Amid legislation that pushes consumerism in healthcare while putting greater burdens on healthcare consumers, employers and employees alike have turned to high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) to minimize their healthcare costs. As premiums continue to rise, these plans offer an opportunity to keep upfront costs low for companies and their employees. At the same time, the IRS permits the creation of tax-exempt health savings accounts or HSAs for people with HDHPs to cover the costs of the higher deductibles when expenses do come up.
This system works great for everyone involved – so long as people stay healthy. Which makes preventive care an integral part of any successful HDHP based healthcare strategy. By allowing patients to head off health issues before they become significant expenses, preventive care keeps everyone’s expenses down and maximizes health outcomes for the insured. Recognizing this, the IRS has allowed insurance plans to cover preventive care such as check-ups, screenings, immunizations, and tobacco cessation or weight-loss programs with a low or non-existent deductible while keeping their HDHP status.
However, the IRS has not generally extended the same low-deductible permissions to treatments for existing illnesses or conditions. Since 2004, certain on-the-spot treatments for conditions discovered during screenings (such as removing polyps discovered during colonoscopies) and medications to prevent recurrence of heart attacks or to reduce cholesterol to prevent heart disease have fallen under the umbrella of preventive care, but that’s about it.
Which means that people with chronic conditions have generally been left out. They have had to choose between paying out high-deductibles for treatments that prevent their conditions from worsening, or giving up their HSAs and adopting high-premium plans. Until now, that is.
The IRS’ New Rule
On July 17, 2019, the IRS issued Notice 2019-45, which significantly broadened the definition of preventive care to extend it to many treatments for chronic conditions. To qualify as preventive care, the treatments must be likely to prevent the worsening of a chronic condition or the development of a secondary condition which would incur greater healthcare costs. It must also meet several other criteria, which we have outlined in this handy chart for easy reference:
The Impact for Companies and Their Employees
So what does this policy change mean for employers and employees? Simply put, it provides enormous opportunities for both to take greater control over their costs, minimizing their expenses while maximizing employee health and wellness. It makes the already appealing HDHP and HSA healthcare option a win for employees who want to increase their welfare and for employers who are looking to reduce their expenses.
The expanded definition of preventive care provides a new opportunity for employers to educate their employees so that they can become more intelligent consumers amid government policies which force consumerism in the healthcare market. Employees can use HDHPs to control their costs without fear of compromising their health, especially by neglecting chronic conditions to avoid paying high deductibles. Instead, they can get the treatment that they need at low costs while keeping their tax-exempt health savings.
Key Takeaways
We’ve thrown a lot of information your way in this article, so here are some key takeaways that you should remember:
• IRS Notice 2019-45 opened up serious opportunities for employers to cut their costs and for employees to reduce their expenses and maximize their healthcare outcomes
• Chronic conditions will no longer force consumers to take on significant healthcare costs to receive the treatment they need to maintain their health and avoid future expenses
• That means that high-deductible health plans, which already provided the best solution for consumers in the current healthcare market, are now better than ever
To make the most of the rule change as an employer, you should partner with a proactive benefits broker who will help you craft a healthcare strategy which maximizes the impact for your employees while minimizing your costs. Benefits are an important tool to attract, retain, and engage the talent that you need to grow your business. The well-being of your company and its employees ultimately depends on the effectiveness of your benefits strategy. So it is more important than ever to work with the right benefits broker.
Interested in making the switch to a broker who is invested in your growth and your employees’ well-being? Start the conversation today.
A Williams Institute study in 2018 found that 4.5% of the U.S. population self-reported identifying as LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender). The real number is probably much higher, as diversity and inclusion expert Stephanie Huckel’s work suggests as many as 46% of LGBTQ professionals feel compelled to hide who they truly are in the workplace, which means any formal study probably skews quite low in terms of representation.
Any successful HR professional or C-suite executive knows that no team member, no matter how intelligent, focused, and driven can truly do their best work in an environment where they don’t feel safe to be themselves. Maximizing productivity and buy-in from LGBTQ employees and their allies requires creating an environment where people are valued and protected in a way that’s both inclusive and transcendent of their sexuality or gender identity.
Moving forward, we’ll explore:
• The unique legal position of LGBTQ professionals
• Why LGBTQ-inclusive policies build a stronger, better organization
• Some general guidance for creating LGBTQ-inclusive practices
Addressing the Additional Stress on LGBTQ Professionals
Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender professionals have disproportionately felt the pain of discrimination in hiring, firing, and promotion scenarios and continue to deal with explicit or exclusionary workplace harassment, even as it has universally unacceptable to target other protected groups in similar ways.
