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.

Organizational Development? Start with the Janitor, says Al Gore

Challenge # 4: Organization Development [Go here for challenges 1 to 3.] Gore worked on the "reinventing government" program at the country’s largest employer, the US Government. He says the key to finding better ways of doing things is to start at the bottom. His teams met first with the janitors and worked their way […]

Leopard Teams Are $800 Million Better than Layoffs

Leopard Teams Gore was followed by Wayne Cascio, winner of the Michael R. Losey Human Resource Research reward, who related to the Advisor a story of "responsible restructuring." He says that in his research he found that when faced with financial challenges, CEOs tend to fall into one of two camps: One group says, "What […]

DOL Survey to Analyze COBRA Premium Subsidy Up-take

To fill in the knowledge gaps on how many individuals enrolled in the COBRA premium subsidy program — data that will be helpful in determining the program’s cost-effectiveness, who best benefited from the subsidy and how to target similar programs — the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) plans to sponsor a study sometime in 2012. […]

6 Health Reform Issues Loom over Plan Sponsors in 2012

After so much ink spilled and heartache over health reform, plan sponsors might think the dust has settled and say: “The coast is clear. We can come out of hiding.” But if you thought that all this effort has totally clarified health reform (and if you think you know just what to do to comply), […]

Terminations: ‘Maybe’ Involve HR? No, Always Involve HR

Consulting with HR before any termination should be an absolute. And not just to help with the firing itself; HR needs to be involved long before that. What sorts of things can go wrong when HR’s not involved in the decision to terminate? Let’s list a few of the expensive problems that can crop up: […]

COBRA’s Top 10: Law Used as Poster Child for the Problems With Government Jargon

It’s no surprise to most health plan administrators that the federal law on COBRA continuation coverage was used in a recent newspaper article as an example of “bureaucratic legalese.” In recounting efforts to push the “government to speak plainly,” the Dec. 2 Washington Post article said: If you want to understand Americans’ frustration with Washington, […]

EBSA Proposes Change to MEWA Form 5500 Reporting Requirements

Employers and plan administrators with multiple employer welfare arrangements (MEWAs) that had not been required to file a Form 5500 for their MEWA may have to if  a proposal by the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is adopted. EBSA on Dec. 6 published a proposed revision to Section 2520 of the […]

Performance Reviews—Tool Bosses Use to Justify Pay

Culbert, author of Get Rid of the Performance Review!, is a consultant and professor at UCLA. To achieve the best results for the organization, Culbert recommends that all managers and supervisors: Help subordinates see that the boss understands their perspective. Too many managers, helped along by rigid performance review processes, frame situations on the basis […]

Put the Performance Review Out of Its Misery

Culbert, a professor of management at UCLA, goes on to say that the performance review is "a pretentious, bogus practice that produces absolutely nothing that any thinking executive should call a corporate plus." In Culbert’s book, Get Rid of the Performance Review!, he advocates instead the performance preview, which he says will actually accomplish what […]

Simple Chart System Tracks Stacked FMLA Leaves

Here is a suggested charting system for tracking multiple leaves, says Southard, who is the founder of leave management firm Work & Well, and is principal of Southard Consulting in Somerville, NJ. Her remarks came at SHRM’s Annual Conference & Exposition, held recently in Las Vegas. FMLA Tracking Scenario #1 The facts: A Wisconsin employee […]