Benefits by Design Insurance Services Employee benefits Archives - Page 2 of 2

Creating Good Vacation Policies

July 31, 2024

Start with the idea that 30 days of leave are the bare minimum for staff. These days of leave include vacation days, sick days, holidays and other personal days.

Typically, U.S. employers grant 10 days of paid vacation time — two full weeks — per year to each full-time employee. Holidays, roughly 10 per year, are defined as national or state holidays that everyone takes off.

For private industry workers, paid vacation time is allocated by experience — the more time someone spends with a company, the more vacation days they’re given. On average, a person who has been with a company for one to five years receives 10 days. Employees who have been with the business for five to 10 years receive an average of 15 days for vacation. Employees who have worked at a business between 10 and 20 years receive, on average, 17 days, while a tenure of 20 or more years comes with an average of 20 vacation days.

When creating your vacation policy, you may want to establish rules based on answers to the following questions:

Should employees give you a certain number of days of notice before taking paid vacation?
Should employees be limited to a specific number of days off at one time?
Should there be a limit to how many employees can take the same day off?
Should employees be allowed to “cash in” a specific number of unused vacation days for money at the end of the year?
Should employees be restricted in the number of days they can carry over from year to year?

Holidays are treated differently than vacation days. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 79% of all private industry workers have paid holidays; 83% of workers in service occupations receive paid holidays; and 96% of management, business and financial occupations receive paid holidays.

Rethink PTO policy

Instead of giving separate allocations for vacation, sick and personal days, you may instead choose a paid time off policy. With a PTO policy, your employees have a fixed number of days that they can use for any personal reason.

Under a PTO policy, an employee might accrue four hours of PTO for every 40 hours worked (meaning one day is accrued every two weeks worked). The accrual rate may change the longer the employee is with the company. This policy motivates employees to work to earn their PTO and results in a sense of accomplishment when they do. But it also can encourage workers to come into the office when they are sick because they don’t want to “waste” their hard-earned PTO on illness but would prefer to save it for vacation. Similarly, the policy can feel discouraging to new employees, who start with zero days.

An alternative to this traditional PTO is an open or unlimited PTO policy. It allows employees to take as much PTO as they want; there’s no cap on PTO as long as work gets done and the policy isn’t abused. Unless the employee is taking several days off in a row, an open PTO policy doesn’t require that the employee provide a reason for taking the days. Such a policy shows that work–life balance is a priority for your company. Still, many employers worry that the policy will be taken advantage of.

One difference between PTO and traditional vacation/sick/holiday plans is how unused PTO is paid. When an employee quits or is laid off, you’re not required to pay out any unused PTO; this is different from the requirement under traditional plans to pay unused vacation days. If an employee doesn’t use all their PTO by the end of the year, you have to consider state law. Most states have a use-it-or-lose-it policy in place saying that employees need to take PTO days or forfeit them.

On average, paid leave accounts for $2.59 of the average cost of an employee per hour or 7% of a business’s total employee costs. It’s important to consider what you can afford when deciding which type of time-off policy is right for your business. Still, when a time-off policy is comprehensive, generous and flexible, employees feel valued and cared for, which increases their loyalty to your company and can increase productivity.

Are you looking for HR Advisors or Employee Benefits Advisors for your small business?

You can count on Pamela Morton at Benefits by Design Insurance Services to use the 30+ years of experience she has both on the corporate side of health insurance and 7 years of experience as a Health Insurance Agency Owner and broker. Benefits by Design is paid by the insurance companies and does not charge their clients fees.

Pam Morton
Benefits by Design Insurance Services
415-524-8959 Larkspur, CA office
760-696-3573 Carlsbad, CA office
PamM@benefitsbydesignca.com
www.benefitsbydesignca.com
© 2024 Industry Newsletters

The Myers-Briggs Test: How Can You Use It?

