by Carolyn Kick | Nov 25, 2020 | COVID-19 Resources, Employee Benefits
Each new calendar year brings significant changes in the form of laws and regulations affecting employee benefits and general HR compliance. And this year, with the ongoing COVID-pandemic, employers are facing more unprecedented challenges that ever before. In this post, we’ll cover some of the main employee benefits issues that you’ll need to be aware of as we head into 2021.
Specifically, we’ll cover:
- Furloughs
- COVID Testing
- Uncertainty of Healthcare Under New Presidential Administration
- Deferred Renewals
- Employees Going Remote and/or Relocating
- Second COVID Wave and Corresponding Government Response
- Cares Act COVID Benefit
1. Furloughs
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, many state governments passed legislation to relax the eligibility requirements for furloughed employees to retain their benefits. Many of these regulatory actions were temporary and will expire as of January 1st, 2021.
Business owners should review the legislation that was passed in their states to determine if this circumstance will apply to them and any of their employees who remain furloughed. It’s also key to remain vigilant for any new legislation that may pass in the coming month around the topic of furloughs.
2. COVID Testing
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which was signed into law by President Trump on March 18, 2020 to respond to the pandemic, ensures that, “COVID-19 testing is free to anyone in the U.S., including the uninsured.” However, this provision will expire on December 31, 2020. This means that COVID testing will no longer be free, unless the Federal Government passes further legislation to extend free testing.
Consult directly with your healthcare provider to determine what their plans are for covering COVID testing as of January 1st, if any.
3. Uncertainty of Healthcare Under New Presidential Administration
Healthcare is always a topic of heated debate, especially during election years like 2020. This has caused many employers to ask themselves: what will healthcare look like under the Biden/Harris administration?
Biden plans to build off the ACA’s framework and expand a public health option similar to Medicare. This public option would directly compete with private insurance providers and would be available to anyone, regardless of whether their employer offers qualified-health plans. Additionally, regarding Medicare, Biden has proposed lowering the eligibility age to 60 from 65.
If Biden is successful in either of these healthcare initiatives, it would certainly flip healthcare as we currently know it upside down. Employers must remain tuned-into ongoing legislative conversations as the Biden administration begins their transition into the White House.
4. Deferred Renewals
Many benefits carriers handed out rate passes or premium holidays in light of the pandemic, regardless of loss ratios. Will these actions ultimately lead to significant renewals in 2021 for their clients? If your carrier granted you a rate pass or premium holiday, be sure you take that into consideration as you prepare to make decisions about renewing coverage with that provider.
5. Employees Going Remote and/or Relocating
Perhaps the most significant long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is that many employees will become permanent work-from-home employees. This will give many people more flexibility with their living arrangements, and some will likely choose to relocate now that they can work from anywhere. This will undoubtably be a trend in 2021.
Employers should reevaluate benefit offerings to allow for these remote employees to have proper coverage wherever they may be. As a business leader, it’s crucial you work hand-in-hand with your benefits broker during this time to ensure you are addressing the healthcare needs of a newly remote workforce.
6. Second COVID Wave and Corresponding Government Response
Recent news about the positive preliminary results of potential coronavirus vaccines has provided a light at the end of the tunnel. However, cases are still surging in most states around the country. It is clear that we are in a second, more powerful wave of infections. However, the Federal Government has yet to pass any significant legislation to follow up the FFCRA or CARES ACT that were passed in March. With the election behind us, keep a close eye on the government to see what relief bills may be passed in the coming weeks and months.
Additionally, employers should be on the watch for any “stay-at-home” restrictions that are put in place, by either the federal government or by local state or city governments.
Whatever legislation ends up passing, if any, pay special attention to what it implies for “non-essential” businesses that need to have employees in-person. If extreme “stay-at-home” restrictions are put back in place, how will employees meet hourly requirements to maintain benefits?
If you haven’t already, you should be developing contingency plans to deal with varying levels of government restriction so that you know how to address these potential issues with your employees.
7. CARES Act COVID Benefit
As briefly mentioned in the previous section, the Federal Government passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March. Under the CARES Act, the government helps reimburse employees who are out of work due to COVID so the employer is not paying out of their employer Short Term Disability policy.
