Employee's Perceptions of Benefits: Good or Bad

The results of a Fidelity Investments’ Consulting Services survey were posted on Talent Management on Monday. The survey dealt with perceptions employees have of the benefit packages their employees provide. The good news was that the "...study that found that 72 percent of people believe that the benefits they receive at work are better than or as good as what most other companies offer." The bad news was "...most feel the value of benefits has dropped, with 61 percent of workers reporting they are paying more for benefits, but getting less or the same as they did in 2007." Unfortunately employers are increasingly put between a rock and a hard place. (If you are not sure what this means click on the link) Omega HR Solutions, the company in which I am a partner, helps companies with their benefit programs. My partners are group health insurance experts. They constantly struggle with this issues of coverage, group experience, desired coverage, employee retention and COST. In many cases employers have to make choices between coverage or no-coverage or reducing the amount of coverage.

The article goes on to say "Most workers surveyed underestimate the employer cost of providing health insurance to employees. A majority (53 percent) believe their employers pay less than $5,000 annually per person to provide health insurance. In fact, health plans typically cost employers $5,000 to $15,000 per employee on an annual basis." If this describes your company you need to make sure you are communicating the cost of benefits. Many employees do not have any idea what their employer spends on them. It can be a big retention tool. It certainly makes it easier to explain why benefits may be reduced if employees understand the money crunch those benefits may cause an employer.

Another section of the study talked about the view that many workers have about the future of their benefits. "The study found almost half of American workers surveyed (48 percent) believe their benefits, including health insurance, retirement savings plans and pension plans, won’t be provided by their employer 10 years from now.
The study found that 30 percent of workers surveyed think they will be responsible for obtaining their own benefits by 2019, 18 percent think the government will provide benefits, 28 percent think employers will still provide benefits to their workers, and 24 percent are not sure. Yet, benefits are so critical to today’s employees that one out of four surveyed said they are working more to receive the accompanying benefits than to receive the income."

An interesting future view. I wonder what the mix will be? What do you think?

Pumping Up Your Employees: No Rah-Rah, Just Help With Gas

When you live in a metropolitan area like Atlanta, being in your car is just a way of life. Atlanta has a notorius commute and terrible traffic jams (and it seems people can't stop running into each other slowing things down even more.) In the past not many people really took mass transit or found alternatives to driving themselves to work everyday. However, with the price of gas rising the way it has people are looking at alternatives. The heavy traffic didn't make a difference, but now combine that with a heavy cost and you see people change. So here in Atlanta there has been an increase in ridership on MARTA buses and trains. There has been an increase in the use of van pools, car pooling, and even riding bikes and walking to work has increased. (I saw a guy the other day riding a bike who was so large you know he would not normally ride. But there he was, riding on busy street. I am sure he is hoping for the weight loss benefits that will come with it. I just hope he does not get run over in the process.)

Sometime however, an employee lives in one area and works in another which provide no main arteries, no public transportation nor any opportunity for ride sharing, or they have a job that requires them to drive during the work day. What then? Well there is an article entitled "Companies Help Employees Deal With Fuel Costs" in the May 20th issue of The Wall Street Journal. It talks about how some companies are increasing mileage rates or they are providing some pay supplement to help cover the cost of gas. One company provides an extra $50 in the paycheck. We at Omega HR Solutions did something similar and gave $50 gas cards to our employees who do not have the opportunity to work from home. And we do allow some people to work from home several times a week ( I do.)

Companies are also looking at reconfiguring sales territories. Those of us in sales/customer service that have to visit customers have looked seriously at our territories or combining calls. Some companies have started van pools or take advantage of other commuter resources such as the Commuter Club in Cobb County which helps businesses and individuals find alternative transportation solutions. One company in Phoenix pays 100% of the employee's fuel cost if they wrap their car in company advertizing.

So are you helping employees? Have you gotten creative with it? Tell us by leaving a comment on the blog so we can all learn.

FMLA Definately Needs To Be Cleared UP!

First let me admit I do not do any FMLA administration. My company is too small and most of my clients are as well. But I do get questions about it occasionally and as a knowledgeable HR professional I should know the answers. Well I got posed a question about the rolling year calculation and I was not sure of the answer, thought I knew but I was "iffy". So I posed the same question to a large group of contacts and got back an array of answers. So this indicates that ALOT of people don't know. I even used a help service and the answer they gave was not conclusive either. However, they gave me a link to an article that does give a definitive answer. You will find the link below.

First, here is the scenario. A company uses a "rolling year" calculation, as is recommended. An employee goes out on FMLA on Dec. 1, 2007 and is off the next 12 weeks, returning then around March 1st or so. The question is, when would this individual be then eligible for leave again? December 1, 2008 or March 1, 2009? The company's policy reads March 1. My answer was December 1. The answers from the group were divided.

Well, I am happy to say, my answer was correct, at least according to this article by the attorneys of Harper Gerlach PL. Here is the link to the article, which appeared in the Florida Employment Law Letter.

SHRM has alot of material available to members on the proposed FMLA regulations and on the front page of my company website, Omega HR Solutions , there is a link for the US DOL comment site. If you wish to comment on the proposed changes I would suggest you read this material.

FMLA obviously is, after 10 years, still a confusing and complicated law. With the changes that have occured with the addition of military provisions it has become even more complicated. So educate yourself!