Still Suffering From Open Enrollment Burnout? How to Avoid Headaches Next Year

by Jim Taylor | Feb 22, 2019 | Employee Benefits

Another open enrollment period has come and gone. Hopefully this stressful time of year went smoothly for your HR department and for your employees, but chances are your team is frazzled and your employees still have questions about the plans they signed up for. No matter how well you handled open enrollment, there are probably steps you can take to make things go better next year.

Why is it so important to get open enrollment right? Well, according to Aflac surveys, 80% of employees believe that their benefits package influences their engagement in their jobs and with their companies. Moreover, a majority of employees surveyed said that they were likely to accept a job with lower compensation but better benefits. Therefore, it is vital that you make sure that employees have access to their benefits, are fully informed about the range of benefits available to them, and feel positive about every part of the benefits enrollment process.

So how can you make next year’s open enrollment period more satisfying and less painful for everyone involved? All the answers you need are in the open enrollment period you just survived. Take a hard look at the past enrollment period to figure out what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what you can do to handle open enrollment more effectively next year.

In today’s post we will examine the key components of a successful open enrollment analysis, plus share a few best practices every team could benefit from:

Collecting Data
Identifying Trends
Analyzing Behaviors
Creating Actionable Next Steps
Common Best Practices

Collect Data

The first step to figuring out what to do next year is finding out exactly what happened this year. Hopefully you collected useful information during open enrollment, such as employee enrollment rates or the number of emails, meetings, one-on-one sessions, and calls between employees and internal stakeholders regarding the benefits options. What’s important to do now that the enrollment period is over, though, is to find out what employees and internal stakeholders thought of the process in order to identify pain points and preferences.

Some of the most important insights into your open enrollment procedures can come from soliciting feedback from employees. The best way to do this is to send surveys out to all employees who participated in open enrollment. Here are some key things to ask employees about in the surveys:

Ease of enrollment
Accessibility of information about benefit options
Perceived quality of benefit options
Areas for improvement
Preferred methods for enrollment and communication

In addition to talking to employees, you should also make sure to send surveys to your internal stakeholders – namely managers and members of the HR department – to see how open enrollment went for them. Be sure to include questions about:

Success meeting enrollment goals
Processes that went well
Issues that arose
Suggested procedures for next year
Ways to make their job easier during open enrollment

Identify Trends

Once you have collected enough data, it is time to analyze it to draw inferences that will allow you to plan for next year. You should look for trends in survey responses that indicate either successes or challenges during the enrollment period.

Some common trends that you may encounter in employee surveys that you should take seriously include:

Confusion regarding benefit details
Dissatisfaction with benefit options
Frustration with the enrollment process itself

Things to look out for in your survey responses from internal stakeholders are:

Answering the same questions over and over
Not knowing who to direct employees to for further information
Difficulty tracking enrollment/other systems issues

Analyze Behaviors and Processes

Behind each trend is a behavior or set of behaviors that drove the end result for your employees or stakeholders. In many cases the good or bad behaviors and processes will become evident as soon as you identify the trends, others may require further interviews with troubled survey respondents to identify.

The same trends can also have different behaviors behind them that will become clear upon further investigation. Take, for instance, the example of employee dissatisfaction with benefit options. You have a serious issue when a lot of employees are not happy with the benefits offered to them, since benefits are key to employee performance and retention. In some cases, your benefits package may need to be reviewed and expanded. Most of the time, however, employees’ dissatisfaction stems from not being clearly informed of the full range of options available to them. Taking the time to explain the options and how they provide for employee needs can nip this issue in the bud.

General categories of behaviors and processes to examine in explaining each trend include:

Distribution of benefit option information
Communication structures and behaviors
Availability of resources for employees, managers, and the human resources team
Enrollment process – did employees enroll on paper or online?
Enrollment tracking

Create Actionable Next Steps

For each behavior that you identify in the previous step, you should create actionable next steps to improve the enrollment process next year. Think about how you can prevent the issues that came up this year, what new practices you can establish to make the process easier, and how you can preserve existing positive behaviors so that they do not get lost over time.

You shouldn’t put off implementing new best practices until next enrollment period. Make a game plan for how you can prepare for open enrollment over the course of the entire year. Set quarterly and monthly goals and keep yourself, and your team, accountable to that schedule.

Let’s continue the trend/behavior example from the previous section and look at some actionable next steps you can take to address employee dissatisfaction with benefit options. The first step you can take is to follow-up with survey respondents to find out exactly what they thought was lacking in the benefits package. If it turns out that the options actually include many of the things that they want, then you know you have a communications issue. So, create a plan for how you can address the issue over the time from now until open enrollment closes. This might include a monthly newsletter featuring benefits options, establishing one-on-one meetings with each employee to determine their needs and find the plans that meet those needs, or creating a new benefits handbook.

Common Best Practices

Each company’s challenges are unique, but there are some things that most people can do to make open enrollment as productive and pain-free as possible.

