Top 10 questions employees have about your health benefits

By Christian Schappel

If you polled your company’s health plan participants and asked them what they wanted to know most about their benefits options, what would they say? This is a pretty good indicator.


Towers Watson, which runs a private health exchange called OneExchange, recently analyzed the questions individual participants in its exchange were asking and complied the following list.
It’s likely a pretty good barometer of the kinds of things your employees are wondering, and it may be a good starting point when trying to decide in which direction to take your benefits educations efforts next.

Here are the top 10 questions. Click here to continue reading.

Obamacare tax relief on its way for some employers

By Christian Schappel

The Affordable Care Act imposes an excise tax — with the potential to reach $36,500 per affected employee per year — on employers that fail to abide by the law’s rules. 

The tax can levied for things like failing to abide by the law’s maximum waiting period rules (full-time employees can’t be forced to wait longer than 90 days to be health plan-eligible), having out-of-pocket limits that exceed the law’s thresholds and failing to cover certain contraceptives.

But it can also be levied upon employers for providing cash — pre-tax or post-tax — to help employees purchase health insurance in the individual market. Arrangements like this — also known as “employer payment plans” — trigger this $100 per day, per affected individual excise tax.

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Heads up: The feds are cracking down on 401(k) hardship withdrawals

By Jared Bilski

Here’s another reason why employers should limit (or even eliminate altogether) workers’ opportunities for 401(k) hardship withdrawals.  

Both the DOL and the IRS appear to be ramping up their enforcement of noncompliant hardship withdrawals.

That’s because the feds are worried about leakage in retirement plans – i.e., withdrawals made before retirement that permanently depletes savings. Hardship withdrawals are a big part of the leakage problem.

Because of their concern, the feds’ are checking to make sure that employers are following the very specific criteria for these withdrawals.

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Tip Tuesday! Breaking down IRS’ final Obamacare reporting forms

By Jared Bilski

The wait is over. Employers now have access to the final versions of the forms they’ll file to show they’re in compliance with the ACA “Shared-Responsibility” mandate. And the sooner they start making sense of these forms, the better.

The IRS just released the final forms, which include Form 1095-B, Form 1095-C, and Form 1094-B and Form 1094-C, which will be used in 2016 for the 2015 filing year. (Note: Firms aren’t required to file for tax year 2014, but may do so if they wish.)

The agency also released guidance titled “Affordable Care Act: Reporting Requirement for Applicable Large Employers,” which covers preparations for monthly tracking and filing help for 2016.

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Yikes: Horrific discrimination claims cost company $15M

By Christian Schappel

What’s scarier, these discrimination claims or the number of zeros in the award? 
California-based trucking outfit Matheson Trucking and Matheson Flight Extenders Inc. is paying dearly for racial discrimination claims levied against the company by seven former employees.
A lawsuit filed by the men — six of whom are black — claims Matheson let some pretty horrific stuff go on in its warehouse, according to a report by The Denver Post.
Some of the lawsuit’s claims, according to The Post:

• White workers called black workers “lazy stupid Africans.”
• White employees and black employees worked on separate sides of the warehouse.
• White supervisors and workers often used the N-word around black workers.
• In one instance, a white worker yelled that all blacks should be shot (and that worker was later promoted).
• Calling a white worker, the seventh plaintiff, who stood up for his black co-workers, “the tribe’s assistant.”
• That same white worker was fired after he challenged the company’s racist practices.
• Black workers were passed over for desirable, double-pay holiday shifts, which were given to white workers with less seniority.

Click here for entire article.

Here’s what the resume of tomorrow looks like

By Christian Schappel

Paper, once the only medium for a resume, is going the way of the dinosaur. What’s stepping up to take its place? A hint: It’s more than just LinkedIn and other career websites.

Piles of the latest studies on resume creation, distribution and HR consumption were analyzed by the business coaching and occupational psychology firm Davitt Corporate Partners, and what it found may surprise you.

Click here for entire article.

FMLA dilemma: Doctor says one thing but writes another

By Jared Bilski

HR pros often have to rely on physicians’ details to make difficult FMLA administration decisions. But what happens when a physician offers contradictory information?

That question was at the center of Kossowski v. City of Naples. In this case, Kossowski went to see a doctor after having “respiratory problems.” During the visit, Kossowski was diagnosed with bronchitis and prescribed a Z-Pak and some cough syrup.