February 6, 2023

If you’ve ever visited a career counselor, you may already be familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI. It was created by a mother-daughter team in the 1940s. Myers and Briggs were not psychologists, but they had read “Psychological Types” by Carl Jung, and they wanted to show how everyone could fit into one of the personality types that Jung had described.

The indicator divides people according to four binary factors, for a total of sixteen types. The MBTI website describes the factors thusly:

Introversion/Extroversion — Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or your own inner world?
Sensing/Intuition — Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning?
Thinking/Feeling — When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances?
Judging/Perceiving — In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options?

Looking at these factors, you can see why so many people take this test when they are in college, or when they are considering a career move. While many people spend their whole lives in careers that aren’t obvious matches for their personalities, you’re most likely to be happy and successful in a job that suits you. An introvert may be advised to seek out behind-the-scenes jobs, while extroverts are pushed towards public-facing roles. Judging types are good project managers, but they may struggle in jobs that require investigation or information-gathering.

So, is finding a great candidate as easy as giving applicants a test? Not so fast. The MBTI was never meant to be scientific, and throughout the years, plenty of psychologists have criticized it as imprecise. Even Carl Jung, on whose theories the indicator was based, disagreed with the idea that people broke down into easy binaries; he thought of personality as more of a spectrum. This is probably why many people who take the test twice get different results. Asked to decide between two options when they really fall in between, they choose randomly. However, if all you want to do is narrow down your job search, the MBTI is a good place to start. If the suggested careers sound all wrong for you, then don’t go into those careers.

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why it’s a bad idea to predicate hiring or promotion decisions on a personality test. You may miss out on perfectly qualified candidates because of the way they answered a question. And it’s legally dubious — forcing employees or applicants to take a personality test may violate privacy laws.

A completely foolproof way to divide people up by personality would make life a lot easier for managers and job seekers alike. Alas, the Myers-Briggs test is not that. It should only be treated as a rough guide to a career path.

Benefits by Design Insurance Services is a full-service health insurance and employee benefits broker, offering creative benefits coverage solutions for your business or family. We can offer the best health insurance benefits in California. Contact us for more information We are located in the San Francisco Bay Area and in San Diego and provide the expert advice for group and individual health insurance, Medicare, Medicare Part D, life, and travel insurance decisions.

At Benefits by Design, we can offer the best health insurance benefits in California. Contact us for more information.

Benefits by Design Insurance Services is a full-service health insurance and employee benefits broker, offering creative benefits coverage solutions for your business or family. We can offer the best health insurance benefits in California. Contact us for more information We are in the San Francisco Bay Area and in San Diego and provide the expert advice for group and individual health insurance, Medicare, Medicare Part D, life, and travel insurance decisions.

Contact us for more information.

admin@benefitsbydesignca.com
(415)-524-8959 Larkspur, CA office
(760) 696-3573 San Diego, CA office

Employee Wellness vs. Employee Well-Being

December 10, 2022

As a way of encouraging engagement and productivity in the workplace, a lot of employers will offer wellness benefits to their employees. In March 2021, analytics and advisory company Gallup reported that approximately 85% of large employers give their employees the opportunity to enroll in wellness programs.

Additionally, the Society for Human Resource Management, or SHRM, published an Employee Benefits Survey in 2022 that revealed the importance of offering wellness benefits to your employees.

Here are percentages that reflect how many employers decided that wellness benefits are either very or extremely important:

In 2019, 36%.
In 2020 and 2021, collectively, 62%.
In 2022, 46%.

While employers continue to prioritize the wellness of their employees, another term that is commonly tossed around at the same time is employee well-being. As mentioned previously, while wellness and well-being are similar terms, the concepts of each are identifiably different.

What is wellness?

According to Gallup, the concept of “wellness describes a healthy lifestyle beyond acute illness.” It pertains to the physical health of individuals; it means they can reach their goals without having to endure pain or discomfort in the process. Even though the definition of wellness will vary based on your stage in life, the term mainly refers to preferable health-related states, such as eating well, working out regularly and getting enough sleep.