Some HR leaders and organizations find it hard to understand why their policies and procedures need to contain explicit language about LGBTQ non-discrimination or contain specific guidance about potential issues like homophobic harassment or gender transition procedures. The unfortunate current state of affairs is that LGBTQ professionals receive only patchy, implied federal protections, which means that unless their employers take a strong, proactive, supportive stance, their employment status can feel extremely vulnerable.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects individuals from gender or sex discrimination, but only conventional interpretation extends those protections beyond the definitions of “sex” and “gender” that were understood in 1964, when the law was written. While there have been efforts to expand the language of Title VII to create explicit protections for LGBTQ individuals, that work is currently stalled.
Those prevailing interpretations mean that LGBTQ professionals can file harassment or discrimination claims with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunities Commission), but that is a long, expensive process that often draws out the agony of harassment and can potentially negatively impact the victim’s future career prospects.
That inconsistent or just-implied federal support leaves an incredible spectrum of different professionals feeling like they have less agency and recourse in the workplace than their non-LGBTQ peers. With that said, almost half the states in the country have created laws that protect against gender identity and sexual orientation discrimination for both public and private workers.
• Western States with LGBTQ Workplace Discrimination Protections: Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico
• Midwestern States with LGBTQ Workplace Discrimination Protections: Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois
• Eastern States with LGBTQ Workplace Discrimination Protections: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington, D.C.
Businesses operating within any of those states are held to a reasonably high standard for LGBTQ inclusion, with a framework in place for wronged individuals to gain the protection of the court system and punish businesses for discriminatory practices or creating a culture of normalized harassment.
With that said, even in those states, the existence of a legal framework for recourse does not mean the non-existence of harassment or discrimination. Preventing those initial hurtful episodes still falls to each individual employer or workplace, and the businesses who master creating a fully-inclusive workplace will win over the trust and gain the ability to leverage the incredible skills of the LGBTQ workforce.
On the other hand, for LGBTQ citizens of the other 29 states, there is incredible need for either public or private protections. Some counties or cities have passed local non-discrimination laws to provide protections for their LGBTQ workforce and residents, but that means job hunting for many involves using a map of potential landing places that looks like Swiss cheese.
In areas where no public protections exist, LGBTQ professionals must rely on their employers to create, maintain, and enforce their own policies and procedures to prevent harassment and eliminate discrimination. Given both the historic struggles of the LGBTQ community and the historic struggles between employers and workers, it’s easy to see why many feel extremely cynical or insecure in that position.
With that said, businesses in those areas with no public protections who forge meaningful, inclusive policies that invite LGBTQ workers to be themselves, feel comfortable in their work space, and get powerful back-up from their employer have the opportunity to get first pick at an incredible pool of business-driving talent.
From an organizational perspective, LGBTQ inclusion is much bigger than the basic decency of protecting employees from discrimination and harassment. It’s about creating an environment where assessments of someone’s proficiency, abilities, and strengths or weaknesses are made based on performance data and demonstrated results, not assumptions. It’s about fostering a community where everybody’s insights, perspectives, and strengths are leveraged to the maximum through positive interdependence, shared goals, and empathy.
When businesses do that right, they set themselves up to win big in a few different ways. Let’s pause to explore how LGBTQ-inclusion is a matter of best practice.
It’s the Right Thing to Do Profit has historically been valued above “doing the right thing” for businesses, especially large ones, but that’s starting to change culturally. In the current atmosphere, it’s more important than ever to consumers (and therefore the bottom line) that businesses operate in an inclusive manner.
Directly aligning a business or brand with strong, progressive values is no longer seen as a boat-shaking move that could scare off customers; on the contrary, numerous large businesses have seen themselves called out by consumers and advocacy groups in recent years for failing to articulate inclusive policies.
By being proactive about LGBTQ inclusion, a business shows their employees, prospective employees, investors, competitors, consumers, and the market in general that they’re concerned with talent, not exclusion.
Building Authentic Buy-In from Workers Given the high percentage of LGBTQ workers who do not feel comfortable sharing their status in the workplace and the number of employees who do not report incidents in which they’re made to feel uncomfortable, it’s impossible to truly quantify how much productivity, innovation, and morale are lost each year due to inclusion gaps. With that said, any number is too high.
By creating a strong, supportive environment where inclusion feels like a true value and not just a legal concern, organizations can invite workers to feel both more invested and safer in a way that leads to better work and a healthier environment. When employers feel like allies and not just bosses, there’s more incentive to invest in the work and succeed together.
Equipping Leadership with the Tools to Solve Problems When businesses aren’t proactive about policy, they often find themselves dealing with problems they don’t really have the tools to solve. On the other hand, proactive planning means that when a negative scenario (such as a problematic employee) does present itself, there is a procedure in place by which the problem can be handled and removed in a way that is richly-documented and will hold up in court.
