Employee Benefits Blog

Employee Handbook Basics

Understanding the basic fundamentals of employee handbooks can help keep employees on track while also keeping companies out of hot water. In this blog post we set out to answer questions such as why employers should have an employee handbook, what it should include, and why legal reviews are so critical.

Why Have An Employee Handbook?

The purpose of an employee handbook is to have one resource everyone in the company can go to for an explanation of the company policies. The handbook should record information on what the employer expects from the employees and what employees can expect from the employer. It is an easy-to-understand reference written to provide employees with answers to basic questions such as leave policies and more.

Today's legislative and administrative healthcare complexities only exacerbate the challenges most companies face when trying to market employee benefits to their workforces.

Let's face it, it's complicated (and boring) stuff. Just the thought of discussing medical, dental and vision insurance, not to mention disability coverage, life insurance, 401Ks and FSAs, usually has employees running for the exits (or at least checking their smartphones during the all-important Open Enrollment meeting).

Faced with this challenge, best-in-class employee communication practices really matter.

Our previous blog post focused solely on how employers can do a better job when it comes to branding their employee benefits programs.  This post and our free downloadable eBook provide specific and actionable advice on how to maximize employee communications planning, construction and timing. 

Upcoming Live Webcast: Required ACA Reporting - Minimum Essential Coverage (MEC) and Applicable Large Employer (ALE)

Employers need to take notice of two upcoming reporting requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), both of which go into effect in early 2016. The information gathering required to file these reports can be daunting, and penalties for non-compliance are $100 for each failure, up to $1.5 million. So join us for an updated discussion on required reporting for plan sponsors on forms under IRS Code Sections 6055 and 6056.

3 Great TED Talks in The Era of Choice & Consumer-Driven Healthcare (CDHC)

Initial indicators suggest that consumer-directed health plans are indeed succeeding on several fronts; primary care engagement is up, trips to the emergency room are down, health savings account (HSA) balances are rising, and most importantly, health care spending is falling by 5 to 14 percent. But there's a big roadblock to CDHC / CDHP adoption: rampant consumer confusion.

That was the chief point from Harry Gottlieb, during a keynote address last Wednesday at the Human Resource Executive Health and Benefits Leadership Conference.

At least two of the pitfalls with Consumer-Driven Health Care (CDHP) and Consumer-Driven Health Plans (CDHP) are the rampant growth in options and the fundamental belief that humans make intuitive, rational decisions. If only that were true!

So what can we do about it? Fortunately, there are a multitude of behavioral studies to help guide our understanding of this phenomenon, as well as lay out a roadmap for us to follow to facilitate better decision making.

Here are what we, as the JP Griffin Group, consider to be three of the most relevant, informative and actionable TED Talks on audience segmentation, behavioral economics and the cognitive limitations of humans when faced with choice.

#1) "Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce", by Malcolm Gladwell

Struggling to find the perfect medical plan and perfectly optimized employee benefits portfolio for your entire work force? This TED Talk makes the case that we are not one homogenous group of consumers, no matter what the category for consideration, be it coffee, soda, healthcare, financial services and even spaghetti sauce. The concept is presented in a highly entertaining fashion by one of the best storytellers of our day, Malcolm Gladwell, author of such best selling books as Outliers, The Tipping Point, Blink and other works that focus on the unpredictable things that people do in the course of their normal lives. Gladwell sets out to explain how a guy by the name of Howard Moskowitz reinvented tomato sauce – a challenge given to him by the Campbell Soup Company when he was asked to create the “perfect” sauce.

Three Branding Strategies for Your Employee Benefits

When we think about brands, we tend to think of strong global icons like Coke, Under Armour, Disney and BMW.  While it might seem odd to approach your employee benefits in the same manner, your employees are making a commitment of time and effort to learn about and participate in what programs you’re offering, so branding matters.

We’ve been posting all across social media for quite some time now, mostly adding commentary to breaking news and intriguing thought pieces on employee benefits.

But for years now we’ve been told by our clients, strategic partners and industry peers, that we really have an interesting approach to employee benefits – so much so that we needed to find ways to demonstrate this thought leadership to others.  So with that, we’ve entered the blogosphere.