Following the appointment, Kossowski called in sick and requested FMLA leave. At this point, the company followed standard procedure and asked Kossowski to fill out a certification about his serious health condition.

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What workers want from wellness plans may get firms in legal trouble

By Jared Bilski

There’s good news and there’s bad news regarding wellness programs. The good news: Workers do seem to have a keen interest in wellness. The bad: What they want may put employers in the feds’ cross hairs.

These are some of the key findings from a recent study by HealthMine.
The study found that three-quarters of employees would engage more fully in a wellness plan that included incentive levels and rewards for achieving goals such as maintaining ideal weight, sticking to a drug regimen that addresses chronic diseases and not smoking.

Key measurements

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Employee didn’t report work hours: Still, his OT lawsuit stands

By Christian Schappel

This employer knew this guy worked overtime and wasn’t paid for it. But it said not getting paid was the worker’s fault. Is that a defense that can stand up in court? 
No — it isn’t.

Bottom line: If an employer knew — or reasonably should’ve known — an employee worked overtime that he/she wasn’t paid for, your company’s on the hook for that overtime bill … period.

Everything else — policy and/or timekeeping violations, instructions not to report or work overtime hours, etc. — is just window dressing.

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4 ways managers screw up progressive discipline

By Tim Gould

Most companies have established a system of progressive discipline for dealing with employees with performance or behavior problems. Too often, though, unthinking managers derail the process.
The tough truth is that any policy’s only as good as the people who have to enforce it on a day-to-day basis. Managers are only human (despite what their underlings may occasionally think), and, like the rest of us, they’re susceptible to acting on ingrained personality quirks.

Four pitfalls that trip up many supervisors as they try to correct employee problems:

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Tip Tuesday! Misclassification enforcement: 17 states now sharing info with DOL

By Jared Bilski

The DOL has been looking for help to come after employers that misclassify full-time employees as independent contractors (ICs) — and it just added another major ally to its growing list. 
Florida recently added itself to the other 16 states that have entered into formal agreements with the DOL to share info about worker misclassification.

The formal agreement, which is officially called a Memorandum of Understanding, allows the DOL and the Florida Department of Revenue to pass along any info they come across about workers who are misclassified as ICs.

The feds hope the info-sharing will make it easier to find and penalize employers that misclassify employees.

Click here for the entire article.

Former DOL insider: FLSA changes coming in early 2015, get ready now

By Jared Bilski

Remember those changes to the FLSA’s “white-collar” exemption the DOL was supposed to release this fall? Well, they’re actually going to be released in the early part of 2015.
At least that’s what Tammy McCutchen, the former administrator of the DOL’s Wage-and-Hour Division (WHD), told SHRM online recently.

Little lag time

McCutchen also offered the following advice to employers regarding the FLSA changes: Start looking at employer classifications as soon as the proposed rule is released.
Her reason: The proposed-to-final-rule process isn’t likely to include many changes.

Click here for entire article.

The bleakest picture of today’s workplace we’ve ever seen

By Tim Gould

If you’re looking for a grim assessment of the State of the Workplace 2015, here’s some research that’ll fit the bill.  

Kessler International, a firm specializing in business forensics, recently polled upper and mid-level management at 40 professional services firms on the state of workplace manners, etiquette and ethics.
Eighty-four percent of respondents said their staff was inconsiderate and rude. And 65% felt a majority of their staff lacked a moral compass.

Wow.

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Can you ask employees to work during FMLA leave? Better be careful

By Tim Gould

If you’ve got an employee who takes FMLA leave, you may have to check in with him or her occasionally. But be careful not to cross this line. 

If you ask the employee on leave to do anything that remotely resembles “work,” you could find yourself in a situation like this employer.

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Tip Tuesday! Feds release sample Form 5500, add a slew of changes

By Jared Bilski

Even though you still have plenty of time before filing 2014’s Form 5500, you’ll probably want to take a look at what this year’s form actually includes.


Reason: The DOL included a number of notable changes in the 2014 edition of Form 5500 (of which the agency provided informational copies, schedules and instructions).

The changes are at least in part influenced by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Early on in 2014, that agency asked the DOL and IRS to change the way certain items are reported on Form 5500 by plan sponsors.

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