Staying Ahead of Regulation Depending on the outcomes of upcoming elections, significant increases in federal and local protections for LGBTQ professionals could be on the horizon. Businesses that have already articulated internal policies and created a strong, inclusive environment will be able to transition smoothly into whatever new framework might be created, while organizations that lagged behind get into dragged into accountability and regulation leave themselves vulnerable to potentially costly and reputation-damaging disasters.
In the world of business, it’s always important to be perceived as an innovator on the cutting edge. In the new talent marketplace and culture, being a human rights innovator is just as important as being a financial innovator. Inclusion is just one more way that a business can be ahead of the game in the quest to connect with talent and maximize organizational reputation.
Guidelines for Creating an LGBTQ-Inclusive Environment
Building a company that wins through inclusion requires long-term commitment, vision, and strategy, but here are a few tips to help guide organizations looking to articulate LGBTQ inclusion policies and procedures:
Policy creation • Nomenclature: It’s important everybody in the workplace uses appropriate, professional terminology. Company policies should spell out acceptable and unacceptable terms and establish clear guidelines for workplace conversations. Furthermore, guidelines for appropriate pronoun use should be created and enforced for transgender and non-binary workers. • Clearly articulated harassment/discrimination guidelines: As we said before, in order to create a strong, inclusive environment, businesses need to give themselves the tools to enforce the culture of inclusion and weed out bad apples in a richly documented, legally appropriate way. -Reporting process – It’s not enough to say, “discrimination and harassment are bad;” it’s essential to have a well-organized, transparent, and trustworthy system that employees know how to use to report issues. -Staffing for support – Policies need to be backed up by human faces who are dedicated to inclusion, equality, and building the best possible workplace culture. Working with a trusted HR partner such as Launchways can connect your team with actionable equality policies while mitigating the need for your business to hire an in-house support person. • Ensuring there are no employee benefits gaps for LGBTQ professionals -Comprehensive healthcare coverage that connects transgender, non-binary, or intersex professionals with the doctors they need is essential to keep the workforce healthy and provide equality. -Transition support programs for transgender individuals must be available. -Life insurance and other policies that account for non-binary identities and non-heteronormative concepts of family must be available.
Employee Training • New Employee Orientation must introduce LGBTQ inclusion policies and hold hires accountable for knowing them. • Allow for an evolving world by having a dedicated HR professional stay up to date on emerging themes and issues of LGBTQ inclusion and providing on-going professional development or training as needs are identified. • Authenticity is required for employee education to really work. Meaningful role play and powerful, relevant speakers are required to make laggards take these issues seriously. • Documentation of training creates a strong framework for accountability.
Fostering an Inclusive Culture • Show organizational dedication to LGBTQ inclusion by adopting a relevant cause, raising money for a relevant charity, or raising awareness of LGBTQ issues in your local community. • Create a welcoming, positive environment where people are treated as human beings with dignity and valuable assets with potential and skills. • Make HR a driving force in pushing both leadership and rank-and-file workers to make inclusion, diversity, and LGBTQ rights key values.
Conclusion:
LGBTQ inclusion is one of the most important issues facing businesses in the current climate. In order to connect with and retain great talent, organizations must demonstrate their commitment to fully supporting each individual worker in their professional journey, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity. With potentially increased regulation looming, the businesses that are proactive will be the ones who articulate the best policies and align their corporate cultures with the winds of change.
Key Takeaways:
• LGBTQ professionals current receive patchy federal and state protection from workplace discrimination -This can make the workplace a place of increased stress and anxiety, which means workers can’t be their best selves • Regardless of local laws, businesses who proactively adopt LGBTQ-inclusive policies set themselves up to win with talent and build a future-facing organization • Policies must be articulated clearly and explicitly designed with the needs, challenges, and support of LGBTQ professionals in mind in order to truly make a difference
Businesses are only as good as their best assets. It may sound like a greeting card sentiment, but it’s absolutely the truth.
Hiring the right people shouldn’t be your only concern. In any industry, growth and success are only possible when top talent is fully bought-in and authentically motivated. That means that maximizing business returns requires an intentional strategy to ensure that smart, talented professionals see the incentive in working up to their superstar potential on a yearly, quarterly, and daily basis.
Cash bonuses are a classic way to reward and motivate employees around the holidays or at end-of-year, but they can also be incorporated as part of a regular employee engagement and retention strategy that helps top talent buy into your culture and maximize their work hours to deliver business-growing results.