Get Employees Ready in Advance

Take the opportunity to highlight your benefits package and boost employee engagement by providing clear and positive information about benefits options. Create easy to digest reference materials, make the HR team and insurance brokers as accessible to employees as possible, and hold open meetings explaining benefits year-round. Also, make sure that your managers have the information they will need well ahead of time, because their team members will come to them with questions as soon as open enrollment starts.

Establish Effective Processes

Track as many metrics as possible in real-time during open enrollment next year, so that you can correct issues immediately and minimize post-enrollment follow-up. You should examine your benefits processes every year, but try to make your job easier next year so that you do not have to do as much data collection.

Also, set up clear communication procedures and do not deviate from them. That way employees know where and how to get more information about their benefits options and you can avoid costly mixed messages and wasted time.

Make Compliance Easy

Keep your team members happy by making ACA compliance as painless as possible. The best way to do this is to take a look at how you document coverage offers. If you don’t have a standardized, streamlined, and electronic way of tracking coverage offers, it’s time to investigate different software options. Record keeping is a pain, there is no reason to make your team’s job harder. Also, make a plan for when you are going to send employees information necessary for compliance, such as the Summary of Benefits and Coverage and the Uniform Glossary. The more formalized the process is, the less likely you are to let something slip through the cracks.

Communicate Year Round

Even if you have your open enrollment procedures down, there are probably things you could do year round to make your lives easier come enrollment time and provide employees with more information, more regularly.

The best way to do this is to send a benefits newsletter every month or quarter, or to regular email updates on benefit options and policy changes. This way, employees will have access to more information when the time comes to choose their benefits, without being overloaded with information all at once. The sad truth is that the majority of employees spend less than an hour reading about available plans and choosing their benefits. So, giving them information in more manageable pieces throughout the year can help prepare them more effectively than providing more information than they will use at the start of open enrollment.

Sending regular updates can also make your internal stakeholders’ jobs easier too. It can be hard to record all of the policy changes that occurred over the past year; newsletters give you a reason to record the changes over the course of the year rather than all at once when open enrollment is approaching. The newsletters or emails will also become valuable resources for your team to direct employees to in order to answer common questions.

Key Takeaways

In this post we have explored how to analyze your processes to make sure open enrollment gives you less of a headache next year. Some key takeaways include:

Track data during open enrollment and collect information from employees using surveys
Identify issues and successes from last year
Figure out the behaviors and processes behind the trends
Create a plan for next year to correct the bad and improve on the good

What practices has your company implemented to make open enrollment easier and more successful? Share your tips in the comments below.

Tackling Your Human Resources Communication Problems One Step at a Time

by Carolyn Kick | Oct 25, 2018 | Human Resources

When your HR communication is lacking, it’s time to tackle the problem. Motivating employees is an important part of the success of your business. When you need to update how you communicate with employees, you have some options. Your overall message to your employees should be clear. You value your employees. They are important to your company. They are the driving force of your business and need to understand why your company’s purpose and strategic goals matter so much.

Share Your Core Business Beliefs

Your employees need to know the purpose of your business. This is a message that is established over time, yet is also at the center of all communication with your employees. Using messages that share your company’s purpose and business beliefs and connecting those beliefs to the everyday work your employees are doing makes a difference. Whether it is through a text message, email, or in person, you need to communicate with your employees about the ways they concretely add to the mission of your company.

Share Market Realities with Your Employees

Internal campaigns that rely on customer feedback and market knowledge provide you with the opportunity to share your business strategies with your employees through this essential lens. You will be able to use this information to create new strategies and build new business protocols based on the information received. When your employees are kept informed as to what customers are reporting.

Prioritize Your Messages

When you consider your messages that you send out to your employees, they should fall into three categories: Inspiration, Education, and Reinforcement. When you want to highlight an accomplishment of one of your employees, or you want to inspire your staff in some way, you need to share messages that create an emotional response. Building optimism within your staff is important, and this can be done through strategically sent, inspirational messages throughout the year.

Educating Your Staff

Messages that educate your staff are generally more important than those that simply inspire. These messages will explain any major decisions your company has made, and the plan for which these decisions will be carried out. In these educational messages, you can provide detailed information to your employees on how their responsibilities may change, or what you expect their contribution to be in these changes.

Messages Must Also Reinforce Earlier Messages

While you may have successfully explained the purpose of your company, your business strategy, and how this plays out in the daily workings of your business, the message needs repeating. In order to create change over time, reinforcing your messages with follow up information or inspiration is essential. Your employees are going to be able to understand your purpose more clearly when you continually reinforce what you have to say. Each message sent throughout the year should build upon previous messages, proving your employees with further reinforcement as to your business model.

About the Author

Joel Lee is the marketing specialist at Trumpia, which earned a reputation as the most complete SMS solution including user-friendly user interface and API for mobile engagement, Smart Targeting, and advanced automation. Jumpstart your business by grabbing your free copy of this powerful Mobile Marketing Success Kit.

