Category Archives: featured

5 Tips for Bringing Your Team Back to the Office

After over two years of working remotely, we know a lot of employers are grappling with if and how to bring their teams back into the office. They’re faced with a barrage of questions: Should they bring employees back full time? Keep them remote? Should they offer set hybrid programs or let employees decide their own schedule? The risk of losing great employees by pushing them to return to the office looms large however, full-time remote work doesn’t suit every business.

The answer is there is no right answer. It’s almost impossible to establish a protocol that makes sense for everyone. The bottom line is companies have to get creative with how they balance safety, productivity, and culture as we begin returning to the office. We do think companies will likely employ various hybrid work iterations for the foreseeable future.

Here are our best ideas to help find balance between encouraging company culture while your team is remote and building rapport back in the office:

1. Give Employees Their Own Work Spaces.

Try rewarding employees with their own work spaces as opposed to the shared work spaces that are so popular nowadays. The pandemic has created all sorts of uncertainties about touching other people’s stuff.

2. Offer up free lunches.

We know there’s “no such thing as a free lunch” but we’ve seen companies have tremendous success when they offer their employees meals as a gesture of appreciation. Sending your remote employees a voucher for a food delivery app and an invitation to join a team Zoom hang out is a great way to allow your team to interact more casually. When your team is in the office, providing free lunches allows people to connect with each other. We’ve found that this desire for connection is greater than ever since the pandemic began.

3. Create Memorable Moments to Connect

Try and use culture building opportunities as frequently as possible. This is where employers can really get creative. Consider setting up both remote and in-person fun experiences like an Escape Room or a virtual Pub Quiz. Give away memorable gifts, company merchandise, or a welcome back to the office care package so employees feel that their experience is being valued.

4. Provide Gas Cards

Send gas gift cards to anyone who comes into the office on a regular basis. Gas is expensive right now so this is an easy win because it makes employees feel valued for their efforts.

5. Use Social Media to Show Off Company Culture

Make sure your employees are proud of the team that they’re on and feel included. One way to do this is share notable team experiences on your public Social Media channels and in your internal team communications, like a Slack channel or team newsletter. You’ll be able to show the community being built back up in the office and ease the minds of employees still on the fence about returning to the office.

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Need help creating positive Company Culture? We can help with that. Contact us.

California Competes: What Is It and How Can You Benefit?

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California Competes: have you heard of it? It’s a state sponsored opportunity specifically geared towards companies located in California. The California Competes Tax Credit (CCTC) is an income tax credit available to businesses that want to relocate to California or stay and grow in California. Essentially, it’s an income tax credit available to businesses that intend to remain in California and grow their employee base over the next five years.

The CCTC is accepting applications from companies from any industry, of any size, and at any location in California. The CCTC has $180 million of credits available per fiscal year through 2022-23 with a minimum credit request of $20,000.

Credit awards are based on a number of factors such as:

Number of jobs created
Compensation paid to employees
Amount of investment
Duration of proposed project and commitment to remain in the state
Opportunity for future growth and expansion
Overall economic impact
And more

If this if of interest to you, consider submitting a business plan that includes your plan for growing your company and retaining employees in the state of California. The program will provide an income tax credit to companies that grow populations and they’ll even co-op investments in people and technology. The program opens for new applicants once a quarter.

For more information and to apply: https://business.ca.gov/california-competes-tax-credit/

5 Hidden Attributes in Health Insurance Plans

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Many people don’t even think about their health insurance plan until they get sick. The fact is, it also means many people aren’t getting the most out of their plans because they don’t know how to unlock hidden benefits. We firmly believe that a good health insurance plan can do something powerful for everybody. Even if you’re not sick or injured, a good plan can put you on a path to optimal health with the right type of support along the way.

Today we’re sharing some of the most popular hidden attributes in health insurance plans.

1. Alternative Medicine

That lingering back pain might be a thing of the past. Most insurance plans provide some benefits that cover chiropractic care, massage therapy, and acupuncture treatment as a means of alleviating pain or assisting with an injury or illness.

