Benefits Buzz

Telecommuting or Gas Vouchers for Employees? Either Way, Choose Soon for Retention...

We've riffed in the past couple of weeks regarding the benefits of telecommuting, and also chronicled the reaction of companies with workforces not suited for telecommuting (think production/manufacturing, retail, etc.) to provide gas vouchers/guarantees.

A new study by Beyond.com indicates that you might need to choose one or the other soon to maximize retention:

"20,000 respondents answered the following question - “What alternatives are you considering as a result of high gas prices affecting your commute to work?”

Here's the response breakdown....

79% - Find a job closer to home
13% - Telecommuting from home
6% - Public transportation or walking
2% - Carpooling with colleagues"

Looks like it might be time to get a game plan together.  It will be interesting to see if any of the companies providing compensation for gas will be able to point to ROI from the plan.

My big question - if you provide compensation for gas, when does that end?  Doesn't that become an entitlement on day 2? 

Start a telecommuting program if you can....

Dropping Labor Day for Muslim Holiday? The Case for Floating Holidays....

A Tyson plant in Tennessee has decided to offer the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr -- which marks the end of Ramadan -- as a paid holiday instead of Labor Day.  Almost 700 of the plant's 1,200 employees are Muslim.  Somehow, I think this is going to be an emotional one...

More details from MSNBC:

"Workers at the Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day but will instead be granted the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. According to a news release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, a new five-year contract at the plant included the change to accommodate Muslim workers at the plant.

Tyson's director of media relations Gary Mickelson said the contract includes eight paid holidays -- the same number as the old contract.

Eid al-Fitr -- which falls on Oct. 1 this year -- marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.  Union leaders said implementing the holiday was important for the nearly 700 Muslims, many of them Somalis, who work at the plant that employs a total of 1,200 people.

Nineteen-year plant veteran William Pentecost doesn't agree with the decision. "I don't think it's right. I really don't think it's right," he said.

Tyson company spokeswoman Libby Lawson said by phone that, "This isn't a religious accommodation, this is a contractual agreement. The majority asked for it."   The change didn't bother some workers.

"I think it's fine. I don't have any problem with it. There's a whole bunch of them here, so they've got to do something for them," said worker John Smith.   Nineteen-year plant veteran William Pentecost doesn't agree with the decision.  "It shouldn't happen. I mean, I think, we're in America, you're in America, I think that they should go with our holidays," Pentecost said."

Lots of stuff imbedded in this one.  America, religion, etc.  For most work locations, the standard operating procedure of Amercian and Christian holidays satisfies the majority.  When that's challenged or no longer makes sense in a mutil-cultural environment, doesn't it make sense to move a large portion of the fixed holidays into floating holidays to offer employees the flexibillity to identify the days most important to them to be away from work?

Just thinking out loud.  The other issue embedded in this one is workforce planning, in that the plant needs to know when they are going to shut down for full days to plan production. 

Is it ever easy?  The answer is most certainly no, but we'll see the standard idea of Christian holidays challenged more and more in the future, as the Amercian workforce continues to diversify. 

What's Next in Medical Costs - The On-Site Clinic Is Back...

With health care costs rising 7-9% each year, any HR person who thinks like a business owner is looking for ways to manage costs, if to do nothing but attempt to minimize the annual trend increase in costs. 

Big ideas from past years to help you do that.  Carve out your Rx plan to gain deeper discounts, wellness programs, call-in services like Tele-Doc to minimize the need for a primary care visit and the lost productivity that is part of that visit, etc.  What did I miss?  There are only a few tools, a few good ideas that can help you control costs without a drop in care.

So, what's next?  Would you believe the on-site doctor?  The situation with medical costs has now escalated to the point where it now makes sense to bring the doctor back on the campus of big companies.  Warning - if you don't have at least 1,000 employees at a location or in your company, this one isn't for you.

From Business Week:

"When a company unveils a new plan to rein in health-care costs, workers usually groan. Yet Toyota Motor (TM) is getting rave reviews for the on-site medical center it built at its truck factory in San Antonio. Ask line worker Louis Aguillon. He went to the clinic in May with nagging back pain, and paid just $5 for the visit. "I saw the doctor for 20 minutes," Aguillon beams. "You're not just a number there."

A recent study by benefits-consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide (WW) found that 32% of all employers with more than 1,000 workers either have an on-site medical center or plan to build one by 2009. "We're talking about a microcosm of health-care reform," says Hal Rosenbluth, president of Walgreen's health and wellness division. "Companies can take control and understand their health-care costs."