The concept of health can refer to the physical, mental or emotional state of any given individual. That said, the general consensus is that wellness is a term that is concerned with the physical body.

Because of this, workplace wellness programs often place a primary focus on assessing health, preventing disease, changing lifestyles in a positive manner, losing weight and managing physical health overall.

By providing employees with the option to enroll in wellness programs if they so desire, employers can work toward reducing engagement in unhealthy or detrimental behaviors that ultimately result in chronic and costly health conditions. Such health conditions could adversely impact the productivity of employees as well as the overall bottom line of business operations.

What is well-being?

According to Gallup, the idea of “well-being encompasses the broader holistic dimensions of a well-lived life.”

Per Gallup’s well-regarded research, the following aspects of well-being contribute to a beneficial and excellent life:

Career-wise: You enjoy what you do on a professional level every day.
Socially: You have connections with people, and your friendships are meaningful.
Financially: You are capable of managing your own money well.
Physically: You are physically capable of exerting energy and accomplishing tasks that require you to move your body.
Community-wise: You are not only comfortable in your neighborhood but you also enjoy where you currently live.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the CDC, has stated that not a single definition for well-being is the be-all and end-all way of defining the term. Even so, research has shown that the well-being of an individual is connected to the following aspects:

Social life.
Economic status.
Physical state.
Emotional frame of mind.
Psychological mindset.
Developmental abilities and activity levels.
Outlook on work and extracurricular activities.
Life satisfaction.

In the words of the CDC, the general consensus is that “well-being includes the presence of positive emotions and moods (e.g., contentment, happiness), the absence of negative emotions (e.g., depression, anxiety), satisfaction with life, fulfillment and positive functioning.”

Studies have shown that ever since the COVID-19 pandemic erupted and altered everyone’s lives as they once knew them, more and more employers have begun prioritizing the well-being of their employees by extending the opportunities that their mental health options include.

The bottom line

Wellness is a vital element of an individual’s well-being, but even so, it is merely a small percentage of well-being as a whole. While wellness focuses specifically on physical health, well-being is more concerned with the totality of an individual, meaning it applies not only to an individual’s body but also to his or her mind.

By knowing the difference between wellness and well-being, you can make far more informed decisions in regard to your workforce’s wellness and well-being benefits alike.

If you would like some guidance on Employee Benefits, call Pam Morton at EVCO Insurance Services at 760-696-3573 or pam@evcoinsuranceservices.com. Pam offers a complimentary review of your current benefit offerings.

Employee Benefits: hands writing at a meeting at a white office table

Are You Starting To Plan For Your Employee Benefits In 2025?

October 18, 2022

If you need new ideas, this post is for you. I’ll be sharing more about Budget, Benefits, & Value

We know we need to address all of the aspects of employee well-being. That would include physical, mental, emotional, financial and purpose. It has to be balanced with your budget and your employee’s ability to pay their share if applicable.

Budget

Most employers have a budget for employee benefits. We usually tell our employers to budget for a 12% renewal cost and 1% for each month for renewal increases. For January 2021, we didn’t see many that were that high. And it is too early to predict trends for mid-year 2022 or 2023.

Benefits

At Benefits by Design, we know one size does not fit all. Healthcare is human-centric. What works for a super-healthy employee does not necessarily work for an employee with health issues. We will help you put together an offering that will work for all of your employee population.

Offering a choice of Benefits

Whether you are a large employer or a small one, there are lots of options available for employee benefits. Offering a choice doesn’t mean it will be more expensive. At Benefits by Design, we work with all of the Health Insurance Companies in California. We offer Creative Benefits. There are ways to establish a budget and allow employees to buy up if they want more as a payroll deduction.

What we are seeing is that most employers are offering Kaiser and then at least one additional medical insurance company.

For employers under 100 employees, California Choice or Covered CA small business plans are popular because they provide multiple carrier options at different price points.

California Choice is a small group exchange and I have seen as many as 5 different health insurance companies offered, depending on where the employee lives.