In this article we’ll cover:
● Why cash bonuses are so powerful
● Why cash bonuses aren’t just for big, established companies
● Ways businesses can create an effective, fair cash bonus strategy
The Power of Cash
Cash is a powerful motivator. At the end of the day, it’s why most people go to work. Unfortunately, though, life gets in the way, and thanks to bills and other financial obligations, very few professionals feel like they’re ever able to fully enjoy the salary they earn.
More than ever, young professionals with impressive talents are also managing impressive debt. For many 35 and under, getting the right qualifications and building their skill set required $100,000 or more in student loans. That’s why, unlike any generation before them, rising millennial executives and top Gen Y talent often live bill-to-bill and paycheck-to-paycheck in a way that was previously associated with blue collar work.
Cash-strapped anxiety among white collar professionals isn’t limited to young talent, however. Increasingly, senior executives and professionals beginning to eye retirement must choose between today and tomorrow, finding themselves forced to either wear the belt tighter than ever in the closing years of their careers or risk outliving their retirement savings.
Most HR directors have recognized these emerging trends over recent years, but few businesses have articulated a strategy for alleviating these stressors. Salaries cover the bills, but can employees really be expected to do their best, biggest, most impactful thinking and work when they’re just covering the bills? Can innovation at the business or national level continue when people feel like they’re barely scraping by?
Pushing talented professionals at both the leadership and individual level requires genuine incentive, and in the current climate, cash is the greatest possible incentive.
Cash bonuses invite employees to make the purchases they want, not just the purchases they need, and get a direct, powerful snapshot of how their effort and hard work directly result in money and buying power. Whether it’s upgrading the TV, pulling together a down payment for a house, or planning a family vacation, a cash bonus at the right time can provide a significant lifestyle upgrade or a major weight off the shoulders.
While salary, benefits, and even equity show employees how they are valued in the talent marketplace, bonuses help them see how they are appreciated by their current employer. A timely cash bonus illustrates both company satisfaction with current performance and commitment to the worker’s long-term fluidity. This helps build the degree of buy-in that pushes brilliant minds toward innovation and profitability.
In the current climate, top talent is presented with more chances to switch teams and explore new opportunities than ever before. Maintaining a strong, highly motivated team requires providing compensation that doesn’t just work for employees but actively makes them feel good at what they do and the culture of the place in which they work.
Too often, people have mischaracterized cash bonuses as “buying loyalty,” but the fact of the matter is that in a diverse, competitive talent market, it is the employer who needs to demonstrate loyalty in order to maintain their top rising talent and motivate them to grow with the business.
When faced with the option of continuing at a company that offers cash bonuses, moving to a parallel role at a new employer that does not offer cash bonuses, or transitioning toward freelancing/consultation, there’s simply no question which situation the compensation-minded employee will choose, especially if they have a TV, house, or seat at a private school for their child that a bonus helped them afford.
Aren’t Cash Bonuses Just for Big Companies?
While many employers provide informal holiday or end-of-year bonuses, few have a clear, consistent cash bonus strategy. That’s in part due to the misconception that in order to offer employees a lump cash sum above their salary, you need a Fortune 500 bank account. In fact, lots of small and medium-sized businesses have never even considered offering regular cash bonuses because they’re not sure they can afford it.
Actually, well-scaled cash bonuses are one of the most effective ways small and medium-sized businesses can push their top talent to achieve and make themselves stand out compared to the competition. Bonuses feel especially impactful on a smaller scale and help employees feel bought-in in a way that pushes people to work in an innovative and company-centric manner. It just requires a little more creativity to get there.
The most classic way smaller firms can provide bonuses without obliterating cash funds is to spread that bonus out over a term. For example, a hypothetical $1,000 bonus could be paid out with $500 up front and an extra $100 per paycheck for a set number of terms.
This kind of partially deferred bonus is beneficial for both talent and the employer, as the employee receives both an impactful short-term bonus and, essentially, a short-term raise, while the employer avoids depleting their cash reserves, especially in a scenario where an entire team or department is being bonused. Practices such as these can help small businesses close the cash gap and offer competitive, rewarding bonuses.
Cash bonusing is also ideal for start-up owners who prefer to maintain as much of their equity as possible. A regular, achievable cash bonus framework empowers employees to see real returns faster than in a vesting scenario, making a bonus-powered business more appealing to talent compared to similar organizations that are asking potential employees to take a five-year bet.
Anchoring a Bonus Strategy
Here’s the thing with cash bonuses: they have to be fair, transparent, and grounded in carefully measured KPIs. One of the biggest misconceptions out there is that bonuses come from a black bag of discretionary money that leaders can use to reward their favorites. Building a culture in which cash bonuses are a valuable incentive and motivator for everyone means obliterating that preconception and presenting a clearly articulated approach to bonuses that gives employees brass rings to reach for and shows them that hard work is truly rewarded.
