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6 Tips for a Pain-Free Open Enrollment

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Is there such a thing as a pain-free Open Enrollment? We think so.

Many employers are under the impression that they have their Open Enrollment process down, but studies show that about 41% of employees feel the Open Enrollment process at their company is extremely confusing. Benefit renewal happens to occur during the busiest time of the year: the holidays. This means employers are taking time off to be with their families, have lengthy vacations planned, and year-end deadlines might be overwhelming them. In short, you don’t have your employees’ full attention and that can make a tricky process even more daunting.

Having a plan for a successful benefits Open Enrollment requires both planning and the proper tools. Here are our top tips to guarantee a pain-free Open Enrollment:

1. Have a clear plan.

Work closely with your insurance advisor to review options and plans and decide what you are going to do for the next calendar year.

2. Clarify employee contributions.

Review and revise any contribution formulas so employees know what their share of the costs are.

3. Review ancillary benefits.

Make sure you have assembled and reviewed all ancillary benefits that you can add to your plan. Plans like AFLAC, Dental, cafeteria, or voluntary insurance programs can really make your plan options vibrant.

4. Utilize technology.

Be sure you are using technology to communicate your offerings. If you are still using paper, please talk to us.)

5. Communicate offerings clearly.

Host a Zoom with your team so you can share the benefits and value propositions you are offering. Employee Benefits represent the second or third largest line item that companies spend. It would be foolish not to take advantage of sharing how great your company’s offerings are.

6. Make sure Payroll is squared away.

Be sure to work closely with your Payroll team to indicate any contributions and review your plans monthly as contributions for dependents can age up during the year.

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If CorpStrat® isn’t your broker, please be sure to reach out to us and see how we can help you maximize the value of your offerings. Contact us at marketing@corpstrat.com.

Make your benefits sizzle by bringing them into your HCM

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If you have a robust Human Resource Management (HRMS) tool, you could be missing out on the full benefits of technology and automation if you’re not adding your Employee Benefits management into it.

It might be surprising to hear but employees rank Employee Benefits as the number two reason they stay at or switch jobs. That’s right, Employee Benefits are second only to salary. Ensuring your Employee Benefits are vibrant, easily understandable, and technologically advanced will help you manage your costs, communicate your offerings clearly, and streamline your processes. Not to mention, it will give your employees the confidence that they’re truly valued and are receiving the best possible benefits in the market.

Being efficient matters.

During the annual Open Enrollment, which is just around the corner, employers have the ability to deliver many more options. Sometimes this can mean passing on costs to employees for a broad range of plans, like Voluntary. But the fact is, no matter how many appealing options are available, if an employer doesn’t have the technology that enables them to communicate these options and deliver these benefits, everyone loses out.

Money can’t solve everything.

Now this doesn’t mean you can just throw money at the problem. Just because you’ve purchased an expensive HCM platform doesn’t solve all your problems. You need to supplement your HRMS with skilled leadership and guidance to strategize on how to engage your team. Without this, you risk not being able to balance technology, wellness, and culture. That’s where we come in.

We’d like to help.

At CorpStrat® we make this process seamless. We’re benefit experts to the core. Our team of trusted, experienced licensed providers is available to you, with no call centers or 800 numbers to get in the way. We’re real people helping real people, like yourself.

If CorpStrat® isn’t your broker, let’s have a conversation. Just ask any of our clients about the value we create. We want to help you make your benefits sizzle. Give us a call at (818) today!

Are You Unintentionally Breaking CA Lunch Break Laws?

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california lunch punch laws

As an employer, you already have so many things to worry about, from delivering the best Employee Benefits packing to retaining and attracting your top employees. The last thing you want is to run into substantial fines for breaking California’s hyper specific wage and hour laws. Today we’re talking about how important it is to have a plan and policy in place to ensure compliance so you don’t end up having to pay big money.

Decoding lunch punch laws.