Managers of on-site centers such as Toyota's make a variety of bold claims. Rosenbluth says every dollar invested in setting up a clinic will return $3 to $5, even though on-site doctors spend an average of 20 minutes with each patient—more than double the national average for primary-care physicians. Some of the biggest savings are on referrals to specialists and visits to emergency rooms, where the financial burden falls mainly on the worker's employer. Peter Hotz, president of Take Care Employer Solutions, the on-site medical division of Walgreen, says the clinic-management companies Walgreen acquired refer 40% fewer patients to specialists, compared to the primary-care physicians who treated the workers previously. And emergency room visits are down 72% at companies where Take Care is managing medical facilities."

So that's the big trend for 2009.  If you're a small company?  Best you can do is a service like Tele-Doc, where your employees can phone in for a diagnosis, then get medication prescribed over the phone for about 80% of the things that ail them.

I'm taking a guess here - but maybe the next trend will be real estate owners, who lease space in big office parks, jumping on this model as a benefit for their tenets.  Anywhere you can aggregate 1,000 employees might be a match for the model...

With health care costs rising 7-9% each year, any HR person who thinks like a business owner is looking for ways to manage costs, if to do nothing but attempt to minimize the annual trend increase in costs. 

Big ideas from past years to help you do that.  Carve out your Rx plan to gain deeper discounts, wellness programs, call-in services like Tele-Doc to minimize the need for a primary care visit and the lost productivity that is part of that visit, etc.  What did I miss?  There are only a few tools, a few good ideas that can help you control costs without a drop in care.

So, what's next?  Would you believe the on-site doctor?  The situation with medical costs has now escalated to the point where it now makes sense to bring the doctor back on the campus of big companies.  Warning - if you don't have at least 1,000 employees at a location or in your company, this one isn't for you.

From Business Week:

"When a company unveils a new plan to rein in health-care costs, workers usually groan. Yet Toyota Motor (TM) is getting rave reviews for the on-site medical center it built at its truck factory in San Antonio. Ask line worker Louis Aguillon. He went to the clinic in May with nagging back pain, and paid just $5 for the visit. "I saw the doctor for 20 minutes," Aguillon beams. "You're not just a number there."

A recent study by benefits-consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide (WW) found that 32% of all employers with more than 1,000 workers either have an on-site medical center or plan to build one by 2009. "We're talking about a microcosm of health-care reform," says Hal Rosenbluth, president of Walgreen's health and wellness division. "Companies can take control and understand their health-care costs."

Managers of on-site centers such as Toyota's make a variety of bold claims. Rosenbluth says every dollar invested in setting up a clinic will return $3 to $5, even though on-site doctors spend an average of 20 minutes with each patient—more than double the national average for primary-care physicians. Some of the biggest savings are on referrals to specialists and visits to emergency rooms, where the financial burden falls mainly on the worker's employer. Peter Hotz, president of Take Care Employer Solutions, the on-site medical division of Walgreen, says the clinic-management companies Walgreen acquired refer 40% fewer patients to specialists, compared to the primary-care physicians who treated the workers previously. And emergency room visits are down 72% at companies where Take Care is managing medical facilities."

So that's the big trend for 2009.  If you're a small company?  Best you can do is a service like Tele-Doc, where your employees can phone in for a diagnosis, then get medication prescribed over the phone for about 80% of the things that ail them.

I'm taking a guess here - but maybe the next trend will be real estate owners, who lease space in big office parks, jumping on this model as a benefit for their tenets.  Anywhere you can aggregate 1,000 employees might be a match for the model...

Break Out Your Slide Rules!! The Hewitt Annual Health Care Cost Survey is Out...