How to Conduct Effective Performance Evaluations at Your Business

by Jim Taylor | Oct 17, 2018 | Human Resources

Businesses use performance evaluations to assess their team’s work performance. These evaluations also help employers pinpoint deficiencies in work performance and determine the company’s expectations for the future. Written performance evaluations are best because a written evaluation creates a tangible record, which can be reviewed and referenced in the future.

The performance evaluation process generally involves a series of steps:

Developing guidelines and standards against which an employee’s performance may be compared.
Gathering appraisal information, which when analyzed against the established standards reflects the employee’s performance.
Discussing the appraisal information with the employee.
Documenting the evaluation process in the employee’s personnel file.

Businesses use performance evaluations for the following reasons:

As positive communication tools to help employees improve job performance.
In salary administration for determining merit increases.
As regular workforce monitoring tools.
In the disciplinary process where an employee’s job performance is unacceptable and could lead to discipline or termination.

Whether you’re looking to build a formal evaluation process or improve your existing one, this post will provide the actionable steps you need. In this post you’ll learn:

What are the benefits of conducting regular performance reviews
What are the types of performance evaluations
How to conduct meaningful performance evaluations
How to implement a formal performance evaluation process at your business
How to ensure your performance review process is legally compliant

What are the Benefits of Conducting Regular Performance Reviews

An effective performance evaluation system can benefit your business in many ways including:

Assess Employee Potential. An effective performance management helps business leaders make informed decisions about employee promotions and transfers. A sound performance evaluation system can also help you proactively identify employees with special skills and abilities.
Identify Training Needs. Performance ratings help evaluate the effectiveness established training programs. Your business might design and target training programs to better address the performance problems caused by a lack of training.
Assist in Compensation Planning. Linking pay to performance is an effective compensation strategy, especially at growing businesses. Reliable, consistent performance evaluation processes enable your business to predict future payroll costs and reward your high-performing employees.
Identify and Correct Poor Work Performance. Performance evaluations generate discussions between employees and supervisors that identify poor work habits. During these conversations your and your employees can uncover mutually agreeable ways to correct issue areas.
Defend Against Lawsuits. The performance evaluation process allows companies to document poor job performance. Employers depend on this documentation to defend themselves successfully against employee claims of unfair termination or disciplinary action.
Motivate Employees. Performance evaluations can motivate employees in their efforts to meet your business’ performance standards. A positive evaluation assures the employee that your business recognizes their hard work and that they will be rewarded for exceptional performance.

What Are the Types of Performance Evaluations

When it comes to conducting performance evaluations, there are several different methodologies your business might opt to leverage. Some of the most popular ones are elaborated on below.

Rating Scales

The rating scale method provides a high degree of structure for evaluations. The scale rates employee traits or characteristics on a bipolar scale where there is a neutral point and the two ends of the scale are at opposite positions of the opinion, ranging from “poor” to “excellent.”

The characteristics evaluated on these scales include employee attributes such as the following:

Cooperation
Communication ability
Initiative
Punctuality
Work skills competence

An employer can select which traits to rate based on factors that are relevant to performance of the employment position. Proper selection of traits may protect against legal action based on a claim of discrimination.

Essay Method

In the essay method approach, the supervisor or manager prepares a written statement about the employee being evaluated. The essay describes specific strengths and weaknesses of the evaluated employee in job performance. It also includes suggestions for courses of action to correct any problem(s) identified in the evaluation. The statement may be written and edited by the supervisor or manager alone. It may also be composed in collaboration with the employee who is evaluated.

Results Method

Management by objectives (MBO) performance evaluation is results-oriented. It attempts to measure employee performance by examining the extent to which employees meet predetermined work objectives. The objectives are usually established jointly by the supervisors and employees. Once an objective is established, the employee is usually expected to identify the skills needed to achieve the objective. Employees do not rely on their manager to locate and specify their strengths and weaknesses. They are expected to monitor their own development and progress toward achieving the objective.

How to Conduct Meaningful Performance Evaluations

Many businesses have ineffective performance evaluation processes that result in little insights for the leadership team to reward high-performers, address performance issues, and make other informed business decisions. Here are some key things to keep in mind to ensure your evaluation process is effective:

Honesty

In order to be effective, performance reviews must be honest and candid. Although supervisors may be unduly harsh on employees during an evaluation, excessive leniency occurs much more often. It’s a good idea to note and praise good work done by an employee in the past. However, the evaluation must also identify any issue areas in employee performance. Defending a wrongful termination suit is extremely difficult if the reason for termination was a problem that existed for an extended period of time and was not noted on the employee’s performance evaluations. The employer’s case is further damaged when the employee received favorable performance evaluations, including favorable remarks on the categories of performance that are later involved in the reasons for termination.

