Practical HR Tips, News & Advice. Updated Daily.
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.
Typically, interference with an employee’s COBRA coverage rights raises legal claims under ERISA; however, employers should take heed that in some instances other federal laws are invoked. Recently, an employer was found to have violated federal labor law when it engaged in an unlawful lockout of union employees that included the cancellation of their health […]
Employer sponsors of health plans must count members in retiree-only plans and COBRA-eligible plans for purposes of paying into health reform’s Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Furthermore, employees covered under two or more “specified” policies can be counted (and taxed) more than once. The IRS final rule on employer payment of PCORI fees disregarded employer requests to exclude […]
Csizmar, who is founder and principal of CMC Compensation Group, offered his tips at a recent webinar sponsored by BLR. Start with your compensation strategy. Says Csizmar. You have to insure that what you recommend is in line with the company’s compensation philosophy. Take into account management bias. Yes, every company has biases, Csizmar says. […]
Here’s a reminder that for COBRA compliance purposes, small employers must count their employee population differently if they are under common control. Recently, an employer was sued for providing just three, rather than 18, months of COBRA coverage. Because it had a workforce of fewer than 20 employees, the employer tried to fend off those […]
Botwin, who is CEO of SPC (Strategy People Culture) Consulting in Florham Park, New Jersey, offers 14 signs of disengagement: Signs of Disengagement High turnover Lack of cooperation Lack of feedback Shaving of hours Absenteeism Quality less than capability Customer complaints High shrinkage Lack of pride/care in the business Lack of creativity and new ideas […]
Sometimes an employer may delay transfers of payroll deductions to employees’ retirement accounts. That’s a breach of fiduciary responsibility, but a recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts may offer them some comfort. Managing retirement plan administration can be a burden for busy small business owners who aren’t financial professionals. […]
Botwin, who is CEO of SPC (Strategy People Culture) Consulting, offered his engagement tips at BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium held recently in Las Vegas, Nevada. What Managers Think Employees Want In one study by the Labor Relations Institute of NY, managers selected, in order, the following as what employees most value: Good wages Job […]
Employers that sponsor health plans are bracing themselves for a significant tax hit under health reform. Health reform’s transitional reinsurance program, which will require insurers and self-funded plans to pay billions of dollars to partly reimburse commercial insurers writing individual policies for patients with very high medical costs, imposes large costs on employers to further […]
Show Me the Money Oswald, author of the Oswald Letter, suggests that HR can start by concentrating on three areas: turnover (see yesterday’s Advisor), productivity, and absence. Here’s how to present to him: Tell me how much your plan would save. Tell me how much your plan would cost. (That tells me what my ROI […]
An employer/plan administrator continues to get an expensive lesson on the risks of having both inadequate COBRA notice procedures and poor explanations of how those procedures work. An “inefficient, unwieldy” notice process — coupled with evasive and contradictory answers from employees on why a qualified beneficiary did not receive a COBRA election notice — led […]