You might be saying, “I’m not so worried about this.” Well, here’s a simple example that shows just how complex this can get:

Let’s say your employee is eating lunch at their desk. Are they:

  • Working
  • Taking a break
  • On their lunch hour

Not so easy to nail down, is it? Making sure employees get their required breaks and that these breaks are recorded properly is a bigger challenge than it seems on the surface.

California law says employees must receive a full break allowance, so rounding up time clock punches is no longer a permitted activity. An employee who is not relieved of all their duties during their lunch break is still considered “on duty.” This includes employees who are relieved of all duties but must remain on the work site. An “on duty” meal break still counts as hours worked and must be compensated at the employee’s standard rate of pay. On top of this, now that so many teams are working remotely, it’s even more impossible to track when an employee is “on duty” accurately. More so than ever, you need to have a robust Time and Attendance system in place to ensure Compliance.

A great Time and Attendance system can make recording employee breaks virtually foolproof. Employees can use a smart phone app or web portal to clock in and out electronically from anywhere. This system is a win-win, it gives employees a simple way to track their time while providing you with an accurate account of the time worked and robust reporting so you can get a good look at the productivity and efficiency of your company.

Without a great Time and Attendance system to help you automate certain processes and accurately track your employees’ work hours and breaks, you can easily end up mired in a costly Wage and Hour dispute. Wage and Hour disputes are the number one, most popular lawsuits facing employers today. Let’s make sure you’re not next, get a plan in place.

If you don’t have a plan, give us a call at 818.377.7260

This is your sign to STOP Googling HR Fixes

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Googling HR issues. We’ve all done it but is Googling HR actually a good idea? 

If you hop onto Google right now and type in a common HR problem, the first page of results will likely include widely varied, conflicting results. Why is there so much misinformation out there regarding HR?

The simple answer is HR policies and laws vary by state, city, and county. The correct answer will also depend on the type of employees and how long they’ve been employed. Google simply can’t account for all of these variables, making it very easy for you to stumble across the wrong solution. 

In this highly litigious, complex employer/employee environment, we feel it’s absolutely too risky for employers to not ensure compliance in even simple things like leave laws, wage and hour issues, workplace behaviors, compliance laws, PTOs, and more. The exposures for employers are just too big.

What can you do as an employer to make sure you’re compliant and your HR defense is strong?

1. Don’t put HR on the back burner.

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is piggybacking HR compliance to another role like Controller, CFO, or admin. Not having a dedicated HR professional might seem fine in the short term but could lead to extremely costly consequences down the line.

2. Put a plan in place to cover all your HR bases.

Don’t wait to put a plan together. Hire a full-time HR person or an HR consultant that can keep a close eye on new policies and tailor the right solutions for your team. Purchase a robust HR program that can help automate compliance so you never have to worry about it. Typically, a combination of these solutions are right for most organizations.

3. Recognize that these issues are larger than most people are willing to admit.

The cost for failing to adhere to compliance laws can lead to tremendous time, resources, and money being wasted inside the organization.

3. Ask the right people.

Stop relying on Google for answers, instead find the right HR professional for advice. At CorpStrat®, we have HR experts with over 30+ years of experience in the industry and we’d love to help you keep your HR defense strong.

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What’s your plan? If you want to talk about your plan and make sure you have the right plan in place, give us a call. 818.377.7260

What Does It Take to Keep Your Top Employees?

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“Some employees are worth a lot of money… Some employees are worth a hell of a lot of money.” – Tom Peters, best-selling author

Don’t think for a minute that your competitors don’t know who your best people are, because they do.

2022 marks the lowest unemployment rate in U.S. history. What happens in a thriving economy is the best employees become even more sought after. Those employed are valuable assets and you have to work to retain them if you want to remain successful. So, what does it take to keep the best?

For us the answer is simple. It takes:

  • Recognition
  • Rewards
  • Strategy
  • Commitment

As a leader, you need to be proactive on improving the size, shape, and value of a benefit package for any key employee. Recruiters are on the prowl and technology, such as LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, and CareerBuilder, make the process of benchmarking and reviewing “better” opportunities really easy.

