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Compensation & Benefits

Employers: Schedule a health reform checkup

08/04/2010
Health plan decisions that employers will be forced to make in a few years—such as whether to keep coverage or drop it and pay a fine—will be influenced by decisions you’ll make this year and next, says Michael Aitken, SHRM’s director of government affairs. “It might be a wise investment right now to sit down and do some modeling.”

8 ways to trigger wellness participation

08/03/2010
Many factors determine whether workers use their health and wellness benefits—everything from incentives you offer to how much staff trusts management to whether employees tell their spouses when they’re sick. Here are eight tips to trigger employee participation in wellness programs.

Use benefits checklist to smooth new-hire onboarding

07/29/2010
New employees have lots on their minds when they first start working. While making the right benefits choices and completing the necessary paperwork is ultimately the employee’s responsibility, HR can give a kick in the pants by providing a checklist like this one.

Quest offers health assessments, follow-up wellness programs

07/29/2010
Quest Diagnostics is helping its workforce stay healthy by offering free health risk assessments and then following up with wellness programs that help employees address potential problems. Last year, 36,000 employees took part after Quest reduced the cost of biweekly medical plan contributions as an incentive.

Can we terminate a poor performer who is currently out on FMLA leave?

07/27/2010
Q. Our receptionist has a history of being late for work and taking unexcused absences. She’s out on FMLA leave to care for her sick father. Her temporary replacement is doing an outstanding job and always shows up on time. Can we keep the new receptionist and tell the other one not to return?

Could he sue us? Employee was fired after he injured himself on the job

07/27/2010
Q. A replacement line supervisor directed an employee in our plant to use a machine he wasn’t trained to operate. The employee was injured when he stuck his hand into the machine to clear a jam. While the employee was recuperating in the hospital, the plant supervisor fired him for operating machinery he hadn’t been trained on. Does the employee have a right to sue us if the line supervisor ordered him to do this job?

Wellness programs: Clash between health care reform and GINA

07/27/2010
Approximately 70% of employers sponsor wellness programs designed to drive down health care costs, reduce absenteeism and promote better employee health. Wellness programs that offer premium discounts have long been required to comply with HIPAA. More recently, two other laws muddied the wellness waters: the new health care reform law and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

Make sure contractors are free to work for other clients

07/27/2010

The more control an employer tries to assert over a worker it intends to treat as an independent contractor, the more likely that worker is actually an employee. That’s why you should make sure independent contractors have the leeway to work for others and maintain their own schedules.

Informal ERISA complaints aren’t protected

07/27/2010
Recently, the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals had a chance to declare that an informal internal complaint about ERISA-covered benefits might be enough to protect an employee from retaliation. Fortunately for employers, it declined to do so.

Keep health costs out of the equation when considering hiring and firing

07/27/2010
Before you even consider firing (or refusing to hire) someone because they might jack up your health insurance costs, count your dollars, not your pennies. You may be staring down a lawsuit that could dwarf whatever premium costs you hoped to avoid.