Uniformity Among Supervisors

An employer should always monitor managers as they conduct performance evaluations, making sure the process is uniform throughout the organization. If your process lacks uniformity, supervisors in one department may give more favorable (or harsh) evaluations than those in another department. When these inconsistencies occur, it is difficult for an employer to defend against wrongful termination because the suit could attack the credibility of the business’ evaluation system.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Each evaluation must include a discussion of the employee’s strengths and weaknesses. Evaluations should include deserved compliments (rather than only criticism) to be fair, balanced, and objective.

Constructive Criticism

Giving constructive criticism in performance evaluations also has advantages. Some constructive criticism of good employees may help lay the groundwork for negative evaluations of those employees in the future if their overall performance deteriorates. This is particularly true when an employee brings a wrongful termination suit after an unfavorable performance evaluation. When defending against a wrongful termination suit, it may be helpful for the employer to demonstrate that the employee was previously criticized for some of those same faults (which triggered the termination) on prior evaluations, even though the problem perhaps was in its infancy at that time and did not warrant an overall negative evaluation.

How to Implement a Formal Performance Evaluation Process at Your Business

If you’d like to launch a formal employee performance evaluation process or refine your existing one, consider providing the following:

Clear written instructions to all managers involved in the evaluation process.
Relevant training for supervisors and human resource leaders involved in the evaluation process to ensure complete understanding of all employee job duties.
A job-related performance evaluation system.
Reasonable precautions to guard against improper bias by the evaluating supervisor or manager.
A procedure that includes multiple levels of review and approval of the evaluation.
Central monitoring by human resources to ensure uniform performance rating standards among all supervisors and managers conducting the evaluations.
A procedure that allows the employee to comment or respond to the evaluation.
A procedure providing the employee with an appeal process of a poor evaluation, within a reasonable time after the evaluation.
A procedure requiring the supervisor to identify specific performance goals as part of the evaluation process.

How to Ensure Your Performance Review Process is Legally Compliant

Federal civil rights and state fair employment practice laws are in place to prohibit employers from implementing performance evaluation systems that discriminate against employees based on race, color, religion, gender, national origin, or disability. To avoid liability, your business must ensure that its supervisors and managers base their performance evaluation judgments solely on job-related factors.

In determining whether performance evaluation systems are discriminatory, courts generally apply the same standards used to determine whether employee selection procedures and tests are discriminatory. Under such standards, a performance evaluation system is nondiscriminatory if it is both valid and reliable. When the system does not satisfy both requirements, the discriminatory impact of the improper factors might cause the system to violate one or more federal or state laws.

Valid and reliable performance evaluation programs normally share the following characteristics:

The performance evaluation program is formal and in writing.
Ratings are reviewed to ensure that high and low ratings are documented with information demonstrating what the employee did or did not do to earn the rating. Reviews also look for statistical patterns of adverse ratings and evidence that a supervisor needs more training rating employees.
The evaluation relates to the particular job in question. This means that employees are not rated on items that are irrelevant to job performance. An evaluator who must use a preprinted form that is not specific to the job should have the option of checking “not applicable.”
The evaluator is familiar with the employee’s job duties and actual performance. Evaluators should be allowed to state or check “not observed” when necessary.
Employees must read their evaluations, sign the evaluation to acknowledge their reading of the evaluation, and have the opportunity to provide written commentary on the evaluation.
Evaluations are not final until employees have the opportunity to comment.
Higher-level management reviews all evaluations.
Supervisors receive training in evaluating employees.
Evaluators receive clear written instructions as to the implementation of the evaluation.
Evaluation forms are as clear and simple as possible.
Definitions and examples are included to clarify the scope and meaning of various rating categories.
Standards or expectations are identified clearly for each aspect of performance and are communicated to the employee.
Employees have input in setting performance expectations.
The relative importance of each aspect of performance is communicated.
The primary goal of the evaluation is to enable employees to improve. Evaluators help an employee recognize strengths and weaknesses and help employees develop plans for improvement.

The Open Enrollment Checklist You Need for Success This Enrollment Season

by Jim Taylor | Oct 12, 2018 | Employee Benefits

Open enrollment season can be a stressful time of year, but it doesn’t have to be. The team at Launchways has put together an open enrollment checklist that will help make sure your team has a smooth enrollment experience.

Planning ahead for enrollment season

Conduct employee surveys to determine workforce healthcare and benefits preferences. Leverage survey results to make relevant changes/additions to your benefits program.
Consider offering additional benefits beyond healthcare and life insurance. These might include telemedicine, a student loan assistance program, employee discount program, or a financial wellness platform.
Consider offering new benefits, even if they’re 100% voluntary. Many employees highly value the option to partake in voluntary benefits.
Work proactively with your broker on plan design changes to ensure all changes are completed well in advance of open enrollment time.
Consider leveraging an online benefits enrollment software. Benefits administration software allows your enrollment to go paperless and provides educational tips to help your employees pick the right plan for their family’s needs.
Make a list of all new changes that will enhance your benefits program and/or enrollment process. Make a plan to communicate these key highlights with your team.
Create an enrollment communication strategy. Determine all the communication channels you will use and what materials you need to create for open enrollment.

