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.

When Your Hammer Is Your Screwdriver—Talent Management

To do that, sometimes you have to use a hammer as a screwdriver, he says. Katz made his comments at BLR’s Strategic Leadership HR Summit, held recently in Scottsdale, Arizona. Katz is president of Penguin Human Resource Consulting LLC. When Is a Hammer a Screwdriver? Katz shows a picture of a hammer and asks, “What’s […]

Bad Press for Ending COBRA Due to 26 Cents Premium Shortfall Shows Need to Know the Rules

COBRA’s premium payment rules took center stage Aug. 12, when the “Bamboozled” column in the New Jersey Star-Ledger reported that a qualified beneficiary with leukemia had his coverage terminated early because his premium payment was 26 cents short. The story had a happy ending, but employers and their service providers can avoid being the villains […]

Ex-wives’ Access to QDRO Benefits Upheld in 2 Rulings

  Handling qualified domestic relations orders can be difficult in the best of times for retirement plan administrators. However, when a divorced participant or beneficiary seeks to change or maintain pension survivorship rights with a domestic relations order, determining the rightful beneficiary can become even more complex. Two recent federal court decisions indicate that case […]

Compensation & Benefits Top 10: Summer Wrap-Up

BLR’s 2013-2014 Pay Budget Survey Data: How Do You Compare? The nearly 700 participants in this year’s edition of BLR’s 2013–2014 Pay Budget Survey show 19.2% of employers awarding merit increases of up to 2.5% in 2013 and 42.7% awarding increases of more than 2.5%, with 3.6% awarding increases above 5% of base pay.   […]

Dr. Summeroff, Meet Dr. Winteroff and Dr. Deer (Readers Respond)

‘We Get Dr. Winteroff’ Steve, we often get Dr. Summeroff’s cousin, Dr. Winteroff to deal with. We have a sales group who often take leave immediately following a month when they have not met their sales goal because they know they will be placed on a performance plan when they have fallen short of their […]

UPS to Drop Dual-covered Spouses in 2014

United Parcel Service plans to remove thousands of spouses from its health plan because they are eligible for coverage elsewhere. The health care reform law requires large employers to offer coverage to employees and their dependents, but it does not require companies to cover spouses. Some 15,000 working spouses eligible for coverage at their own […]

‘Passiontivity’ Is Clue to Engagement and Motivation

Assessment Tool for Career Motivation Harrington offers the chart below as a way of assessing career motivation: You’d like to get people to high skill, high motivation jobs. If they are highly motivated with low skill, go for professional development. Low skill and low motivation suggest ending the relationship. Low motivation and high skill is […]

‘Hey, Boomers, We Want Your Jobs!’ (But Not Your Stress)

The problem is compounded, Harrington says, because although Gen Xers do want to move up to the Boomers’ jobs, they don’t want the stress that goes with the jobs. They also want work/life balance, and that creates a conflict. Harrington, founder and president of Purposeful Hire Inc., offered her tips at BLR’s Strategic HR Summit, […]

Adviser Identifies Ways Plan Sponsors Can Manage Fiduciary Risk

Although defined benefit pension plan sponsors have engaged investment managers for years, it’s only recently that defined contribution plan sponsors have begun exploring this option to limit liability risk for their fiduciary role. “Because employers want to avoid litigation, which could result in personal liability for investment committee members, many plan sponsors are seeking ways […]

CMS: Subsidy-seekers’ Income Will Be Verified

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services responded to doubts over whether health insurance exchanges (now formally referred to as “marketplaces”) would verify incomes consumers applying for health-insurance subsidies, which come in the form of: (1) advances on tax credits for premiums; and (2) reduced cost-sharing. Marketplaces will always use data from tax filings and […]