Open Enrollment: Benefit Options & Changes

It may seem a bit early to be talking about open enrollment. Actually this is around the time to really start reviewing your organizations goals and objectives. Why? to give you time to shop and compare the best benefit options to offer your employees. Our economy is struggling to make a positive comeback, but we cannot deny the fact that it is struggling. As a HR professionals it is our job to make sure we stay competitive in the market and to inform and encourage our employees to take an active role in selecting their benefits. Here are some things you can communicate to your employees.


Although the time varies, for most companies the that time of year again is approaching us swiftly... time to review and renew your insurance open enrollment health plan packet. All too often though, most don't take much time to really review what they need from their health plan enrollment packet so unfortunately, they don't always get the best coverage and cost out of their open enrollment health plan packet. It is very important to take some time during your insurance open enrollment window to make the right choices since it will determine the type of health care you will receive for the next year and how much you will pay for those choices.

Making the Right Choice During Your Insurance Open Enrollment Window is Crucial
If you don't make the right decision during your insurance open enrollment time, then for the most part you are stuck with your choices for the next year. Everyone's heath needs change regularly and therefore the health care choices should reflect those changes. Take for instance that you know you will have more prescription health costs this year than last. You may want to change your open enrollment health plan options to cover more prescription costs. Or, what if you are ready for a different doctor? You may want to make a change in your open enrollment health plan packet that enables you to use a wider variety of doctors.


Why Now is the Time
These choices are important not just because they will give you better health care in the coming year, but it is very important that you take the time during your insurance open enrollment window to make these choices since for the most part, you cannot change your health care plan after that window (most plans will only let you change your choices if you have a dramatic personal life change such as the birth of a child or divorce).


Changes to Look for and Things to Consider in Your Insurance Open Enrollment Packet
Now that you know it is important to take some extra time in planning your health care decisions in your insurance open enrollment packet, take the time to look at the following list of changes that you may see in your insurance open enrollment packet and some things you may want to consider when making your insurance open enrollment choices:

Changes You May See this Year in Your Insurance Open Enrollment Packet:

• Increase in Premiums
• Increase in Deductibles
• Increase in Co-Payment
• Addition of a Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Savings from Participation in a Health Survey (you agree to answer questions on your lifestyle and undergo various medical tests such as cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, and HIV screenings and for your participation you would get a small discount on your health insurance premiums)
• Co-Insurance for Prescription Drugs
• More Coverages for Preventative Health Care Costs (preventative health care is considered seeing your doctor on a regular basis and getting regular screeings for you and your choidren such as immunizations)
• Lower Premium Costs for Non-Smokers

5 Things You May Want to Consider When Making Your Insurance Open Enrollment Changes:
1. Determine if you want a plan that gives you a wide variety of choices in doctors. The more choices you have, usually the more expensive it is but for some, having a variety of doctors to work with is worth the extra cost.
2. Decide if you want to have to go through your primary doctor to see a specialist or if you want the freedom to go directly to a specialist. Again, more freedom means more costs.
3. Try to figure out what your prescription costs may be in the coming year. Health care choices in your insurance open enrollment packet will probably come with different prescription drug coverage options.
4. If you decide using a HSA or FSA is best for you, try to estimate what your health care costs will be for your whole family. Remember, non-prescription items such as pain relievers can also count towards your HSA.
5. Do you really need to lower your insurance costs? Then choose a choice in your insurance open enrollment packet that provides a higher co-pay and/or co-insurance. This is what you pay out-of-pocket. Only choose this option if you can afford the out-of-pocket amount without it being a hardship on your finances.

Stimulus and COBRA

I still have been receiving a lot of questions in regards to COBRA and the stimulus plan. Read below this will clarify some of your questions.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009, is a $787 billion stimulus bill. One of the many provisions of the bill is to directly provide relief to millions on the COBRA plan or ex-employees who need COBRA coverage. This "COBRA stimulus plan" will provide enrollees a COBRA premium subsidy along with providing COBRA benefits to ex-employees who denied coverage.

First, What Is COBRA
Before we learn more about the COBRA stimulus plan, let's start with explaining a bit about COBRA. The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, otherwise known as COBRA, was put into law in 1985 to help workers who lost their job continue their health insurance. Basically, it gave the ex-employee the ability to continue their employer sponsored health insurance plan. The insurance stayed the same but the entire premium was to be paid by the ex-employee.