For each asset within the organization, bonus opportunities should be tied directly to expectations laid out in their individual job description and their performance on on-going projects and initiatives. That means strengthening the connection between leadership, accounting, payroll, and HR to ensure that there’s a clear vision for each position in the company and an understanding of what adequate and outstanding performance look like in each scenario.
Ideally, employees should sign on knowing what kind of bonuses they can qualify for from the outset and what kind of data gathering and analysis leaders will conduct in order to determine their eligibility. For organizations unveiling a new bonus strategy, it’s absolutely crucial that existing employees understand which aspects of their work and KPIs are tied to bonuses and what they can do to ensure they qualify. Regular check-ins from supervisors and leaders can reinforce the company-wide culture of working toward bonuses and keep individual team members bought into the system.
When rolled out correctly, a cash bonus incentive system can give long-time talent the push they need to make it to the next level while attracting new potential superstars. On the other hand, if rollout is fumbled or articulated poorly, a seemingly unclear or unfair system can actually hurt workplace culture.
Scheduling a Bonus Strategy
Given that clarity, transparency, and fairness are so crucial to using a cash bonus system as an employee motivator and attraction/retention tool, organizations must articulate from the outset how they will schedule bonuses. Traditionally, bonuses are given on a yearly, quarterly, or project-based schedule. Let’s quickly look at each of those approaches to discuss how they differ:
Yearly: Advantages: Yearly cash bonuses have been traditional in the workplace for several centuries. Businesses can plan financially to bonus everybody at once. Workers get a large lump sum.
Disadvantages: A year is a long term, which means assessment is complex for leadership and bonuses are fewer and further between for workers.
Quarterly: Advantages: Business planning and accounting is typically conducted in quarters. Quarterly business metrics can most directly inform bonus decisions. Quarterly check-ins with employees regarding goals and company culture feel appropriate and unobtrusive.
Disadvantages: Assessing goals and tracking KPIs for all workers on a quarterly basis is a job unto itself, potentially for more than one person depending on company size.
Project/Milestone-based: Advantages: Milestone-based bonuses reward assets directly for getting work done. They provide a timely reward and a pat on the back.
Disadvantages: It’s easier to quantify and articulate bonus qualifications for some positions (e.g. project manager, sales professional, etc.) than others (e.g. graphic designer, service technician, etc.). Mindful planning must be employed to ensure fairness in terms of assignments.
Individual vs. Group bonuses: One theme that we see across all these bonus scheduling strategies is that businesses must be mindful about whether they want to create an approach in which a large number of employees are potentially getting bonused around the same time or try to stagger assessments to provide massive cash pay-outs in a small time frame.
For smaller businesses and startups, spreading those payments out is preferable in most situations. That means staggering assessment quarters across the workforce, potentially deferring bonus payments out over a longer term, and calibrating bonus goals to be attainable but adequately lofty. All those concerns again speak to the necessity of extensive planning (both in terms of articulation and financial allocations) in the months before rollout.
Key Takeaways:
● Cash bonuses are especially relevant and attractive in a climate where many professionals are wrestling with debt or trying to secure retirement. ● Cash bonuses both attract new talent and provide current assets with the push they need to take their work to the next level. ● Businesses of any size can offer cash bonuses if they commit to a program and get creative. In fact, cash bonusing can be a good way for start-ups and smaller companies to protect equity. ● In order to work as employee motivators and attractors, bonus programs must be grounded in practices, schedules, and KPIs that are clearly codified and administered as part of a transparent system.
Are you interested in learning more about how to effectively leverage cash bonuses at your business? Don’t miss our upcoming webinar:
There are many reasons why employee retention is one of the
most important considerations for your organization. Among these reasons, which
include employee satisfaction and team morale, the biggest reason—or at least
the easiest to measure—is cost.
And these costs also include the knowledge and experience
that an employee gained while at the company; a loss that will turn into a several
month-long learning curve for whoever replaces them.
Other reasons that employee retention should be carefully
considered are that the organization’s performance and reputation could suffer
with a lot of turnover, and that competition to hang on to top talent is
heating up in a country with the lowest unemployment rate in decades.
So how many people are actually leaving their jobs, and why?
What are the turnover costs for companies? And what can you do to revamp your
retention efforts?
Here’s what you need to know about why employee retention is
your best weapon in the war for talent.
Employee
retention stats
A BambooHR onboarding survey, which surveyed over 1,000 U.S.
employees, showed that 31%
of workers have left a job within the first
six months, and 68% of those workers have left within three. And data from the
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that since January 2019, every month
around 3.5
million employees have left their jobs voluntary. BLS
data from 2018 showed workers had been with their current employer for an average of
4.2 years.