Ensure your employees receive all the necessary communication materials including:

• Open enrollment schedule
• Statement of current coverage
• Plan-specific changes and rates
• Plan-specific summaries
• Open enrollment guide and forms
• Deadline for open enrollment
• Contact information for key contact in case employees have questions or need additional help

Plan Design Issues

• Confirm that your plan’s out-of pocket maximum complies with the ACA’s limits for 2019
• For HDHPs (high deductible health plans), confirm that the plan’s deductible and out-of-pocket maximum comply with the 2019 limits.
• Communicate any plan design changes to employees as part of the open enrollment process.

When in doubt, ensure the following key pieces of information are being communicated to your team during open enrollment time:

• Enrollment deadlines
• Where/how to enroll
• Healthcare provider information
• Changes from the previous year

Remember that the key objective of open enrollment is to get all your employees enrolled on-time for the benefits plan that’s best for their family’s needs. A strategic communication plan can ensure employees know when and how to enroll, and can even help them pick the best benefits plan for them. Keep in mind that minimizing confusion during open enrollment time is key. This is why proactively communicating plan changes is important.

If you’re interested in a more in-depth guide on how to conduct a successful open enrollment, make sure to register for our upcoming webinar “How to Have a Successful Open Enrollment.”

The Simple Year-End Payroll Checklist You Need

by Taura Smith | Sep 28, 2018 | Human Resources, Payroll

Quarter four can be a stressful time of year for businesses. A particularly stressful quarter four responsibility is dealing with year-end payroll procedures. Here at Launchways, we understand year-end payroll procedures can be complex and time-consuming. That’s why we decided to put together a simplified payroll checklist to help you tackle year-end payroll like a pro.

Year-End Payroll Checklist*

1. Check employee and employer data:

Verify the employer and employee data that is used in processing your quarterly tax reports and W-2s. view the “Quarterly Tax Verification Letter” is the document which displays this critical data.
To which employees does the “retirement plan” indicator in Box 13 of Form W-2 apply?
Confirm that employee names and Social Security numbers are in the correct format.

2. Check wage, tax and benefits data:

Confirm that deferred compensation plan type is correct and verify employee contribution amounts.
Check that Group-Term Life Insurance adjustments have been updated and submitted.
Ensure that other special tax items have been updated and submitted, such as Other Compensation, Third-Party Sick Pay, Employee Business Expense Reimbursements, Taxable Fringe Benefits, Tip Allocation information, and Dependent Care Benefits.
Verify the employer state unemployment insurance tax rate and taxable wage limit for each state.
Compute uncollected Social Security and Medicare taxes for retirees and former employees.
Verify that withholding has been made properly, or withhold from the final paycheck for taxable fringe benefits. These may include:
- Group-term life insurance in excess of $50,000
- Third-party sick pay (is the third party issuing a W-2?)
- Personal use of company vehicle
- Non-qualified moving expense reimbursements
- Company-provided transportation or parking
- Employer-paid education not related to the employee’s job
- Non-accountable business expense reimbursements or allowances
- Bonuses
- Non-cash payments

3. Check for special procedures:

Schedule any special bonus payrolls for the current year.
Request any special reports needed for year end.
Ensure adequate payroll supplies to complete the year and to begin the new year, including blank checks, payroll forms and blank Forms W-2.
Determine whether all adjustments are applied or that an adjustment payroll has been scheduled.
Remind employees to fill out a new Form W-4 if their situation has changed.
Obtain new Forms W-5 for Advance Earned Income Credit (EIC) for the new year.
Confirm that all “manual” checks written during the year have been accounted for and updated in the system.
Determine that all voided or reversed paychecks have been accounted for in the system.

*Please note: this checklist is meant to provide basic guidelines only. Payroll procedures and requirements will vary business to business.

Looking for extra payroll support? Launchways is here to help. Connect with a Launchways team member today to learn more about our payroll outsourcing solutions.

Launchways Welcomes New Client Popular Pays

by Carolyn Kick | Aug 27, 2018 | New Client Announcements

CHICAGO, IL (August 27, 2018) Launchways, a leading provider of human resources, employee benefits, and business insurance solutions for growing businesses, today announced it has added Popular Pays as a client.

Popular Pays has selected Launchways as their employee benefits broker. When asked why Popular Pays chose to work with Launchways Nathan Parkins, Finance and Business Operations at Popular Pays, said “Unlike with larger big-box brokers where you’re just a number and have to call a hotline to get help, Launchways has a strong commitment to providing exceptional service from a great team. We’re confident Launchways benefits experts will help us design a benefits program that provides our team more value at a lower cost to the business.”

Gary Schafer, Launchways President, noted “Popular Pays is a fast-growing tech-forward Chicago-based startup, which is the exact type of business where we can provide immense value. The Launchways team is excited to partner with Popular Pays to ensure they get the most from their investment in employee benefits.”