Today we’re going to share a simple idea with you that could change everything — let’s call it the “Golden Handcuff”.

“Golden Handcuff”

A “Golden Handcuff” is a way to describe a specific arrangement that addresses an annually funded plan to retain and reward a Key employee or employees. The difference is these benefits are doled out over time instead of all at once. What follows is a short list of recommendations that can be implemented in a proactive effort to retain key employees who genuinely make a difference

  • Identify who is critical to the success and growth of the company. Make a list of the employees in your company who must be retained.
  • Conduct a salary survey for each position to find out what the competition is paying its people. Identify the gaps in salary and benefits that need to be closed and put a dollar amount on it, position-by position.
  • Reinforce the bridges of communication and strengthen the relationships with those indispensable employees that must be kept on board.
  • Consider the possibility of giving those essential employees an auto allowance, health insurance incentives, or additional PTO. 
  • If a bonus incentive plan is not already in place, consider creating one that will strengthen a bond with those employees who will feel that the extra work they do will not only benefit the company, but themselves and their families as well.

Now these benefits are provided “over and above” those available to most employees in a qualified retirement plan. These agreements are considered a non-qualified arrangement, which means you don’t need government approval. Instead it’s a “deal” between a corporation and a selected set of key executives in which the company promises to pay the executive a specified benefit later on, with a restriction on the employees’ ability access the accumulated asset for a certain period of time. Most plans also have a survivor benefit so if the employee passes away, the family gets a benefit as well.

These designs aren’t one size fits all, there are absolutely ways to be nimble and creative to suit your budget. The bottom line is you want to give a Key employees an enticing offer that they won’t want to walk away from. Can you imagine someone walking away from a guaranteed lump sum of money if they stay at least five, seven or ten years?

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Get to work retaining and rewarding your top performers before your competition does. Need help? Email us at marketing@corpstrat.com

The CorpStrat Experience: What to Expect When Working With Us

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People often ask us, “What make CorpStrat® different?”

At the heart of it, we work hard and we care about our clients. In today’s fast moving world, people have little time to waste. They need fast reliable answers to their questions and need a team of advisors to make sure that their business is protected.

When you work with us, you’re working with dedicated and experienced people, not bots or call centers. We’re a team of real folks who value teamwork, put our clients’ interests first, are passionate learners and dedicated to client service.

When people do business with us, here’s a quick overview of what they can expect from the experience.

1. The CorpStrat® Conversation™

When we begin working together, we’ll start with what we call The CorpStrat® Conversation™. This is a unique, forward thinking conversation that will help us uncover what is and what isn’t working in your business. We zero in on what needs to be changed in order for you to best meet your goals. So many times these conversations are about so much more than Employee Benefits or Human Capital Management, it’s our opportunity to set the foundation for a true partnership and advisory relationship.

2. The CorpStrat® Intake™

During The CorpStrat® Intake™, our veteran advisors work directly with your team to audit, review, and gather data. We go to great lengths to ensure that this process is as painless as possible.

3. The CorpStrat® Analysis™

After getting the lay of the land, we draw from our experience and wisdom combined with our marketplace savvy to evaluate opportunities that benefit you.

4. The CorpStrat® Consult™

Once we have a plan in place, we’ll schedule The CorpStrat® Consult™. During this, we’ll discuss, review, and propose the best plan we have in mind for you that will put you on the best path for future success.

5. The CorpStrat® Deploy™

Throughout this entire process, you’re never alone. Even during the CorpStrat® Deploy™, our team helps implement, execute and communicate strategic planning so you’re never left in the lurch.

6. The CorpStrat® Review™

The final step is The CorpStrat® Review™. Even after we implement the strategy, we continue to actively stay involved to support and assure that your company’s objectives are achieved.

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Need help with Employee Benefits, Insurance, Payroll or Human Capital Management? We’d love to work with you. Let’s talk.