Covered CA small businesses can work well for employers with low-wage-earning employees because if employee-only coverage is offered, the employee can enroll their dependents on Covered CA and get a subsidy if they qualify.

H.S.A, H.R,A and F.S.A

Many employers are saving cost on their benefits using High Deductible Health plans with Health Savings Accounts (H.S.A), Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA)to lower an employee’s overall out-of-pocket costs and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) to allow employees to pay for uncovered benefits expenses with pre-tax dollars.

Specialty benefits

Some specialty benefits can be voluntary, which means the employer pays the monthly bill, but the employee pays for them through payroll deduction. If payroll is reduced because the employee is getting benefits instead of salary, that reduces employer taxes and employee costs. You can set up a Section 125 plan, Premium Only Plan, that allows employees to pay their portion with pre-tax dollars.

Depending on how competitive employee benefits are in your industry, employees may expect to have dental, vision, employee assistance programs, disability, and life insurance to be employer paid. At Benefits by Design, we have a lot of ideas we can propose to help meet your needs in this category.

Some of the other things that can be part of the package are Pet insurance, student loan pay-off benefits, adoption assistance, fitness class passes, and commuter benefits.

Value for the organization and your employees

If you are not sure what will interest your employees and motivate them the most, consider doing a focus group or an employee survey.

At Benefits by Design, we can offer the best health insurance benefits in California. Contact us for more information.

Pam Morton
Benefits by Design Insurance Services
415-524-8959 Larkspur, CA office
760-696-3573 Carlsbad, CA office
PamM@benefitsbydesignca.com
www.benefitsbydesignca.com
© 2024 Industry Newsletters

Price Transparency Rules for Health Care Plans

October 18, 2022

According to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, health care costs have increased at a steep rate over the course of the past five decades. In 1970, people were spending approximately $353 per person, and as of 2020, that number had climbed to a whopping $12,531 per person.

Accounting for inflation, $353 in 1970 is equivalent to about $1,875 in 2020. This information was pulled from data collected as part of the National Health Expenditure Projections.

Now, while the monetary adjustment decreases the discrepancy ever so slightly, the difference between $1,875 and $12,531 is still astonishing. With that in mind the amount of money people have spent on health care-related costs has risen by about $10,656 per person on average.

Additionally, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services stated that the costs of health care are expected to continue to grow by 5.1% every year from 2021 to 2030. Furthermore, not only are these numbers rather jarring, but the rising costs of health care tend to be incredibly stressful for consumers, employers and employees alike, even if they have insurance.

Along with that, many employees do not fully understand the details of their health care costs or what their insurance will provide in terms of coverage. Thankfully, in an effort to offer far greater clarity in terms of the costs of health care plans, the federal government has enacted new price transparency rules that health care plans must adhere to and reflect.

These requirements are part of the 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes the No Surprises Act as well as the Transparency in Coverage Final Rule. Together, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor and the Department of the Treasury released the preexisting Transparency in Coverage Rule back in October 2020, whereas the CAA was signed into law in December 2020. The No Surprises Act is the most recent addition to this set of disclosure-related regulations regarding health care and insurance plans.

General requirements

The CAA’s No Surprises Act addresses surprise medical billing for specific health care services. The No Surprises Act also requires health insurers and group health plans alike to provide their consumers with specific information and tools that will help them better understand their health care options.
The Transparency in Coverage Final Rule requires that health insurers and group health plans accurately disclose specific information regarding health care pricing plans to consumers in an up-front manner, with the long-term goal of greater transparency overall.

Some of these transparency requirements will take effect in 2022, while others will be phased into effect over the course of a three-year period.

