Category: Benefits and Compensation

This topic provides guidance on how to handle compensation issues in a way that attracts and retains the best talent and advances the strategic goals of your business. You get news and tips on what’s going on nationally and in the states, and updates on changes in regulations, possible governmental action, and emerging compensation trends.

Dependent Coverage Can Pose Challenges

Many, perhaps most, employers provide some coverage to employees’ dependents under the benefit plans they offer. But an employer needs to be careful when it does so. Many factors can complicate this coverage. Following are examples that highlight complicated situations that can arise for an employer that covers employees’ dependents and how an employer should address […]

Four Metrics ‘Gotchas’—Blindsided in the C-Suite

Greene, a member of the Ann Arbor, Michigan, office of the law firm Dykema Gossett, and director of the firm’s Employment Law Department, offered his tips at BLR’s recent Employment Law Update in Las Vegas. Gotcha #1. Different Interpretation of Results Say you have submitted statistics showing that retention has improved. Your stats are unassailable—checked […]

40 Metrics—And Not a One Interesting to Management

There is no single set of metrics that fits all companies, Greene says. You need to step back and find out what management really needs. You’re looking for a few strategic, relevant metrics, he says. Greene is a member of the Ann Arbor, Michigan, office of the law firm Dykema Gossett, and is director of […]

Can Companies Really Link Pay with Performance?

Parikh, who is director of product marketing at compensation software development company Callidus (www.calliduscloud.com), recently spoke to BLR on pay for performance. BLR: How well do companies really link pay with performance? Parikh: Companies basically end up spending about 8-10% of their gross revenue on variable compensation. That could be a very large amount of […]

Why Bother with Incentive Comp in Today’s Economy?

Perhaps at the beginning of 2008, says Parikh, director of product marketing at compensation software development company Callidus (www.calliduscloud.com), you developed your strategy for increasing productivity. Maybe you decided to expand incentive compensation to employees other than sales staff and executives; after all, the trend is toward more incentive compensation, rather than less. You set […]

What OFCCP Now Demands for Affirmative Action

Desmond, who is a partner in the New Orleans office of national employment law firm Jackson Lewis, made her comments at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium, held recently in Las Vegas. About Goals and Achievement Under OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs) rules, where the company’s representation of protected class members is significantly lower […]

OFCCP Demands Detailed Compensation Analysis in Virtually

Remember, says Desmond, who is a partner in the New Orleans office of national employment law firm Jackson Lewis, OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs) does not enforce a law but an executive order. So, if you don’t want to do business with the government, you don’t have to comply. Desmond’s comments came at […]

HHS Touts the Progress of No More Limits Under Health Care Reform

Approximately 105 million Americans now have health coverage without lifetime limits on benefits — including 95 million individuals with employer-sponsored health coverage — due to health care reform requirements, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Affordable Care Act prohibits health plans renewing on or after […]

‘Reasonable Interest Rate’ Debate Continues

Employers and plan administrators will be better able to administer plan loans and meet the prohibited transaction exemption, since the IRS has given them a clearer picture of what constitutes a “reasonable rate of interest.” The IRS has provided this assistance in guidance it published in the Winter 2012 edition of its “Retirement News for […]