The question remains, will the CARES Act benefit continue throughout 2021 or will employers bear the financial brunt? Many employers are hopeful the federal government will take steps over the next few weeks to clarify what the future of the CARES Act will be.
Key Takeaways
From an HR and employee benefits perspective, we’ll enter the year 2021 with much uncertainty about how the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to affect the workplace. However, there are a few areas that employers will want to keep an eye on in the coming weeks and months so that they’ll have a better idea of what they’ll face in 2021:
- Furloughs – Will regulatory actions that help furloughed employees retain their benefits continue into 2021?
- COVID Testing – Will testing for COVID-19 still be free after December 31st, 2020?
- Uncertainty of Healthcare Under New Presidential Administration – What will happen to the healthcare industry and Medicare under the incoming Biden Administration?
- Deferred Renewals – Will benefits carriers see significant renewals increases in 2021 due to benefits holidays or rate passes that were handed out in 2020?
- Employees Going Remote and/or Relocating – How must employers adjust their benefits plans to address the needs of a remote workforce?
- Second COVID Wave and Corresponding Government Response – How significant will this second wave of COVID infections become, and what will be the response of federal, state, and local governments?
- Cares Act COVID Benefit – Will the Federal Government extend the CARES ACT (or pass any follow-up legislation)?
by Carolyn Kick | Nov 19, 2020 | COVID-19 Resources
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have faced a number of unprecedented challenges. It has dramatically launched us forward in what has been the most rapid transformation of the workforce ever seen – creating a new normal that prioritizes the use of technology and innovative thinking. For example, remote work has become a standard for many businesses. As a result, we’ve turned to technology to digitally maintain employer-employee relationships.
Employers have been forced to make a lot of tough calls over the past few months. Those who have adapted their business practices have reaped the rewards, while those who failed to change have been set back and exposed to increased risks.
As we continue to respond to COVID-19 in the workplace, we must also be thinking about recovery and the post-COVID economy. With this, a new approach to benefits and communications will be absolutely critical to both employers and employees. While the timeline is difficult to predict, it is clear that the post-COVID economy will embody this new normal, and employers and employees alike will experience many changes to our habits, the way we work, and how we live our daily lives.
New Challenges for Employers and Employees
Many employers are having difficulty shifting their workforce to remote work, particularly if it is the employees’ first working entirely remotely. Remote work poses many challenges such as availability and accessibility, fostering engagement and communication, recognizing the effects of social isolation, and implementing a way to meet this culture of isolation with trust and support for one another.
In addition, employees are experiencing more stress than before. COVID related stressors can include social isolation, remote learning, technological challenges, disruption to routines, work/life balance, and financial uncertainty. These stressors can have a big impact on mental health, employee performance, and, in turn, the bottom-line of their employer. Pre-COVID statistics estimated that stressors and their effect on employee performance cost U.S. businesses roughly $500 billion annually. Since the outbreak, COVID-19 has taken a serious toll on workers’ mental health, which will only continue to increase the financial impact on employers.
In a report by The Society for Human Resources Management, data showed that financial stress was the leading cause of loss of productivity, followed by unplanned absence, lower job performance, and greater distractions among employees. This stress has certainly increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic, giving employers a financial incentive to improve this condition and put in place measures to improve the mental health and wellbeing of their employees.
In order to succeed in this unprecedented time, employers and employees need to have an equal commitment to one another’s success and well-being. While we have been headed in the right direction to an employer-employee relationship based on mutual respect, flexibility, inclusivity, and shared goals, COVID-19 has accelerated this and given us all an opportunity to make significant progress. Health and safety must be placed in front of profits – not only creating greater trust in employer-employee relationships, but bringing a new sense of humanity into the workplace.
How to Adjust to the New Normal
We all have to adjust to the new normal. The right approach is one that creates trust between employers and employees and encourages communication and resourcefulness. The hope is that, moving forward, employers will recognize that this new relationship with employees will become their foundation for success. Here are a few things that employers must consider as we continue to navigate these uncertain times.
1. Learn To Be Agile
We’ve never before had so many people start working from home at the same time. A pre-COVID mentality would likely suggest that this level of remote was entirely infeasible. However, as the events unfolded, it revealed that we are indeed capable of adapting more quickly than we ever thought possible. Employers now understand just how agile they can be and that they must continue to consider this moving forward. How can you apply this agility to other areas of your business? Which traditional processes can be shifted and which ones can’t? Those who are able to find more efficient and cost-effective ways to operate will be the ones to succeed in the new normal.