What this means for employers

As a result of the implementation of new transparency laws pertaining to health care plans, employers will be required to supply participants of said health care plans with certain information. In greater detail, here’s what the new transparency requirements mean for employers:

Employers can anticipate having to provide employees with an advanced explanation of benefits and accurate estimates of the out-of-pocket costs that employees can expect to face when receiving in-network medical services. The point of this is to provide participants with a better understanding of what certain services will cost them prior to them agreeing to receive medical care.
Additionally, employers will need to provide online and accessible price comparison tools with the goal of providing participants with the opportunity to compare the costs of medical care between various medical providers. Furthermore, the online tool, as provided by the employers, must depict the rates for in-network providers as well as the price points of the out-of-pocket costs for said providers. Information of this nature must display prices for “500 shoppable services,” including but not limited to doctor appointments, screenings for cancer and MRI scans.
Last but not least, another facet of change that employers can expect to be required to uphold is a website that publicly and accessibly displays information as it pertains to the prices of health care plans. For instance, the costs of both in-network and out-of-network services as well as prescription drugs are examples of information that employers will need to supply to participants. As a result of this publicized data, employees will be able to compare the costs of their employer’s health care plans with the plans being offered to other employees by their respective employers. Another benefit of this call for publicity is that job seekers can compare the costs of various health care costs between potential employers.

Work closely with your insurer and benefits team

If the newest transparency rules are applicable to your employers’ group health plans, the insurer or the third-party administrator of said group health plan is typically responsible for handling your disclosure-related obligations. However, as the plan sponsor, it’s important to remember that, at the end of the day, you are ultimately fully responsible for ensuring that you are in compliance with transparency requirements.

For more information, please visit our website at www.benefitsbydesignca.com

Contact us at Benefits by Design Insurance Services at 760-696-3573 for Instant quotes. We offer all health insurance companies in California.

Should you do an Employee Survey about Employee Benefits?

April 16, 2019

The answer is yes. If you haven’t done one in a while, it is time.[1]

How do you think your workforce has changed in the last decade? Is your workforce younger and paying off student loan debt or struggling with mortgages? Are those responsibilities keeping them from contributing to their retirement accounts? Is that a concern in your organization?

Employee Benefits are an important part of an employee’s compensation. In this tight job market, it is important to understand where your employees are in their satisfaction of what they are being offered as well as what you are competing against if they are thinking about other opportunities.

Sometimes small changes to the benefit package can make a big difference without being a big impact in cost. As an example, not all employers offer vision coverage and yet glasses can cost employees a lot of money by the time they pay for scratch resistant coating, progressive lens, and other upgrades. The cost of vision coverage is small when compared to medical or dental benefits. One of our clients conducted an employee benefits survey and found out that a majority of the employees would rather have a vision benefit than long term care.

Employers are also getting creative when adding voluntary benefits. The word “voluntary” means the employee pays for a portion or even all of the benefit but the employer is making it on a payroll deduction basis for ease of budgeting. This can include options such as accident policies, life insurance for employee and/or dependents, cancer policies or even pet insurance.

These are just some examples of things you might want to include in your survey. You probably won’t know what you are missing unless you do a survey to ask your employees what they really want. Online surveys can be quick, easy to do and sometimes free.

We’d be happy to help you put together an employee survey. You can contact me at pamm@benefitsbydesignca.com or visit our website at www.benefitsbydesignca.com.

[1] Source: SHRM OCT 2017 – How to design an Employee Benefits program. Common market research techniques include employee inquiries in the form of personal interviews, simplified questionnaires or sophisticated research methods.

5 Things Startup Companies Need to Get Group Health Insurance

October 10, 2018

Are you a startup company trying to figure out what you need to have in place in order to get group health insurance? Benefits by Design Insurance Services has answers.

Many small and startup companies come to us to help them decide what type of group health insurance to provide their employees. Many small businesses don’t realize that they need to have a number of things in place before they can consider offering insurance.

If you are thinking about getting small group health insurance for your company, here is what you need to have in place first:

Worker’s Compensation insurance for all employees – Worker’s Compensation insurance provides wage replacement and medical benefits to employees who are injured in the course of employment. In California an Owner, Partner or Sole Proprietor are exempt from needing Worker’s Compensation insurance. Everyone else (employees) need to be covered by it. If the company is incorporated, however, all employees, owners and partners need to be covered by Workers Comp because everyone is considered an employee.

