Keep Your Team with Stay Interviews
By Ashley Snodgrass, RISQ Consulting Employee Benefits Executive Account Manager
You may have heard of Exit Interviews, to find out why employees left after-the-fact, but have you heard of Stay Interviews? Stay Interviews are tools managers can use to find out what employees like about their jobs, why do they choose to stay, and what would make them leave. No matter what industry you are in, it is a tight talent market right now, mostly due to the low unemployment. When unemployment is low, there are not many job-seekers looking for work. So, where do employers with open positions find talent to fill their job openings? This is how employees are poached.
It is easier to keep an employee than to find and train a new one. What is your organization doing to retain employees? Often times in the conversation surrounding retaining employees, employers are guessing what employees want. Do employees want more time off? More flexible schedule? More challenging work? Less challenging work? More benefits? Different benefits? More opportunities to be mentored? More opportunities to prove their skills? In my experience, it seems that some employers are hesitant to ask. By asking your employees, you can hone in on the most cherished benefits that bring value to the lives of your employees.
Additionally, not all questions should center on benefits, as the culture and mission of the organization also factor in to an employee’s decision to stay or go. Do employees feel respected by leadership? Do employees feel like they can raise issues with their managers? Is there trust on teams? Do your employees know what success in their role looks like? Do all employees feel welcome and valued? The conversation surrounding retention and having a loyal team extends to all aspects of work life.
This is where we are able to implement the Stay Interview. Take time to sit down with each member of your staff to find out why they like working there, and most importantly, what would make them leave. Stay Interviews create a dialogue between managers and employees, to bring up hard to talk about issues that don’t surface in the day to day. Additionally when done properly, Stay Interviews are a tool to build trust between employees and managers. The author of The Stay Interview book, Richard Finnegan, was quoted in Forbes.com to say the following, “Hard data proves the top reason employees quit is they don’t trust their managers. Stay Interviews are the absolute best trust-building activity…and therefore the best retention tool.”
Don’t wait until your employees are leaving to find out in their exit interview what could have been done differently. Start the dialogue with your employees today to build trust, loyalty, and a strong team for your organization.
Additional Resources:
Forbes Article
Sample Stay Interview Questions
More Sample Stay Interview Questions
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The Magic Castle Hotel – The Power of Moments
By Tonya Mott, RISQ Consulting Vice President of Operations and Partner
I heard The Magic Castle Hotel creates powerful moments for their guests. In 2018 it was showing up on Trip Advisor as the #1 traveler ranked hotel in all of Los Angeles. When I do a search now it’s showing up as #6, next to places like the Beverly Hills Hotel and The Four Seasons. The hotel is located one block from Hollywood Boulevard’s walk of fame, and is a 1950s apartment building repurposed into a hotel.
This January we decided to take the kids to Universal Studios so I booked us a room at The Magic Castle Hotel. The Metro is a short walk from the hotel and only one stop away from Universal Studios. We were all excited to experience these so-called powerful moments
Here’s what they got going on:
- Popsicle Hotline – Pick up the red phone next to the heated pool someone answers, “Popsicle Hotline” and you request a popsicle. The popsicles are hand delivered by a server in white gloves on a silver tray
- Heated pool – We’re talking 88 degrees Fahrenheit year round
- Unlimited Snacks – Chips, candy, and more
- Unlimited Ice Cream
- Unlimited drinks – Soda, Powerade, soda water (multiple flavors), and filtered water
- Free breakfast – a magician performs tricks at your breakfast table three times a week.
- Free Laundry service – clean clothes delivered to your door wrapped in brown paper with a sprig of lavender
Bonus experiences:
- While we were at the pool the owner of the hotel came over and checked in with us to see how our stay was going and hung out for small talk.
- The morning we headed out to Universal one of the employees hooked us up with passes to ride the Metro for every person in our party (8 of us)
Our book club here at work is currently reading, The Power of Moments. I haven’t started it yet but I’m told by my colleagues that The Magic Castle is mentioned in the book several times as a place that does a great job at creating moments for their guests. As a parent I love creating memories and moments for my kids.
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Pet Bereavement?
By Natasha Kwachka
Recently I went through something very difficult, the loss of my sweet kitty. She fell ill and we had to make an awful decision that left not only myself but my children heartbroken. After many tears and lots of snuggles I made the choice to let my sweet girl depart this earth peacefully. Obviously I had to be right by her side, wrapped around her until the very last moment. This meant I had to be away from work for a period of time to attend her vet appointments. I have to give my team the upmost thanks, gratitude doesn’t even explain how grateful I am for each of them. We work in an awesomely unique environment. One in which I was able to take a brief break to tend to my family’s needs, and yes, I consider my kitty part of our family.