2. Create Trust and Transparency
As we face uncertainty, it is required that we support one another. In doing so, trust has taken the place of control. Employees are operating with less oversight and learning what works and what doesn’t on their own. While we may have conducted virtual meetings before, now that it has become the norm, we are learning how to communicate in a way that is more transparent. Employers must continue to build adaptive teams, communicate clearly, and prioritize connection and trust.
3. Prioritize Individual Well-Being
COVID-19 has put pressures on employees in ways that we’ve never seen. It has created a mandate to address and expand the way we approach the mental health of the workforce. Individual well-being is being prioritized over profits. Employers that have resisted implementing remote work policies in the past are now allowing employees to work from home. Employees that don’t feel safe coming into work can express this without fear of termination and employers are allowing for flexibility in schedules to accommodate the needs of their employees’ families. Employers must continue to rebalance their priorities, making individual well-being equally as important in their strategic thinking as cost and efficiency.
by Carolyn Kick | Nov 19, 2020 | Employee Benefits
Has choosing a healthcare plan become too complicated? According to research conducted by Medical Xpress, when given the option between two employer-sponsored healthcare plans, nearly 25% of employees chose the option that was less financially beneficial to them – despite the fact that both plans offered the same non-cost benefits.
Medical Xpress wanted to determine just how difficult it was for employees to make the most beneficial decision when presented with just two options. Both options were the exact same in every way except for cost, with one of the two healthcare plans having higher premiums and lower out-of-pocket expenses (i.e. deductibles, co-payments). According to the research, the plan with lower premiums and higher out-of-pocket expenses was more financially beneficial to 97% of the 2,300 employees in the study.
Despite this fact, 23% of the employees chose the plan with higher premiums – a mistake that would cost them more than $2,000 a year on average.
Why It Matters
For nearly 180 million Americans, employer-sponsored healthcare is a necessity to help with the expenses of medical care. In 2020, the average insured worker is spending over $5,500 in premiums and more than 8% of their total spending goes to healthcare expenses.
Typically, employees are given an option of at least two healthcare plans. The decision of which healthcare plan will be most beneficial to the employee is determined by two factors: 1.) The expected amount of care they will need for the upcoming year, and 2.) The amount of risk they are willing to take on. In most cases, if an employee expects they will need less care, it makes sense for them to choose the option with a lower monthly premium and higher out-of-pocket costs. Nonetheless, evidence shows that when employees have too many options, they routinely make poor health insurance decisions.
That said, based on the study conducted by Medical Xpress, while choice overload might play a role in poor decision making, it is not the primary reason employees are having such a difficult time making the best benefits decisions.
Healthcare practitioners and policymakers have been trying to help employees make better benefits decisions for quite some time now, yet with little progress. For example, using algorithms to provide individuals with a “smart default” plan that fits their needs best. Despite these efforts, the issue still exists. The truth is, helping employees make better benefits decisions is a difficult challenge.
While it will not eliminate all health benefit decision-making errors, simplifying the choices would help. Additionally, providing more search and analysis tools to employees would also make it easier for employees to make a better informed decision.
What You Can Do to Help Your Employees
There are many ways you can help your employees make better benefits decisions. Here are a few of the things you can do for your employees to help reduce this issue within your organization:
Plan Design – To encourage your employees to become responsible healthcare consumers and take control over their healthcare costs, you should work with your benefits broker to develop effective plan designs that give employees more control and more choice in their benefits selection.
Employee Engagement – Employees need to be aware of their role as consumers and engage with their healthcare decisions. Your employee engagement efforts should centered around crafting a healthcare approach that addresses employee concerns and needs. Once you have created a healthcare environment that is conducive to employee engagement, you should work directly with your employees to get them to take control of their healthcare decisions.
Employee Education – You should provide your employees with the resources they need to truly understand their options and best provide for their health while reducing healthcare expenses for themselves and you as an employer. In addition to utilizing external resources to give your employees access to education, you should maintain consistent communication with your employees about their healthcare options, the tools available to them, and any changes to their benefits. The right employee benefits broker will take a hands-on approach to employee benefits education, working directly with your team to help them select the best plan for their needs.