COBRA and the Stimulus Plan = Reduced Premiums
The COBRA stimulus plan basically has two parts. In the first part, The COBRA stimulus plan will be able to step in and help struggling families trying to pay their COBRA benefits. People who are currently enrolled in the COBRA plan will get a 65% reduction in their premium costs. This will be a huge savings to many families struggling to keep their COBRA benefits.

The Ability to Re-Enroll into COBRA
The second part of the COBRA stimulus plan will provide recently unemployed people the ability to re-enroll into the COBRA plan, even if they had denied coverage in the past. This will help a great amount of people who choose not to continue their health insurance through COBRA because they just could not afford it.

9 Key Details about the COBRA Stimulus Plan
1. Valid for people who were involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008 and December 31, 2009
2. To be eligible annual income cannot exceed $125,000 for a single person and $250,000 for a couples
3. 65% of existing COBRA premiums will be subsidized by the U.S. Treasury Department
4. Subsidies will be available for up to 9 months
5. If you declined COBRA coverage after September 1, 2008 you will have the option to re-enroll into COBRA with the above subsides
6. Notices of the COBRA subsidies and re-enrollment information will be sent from the COBRA administrator (usually your previous employer)
7. Subsidies will be paid, via a refundable tax credit, directly to the COBRA administrators
8. Subsidies will terminate if the enrollee acquires a new health insurance plan through another employer or is eligible for Medicare
9. Subsidies will only apply to COBRA premiums paid after the effective date of February 17, 2009 and there will be no refund of premiums prior to this date

Prepare for Your Review

It's that time again…….. annual performance review.

Employees: here are some tips for getting the most out of it.

Be Serious: This is your change to communicate with you manager about your importance to the team. Take advantage. The way you handle your review is evidence for or against your professionalism and maturity.

Be Prepared: have the proper forms, ask for examples if you need one. Do a self-evaluation highlighting your accomplishments during the year, areas where you struggled, your goals for next year, and your thoughts about your development needs.

Seek Clarity: If you receive feedback that doesn’t make sense or major goals that aren’t clear, speak up. It’s critical that you don’t leave confused, because your manager will expect you to begin thinking about (if not acting on) the suggestions right away.

Learn. After the reveiw you should have some new knowledge about your company, your job description, your team’s goals, and your manager’s likes and dislikes. Take a half-hour after your meeting and put that learning in the vault via an e-mail to yourself. Your review should be more significant than an exchange of forms and a few more bucks in your paycheck. It’s a development exercise, and the beneficiary is you.

Don’t Ask for a Raise. If the company has a standard increase amount don’t ask for a higher one. You will have ample time after the review to prove yourself for an increase. Managers often budget next year's salaries months ahead of time and only deliver the Remember your department has a budget.

Don’t Be Unrealistic. You are not perfect. Be honest evaluate yourself honestly.

Don’t Play Blame It On…. It is easy and tempting to say “I didn’t finish my work because they didn’t finish there work”. However, this should have been communicated prior to your review. Be responsible and take an active roll in your career path all year long.

Don’t Go Round for Round. This is not the time to debate. This is the time to present facts, learn and grow. Remember you and your manager may not agree on everything. Use this time to improve and be strengthen it will take you farther in the long run.

Managers. here are some tips for conducting the reveiws.

Start Early. Your goal is to think through each employee’s performance review ahead of time. Try to give yourself two weeks.

Annual Review not Recent Review. Don’t overemphasize recent events and de-emphasize earlier. If an employee previously shined in his job and has lately had more trouble, the annual performance review should address both periods

Verify Your Data. Get the facts and details before speaking on specific situations.Focus on Work. Look at the employee’s work. This is not the time to look at the employee’s outside of work behaviors, even if it has affected their work. Those situations should have been addressed prior to the review. Remember, you are to manage and lead your team all year round.Explain to them Their Raise. Employees want to really understand why their raise is what it is, and how theirs compares to the group salary increases overall.

Don't Compare. You can give the employee advice or refer the employee to another employee within your department or organization. Just do not compare them to the person. Each employee is their own individual. Keep in mind the EEO laws and regulations along with the company’s business objectives.

Don't Dominate. Allow the employee to do most of the talking. This is his or her moment. This is your time to evaluate and lead your employee to reach his or her full potential. This is the time where you find out their likes and dislikes and how they do or do not fit within the team.

Don't Be Afraid. It’s really hard to give tough feedback but necessary. You have the right to address real problems and concerns. However, once you lay out the tough feedback, don’t keep talking just to ease the awkwardness of the moment. Clamp your lips together and allow the employee to respond

Ask for Help. Have HR review each evaluation before it’s delivered. A careful edit will let you know where you’re being too harsh, too soft, or just confusing, and help you make the most of your annual one-on-ones.

