trickiest parts of administering FMLA benefits is figuring out just whether an employee's health condition qualifies for leave. Who decides, and how?
The FMLA is designed to grant time off to employees so they can deal with serious health conditions. The law defines a serious health condition as "an illness, injury, impairment or physical or mental condition that involves . continuing treatment by a health care provider." The FMLA regulations further define a "serious health
condition involving continuing treatment by a health care provider" as requiring a "period of incapacity of more than three consecutive, full calendar days." "Incapacity" is defined as the "inability to work, attend school or perform other regular daily
activities due to the serious health condition, treatment therefore or recovery therefrom."
2 approaches in court...
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When researchers at HR consulting giant Towers Watson were compiling new stats on 2010 employer health care costs, they uncovered some fascinating findings from the world of behavioral economics that innovative employers are applying to their health communication efforts.
As you look for ways to encourage employees to be active, informed consumers of the health benefits you offer, see how many you can incorporate into your own communication plans. Behavioral economics is based on the idea that the way material is presented-by way of context, the order in which information is revealed, the choices it
spotlights-plays a significant role in how people decide to act on it. For comp and benefits professionals, understanding behavioral economics can help persuade employees to participate in a health insurance program, choose more appropriate coverage and take steps to improve their health.The Towers Watson researchers highlighted five
behavioral quirks that affect health communication:...
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Lawsuits by employees against their employers have grown tremendously in the past decade. Sometimes those lawsuits have merit, sometimes they don't. But, either way, those lawsuits cost time and money to fight-money that is better spent on product development, training and raises.
Even worse, some laws-including federal overtime law and the Family and Medical Leave Act-allow employees to sue their supervisors directly, meaning a manager's personal bank account could be at stake. Most lawsuits are not triggered by great injustices. Instead, simple management mistakes and perceived slights start the snowball of
discontent rolling downhill toward the courtroom. Here are 12 of the biggest manager mistakes that harm an organization's credibility in court. Use these points as a checklist to shore up your personal employment-law defense:...
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You run your own company. Think you know what works when hiring a new employee? Experts say: think again. Most managers skimp on time and energy needed to find the best candidates for a job.
You've grown it from the ground-up, and things are going so smoothly you're ready to expand. That should be simple enough: You have a knack for finding the right people to help business thrive. Right? Wrong, says Mark Clark, an associate professor at American University's Kosgod School of Business. "Managers say, oh, I
know what I'm looking for," he says. "Fact is that's the worst way to hire." What's so flawed about that way of thinking, Clark says, is that it...
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Tips on Managing a Virtual Workforce Telecommuting offers big rewards but takes a different management style. Here are a few great tips from CEOs already "working it out".
These days, it is entirely possible to run a thriving business out of a dozen different cities - with no central office.
We talked to many smart CEOs who have ditched formal digs in favor of online communications between employees, periodic productivity check-ins, and a lot more flexibility. They shared lessons they've learned along the way, and pointers on how to make a virtual company grow and thrive...
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Companies are targeting employee fitness to contain health-care costs, creating individualized plans using wearable technology and Web sites.
Joyce Boyes, a human resources manager at a Massachusetts hospital, wanted to lose weight. When her employer, UMass Memorial Health Care, pressed employees to get fitter, she took up the challenge. One year and 50 fewer pounds later, the employee-compensation manager is a model for how employer-sponsored health programs are supposed to work.
Boyes joined...
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A Healthcare Communications Game Plan The new healthcare plan brings many changes, and communications with your employees is critical in helping them through the changes.
HR leadership must make informed decisions about when and how to communicate with employees about the law's impact on their group-health-plan coverage. But staying silent on the issue should not be an option.
So vast in scope is the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- the law runs to more than 2,400 pages -- that it inevitably raises more questions than can possibly be answered in the short term. When President Barack Obama signed the healthcare-reform bill into law on March 23, the political debate that had enveloped the issue of
healthcare reform gave way to a new reality. Organizations and their employees across the United States now face the immediate and long-term impact of the law's many changes to the employer-based healthcare system. And HR executives and other business leaders are tasked with responding to a new era in healthcare -- with some provisions of
the law effective immediately and an array of others that will be in force by 2014 or later. In the meantime, one of the key challenges is to...
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Seizing Employee Property There have been no direct cases dealing with cell phones, but several inferences can be made from other cases.
This month, the Legal Clinic will provide some guidance to HR leaders by addressing the issues of cell phones in the workplace and whether it's OK to discharge an employee who has filed for, or is receiving, workers' compensation benefits. Question: Can an employer take away employee cell phones or make workers give them up when they come to work? Our company recently instituted such a policy because of inappropriate use of a cell phone by one employee. Are there legal issues HR should be aware of pursuant to such a policy? Answer:...
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When Your Own Words Undo You Watch what you say, even if you think it is confidential, as Goldman Sachs found out the hard way...
Goldman Puts Spotlight on Self-Evaluations
Printed on the front of Fabrice Tourre's performance review was a message: "Not intended for disclosure outside the firm." At Senate hearings last week he and a few other Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executives learned there was an exception: Congress. As they grilled the executives about their roles in the financial crisis,
senators quoted from the executives' performance reviews, noting the self-congratulatory tone they regularly used. "It should not be a surprise to anyone that the 2007 year is the one that I am most proud of to date," Goldman managing director Michael Swenson wrote in his self-evaluation. The comments could be an argument
for a bonus, but Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) used them to tie Goldman to trades that now have the bank in the hot seat. Employees long ago learned to watch what they put in emails, which often are monitored, saved and used as evidence. But even human-resources professionals were surprised to learn that
self-assessments aren't really confidential,...
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