Empowering Employees – Once you have given your employees the insurance options that maximize their role as consumers and the engagement and education that makes them informed consumers, it’s time to provide them with the tools they need to become empowered consumers. There are more options than ever to manage healthcare and reduce expenses such as telehealth, pharmacy savings cards, and various benefits enrollment platforms. If you need help in deciding which of these tools are best for your business, your broker can advise on how to harness the power of modern benefits technology.
by Carolyn Kick | Nov 13, 2020 | COVID-19 Resources, Human Resources, Leadership
It’s natural for managers to wonder about their employees’ productivity levels in a remote work environment. Since the transition from a highly collaborative and supervised office to scattered, private homes, working people have faced a range of obstacles that have impaired or even prevented them from achieving the level of productivity that they and their managers were accustomed to before the pandemic. While this new approach to working can certainly be difficult, it is possible to continue operating at the level of success you enjoyed at the office- provided employees and managers have the right practices and procedures in place that enable everyone to stay accountable and feel supported.
In this post, we’ll cover:
- Defining success for your team in a remote environment
- Creating consistency to build trust
- Reinforcing relationships to help employees grow
Define What Success Means to Your Team
Success has a unique meaning for every team, but it is almost always easier to meet and achieve when everyone involved agrees upon what success looks like. With clear communication being a more crucial component of success than ever before, it’s important for managers to ensure that everyone on their team understands their unique role and responsibility in reaching organizational achievement. Though many companies have been working remote since the pandemic began, now may be a good time to gather your team and revisit (or even introduce) mutually agreed upon parameters and goals that will help employees understand what is expected of them. These parameters can include establishing a range of hours during which all employees are expected to be reachable, being intentional about communicating next steps on a project, or accomplishing more individualized, measurable goals specific to an employee’s job title. By aligning your expectations and goals, everyone on your team will have a clearer picture of how they are to move forward in this novel working environment.
Build Trust Through Consistency and Dependability
Trust between colleagues is one of the most important foundational necessities for a successful team or organization, and it’s especially important to reinforce when employees and managers do not have the chance to interact as a result of working remote. One such way to increase a shared sense of trust is to ensure that you’re communicating and sticking to responsibilities, deadlines, and commitments. Whether you’re an employee or a manager, consistently demonstrating that you’re a dependable worker helps to foster a sense of accountability throughout the organization and provides crucial support to your colleagues and your organization. Building trust in a virtual environment is also about making the extra effort and being transparent. Managers should schedule weekly check-ins with their employees and remind their team that it’s okay to feel unsure and anxious during this time. Colleagues that trust one another in both a personal and a professional capacity are often more productive, leading to better outcomes and a higher level of success.
Reinforce Relationships
Working from home for an extended period of time can often lead to employees feeling isolated, siloed, and insecure. These feelings of disconnectedness are stressful for employees and typically affect their productivity levels. Managers should seek out regular opportunities to have meaningful interactions with their employees over video or IM chat and foster a sense of community on their team by reminding employees that they can reach out if they are struggling. Frequently pairing up remote workers on projects or assignments is a great way to promote collaboration between colleagues and alleviate some of those feelings of isolation. Do not underestimate the effect of virtual employee engagement either- hold virtual happy hours, come up with a few fun games during team meetings, or even have virtual lunch together. A little personal connection goes a long way and helps to make this challenging time a little easier for everyone.
Finally, don’t let your remote status prevent you from encouraging and advancing your employees’ talent and career aspirations. As new technology supports an organization’s ability to seek out the best and most qualified candidates, regardless of their home address, companies may find they have to step up their game in order to retain top or burgeoning talent. While an employee’s ambitions are ultimately up to them, their advancement is something that should be regularly discussed. Encourage them to express any future aspirations they might have and make it part of your job to help them achieve those goals- even if it might be a heavier lift in a remote environment.