The Launchways team will conduct an in-depth analysis of the Popular Pays workforce and identify employee healthcare priorities. Using these insights, Launchways’ expert benefits consultants will design a custom benefits program with a strong emphasis on providing employees maximum value while maintaining affordable deductibles. After plan design, the Launchways team will conduct an in-person session to educate Popular Pays employees on making the best decisions for their individual benefit selections.

About Launchways
Launchways provides business leaders with the resources and guidance they need to build scalable people processes to support long-term growth. Founded in 2009, Launchways has helped thousands of businesses better approach the people side of their business through strategic solutions for human resources, employee benefits, and business insurance. For more information, please visit www.launchways.com.

About Popular Pays
Popular Pays is a platform connecting content Creators with Brands who want content to tell their stories. We’re tech-forward, with an in-house built iOS and web app (for creators) and dashboard (for brands) that delivers direct communication & powerful statistics to help you run a multiplatform campaign. To find out what we’re about, visit our website: www.popularpays.com

Everything You Need to Know about the New W-4 Form for 2019

by Taura Smith | Aug 16, 2018 | Human Resources, Payroll

The W-4 form is used by employers to withhold the proper amount of federal income taxes from employees’ paychecks. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recommends that employees submit a new W-4 every year or anytime their financial situation changes significantly. The IRS recently published a preliminary draft of the new W-4 form for 2019. The finalized version of the new W-4 form will likely come out by the end of the summer.

The recent federal tax overhaul significantly changed how individual income taxes are calculated. This directly effects the method for figuring out withholding, meaning employers needed an updated W-4 to ensure calculations would be correct. In an ideal world, if an employee follows the instructions on the W-4, it will determine a withholding amount close to their income tax liability. Although it’s not an exact science, the new W-9 form aims to closely mirror the new tax code so that employee withholdings will be accurate.

Major Tax Changes

Although the official final draft of the new W-9 form has yet to be released, the preliminary draft has several key withholding changes including:

Method of structuring withholding: the approach to withholding will change significantly, with more emphasis being put on individual income tax liability rather than the number of allowances.
Incremental tax rates: in the new W-4 form, it prompts the highest paying job in the household to disclose any additional family income, including tax credits individuals anticattle claiming.
Online aids: the IRS plans to offer an online withholding calculator for employees who don’t want to disclose their financial information to their employer or who have more complex tax situations.
New W-4s not required: the IRS plans to encourage the use of the W-4, but not mandate it. New withholding methods will be designed to be backwards compatible with previously filed W-4s.
New hires: employees who do not sign a W-4 as new hires will calculate withholding as though single, claiming no adjustments.
Detailed instructions: the IRS will provide a detailed instruction page to assist employees in filling out the new W-4.

What Should Employers Do

As an employer, you should take the following steps:

Wait on the final word from the IRS on the new withholding rules and W-4 form.
Support the new withholding methodologies and use the new W-4 form, even though it’s not required.
Ensure withholding are adjusted appropriately for employees who choose to complete a new W-4.
Stay alert for the finalized withholding structure and new W-4 form for 2019. Ensure your payroll system can support the requirements.
Make sure to double-check state tax code changes. Oftentimes when there is a major federal tax withholding change, states will have to decide how to adapt to the federal process.

Everything You Need to Know About the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

by Christine Lewis | Aug 9, 2018 | Compliance, Human Resources

As a business owner, you are responsible for ensuring your business complies with all state and federal regulations. However, it isn’t easy keeping track of all the different laws your business must comply with. One of the more complex federal regulations your business may be responsible for complying with is the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

If you’re struggling to understand your business’ responsibility to comply with the FMLA, you’ve come to the right place. This post will help you understand the ins-and-outs of the FMLA so you can ensure you’re compliant.

In this post you’ll learn:

What is the FMLA?
Which Companies Must Comply With FMLA
Which Employees Are Eligible for FMLA
Reasons Employees are Entitled to FMLA Leave
What are your obligations as an employer?

What is the FMLA?

The Family and Medical Leave Act, also known as the FMLA, was first enacted in 1993 to allow employees to take extended unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons. The FMLA aims to help employees balance the pressures of the workplace with the needs of their families.

The FMLA permits employees to take a maximum of 12 or 26 weeks, job-protected, unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons during a 12 month period. The FMLA outlines the specific circumstances that allow employers to be covered and eligible for leave. It also protects employees that elect to take leave from retaliation from their employer.

The act also prohibits employers from preventing or denying employees the rights guaranteed under the FMLA. FMLA violations can be brought to court by the U.S. Department of Labor to enforce compliance. Employees can also also bring civil action lawsuits against employers found guilty of violating the FMLA.

Which Companies Must Comply With FMLA

Companies must comply with the FMLA only if they had at least 50 employees for at least 20 weeks in the current or previous year. Although smaller employers don’t have to comply with the FMLA, they may be liable for similar state laws.