I always celebrate the Hewitt Annual Health Care Cost Survey by going down to Circuit City to buy a new pocket protector. Seems like no one is around to help me these days, but if someone is available, they haven't worked there long. Go figure... I jest, but the Hewitt Annual Health Care Cost Survey (I'm calling it the HAHCCS for short.. kinda like TPS reports) is always chock full of benchmarks that matter. How much healthcare costs, what companies are paying on average on behalf of their employees, how much the same level of coverage is expected to increase in the next year, etc. Good stuff, good times. We'll get the party started with the data below from Hewitt, who's putting the annual trend (that's increases for you who don't talk to brokers) at 6% for 2008, and projected much of the same for 2009 at 6.4%. On the employee side, employee contributions (what employees pay out of their paycheck) increased from 2007 to 2008 by just under 10%, showing on average some cost shifting to employees. It's a sick world when a 6% cost increase feels good, but all you have to do is look at the chart below, and see the period from 2001 to 2004 to understand why most of us will take 6%. Couple of notes - all data below is from Hewitt, click here for the full summary. National cost per employee indicates what the total cost is for the company based on the average number of covered participants for each employee (including the employee themselves), which I would estimate nationally in the 2.1 to 2.2 range. Total Plan Costs Year National – Percentage Increase National – Cost Per Employee 2009* 6.4 percent $8,863* 2008 6.0 percent $8,331 2007 5.3 percent $7,857 2006 7.9 percent $7,464 2005 9.2 percent $6,915 2004 12.3 percent $6,334 2003 14.7 percent $5,639 2002 15.2 percent $4,914 2001 10.2 percent $4,268 *Projected *Costs are plan costs (premium or budget rate) on a per employee basis. It includes employee contribution, but not their co-pays. Average Employee Contribution for Coverage According to Hewitt data, the average employee contribution in 2008 was $1,806, representing 22 percent of the overall health care premium and up from $1,645 in 2007. Employees’ contributions have more than doubled since 2002. Year National Average Employee Cost 2009* $1,946* 2008 $1,806 2007 $1,645 2006 $1,433 2005 $1,268 2004 $1,127 2003 $943 2002 $770 2001 $641 *This represents the employee contribution to the overall health plan premium and does not represent out-of-pocket costs (i.e. co-payments, co-insurance). So, compare and contrast, my friends, and sleep tight knowing you are doing what you can to keep coverage affordable for your employees. Even if it means taking tough medicine like mandatory mail order, etc. Sometimes you have to roll like that, to keep the benefit levels for all, where they are...

When an AIG Spa Trip and the Little Things at Your Company Mean The Same Thing...

By now you know that everyone following the financial sector's meltdown is enraged that executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary spent $440,000 on a corporate retreat, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings. White House press secretary Dana Perino called the event "despicable."

Dana - how do your REALLY feel?  I guess the gloves are pretty much off based on the economy...

Quick to rationalize and spin, AIG issued a statement Wednesday saying that the "business event" was planned months before the Sept. 16 bailout and that it was held for top-producing independent life insurance agents, not AIG employees. Of the 100 attendees, only 10 worked for the AIG unit hosting the event, it said.

Hey, AIG spin-miesters, isn't that still a marketing expense that hits your bottom line?  A yes/no answer will be fine; spare me the additonal rationalizations.

So, the Capitalist likes capitalism but dislikes bad PR in the wake of a bailout.  Big deal. But the AIG drama got me thinking - what are the perks and signals in your workplace that tell your rank and file employees that everyone's not created equal?  I started my own list below; hit me in the comments with your additions:

-Reserved Parking Spaces

-Company Cars

-Executive Elevator

-Separate Medical Benefits for Executives

-Security for executive level offices, but none for the rest of the company

-Different email storage capacities based on your position

-Top managers always get the new stuff, never allow their direct report to skip them in technology

-Different business cards for senior executives

Like Bush and Good Charlotte said, it's the little things...

What am I missiing?  I know there are more, and you're just the person to enlighten me.  Hit me in the comments with your AIG-like examples of bloated corporate excess you'd love to blow up as a HR pro responsible for the flock....

By now you know that everyone following the financial sector's meltdown is enraged that executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary spent $440,000 on a corporate retreat, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings. White House press secretary Dana Perino called the event "despicable."

Dana - how do your REALLY feel?  I guess the gloves are pretty much off based on the economy...

Quick to rationalize and spin, AIG issued a statement Wednesday saying that the "business event" was planned months before the Sept. 16 bailout and that it was held for top-producing independent life insurance agents, not AIG employees. Of the 100 attendees, only 10 worked for the AIG unit hosting the event, it said.

Hey, AIG spin-miesters, isn't that still a marketing expense that hits your bottom line?  A yes/no answer will be fine; spare me the additonal rationalizations.

So, the Capitalist likes capitalism but dislikes bad PR in the wake of a bailout.  Big deal. But the AIG drama got me thinking - what are the perks and signals in your workplace that tell your rank and file employees that everyone's not created equal?  I started my own list below; hit me in the comments with your additions:

-Reserved Parking Spaces

-Company Cars

-Executive Elevator

-Separate Medical Benefits for Executives

-Security for executive level offices, but none for the rest of the company

-Different email storage capacities based on your position

-Top managers always get the new stuff, never allow their direct report to skip them in technology

-Different business cards for senior executives

Like Bush and Good Charlotte said, it's the little things...

What am I missiing?  I know there are more, and you're just the person to enlighten me.  Hit me in the comments with your AIG-like examples of bloated corporate excess you'd love to blow up as a HR pro responsible for the flock....