This experience made me think, what are employer’s responsibilities when it comes to allowing leave when an employee loses a pet? Is there even a policy that speaks to this? How does the corporate world react to such a need? I was overwhelmed with the amount of questions I was thinking of.
Knowing how deeply it affected me, I did some light reading came to the conclusion that our pets become part of who we are, and should be treated as such. In some cases, pets spend more time with us than other people or even family members. My pets have always been, and will always be, part of my family. Losing one of my four-legged family members caused me tremendous grief.
I believe if you make it through the hard time of losing a pet with support and understanding from your employer, it creates a safe environment for the employee. Having the space and time to grieve my loss makes me that much more appreciative for my entire team and the work environment our leaders have cultivated. My gratitude by far carries the most impact on my motivation to strive for greatness while I work in the day to day. My team and my family are where I spend the majority of my time. These two parties are where my true motivation and inspiration is derived from.
What are your thoughts? Is there a need for a pet bereavement policy in the workplace? Check out the article I came across below.
Your dog died and you expect the day off from work? Are you kidding me? by Stephen Viscusi
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Client Events – The Key to Engagement and Loyalty!
By Tiffany Stock
One of my favorite things about what I do at RISQ, after working directly with our clients, is spearheading the development of client events. Whether it is a social event, educational event or a combination of the two, the responsibility that I have gives me a lot of energy and creates some excitement in my day-to-day. With the assistance of other members of our team, I feel like we’ve done a good job of creating and executing some wonderful events for our current and future clients. From multiple sessions about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), having a futurist at our 10-year anniversary celebration, or celebrating our new name and RISQ brand at the Bear Tooth Theater with a live band – we like to have fun and bring value to our clients and the relationships we develop.
According to a study done by Eventtia, 98% of people feel more inclined to purchase your products after attending an event and 74% of attendees have a better opinion about a brand after an in-person event. Don’t get me wrong, we host our fair share of webinars but we definitely put an emphasis on in-person events so we can get some face-time with our clients outside of our normal day-to-day interactions.
Here are some items our team likes to keep in mind when planning a live event:
- Know the “why” or purpose for holding an event – keep that at the forefront of your planning to make sure your objective is being met.
- Focus on the big tasks first – then let the little details follow:
- Determine your Why/purpose
- Form your budget
- When? Give yourself plenty of time to put the event together. Three to six months at least. For bigger milestone events, longer may be necessary. Keep in mind the seasons and the time of year that might work the best for the majority of your targeted audience.
- Is there a theme?
- Who will be on the guest/invitee list? How many people are you expecting to attend?
- Where – location! Make sure it’s easily accessible for attendees or considered a preferred destination that will attract people. Be sure you venue will fit with your number of attendees and/or theme. If you’ve got your heart set on a specific location, make sure that gets factored into the preliminary planning.
- Entertainment – is it needed? What will it be?
- Invitations – will you be using email, mail, phone call, etc. Make sure the method you choose is easy to use for both you and your invitee!
- Put a big emphasis on making sure you give them a memorable experience and make them feel special! Do you have a special giveaway or gift for attending? Is this the first chance they will have to hear the information?
- Making sure your clients or prospects know what is in it for them – is your plan to educate them on a topic or situation that will affect them or is important to them? Are you giving them access to peers to help them build their network of contacts and resources?
- Recruit help! While client events may be the focus of only a few of our staff members, we always recruit others from the office to help us pull it off!
- Develop a way to get feedback after the event – especially if the goal was for education.
The points above are not all encompassing, but I hope they give you a few things to think about if you will be planning any events for your organization in the future. The key for us is to create engagement and loyalty amongst our clients in hopes of creating that lasting relationship as their trusted advisor. I look forward to seeing you at one of our future events. To keep tabs on what RISQ is planning, both virtually and in-person, please check out the “Events” section of our website by clicking here!
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Recording in the Workplace
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s MyWave Connect portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
Overview
Is it against the law for employees to record private conversations with co-workers, supervisors or executives without their consent? The answer is: It depends. There are a variety of laws that come into play, which vary based on locality, when analyzing workplace recordings. With the proliferation of smartphones and other advanced recording technology, secret workplace recordings have become more prevalent than ever. Such recordings can lead to costly lawsuits and an uncomfortable work environment for employees.