Diverse Corporations are Lasting Corporations

Diversity is the combination of qualities, experiences and work styles that make individuals unique—age, race, religion, disabilities, ethnicity, etc.—as well as how organizations can leverage those qualities in support of business objectives. Organizations with greater diversity have at their disposable full range of ideas, perspectives, definitions and approaches.

All organizations leadership should be trained in diversity, not one, not twice but annually. Diversity is key in flourishing and expanding business. If you ever lookup the word Diversity you will find many definitions. In simple forms diversity is the similarities and differences between people. Which include but are not limited to the following:

• Age
• Color
• Disability
• Education
• Ethnicity
• Family Status
• Gender
• Generation
• Language
• Backgrounds
• Life Experiences
• Organization function and level
• Lifestyle
• Physical characteristics
• Race
• Religion, belief and spirituality
• Sexual orientation
• Thought patterns

Diversity is the potential for greater innovation and creativity. Organizations have realized over time that this is a business benefit. People from diverse backgrounds come together to communicate and work, and understand each others’ needs and perspectives.
Let’s not forget about the EEO laws and regulations. In the US the legal framework for EEO began in the 1960s with the Equal Pay Act of 1963, then the Civil Rights Act of 1964. EEO concerns fairness and equality of treatment for specific designated protected classes as defined by law. EEO means that the employer gives equal consideration for a job and in terms and conditions of employment to all individuals, and that the employer does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, age, marital status, national origin, disability or sex.

EEO is primarily matters of legal compliance, although it does help to create a workplace that is more supportive of all people and more diverse in terms of the specific included dimensions of diversity. Diversity and inclusion are aimed at realizing competitive advantage and business opportunity more so than following legal requirements and regulations.

Diversity relates to factors like sales, market share, profitability, corporate social responsibility and reputation. Effective diversity initiatives require starting, planning, speaking and acting solely from key business priorities. Increase your diversity efforts.

Sick...should I stay home or go to work?

Did we ever think that the day would come when employees would become fearful of calling in sick, when they are really sick? Well, that time is here.

Almost ½ the employees who responded to a recent SHRM poll said they went to work sick because ‘they felt they had to’. With our economy in it’s current states. Most Companies have had to layoff employees or offer early retirement.

These layoffs and early retirements affect us all, especially those of us who are left to pick up extra workload. When employees are sick I encourage them to take the time off they need to improve their health. Why? Because you will find that employees who are at work sick are less productive and spread their germs. I’d prefer to have one employee off for a couple days rather then three.

In recent times with the H1N1 ‘swine flu’ pandemic, everyone is taking precaution. However, we are still finding our that people are still reporting to work with the ‘flu’ like symptoms. Many organizations try to discourage working while sick they feel it’s a distraction. It is best for sick workers to stay away. Can you imagine if a corporation had to close down like the recent school closings? If a company had to close down for one day over someone reporting to work ignoring they are sick and have the ‘swine flu’ H1N1 like symptoms. Do you know the loss the corporation would incur? Anywhere from thousands to millions of dollars, in these economic times no corporation can afford that kind of a loss.

I have held several training classes developing managers to mean what they say. If you have a policy, enforce it, starting with yourself. You first must be a follower in order for others to follow. The session is a three-hour course that includes roll plays and reenactments of pass issues a manager may have faced. This course has increased employee morale and motivation, along with, employee and manager relationships.

More now than ever before, companies should begin looking into developing policies or a plan to cope with widespread employee illnesses according to CCH. Why? Disasters can put employees out of work anywhere for at least 2 weeks.But as the H1N1 “swine flu” virus spreads, it becomes even more critical. Outbreak occurs over a period of time up to one year and can affect different geographic areas. Organizations do not want to have to deal with a disaster and limited or lack of resources to perform tasks.

HR Professionals get your pens and papers out and map out a strategic plan, streamlined to assist in keeping your organization afloat during crisis, pandemics or disasters. For those employees who still insist on coming to work sick follow these rules to minimize spreading your germs.

• Cover your mouth and nose during coughing and sneezing.
• Wash your hands often with soap and warm water.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
• Stay home when you are sick. (not allergy symptoms)

HR here are few things you can do:

• Offers a flu-vaccination program.
• Encourage fellow employees who have sore throats, fevers, or other flu symptoms to go home.
• Offer 'live well' incentives. (Discounted gym memberships, health fairs, etc).