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.

‘Renewal Rodeo’ Helps Round Up Volunteers for HR Initiative

While donning cowboy hats, boots, and bandanas, and ringing cow bells and playing country music on boom boxes, managers walked through Benefitfocus® offices “rounding up” volunteers to provide support services during an upcoming Open Enrollment period. Business Objectives Met Benefitfocus (www.benefitfocus.com), a Charleston, South Carolina-based company that is the largest healthcare benefits software provider in […]

Healthcare Reform Leaves a Lot to the Imagination

Read any good books lately? Here’s a suggestion: You might want to read the 2,700+ page tome, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly known as healthcare reform. Even better, part two—tentatively titled The Regulations—is likely to be released over the next several years, allowing you plenty of material to peruse as you relax […]

Behavioral Finance and Your 401(k) Plan

Ever made a poor financial decision? If you’re like the rest of us, you occasionally make a decision that baffles even you. You may sometimes wonder why your employees don’t do things, like participating in the 401(k) plan, that are obvious ways to improve their financial well-being. Sheri Fitts, director of Communications and Large Plan […]

Firm Aligns Its Benefits Program With Family-Friendly Culture

Healthpoint, Ltd., has created a family-friendly culture throughout the years by encouraging employees to bring their spouses to holiday parties, their families to an annual spring picnic, and their children to “Take Your Sons and Daughters to Work Day.”  “All of those things help build that overall culture,” says Micky Shepherd, manager, Compensation & Benefits, […]

Twitter: All You Need to Know

By Jennifer Benz, Benz Communications If you’re not yet using Twitter, you may think the ubiquitous site—that asks “what are you doing?” and gives you only 140 characters to answer—is just a bunch of nonsense and online noise. But, before you dismiss Twitter as just an Ashton Kutcher—and Oprah Winfrey-inspired fad, read on to learn […]

Recession Reveals Gaps In Financial Planning

As providers of financial education, Financial Finesse (www.financialfinesse.com) experts are in tune with real world economics. The recession of the last 2 years has, of course, impacted large, faceless corporations. But we have all felt a decided ‘trickle down’ impact. Even those who are still employed are not immune from the stress and worry that […]

The Quiet Crisis: Disability Insurance ‘Coverage Gaps’ for Executives

by David Kates, Lenox Advisors Employee benefits professionals should be aware that while their company’s top executives are well protected via their life insurance coverage and retirement plans, these same executives could be woefully exposed in their disability insurance coverage. Often, a company’s top earners have coverage that isn’t up to the task of protecting […]

Compliance Issues Loom Large for Plan Sponsors

As you’ve perused coverage of the new requirements placed on 403(b) plans, you may have experienced mixed feelings. Even though the requirements to maintain a written plan document and to file a Form 5500 are no more burdensome than those placed on sponsors of other qualified plans, 403(b) plan sponsors are starting from a deficit […]

What Makes Sense for Your Health Care?

With so much discussion surrounding health care of late, it’s important to know what current options are available to ensure that you as an employer are selecting the best coverage for your business and its employees. With more and more frequency, employers are leaning toward a Consumer-Driven Healthcare Plan (CDHP)—a plan in which employee/consumer behavior […]

Company Cabins Provide Opportunities For Affordable Family Getaways

For many employees, there’s nothing like a week in the mountains to spend time with their family and recharge—especially when the vacation is on the company’s tab. For nearly half a century, Freese and Nichols, Inc., (www.freese.com) has owned a cabin in Red River, New Mexico, and made it available to employees to use for […]