To prevent these recordings from happening at your company, you should have a basic understanding of employee rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), as well as other federal and state laws surrounding workplace recordings. Employers should check with legal counsel to help navigate through these complex laws and, if applicable, assist employers in establishing workplace policies and procedures with regard to workplace recordings.
Background
There are a variety of reasons why an employee may choose to secretly record a conversation at the workplace. Depending on the consent of the parties involved, there are laws in place that allow for secret conversations to be legally recorded—conversely, there are laws that prohibit individuals from recording secret conversations. When addressing workplace recordings, it’s important to first identify your state’s specific consent requirements.
Most states have determined whether they allow one-party or all-party consent for audio and/or video recordings. One-party consent means that only one person being recorded has to consent—that could mean the person who is doing the recording is the only one who needs to consent. Whereas all-party consent means that all people in the recording must agree to being recorded.
Recording Communications and Surveillance Laws by State
Laws regarding recording communications and surveillance vary by state. The majority of states require that only one party needs to consent to a recording—whereas 13 states require all-party consent. All-party consent states include: California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington. Although Vermont has no official statue addressing secret recordings, it is commonly considered an all-party consent state. Despite your state’s consent laws, it’s still good practice to consult with legal counsel to determine if any precautions need to be taken, such as enforcing a no-recording policy, to protect your company and employees from secret recordings.
Can I Prohibit Employees From Recording Conversations at Work?
While employees might have the right to make an audio recording in the workplace, employers do not have to allow recordings, even in one-party consent states. In fact, the National Labor Relations Board has deemed it generally permissible for employers to prohibit employees from recording conversations at the workplace. Many legal experts advise that companies create a no-recording policy. Prohibiting recordings in the workplace can strengthen an employer’s defense in litigation if the recording goes against company policy. However, when creating a no-recording policy, you should consult with legal counsel to ensure compliance with the NLRA, in addition to other federal and state laws.
Tips for Handling Secret Employee Recordings
Instances may arise where secret recordings are not viable evidence in a lawsuit. However, if unflattering recordings of your company surface, it may negatively affect the image of your business. Although having no-recording policies can decrease the likelihood this occurs, companies can never fully prevent employees from recording private conversations. To avoid negative recordings of you and your employees, consider the following action items:
- Always assume that you are being recorded—especially during disciplinary meetings.
- If you notice you are being recorded, carefully state you do not wish to be recorded. If the employee refuses, end the meeting and seek legal advice.
- Ensure all employees receive proper workplace harassment and discrimination training to avoid inappropriate work conversations.
- Promote a positive work environment for employees.
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Kidnap and Ransom – The Liam Neeson of Insurance Policies
By RISQ Consulting
If everyone had Liam Neeson’s special set of skills from the Taken series, there would be no need for kidnap and ransom (K&R) insurance. Unfortunately, K&R scenarios are a real-world possibility for many high-profile executives and individuals traveling abroad.
What is Covered
K&R policies cannot prevent an abduction or pay ransom directly, instead they are indemnity clauses which reimburse you for costs related to kidnapping. Common reimbursement claims include:
- Ransom monies paid or lost as a result of kidnapping.
- Money lost due to destruction, theft, or confiscation in delivery or transit.
- Accidental death and injury sustained during a kidnapping as well as medical and psychiatric care.
- Liability judgments brought against the victim.
- Severe disruption of business operations and damage to company brand.
- Salary replacement, relocation, and job retraining.
Many policies include provisions for crisis management consultants who advise on incident response or prevention and reaction training for insured individuals.
Who Needs K&R Insurance Coverage
The most commonly targeted individuals include high-net worth and high-profile executives, celebrities, strategic decision makers, and people with ties to them including family members and employees.
Missionaries, volunteers, and reporters working in volatile areas may also be targets as a result of political and public reactions surrounding their capture.
Susceptible Locations for Kidnapping Occurrences
Policies are generally written to cover specific trips. Fees and coverage are based on individual factors including the insured’s country of residence, region and length of travel, revenue, and industry.
Mexico, Venezuela, Haiti, Nigeria, certain countries in Latin America, parts of the Russian Federation, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, particularly Afghanistan and Iraq, are commonly named K&R policies.
The U.S. Department of State maintains a list of travel advisories worldwide (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/) which specifically highlights dangerous regions.