DE9 form from your payroll – Every quarter, California employers are required to complete a Quarterly Contribution Return and Report of Wages (DE 9), which is used to reconcile California payroll tax payments and the total subject wages reported for the quarter.

Some carriers have owner/partner forms that need to be completed, if the owner/partner is not on payroll.

Your company has to be registered as a business that is able to do business in CA. Most carriers will check out a company on the California Business Portal.

Your company has to have a business bank account, a business check, or a letter from your financial institution indicating that the account you are using to pay your premiums is a business account.

Insurance carriers may ask for additional items as well, in order to verify your company’s eligibility.

Benefits by Design Insurance Services can help you understand everything you need to do in order to get group health insurance. Please call 760-696-3573 or 760-696-3573 or email admin@benefitsbydesignca.com for more information.

Benefits by Design Insurance Services is a full service health insurance and employee benefits broker, offering custom tailored creative benefits solutions for your business or family. We are located in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego providing the expert advice for group and individual health insurance, Medicare, life insurance, and travel insurance decisions. Contact us if you are looking for the best health insurance benefits in California.

Employer-Funded Individual and Family Health Plans

July 7, 2018

COMPLIANCE Question: Can an EMPLOYER fund Individual & Family Health Plans for employees on a Pre-Tax basis under the Affordable Care Act (ACA)?

Released on September 13, 2013, IRS Notice 2013-54 addresses the legality of offering individual health insurance plans (as opposed to traditional employer-sponsored group plans) as a tax-advantaged employee benefit. The short answer is NO: the IRS determined that such plans are prohibited under the ACA.

Please quickly review the details of the prohibition so that, as a client of Benefits by Design, Inc., you will understand that our priority is to help you obey the law, even though providing individual policies sometimes would fit your need.

The following arrangements and/or plans are now prohibited under the Notice:

Any arrangement or plan (Health FSA, HRA) through which an employee’s individual health insurance premium is reimbursed or subsidized by the employer in a tax-free (or otherwise “tax-favored”) manner.
Arrangements whereby an employer reimburses employees for individual health insurance premium payments (sometimes called “premium reimbursement arrangements” but referred to in the ruling as “employer payment plans”).
Section 125(f)(3) or Premium-only plans (“POP”) through which employees can pay for their individual health insurance on a pre-tax basis.

We at Benefits by Design, Inc. consider this language totally unambiguous. If a client wishes to ignore this ruling and pay for employee-purchased individual health plans, we will require a “hold harmless” signature from the Employer, and will first provide the documentation for the Employer’s legal consultants to review. Paying for individual health plans or other salary pre-tax reimbursement arrangements and plans are strictly and explicitly prohibited with this IRS ruling, and backed by similar rulings from relevant agencies: “The Departments of the Treasury (Treasury Department), Health and Human Services (HHS), and Labor (DOL) (collectively, the Departments) are continuing to work together to develop coordinated regulations and other administrative guidance to assist stakeholders with implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The guidance in this notice is being issued in substantially identical form by DOL, and guidance is being issued by HHS to reflect that HHS concurs in the application of the laws under its jurisdiction as set forth in this notice.”

Final questions regarding employer/individual purchase have been asked since the Notice release last September:

The prohibition is NOT limited to individual health insurance plans sold in the “marketplaces” (formerly called “exchanges”.) The prohibition does apply to EVERY individual health insurance plan.
For the purposes of the ACA, these sorts of arrangements and/or plans are considered (pursuant to the Notice) to be “group health plans,” even though they are comprised of individual health plans.
Specific exceptions apply for limited purpose supplementary plan (e.g. Accident only, Hospital only, etc.), in which “coverage consists solely of excepted benefits.” See Code § 5000A(f)(2) and Treas. Reg. § 1.5000A-2, 78 Fed. Reg. 53646, 53658 (August 30, 2013).

Category: Employee benefits