Key Takeaways
This shift from office culture to an online environment has been complex and unstable at times, but this shift has also removed boundaries and encouraged new modes of doing business. Managers have an opportunity to capitalize on those new advantages and minimize the negative effects of remote work by keeping the following suggestions in mind:
- Clearly define what success looks like for your team and how it is to be achieved. When each individual member knows what is expected of them and their colleagues, they function at a smoother and faster pace
- Trust is the foundation of success. By reinforcing a strong sense of trust between colleagues through accountability and transparency, managers can expect healthy levels of productivity and employees may experience less stress and uncertainty in their role
- Maintaining relationships is more important than ever now that interaction between team members is limited. Make it a regular priority to check in with employees on how they’re doing, find ways to engage the team as a group, and continue to support your employees’ career aspirations.
by Carolyn Kick | Nov 13, 2020 | Compliance, COVID-19 Resources, Human Resources
Among the many challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, one issue facing employers has proven to be more difficult to face than others. Unemployment fraud has become an excessive problem for many – one that, until now, many employers haven’t had to concern themselves with. Unemployment claims are being processed in numbers that have never been seen before, and many state unemployment departments are doing so with insufficient controls and outdated systems.
We hope to provide employers with the information they’ll need to understand and address this growing issue by offering a set of best practices and action steps for both employers and employees that have been affected by fraudulent unemployment claims.
A Case of Unemployment Fraud
The Illinois Department of Employment Security or IDES is the agency responsible for processing unemployment claims in the state of Illinois. They receive claims, verify them using data reported by employers, and then process payments if employees are found to be eligible – a rather straight forward process under typical circumstances. However, due to COVID-19 and the impact it has had on the workforce, they have seen a tremendous increase in the number of claims being processed. In addition, there is a demand to process claims more quickly. In meeting this demand, the level of scrutiny used to process claims has decreased. With heightened demands, less scrutiny, and the use of insufficient controls, the result has been excessive fraud.
The IDES reports receiving approximately 14,000 claims of identity theft in only five months. A dramatic increase compared to just a year ago, reporting just 651 in the same time frame. There have been several reports from employees of other instances indicative of fraud as well, such as IDES debit cards unexpectedly arriving in the mail, letters for deceased spouses, and claims for children who have never been employed.
Multiple stories from Illinois and national news stations revealed several cases of fraudulent activity in both the state of Illinois and nationwide. You can view them here:
What Does It Mean For Employers?
Unemployment benefits function similarly to health insurance. In most instances, the employer will pay into an unemployment fund which is handled by the state and determined by their tax rate. Unemployment claims are granted based on the eligibility of the employee (despite how much the employer has paid into the fund). In the case of Illinois, the tax rate is determined by the dollar amount of claims paid by the employer in the previous year as a portion of total payroll. This creates a big issue the more claims there are to be paid. The tax rate increases as the number of claims paid out rises. Therefore, fraudulent unemployment claims have a direct impact on the amount paid in unemployment taxes. The difference, based on the current minimum and maximum tax rates, could be as much as ten times more than what is normal.
How Employers Can Take Action
Regardless of legitimacy, when an unemployment case is filed, employers will receive a notice of claim. As the employer, if you receive a notice of claim, and the employee is still employed, you should immediately dispute the claim according to the process of your state. Additionally, you should take the opportunity to alert the department responsible for processing claims that there is suspected fraud on the claim. You should also notify the employee that the claim is filed for that there is suspected fraud in their name.
How Employees Can Take Action
As an employee, if you receive notice of a fraudulent unemployment claim from an employer or a notification of unemployment benefits when you haven’t filed, it is likely due to some form of identity theft. Identity theft can be a very serious issue so it is imperative that you follow these steps:
- DO NOT cash any checks or use any debit cards received
- Contact IDES to notify them of suspected fraud (submit online here OR call 800-814-0513)
- Contact the Illinois Attorney General’s Identity Theft Hotline (call 866-999-5630)
- Contact their Identity Theft provider (i.e. LifeLock, Experian, Identity Guard)
- Place a Credit/Security Freeze on your credit report.
- Contact the Federal Trade Commission for additional information and guidance
The Importance of Unemployment Fraud Awareness
Unemployment fraud is an incredibly serious matter and it deserves the attention of every employer. Failing to be aware of unemployment fraud is a failure to protect your company’s interests and the interests of your employees. For assistance with communicating this information to your employees, contact your HR manager or HR advisor. If you’d like more information on the topic of unemployment fraud or other human resources topics, please contact us at Launchways.