The BLS also reported that workers in the baby boom
generation were found to hold an average of just under 12 jobs throughout his or her
lifetime, between ages 18 and 50. However, nearly half of the 12
jobs were held between ages 18 and 24. This means that younger workers are more
likely to shift more often, and so retention strategies should put emphasis on
what would appeal to this younger population.
Why
do employees leave?
It’s no surprise, really, that modern workers are hard to
retain. It’s easier now than it’s ever been to research a new company or
refresh a job board each and every day. With the endless resource that is the
Internet, workers are learning more about what’s fair and what isn’t, what they
could be getting paid versus what they are making.
But, the reason for the two-weeks’ notice has to stem from
something specific and not so broad as “I wanted something better.” So what
drives employees to leave?
The BambooHR survey mentioned above also reported the top
three reasons that surveyed employees left their positions within the first six
months:
They were no longer interested in
the work (28%)
Their jobs were not what they had
expected in the interview (26%)
They didn’t like their boss (23%)
This feedback shows that an important part of a new job is
transparency: if the work was nothing like what was described, employees aren’t
going to feel great about that. If they deal with a rude manager, that’s
another red flag. And when it’s only been a few months, they may feel less
inclined to stick it out—they are less attached or invested in the company at
this point than they would be years in.
As SHRM points out, other reasons that employees leave are because they found a better, more competitive alternative (perhaps a company that provides more benefits or higher salaries); they had a “predetermined plan” to quit because of life circumstances, such as going to get a degree or having a family; or they had a frustrating experience that led them to act on impulse. An example of the latter could be that they didn’t receive a promotion or raise when they thought they deserved it.
In addition, a survey from America’s Health Insurance Plan (AHIP) showed that 56% of respondents said health coverage was a key factor in whether or not they stayed at their current job. According to a SHRM survey, 92% of employees said that benefits remain important to their job satisfaction, and that 29% of employees cited their benefits package as one of the top reasons to look for another position within the next year.
The cost of turnover
The average cost per hire is over $4,000, according to a study from the SHRM, and it takes 42 days on average to fill a given position. Whether or not that number would be much higher or lower for your company, there’s no arguing that costs are substantial. In addition to these financial setbacks, there’s no one in the role doing the work, putting strain on your other employees.
Also keep
in mind that those covering the work while a position is being filled may
expect to be compensated for the extra work, adding to the costs even more. So
needless to say, turnover is not only frustrating, reputation-hurting, and
time-consuming, it’s also expensive.
How to revamp your employee
retention strategy
To win the
war for talent that’s currently going on in the U.S., it’s time to revamp your
retention strategy. Based on the common reasons people leave their jobs above,
consider these methods:
1. Clearly communicate job duties
and expectations
As already
mentioned, it can be upsetting or surprising to a new hire if the duties
discussed in the interview were not accurate to the job they suddenly find
themselves in. This is why it’s not always enough for an HR rep to do the
interview and why a manager or colleague who will have similar duties should be
engaged in the candidate-seeking process.
2. Update your benefits package
Because workers hold health and other benefits as a top priority in their decision to stay at their jobs, 85% of HR professionals say that they use benefits as a strategic tool to positively impact recruitment and retention, according to an SHRM benefits survey. For example, new trends include updates to parental benefits, such as maternity and paternity leave and adoption leave.
But
another part of updating your employee benefits is about work-life balance.
Modern employees look for jobs with flexibility offerings, such as working from
home or different working hours. These considerations are especially important
when catering to the younger generations, who value workplace culture and
flexibility.
According
to the Deloitte Global Millennial Survey
2019, half of
millennials surveyed said that they would consider working in the gig economy.
This lifestyle appealed to them because of the chance to earn more money (58%),
to work their own hours (41%) or to achieve better work/life balance (37%).
3. Encourage position transfers
within the company
Another
smart move to better retain and satisfy employees is to discuss their end goals
and their satisfaction in their current roles, and encourage them to look into
other departments if they’re not happy. Some companies are implementing this
idea into their policies and procedures, so employees can easily look at their
handbook and find out if this is an option.
4. Talk about pay equality and
diversity
Pay
equality and diversity are two hot topics in today’s workplace culture. Young
employees want to know that they’re being compensated for their hard work and
dedication, and it will be easy for them to tell if decisions like wage range
is based on discriminatory factors.
If this
hasn’t been a focus yet for your company, start by offering trainings or
seminars where employees can learn or share. Express your commitment to these
issues so that employees know you’re thinking about it.
