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.

What Is a ‘Leased Employee,’ Anyway?

Confused about what exactly a “leased employee” is? Turns out a lot of people the IRS contacted were, too. The IRS’ Employee Plans Compliance Unit (EPCU) recently completed its study on the role of leased employees in retirement plans. When EPCU asked plan sponsors who used pension feature code “3F” on their Forms 5500 — […]

When EEOC Suggests Mediation, Should You Say ‘Yes’?

Schickman is a partner at Freeland Cooper & Foreman LLP in San Francisco. His remarks came at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium in Las Vegas. EEOC staffers have a lot of cases, and they want to get cases into their “resolved” file. Also, he adds, you often get some relief on document production and reporting […]

Star Performer Benefited Most from Being Fired

Today’s epinion comes from business and leadership blogger Dan Oswald (CEO of BLR) in a recent edition of The Oswald Letter. It might seem surprising, says Oswald, for a college football player to say being kicked off the team was the best thing a coach ever did for him—it wasn’t receiving a scholarship, which provided […]

9 Flexible-Benefit Guidance Challenges to Watch Out for in 2012

By Rich Glass. The IRS is hitting the ground running. Just a few days into 2012, we received Notice 2012-09, which addresses reporting health care coverage costs on Forms W-2. Following are a nine more things that Glass says we can expect from the federal government this year. Affordable Care Act (ACA), Part I: Health […]

Interesting COBRA Implications, and Silver Lining, Are in New W-2 Reporting Guidance

New guidance on a group health coverage reporting requirement raises some important issues regarding COBRA coverage and provides a silver lining for employers, who should be able to use their current COBRA premiums to determine the reportable cost of health coverage — making the new burden of this requirement a little easier to bear, according […]

The 9 Steps to Solving Pay Compression

Pay compression is particularly difficult to address in times of economic hardship, says Wudyka, but there are steps you can take to eliminate it. Wudyka is managing principal of Westminster Associates in Wrentham, Massachusetts. His tips came during a recent webinar sponsored by BLR. 1) Revisit/rebuild “grade structure.” The first thing we can do is […]

Airline Fee Unbundling Challenges Travel Managers

The airline industry is helping to shift more of the cost of business travel away from the booking phase — the stage at which costs can be managed most easily — to the trip itself when expenses are incurred on the fly. This creates challenges for corporate travel managers — and the federal government, which […]

The 9 Steps to Solving Pay Compression

In yesterday’s Advisor, consultant David Wudyka clarified the issues around pay compression; today, his 9 steps for curing it, plus an introduction to a timely webinar—How to Find and Fix the Pay Errors You Don’t Even Know You’re Making. Pay compression is particularly difficult to address in times of economic hardship, says Wudyka, but there […]