Which Employees Are Eligible for FMLA

An employee must have worked for at least a year and worked for at least 1,250 hours during the prior year, to be eligible for FMLA leave.

Reasons Employees are Entitled to FMLA Leave

One of the biggest areas of confusion around the FMLA is what circumstances cause the FMLA to kick-in. Reasons employees can take leave under the FMLA include:

-Inability to work due to pregnancy, prenatal medical care, or child birth.
-To care for a newborn child, to care for a recently adopted child, or to care for a recently placed foster child.
-To care for the employee’s spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition.
-For a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform their job.
-Eligible employees with a spouse, child, or parent on covered active duty or call to active duty status in the National Guard or Reserves or regular Armed Forces, may use their 12-week leave entitlement to address certain qualifying needs.
-To care for a covered injured service member.

In addition, FMLA leave can be intermittent. Intermittent leave is often overlooked by managers who are not well-versed on the FMLA policy. FMLA covers intermittent leave for:

-Migraines.
-Mental health conditions.
-Caring for a child or family member with a serious health condition.
-Leave for treatments, physical therapy, etc.
-Reduced schedules/hours due to restrictions, treatments, or caring for family members.

What are your obligations as an employer?

As an employer, you have several obligations under the FMLA including:

You must send employees communications notifying the employee whether they’re eligible for FMLA
If you receive a leave request, you’re required to tell the employee whether you’re going to designate the time as proper leave within five days of receiving the request
You must track and record all FMLA time used
You must keep all health information related to FMLA requests confidential
You must reinstate employees to the same or an equivalent position when they return from leave

It’s important to note that it is illegal to retaliate against employees who exercise their right to take FMLA. This means you cannot hold protected absences against employees in any way. When you’re thinking about promotions, training opportunities, or raises, you must assume employees on leave had perfect attendance and job performance during FMLA-covered time.

How to Hire Top Talent on a Startup Budget

by Gary Schafer | Jun 28, 2018 | Compensation, Human Resources

Whether you’re pre or post-funding, hiring top talent on a growing business’ budget is challenging. Larger organizations can offer candidates lucrative salaries, stability, and expensive perks. However, there are several strategies you can use to hire great talent while keeping costs down.

In today’s post we’ll explore five ways you can build a top team on a budget. We’ll cover:

Leveraging independent contractors, interns, and part-time hires
Seeking out non-traditional employees
Offering low-cost high-impact employee benefits
Offering equity
Aligning compensation with company performance

Leveraging independent contractors, interns, and part-time hires

Independent Contractors

In cases when you can put off bringing in a full-time team member, an independent contractor or freelancer may be the best option. For example, you might contract a developer to mobile-optimize your website or build an app for your product. In these cases, hiring a full-time team member doesn’t make sense. Contract employees allow you to leverage a wide range of talent without committing to hiring a full-time employee.

Consider contracting commission-only salespeople or manufacturer’s reps if you’re not ready for a full-time sales hire. Another great idea is to hire freelance marketers to write and promote content for your blog or to execute your social media strategy.

Sites like Upwork and Guru can help you find freelancers to fit your budget.

Part-time

If you need extra help but aren’t quite ready to bring a full-time staff member into the role, a part-time hire may be a great option. There are many highly-skilled individuals looking for part-time work. A part-time hire allows you to get the help you need while also remaining payroll-friendly.

Interns

While interns may require guidance and coaching, there are several areas they have natural strengths in. As part of Generation Z, most interns are highly skilled in social media and online presence. If you partner with local colleges, you can find interns in nearly any field from marketing, to accounting, to software development. You may choose to make your internships unpaid or paid. Paid interns can receive an hourly wage or stipend. It’s important to understand that although interns can be valuable, low-cost team members, they will need significantly more guidance than traditional employees.

Seek out non-traditional employees

When recruiting talent, may business owners make the mistake of overlooking non-traditional employees. Non-traditional employees might include those who are not currently working, those looking to re-enter the workforce, older employees, or employees who are outside of your industry.

While non-traditional employees are often overlooked, these individuals present a unique opportunity for your business. Often they are extremely eager to work and will go above-and-beyond for your business. It’s also not uncommon for their salary expectations to be more in-line with what a startup can afford.

You can leverage LinkedIn to source and outreach to non-traditional employees.

Offering low-cost high-impact employee benefits

People, especially Millennials, are willing to sacrifice a higher salary to work somewhere they truly enjoy working. Making your company a great place to work can be your secret weapon in the struggle to hire and retain the best talent. Offering attractive employee benefits and team perks is a great way to improve workplace satisfaction and attract top talent to your company.

