News You Can Use: Final FMLA rules clarified

The DOL clarified new FMLA provisions today, the first since the law was enacted in 1993.

Read this Employee Benefit News Web Exclusive for details.

News You Can Use: Smaller employers share what works

Benefits communication and controlling health benefit costs were top of mind among HR-benefit managers from small and mid-size businesses who attended a peer networking session at Benefits Forum & Expo on Monday.

Benefits pros from organizations ranging from 30 to 2,000 employees voiced their problems and traded solutions and tips in the lively hour-long session. Here are some of the discussion highlights and takeaways were:

• Companies that survey their employees frequently, say once a quarter, reported a higher level of employee satisfaction and engagement. Surveys also help HR to cherry pick the best benefits for their population. “We found out they value health benefits, but they value dental benefits in a whole different way,” said one manager. “We were going to cut dental, but not now.”

• Continuous communication is the key to getting employees to understand and appreciate their benefits. Many participants have a “benefit or benefit tip of the month” that’s promoted in monthly newsletters, payroll stuffers and management meetings with employees. To encourage employees to read newsletters, one pro “burys” the chance to win a free lunch within the text.

• Don’t expect employees to read benefits booklets. Utilize postcards with bullet items covering the key benefit points and “at a glance” benefit wallet cards in addition to or instead of longer communication pieces.

• Simplify the rollout of a new health plan by automatically mapping employees into the various plan choices based on their prior year’s selections. Employees were told to act only if they disagreed. Few did.

• Mail-order prescription plans are huge money savers for employers and employees. Use incentives or penalties to get employees to switch to mail order, but check state laws on the latter.

• Monitor beneficiary eligibility, even if you have to use an outside firm. One company saved $150,000 in one-year by removing non-eligible dependents from its plans—more than the cost of the data “scrub.”

News You Can Use: Easing employees’ market jitters

The market is in turmoil with no end in sight, which no doubt is raising questions and anxiety among employees.

If you don’t send routine communications to your employees (clients) on the health of your (their) retirement plan, now is a good time to consider doing so. An example of a great communications piece is an e-mail sent this week by Reliance Trust Company, a custodian to some 15,000 401(k) plans.

Entitled “A view of the current market – where we are, what we are doing and what we think,” the memo to clients and Reliance employees recaps the market situation in the wake of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, details the company’s response and offers advice to investors on what to do now.

“In a turbulent market, it’s good to periodically speak out on what’s going on and why you think it’s going on,” says Tony Greene, Reliance’s senior vice president. “The communication today directly addressed people’s biggest concern – the Lehman failure – and the global concerns people may have about general market movement. We also [underscored] that these types of times are why in good times you do balance portfolio strategies.”

While Greene acknowledges that plan sponsors’ communication philosophies differ, he sums up Reliance’s this way: “We think it’s better to tell people what’s going on, why you think it’s happening, and what the impact may be. It’s always good to communicate where you are and why decision made.”

News You Can Use: Breaking the salary talk taboo

Should salaries be public? The issue won’t be moot, if a new Web site has its way.

While salary ranges have been available for some time on the Internet, Glassdoor.com, launched in June, now makes it possible for employees to post their salaries for the world to see. The site lists some 88,000 salaries at 11,000 companies in 90 countries, according to an article in yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor.

It's a level of transparency that hasn't existed before, so it's initially uncomfortable," Robert Hohman, CEO of Glassdoor, told the Monitor. "But it's empowering. Being paid fairly for our work affects us emotionally, and having that income affects our life.”

Some companies already make employee salaries public. Is this the way to ensure fairness in the workplace? Does salary transparency serve as an incentive because people must live up to their level? Or does it only breed discontent? There often are other components to compensation; should they, too, be public?

Tell us what you think!

New s You Can Use: Want a bigger salary? Consider IT.

Despite the lagging job market, IT salaries are on the rise. BenefitNews.com Site Director Lynn Gresham explores this topic in today's Web Exclusive.