We’ve all probably heard of the traditional formula for calculating the cost of replacing a terminated (voluntary or involuntary) salaried employee, one and a half times the exiting employee’s annual salary right?

Well, according to Watson-Wyatt Worldwide’s model for calculating the true-cost of replacing a salaried employee, the one and a half times their salary figure is just a piece of the pie. Here’s why.

This figure consists of the actual out-of-pocket costs (i.e. cost of advertising your job vacancy, cost of working with recruiters to fill the now ...

Q: The following are used to store and/or communicate employee benefits information.

1. Files on your hard drive

2. A fax machine

3. An HRIS system

...

In the midst of the worst recession since the 1930s, employers are doing more with less and employees feel the pressures of it every day. With employees overworked, stressed out and worrying constantly about their job and financial security, it’s no surprise that their overall well being is declining as a result.

The nonprofit organization Families and Work Institute recently reported that only 28% of employees say they are in “excellent health” (down from 34% 6 years ago). Businesses inevitably feel the effect of this decline too, both in terms of direct costs and indirectly as well. Research shows that employees in poor health are less likely to be loyal, ...

How about providing health insurance to both themselves and their families?

The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards’ 2009 National Consumer Survey on Personal Finance reveals that “generating current income” and “providing health insurance” are numbers 1 and 2 respectively on this year’s list of greatest consumer concerns.

Here’s their list of the top 5 concerns:

If employees had the opportunity to get a 20% premium discount for achieving certain health goals do you think they’d want it to end there? What if they were offered a 30 or 50% discount, would that be better?

Congress is considering provisions in the health care reform legislation that would allow employers and insurers both to offer employees who meet specific health targets (i.e. keeping body mass index, cholesterol, blood pressure, etc. within the healthy range) premium discounts up to 50%. Under the current law, these discounts are allowable but can be no greater than 20%.

Effective October 1, 2009, the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy (DHCFP) has approved and adopted an amendment to the state’s Fair Share Contribution (FSC) regulations (114.5 CMR 16.00).

Among the amendments are several technical changes that clarify compliance requirements for businesses subject to the law (Massachusetts employers with 11 or more full-time equivalent employees). Although most of the amendments made are relatively minor, there are three notable revisions that employers should be aware of.

Two years after Massachusetts’ landmark health insurance law became effective in 2006, the state’s 4 Division of Unemployment Assistance auditors began knocking on business’ doors.

Their targets were employers who provided incomplete or inconsistent information to the state in earlier reports on their offering of and contribution to employees’ insurance.

As most of us, if not all of us know, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requires companies with 11-50 full-time employees to either:

In a recent survey done by HR consultancy firm Mercer, employers selected quality improvement and market reform as their top priorities for our nation’s health care overhaul.

First on the list of priorities was quality improvement. It was listed by 60 percent of respondents as a top priority and includes among other things:

• Building more credible databases for evaluating provider performance and p ...

After their preliminary analysis of Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’ proposed health care reform bill, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates its gross total cost to be $774 billion over 10 years. The CBO states that if enacted, this bill will increase the rate of insured non-elderly Americans from approximately 83 to 94 percent.

Also, although the CBO estimates 25 million Americans will purchase insurance under the newly established exchanges, the number of people purchasing health insurance outside of the exchanges (or getting it through an employer) will only decline slightly.

For employers who want to improve the value of their dental benefits, making plan changes is just part of the solution. Effective communication is the next step, and this means providing employees with the meaningful information and tools necessary to understand both their dental benefits and oral health risks.

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