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Yes, We Surveyed It—Highlights from BLR’s 2013 Survey Series

Special thanks to all readers who participated in our surveys in 2013! (2014 surveys start soon.) Benefits: Health Insurance Preferred provider organization (PPO) plans are offered by 68% of survey participants, and health maintenance organization (HMO) plans are offered by 31%. High-deductible plans are a benefit for 35%, and point-of-service (POS) plans are available for […]

5 Key Training Trends for the New Year

Laura DiFlorio and Kerrie Main, regional sales directors for Nobscot Corporation (www.nobscot.com), identified these five trends for the coming year on HR.BLR.com: 1. Experiential Training With its emphasis on games and activities, experiential training is expected to be increasingly popular, says DiFlorio. Experiential training is especially effective with younger workers, who she says tend to […]

IRS Gives Plans More Time to Amend for Roth Accounts

Plan sponsors have been waiting for details on rollovers within retirement plans to designated after-tax Roth accounts, and on Dec. 11, IRS issued new guidance that may prove beneficial. Among the clarifications and changes in Notice 2013-74 was an extension of the deadline for amending plans to incorporate in-plan Roth accounts. Now plans have until […]

Certain religious employers get a reprieve from ACA’s contraceptive mandate from Supreme Court

On New Year’s Eve, just hours before the healthcare reform (also known as the Affordable Care Act or ACA) contraceptive mandate requirement was supposed to go into effect, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a stay and gave the federal government until Friday to respond to the Court. The stay applies to a limited group […]

Supervisory Sin 7: Making Wage/Hour Blunders

[Go here for sins 1 through 6.] Sin #7. Making wagehour blunders We’re out of overtime. Can you clock out and then set up for tomorrow? You’ll be working alongside our regular employees, but you new recruits are all independent contractors. Tracy, make sure you stay close to the phone during lunch. Sandy, keep your […]

Mental health parity regulations take effect January 13

The final regulations implementing the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 will become effective January 13. The Act requires group health plans that offer mental health or substance use disorder benefits to ensure that those benefits are equivalent to the medical and surgical benefits offered by the […]

4 Common Employer Mistakes in EEOC Position Statements

Have you ever faced an EEOC investigation? What is the best course of action—hire a lawyer, or navigate the process in good faith on your own? Obviously the answer depends on the specifics of the situation, but you may be surprised to learn that sometimes handling it on your own can have a better outcome […]

Equip Trainers to Give Effective Environmental Training

The material in today’s Advisor comes from our sister publication, Environmental Daily Advisor®. In an ideal world, training will always be successful. There are ways that training can go wrong, however, and forewarned is forearmed. Here are several training pitfalls—and we give you ways to avoid them. There are several possible problems that can lead […]