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.

Aging Salary Data: Is Your Data Ready for Retirement?

Is your salary data a toddler, a teenager, or ready for retirement? If you’ve worked in compensation for very long you probably know all there is to know about “aging” data. If you’re new to comp, however, and aging data is a bit of a mystery, read on.

Domestic Medical Travel and Benefits: What You Need to Know

By Laura Carabello, Founder and Principal, CPR Strategic Marketing Communications With budgets and pocketbooks having taken a severe hit from mounting healthcare costs, HR and benefits executives are challenged to help companies avoid substantial monetary penalties for noncompliance under the reform’s new regulations, and seek strategies to curb staggering healthcare costs. In this environment, medical […]

6 Compensation Tactics to Make Great Sales Hires

By Eliot Burdett, Peak Sales Recruiting After having spent many years negotiating sales compensation plans and witnessing the balance of power shift in recent years, from employers to top sales people, I’ve found that the following six compensation tactics help hiring managers make great sales hires.

IRS to Rewrite ‘Minimum Value’ ACA Rules to Include Coverage for Hospitals, Doctors

The IRS is asking the public for input into a rule that will determine when an employer-sponsored health plan is offering “substantial coverage” of inpatient hospital and physician services. This will be part of new rules defining minimum value in employer-sponsored health coverage. Employer-sponsored coverage must meet two tests to comply with the employer mandate: […]

One of Fastest Growing Employee Benefits: Pet Insurance

While not all companies allow furry four-legged friends in the workplace for various reasons (employees with allergies, facility leases, etc.), one in three Fortune 500 companies now offer as pet insurance as a voluntary benefit. “Since more than two-thirds of Americans own at least one pet, offering pet insurance will appeal to prospective pet lovers […]

ACA Employer Responsibility Requirement (‘Play or Pay’)

We offer 100% of our employees health benefits. Are we still required to track Full Time Equivalents? The Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) employer responsibility requirement (or the “play or pay” provision) does not require employers to provide healthcare insurance for their employees. Instead, it requires employers to share healthcare responsibility by either providing coverage or […]

Will an Independent Fiduciary Help Plans Achieve Retirement Readiness?

A couple of phrases are making the rounds in retirement plan circles; perhaps you’ve heard them. They are “retirement readiness” and “independent fiduciary.” While they have different meanings, they are more connected than you may suspect. We spoke with Jason Chepenik of Chepenik Financial, who advises clients about their benefit programs and specializes in retirement […]

7 Tips to Boost Employees’ Literacy and Engagement in Health Care

To most Americans, health insurance is confusing and just plain unenjoyable. Only 14% of U.S. workers can correctly define common insurance terms like deductible, copay, coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximum.1 Even if we were savvier about how health insurance works, we’re less than thrilled by the purchasing process: American consumers rate choosing health insurance as unenjoyable […]