2. Weight Loss & Smoking Cessation

Many insurance companies have moved the needle on preventative care and are incentivizing people to lose weight and get healthy. They have outreach programs that support those struggling to quit smoking and lose weight. Some even subsidize health club memberships.

3. Mental Health

As part of the Mental Health Parity Act of 2010 in the ACA, all insurance companies are required to provide equal benefits for mental health. Let’s face it, in these crazy and uncertain times, we can all use a little mental therapy. If you look closely, there are benefits available to you designed to help you cope and deal with life’s challenges. These benefits include access to psychologists, psychiatrists, and both in and out patient care.

4. Telemedicine

Stay healthy and alleviate concerns, all from the comfort of you own home. The pandemic accelerated virtual healthcare visits and most insurance companies have moved towards allowing people to have consultations and doctor’s visits virtually. Many people have this benefit without realizing it, be sure to login to your benefits platform to take advantage of not needing to go to the doctor’s office.

5. Disease Management

People that are diabetic and asthmatic can benefit from full-fledged programs that include blood sugar monitoring and consultations. These diseases may require round the clock support so having resources to aid in disease management is key. Don’t be afraid to ask your plan if they sponsor blood sugar management tools.

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Insurance companies are adapting to become much more consumer-centric. Reach out and find out what’s available. You’ll be surprised how many opportunities there are.

If you have any question, reach out to us at marketing@corpstrat.com or 818.377.7260

Are You Worried about the Quality of Your Benefits Offerings Post-COVID?

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During the pandemic shutdown, many employers had to get creative with how they delivered benefits. For the first time ever companies had fully remote teams, made work/life balance top priority, and ensured ample tele-health and mental health resources were available to their teams. As we return to the office, employees are now expecting these benefits and perks and feel more empowered than ever to ask for them. This creates a tricky situation for small business owners who might be working with tighter budgets. Employers are juggling budgets with making sure they’re keeping their talent happy in a post-pandemic world.

Small Business Owners Are Finding It Hard to Expand Benefits Post-COVID.

For companies with 500 employees or more, expanding benefits is a no-brainer. Many plan to increase their offerings in the next 12 months. However, for small business owners with fewer than 500 workers, affordability can be a barrier. The pandemic has changed the kinds of benefits and support employees are expecting. Many employees now want benefits like expanded retirement savings, pet insurance, access to fitness and mental health professionals, and more.

When It Comes to Benefits, You Don’t Have to Be on Your Own.

Many smaller companies don’t have an HR team to help them understand how to deliver benefits without breaking the bank. They want to offer their employees the world but don’t know how to create a benefits package that makes fiscal sense. In order to empower small businesses with the resources to evolve their benefits options, it will require better communication from both small business owners and their providers to decide on the products and services employees want and how to deliver them.

That’s where we come in. In order to fix the problem and empower your small business with the resources to evolve your benefits options along with your workforce, you need someone to guide you through the process. We can help you combine creative and main stay benefits that will attract and retain talent.

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Don’t wait until it’s too late, call us today to get your benefits set up for 2022. Call us at (818) 377-7260 or email us at marketing@corpstrat.com.

“Can I Deduct Medical Expenses Not Covered by My Insurance Plan?” – Answer Inside

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What if we told you there was a way you can deduct all of the medical expenses that are not covered by your insurance plan. Doesn’t that sound interesting?

We’re talking about things like deductibles, co-insurance, doctor visits, doctor’s who don’t take insurance, eyeglasses, therapy, etc. Basically, all the things that you shake your head at and wonder, “why am I paying thousands of dollars for every year, after tax dollars?”

We’re here to tell you that there is a way to make all of these expenses deductible through a Discriminatory Medical Reimbursement Plan. This plan is available to:

Subchapter S Members
Sole Proprieters
Members of an LLC
Officers of an S Corporation.

If this pertains to you, please give us a call now and we can help make sure you’re maximizing deductibility. Your CPA may tell you that it’s not possible, but let us check to see what we can do.

At CorpStrat, our primary focus is helping business owners utilize all available strategies to overcome the complexities in benefit planning, reverse discrimination of benefits, and maximize deductibility. If you want to learn more about medical reimbursement strategies, reach out to us at marketing@corpstrat.com

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