Some business owners have the misconception that they need significant funds to afford expensive employee perks. However, there are many low-to-no cost methods you can utilize to transform your company into a sought-after workplace. Some great options include:

Flexible scheduling: allow your employees to work non-traditional hours. For example, an employee with a flexible schedule might work 10:00am-6:00pm or 8:00am-4:00pm. Another example of flexible scheduling is to allow your employees to come in late or leave early on some days without taking PTO. Many employees see flexible scheduling as a huge value add as it allows them to take care of their families while also balancing their workload.
Remote working: allow team members to work remotely, either some of the time or all of the time. Offering a remote working arrangement doesn’t cost your business anything but is seen as an attractive perk by potential employees.
Casual dress: nowadays most employees don’t want to put on a suit every morning to go to work. Offering casual dress and a relaxed work environment can make your business a more attractive place to work for younger talent.
Standing desks: having standing work areas in your office requires a small financial investment up front but can be a huge value-add to your employees. Many Millennials realize that “sitting is the new smoking,” and appreciate a work environment that encourages healthy behaviors.
Bring your dog to work: if your office space accommodates it, allowing employees to bring their dog to work is another no-cost way to appeal to great talent. For employees with a dog, being able to bring their dog with them to work not only gives them piece of mind but also saves them significant costs on pet care.
Food and drink freebies: offering your team free snacks, soda, or coffee can help boost morale and make your company a great place to work.
Team meals: whether it’s once a week or once a month, offering a free catered meal to your team is an attractive benefit.
Corporate responsibility: give employees dedicated paid time off to volunteer on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. Nowadays, employees are looking for a workplace that affords them a greater purpose in life. Instilling opportunities for volunteerism can make your company more attractive to purpose-driven employees.

Offering Equity

While larger companies attract employees with lucrative salaries and stability, startups afford their employees the opportunity to directly reap the rewards of the company’s financial success via equity in the business. Equity is a unique bargaining tactic startups possess that larger organizations don’t, and it should be leveraged accordingly.

If a particular candidate is risk-for-reward driven, they will often forgo a higher salary now for the promise of potentially greater financial rewards in the future. Not to mention, financial equity aligns your team with the company’s long-term objectives. As such, aim to actively involve these team members in important business decisions moving forward.

Aligning compensation with company performance

Another strategy to hire great talent when your cash flows are tight is to offer a lower salary upfront, but with the promise of incremental salary increases in the short-term future. For example, you might offer an employee 60% rate of market compensation up front but include the opportunity for 80% market salary within one year if a financial company milestone is met.

You might also structure employee salaries with a below-market base but the option for a significant year-end bonus if your company’s financial goal is met. Aligning compensation with company performance keep costs down and aligns employee interests with company goals.

Key Takeaways

In today’s post we explored several ways you can hire great talent on a budget. Some key takeaways include:

In cases when a full-time hire doesn’t make sense yet, contractors, part-time hires, and interns can be cost-effective options
Non-traditional employees can be skilled hires willing to accept lower salaries in exchange for experience at your company
You don’t need a large budget to offer high-impact employee perks like flexible hours, remote work, or causal dress
Equity can entice top talent to forgo a larger salary up front in exchange for the opportunity for future gains
Structure incremental performance-based salary increases into employee compensation

What methods do you use to attract and hire great talent on a tight budget? Drop your ideas in the comments box below.

Launchways Welcomes New Client Aqueity

by Carolyn Kick | Jun 28, 2018 | New Client Announcements

CHICAGO, IL (June 28, 2018) Launchways, a leading provider of human resources, employee benefits, and business insurance solutions for growing businesses, today announced it has added Aqueity as a client.

Aqueity has selected Launchways as their solution for human resources support, employee benefits, and business insurance. “As Aqueity’s growth accelerates so does the need for HR support and strategic guidance. While we contemplated addressing this gap with an in-house hire, the depth of experience available to us at Launchways surpasses anything we could assemble on our own. We are excited for our new partnership and finally have the peace of mind knowing we are in the hands of industry experts,” said Dan Dunn, CEO at Aqueity.

Gary Schafer, Launchways President, noted “Aqueity is one of the fastest growing IT consulting firms in the Midwest, so for Launchways it was a natural fit. After doing an initial audit of their HR operations, we found we could provide immense value to Aqueity’s team. The Launchways team will help Aqueity build scalable people processes to support their rapid growth.”

The Launchways team will design a custom benefits program that will allow Aqueity to continue to attract and retain top talent. Additionally, Launchways insurance experts will audit Aqueity’s existing policies and create a package of cost-effective industry-specific coverage to meet their needs. Finally, Launchways will provide ongoing human resources and compliance support to Aqueity’s team.

About Aqueity
Aqueity offers a full range of IT solutions, services, and computer support for small and mid-sized businesses in Chicago and throughout the surrounding suburbs. Our vision “Be Extraordinary” is this guiding principal that drives us to help our clients succeed. Whether you need project help, IT consulting, backup for your internal team or looking to completely outsource IT, Aqueity is the partner to help execute solutions for your needs. Contact Aqueity today to learn more at 630-769-8700 or [email protected].

« Older Entries

Next Entries »