5. Ask for feedback
Another
tried-and-true way to get inside the heads of your employees is to simply ask
them. Don’t try to guess how happy they are or how satisfied they are with
their work or department. Implement employee surveys that are anonymous so they
feel comfortable sharing. Hold discussions where employees can provide their
opinions, thoughts, and feelings about the company and what could be improved.
It also
can’t hurt to introduce new perks in the office, like a Friday lunchtime game
or regular outings after work. These opportunities for interaction can help
leaders become aware of issues or successes.
Key takeaways
Retention
is key with the current dips in the unemployment rate, which are only getting
lower. You need to create a retention plan that addresses real concerns that
your employees are having.
Remember
to:
Clearly
communicate expectations during interviews and throughout the candidate-seeking
process.
Update
your benefits package (including work-life balance and flexibility benefits)
regularly, based on what your workforce cares about.
Encourage
position transfers within the company.
Discuss
and address pay equality and diversity concerns that arise all the time in
modern workplaces.
Involve
employees in decision-making so that you can take their feedback into account.
These strategies will help you to stand out from competitors and retain quality talent. Make sure you give these considerations due care, and your overall workplace environment will improve (not to mention you’ll save on the high costs of filling positions that experience turnover regularly).
An effective employee benefits broker is an extremely useful
ally in your HR efforts. Employees fuel business growth and success, so it’s
important for growing businesses to take care of their employees’ needs in
order to attract, retain, and engage the best possible talent. Employee
benefits are not just one of your largest expenses, they are also one of your
biggest tools in maximizing the human potential of your business. And benefits
brokers can bring much-needed experience, expertise, and connections to your
efforts to craft and maintain an effective employment brand.
However, not all benefits brokers or insurance brokers are
created equal and many effective collaborations can become neglected over time.
So how can you tell if your benefits broker is still the right partner for your
business or if you need to start taking them to task or finding an alternative?
Let’s walk through five questions that will help you clarify matters:
Is your employee benefits broker maximizing impact
as well as minimizing cost?
Are they reviewing and updating your benefits?
Does your benefits broker operate on the employee
level?
Is your broker streamlining enrollment?
Do they offer the latest technology?
Is Your Employee Benefits
Broker Maximizing Impact as Well as Minimizing Cost?
A good employee benefits broker will not only minimize your
benefits expenses but also make sure that the money that you do spend is well
spent. While brokers can reduce your costs significantly, benefits remain
25-40% of most companies’ payroll. Instead of treating this expense as a
necessary evil, an effective benefits broker will help you maximize your
return-on-investment.
Benefits brokers can reduce your benefits expenses by
negotiating better rates with carriers and providers as well as helping you
identify waste and develop more effective processes. For instance, they can cut
down on your prescription drug costs by implementing a telemedicine solution, exploring
level or self-funding options, or creating a custom mix of plan designs. And
they can save on overall healthcare expenses by working with you to develop an
effective tiered insurance structure that allows employees to opt into low-cost
plans or comprehensive plans at their own expense. If your broker is working
hard to reduce your costs, then that is a very good sign.
But, as we’ve said, minimizing costs is only part of the
picture. The best benefits brokers will also serve as employee benefits
consultants and advise you on how to strategically invest in your employee
benefits. It is just as important for your benefits to have the greatest
possible impact for your employees for the given cost as it is to keep that
cost in control. So, a good broker won’t just talk about your bottom line, they
will also keep the focus on employee health, wellbeing, and happiness.
And there’s plenty of reason to maximize your impact beyond
wanting the best for your employees. According to Aflac surveys, 80% of employees believe that
their benefits package influences their engagement in their jobs. Plus, most
employees surveyed said they were likely to accept a job with lower
compensation and better benefits. So, benefits are crucial to any efforts to
attract top talent as well as maximize employee productivity and retention.
Are They Reviewing and
Updating Your Benefits?
The best employee benefits brokers don’t just help you craft a
benefits package and then call it a day. Instead, they serve as employee
benefits advisors or benefits consultants, guiding you through your employee
benefits journey year after year and constantly working to keep your benefits
offerings up-to-date. Your benefits needs will inevitably change as the market
shifts, your company grows, and your employee demographics change. New benefits
will become available, existing benefits will become outdated, and structures
that worked for your startup won’t do as well for your larger, established
company. Not to mention, your employees will get older, or you will welcome a
new cohort of younger talent, and their needs will change.
Which is all to say that it is highly unlikely that the same
benefits package or strategy will be the right choice for your business for
years on end. So, it’s not a great sign if you haven’t seen a noticeable
difference in your package for 3-5 years, or your broker hasn’t been
communicating new options. If you find yourself in this situation, then odds
are you’ve become a “safe” account for your broker and they have started taking
you for granted. In which case it is probably time to prompt them to reexamine
your benefits strategy or start looking for a more proactive partner.
