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.

Ask the Right Questions—Find the Right Answers

Many leaders believe they must have all the answers—that it’s their responsibility to have the answer to every question and the solution to every problem. In my estimation, it’s more important to ask the right questions than it is to always have the answer.

Is Your 401(k) Plan Out of Date?

Like an old house that was cutting-edge when it was built but hopelessly archaic today, your 401(k) may have fallen behind the times. Is this true of yours? And, if so, what can you do about it?

Strategies for Smart Salary Surveys

Yesterday, we got some important guidance on job descriptions as they relate to your compensation program, courtesy of John Rubino of Rubino Consulting Services. Today, Rubino’s thoughts on salary surveys: the good, the bad, and the potentially illegal.

HATFA Will Cause Largest Pensions to Cut 2015 Plan Contributions

The renewed decline of funded status for defined benefit retirement plans this year has not led the largest U.S. DB plan sponsors to contribute from their coffers to compensate, a phenomenon that one investment advisory firm attributes to temporary interest rate stabilization. Until this year, corporate contributions to DB plans typically correlated with the plans’ […]

DOL: Plans Must Cover All Contraceptives, Not Some

Plans and insurers must cover all 18 contraception methods approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, according to a new set of questions and answers on the Affordable Care Act’s preventive care coverage requirements. “Reasonable medical management” still may be used to steer members to specific products within those methods of contraception. A plan […]

What is COBRA?

What is COBRA? COBRA stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, which was implemented as an amendment to ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974). In most circumstances, COBRA entitles workers and other covered individuals to the option of continuing to receive their employer-sponsored group health insurance coverage for a limited time […]

Performance Management Survey—What’s Really Happening?

Performance management is not only important for identifying your high potential employees, but it also has a great impact on your compensation programs and documentation practices. What’s happening with performance management in the real world? What are your competitors up to? Help us find out!