Workplace of Choice

As the days of summer quickly get us to Labor Day…fall means 2011 planning!  Are you ready to review your employee benefits programs and costs?   Here are a few tips to keep in mind that will help trim your costs:

Benefits Statements:

Do your employees really know the “value” of their benefits?  If not, $how them!!!  A benefits statement is a customized, individualized statement which shows the costs of their benefits and is used to increase employees' awareness of the value of their benefits package.

Employees who understand and appreciate their benefits evaluate other job positions on an “apples-to-apples” basis (factoring in the value of all benefits, not just take-home pay). An informed workforce is the most effective defense against employee turnover.

The Benefits Statement can also be used as a communication tool for 2011 Open Enrollment.   

Reconcile the Data:

Are you carrying benefits for terminated or inactive employees or dependents that no longer meet coverage criteria?  Conduct a quarterly audit focusing on the following:

• Make sure only active employees on your insurance plans
• Remove terminated employees
• Full-time students who no longer meet the age coverage criteria
• Spouses/dependents of employees

By doing an audit and requiring documentation that spouses and dependents who are on your plan are actually related to the employee in question, you can drop your total number of covered individuals by as much as 10 percent. Of course, in doing this, you’re presenting employees with a tough message on trust, and the ones who are not being forthright will be the ones with the worst reaction. 

Promote Wellness:

Want to get your employee’s attention…how about some cold-hard-cash for healthy habits!  Keep your costs down by promoting healthy habits.  A quarterly blood pressure and cholesterol screening that is within the “healthy range” keeps employees healthy (and healthcare claims costs down!)  Consider offering employees a small stipend for every quarter their blood pressure stays in the “healthy range”.

Some other cost-savings / free programs to consider:

• Company Walking Club: Walking teams can compete against each other…nothing like a little friendly competition!
• Many health-plans have “Living Healthy” programs whereby employees can get partial reimbursement for gym memberships and weight loss programs.  Contact your plan’s member benefits for more info.

What have you implemented in the past to help contain your employee benefits costs?  

The greatest asset of any organization is their people, but the job of managing our human resources is often forgotten and not a priority.  This may be due to cost, lack of resources and/or lack of knowledge.  Outsourcing, under the right circumstances, can often be an effective and cost efficient solution in such circumstances.  For companies where the cost of bringing Human Resources in-house is prohibitive, outsourcing offers an alternative allowing companies to have quality HR services without the expense.  Due to cost, often times companies don’t have any HR presence.  Operating without a quality Human Resources function exposes a company to risks with respect to employment law compliance and without any real HR strategy, can hinder the company’s growth.  Additionally outsourcing also allows companies to gain access to experts in the field of recruiting, coaching, training, compensation, compliance, employee relations and HR strategy.  These experts might otherwise not be available if the company was relying solely on their in-house department.
 
Take the case study of NOHR, Incorporated.  NOHR has been in business for 10 years and now employs 55 people in MA with a satellite office in CA with 6 employees.  For years, the CFO has been overseeing his assistant who is responsible for what might be labeled as the HR functions (benefits and payroll).  Performance Reviews are never done because there is no one championing the process, there is no employee handbook, no recruiting or onboarding process, compensation isn’t equalized through out the organization and when employee issues arise, the Manager takes action without guidance.  For years NOHR has struggled with whether they need an HR presence, but due to a lack of money and a real understanding of the impact of HR, they haven’t acted.  After a string of bad situations with terminating employees, they have hired an outsourced HR Manager.  In a short period of a time, the outsourced resource has been able to look over all the compliance issues and take care of a number of risk areas.  The outsourced HR Manager has also put together an Employee Handbook which eliminates many gray areas and answers questions for employees, such as PTO and workplace policies.  Additionally because NOHR decided to go with an outsourced solution instead of an in-house HR person, they also received the advantage of an expert in the area of compensation and another in recruiting.  These additional resources have been hard at work setting up procedures in their areas of specialty and have already added great value to the organization.  Outsourcing allowed NOHR to get all this for approximately 60% of the cost of if they had hired their own HR Director.

Outsourcing the HR function gives management the time and opportunity to focus on the business while the consultant concentrates on Human Resources.  With an outsourced solution this is achieved at a lower cost, with experts in the field and with efficiency and quality.   Tell us your experience with using an outsourced HR solution.