But if your broker regularly notifies you of new options and
consistently works with you to review your benefits package to see if it is
performing well and still meets your needs, then they may be a keeper.
Does Your Benefits Broker Operate
on the Employee Level?
All too many benefits brokers are happy to help their clients
set up employee benefits packages and then walk away, leaving the employer to
manage the roll-out and maintenance of the package as well as convince its
employees of the package’s merits. A good benefits broker will see each and
every one of your employees as their clients, rather than appealing to just
your company’s C-Suite or board.
Your broker should be a benefits advisor, evangelist, and
educator for your employees at every level of the company. First, they should
teach your HR professionals and managers how to work the benefits systems,
communicate plan details and advantages to the rest of the team, and how to
field employee questions. This training should be accompanied by educational
materials and resources to give them the tools they need to guide the rest of
the employees. Their goal should be to create the best possible experience for
your employees and help everyone on the team become a better consumer of
healthcare.
Next, your benefits broker should work on the individual
employee level through educational seminars, Q&A sessions, and other forms
of direct communication. These programs should serve two different purposes.
First, they should help employees understand how to navigate the benefits
package and make the most of the benefits offered. Second, they should impress
upon employees the value of the benefits in order to maximize the impact that
your benefits have on employee retention and engagement.
Be on the lookout to avoid a broker that just wants to deal
with you and does not want to work directly with your HR team, operational managers,
and/or front-line employees. And if your broker takes this approach and is
unwilling to change course, then perhaps it’s time to start shopping around.
Is Your Benefits Broker
Streamlining Enrollment?
Enrolling employees in benefits and health insurance can
become the bane of an HR professional’s existence. Since a large part of your
benefits broker’s responsibilities involves serving as your insurance broker,
they should be an integral part of enrollment as well. An effective, proactive
broker will work with you to streamline enrollment and avoid HR headaches.
The first thing that a great benefits broker will do is help
you establish effective enrollment processes. This includes enrollment tracking
and compliance record-keeping in addition to the systems used to actually
enroll employees in health insurance. Ideally, they will provide or support existing
enrollment software solutions that centralize your data and make enrollment
easy for employees and HR teams alike.
The next thing that employee benefits brokers should do is
prepare employees for enrollment by providing educational resources. They should
create easy to digest reference materials explaining plan structure and
enrollment processes and hold open meetings explaining your benefits package
year-round. They can also help you create a benefits newsletter to regularly
update employees on your benefits package and keep your HR team apprised of any
changes in benefits or procedures. And when open enrollment time comes around
again, your broker should be available to answer any questions that employees,
managers, and HR professionals might have.
Do they Offer the Latest
Technology?
Technology is changing rapidly in today’s market. New tools
are constantly being developed to make things easier for your HR team and for
your employees, and to provide added benefits to employees. Innovation fuels industry
in today’s economy and that is just as true in benefits and HR. New benefits
technology will help you stand out from the crowd to attract the best possible
talent and keep your employees satisfied with their benefits.
And if the only reason you know about new benefits technology
is because of your own research or conversations you’ve had with your peers,
then your employee benefits broker isn’t doing their job. An effective benefits
broker will stay on top of the newest technology and help their clients figure
out what is useful and what is just trendy. And ideally, benefits brokers will
have established relationships with the companies that are developing benefits
technology so that you get access to truly innovative solutions.
It’s generally worth your while to find out if your benefits
broker provides enrollment software, telemedicine options, HR and benefits
automation platforms, and other benefits technology. If you have to go digging
for these solutions, then they may not be the broker for you.
Key Takeaways
Many companies work with the same employee benefits broker for
years. Sometimes that is because they are collaborating closely on an ongoing
benefits strategy that keeps employer costs low, maximizes employee wellbeing,
and makes the HR team’s life easier. Other times, it is because of inertia and
lack of comparison. Hopefully, this article has given you a good idea of how to
tell which one you are and how to make the most of your benefits broker
relationship. Just remember to:
Think about what is best for your employees as
well as your budget – and make sure your broker takes the same approach.
Make sure that your broker is regularly updating
your benefits package and working with you to meet your changing benefits needs.
Partner with a broker who operates on the
employee level instead of just working with your leadership.
Enlist your broker in making open enrollment an
easier and more effective process.
Work with a broker who provides innovative
benefits technology.
Are you looking for a benefits broker who will be your partner
in every aspect of your benefits strategy and implementation? Launchways can
help you navigate the complicated world of employees benefits to create the
most value for your employees and make the most of every dollar spent. Find
out more.