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House Passes Spending Bill That Would Repeal Some ACA Taxes
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s MyWave Connect portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
Overview
On Dec. 17, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a short-term continuing spending resolution to prevent a government shutdown and continue funding through September 2020. If signed into law, the spending bill would repeal the following three largely unpopular taxes and fees under the Affordable Care Act (ACA):
- The Cadillac tax on high-cost group health coverage, beginning in 2020;
- The medical devices excise tax, beginning in 2020; and
- The health insurance providers fee, beginning in 2021.
The bill would also extend the PCORI fees to be effective for 2020-2029. This bill would need to be passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Trump before taking effect.
Action Steps
Employers should be aware of the evolving applicability of existing ACA taxes and fees so that they know how the ACA affects their bottom lines. RISQ Consulting will continue to keep you informed of changes.
Cadillac Tax
The ACA imposes a 40 percent excise tax on high-cost group health coverage, also known as the “Cadillac tax.” This provision taxes the amount, if any, by which the monthly cost of an employee’s applicable employer-sponsored health coverage exceeds the annual limitation (called the employee’s excess benefit). The tax amount for each employee’s coverage will be calculated by the employer and paid by the coverage provider.
Although originally intended to take effect in 2013, the Cadillac tax was immediately delayed until 2018 following the ACA’s enactment. A federal budget bill enacted for 2016 further delayed implementation of this tax until 2020, and also:
- Removed a provision prohibiting the Cadillac tax from being deducted as a business expense; and
- Required a study to be conducted on the age and gender adjustment to the annual limit.
Then, a 2018 continuing spending resolution delayed implementation of the Cadillac tax for an additional two years, until 2022.
There was some indication that these delays would eventually lead to an eventual repeal of the Cadillac tax provision altogether. The Cadillac tax has been a largely unpopular provision since its enactment, and a number of bills have been introduced into Congress to repeal this tax over the past several years.
If enacted, the 2019 continuing spending resolution would fully repeal the Cadillac tax, beginning with the 2020 taxable year.
Health Insurance Providers Fee
Beginning in 2014, the ACA imposed an annual, nondeductible fee on the health insurance sector, allocated across the industry according to market share. This health insurance providers fee, which is treated as an excise tax, is required to be paid by Sept. 30 of each calendar year. The first fees were due Sept. 30, 2014.
The 2016 federal budget suspended collection of the health insurance providers fee for the 2017 calendar year. Thus, health insurance issuers were not required to pay these fees for 2017. However, this moratorium expired at the end of 2017. A 2019 continuing resolution provided an additional one-year moratorium on the health insurance providers fee for the 2019 calendar year, although the fee continued to apply for the 2018 calendar year.
If enacted, the 2019 continuing spending resolution would fully repeal the health insurance providers fee, beginning with the 2021 calendar year. Employers are not directly subject to the health insurance providers fee. However, in many cases, providers of insured plans have been passing the cost of the fee on to the employers sponsoring the coverage. As a result, this repeal may result in significant savings for some employers on their health insurance rates.
Medical Devices Excise Tax
The ACA also imposes a 2.3 percent excise tax on the sales price of certain medical devices, effective beginning in 2013. Generally, the manufacturer or importer of a taxable medical device is responsible for reporting and paying this tax to the IRS. The 2016 federal budget suspended collection of the medical devices tax for two years, in 2016 and 2017. As a result, this tax did not apply to sales made between Jan. 1, 2016, and Dec. 31, 2017. A 2018 continuing resolution extended this moratorium for an additional two years, through the 2019 calendar year. The moratorium is set to expire beginning in 2020.
If enacted, the 2019 continuing spending resolution would fully repeal the medical devices tax, beginning in 2020. Therefore, as a result of both moratoriums and the repeal, the medical devices tax would not apply to any sales made after Jan. 1, 2016.
PCORI Fees
The ACA created the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to help patients, clinicians, payers and the public make informed health decisions by advancing comparative effectiveness research. The Institute’s research is funded, in part, by fees paid by health insurance issuers and sponsors of self-insured health plans. Under the ACA, the PCORI fees were scheduled to apply to policy or plan years ending on or after Oct. 1, 2012, and before Oct. 1, 2019.
If enacted, the 2019 continuing spending resolution would reinstate the PCORI fees for the 2020-2029 fiscal years. As a result, specified health insurance policies and applicable self-insured health plans would continue to be responsible for paying these fees through 2029.
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Signs You May Not Have Enough Business Interruption Coverage
By RISQ Consulting
Natural disasters, vandalism, fire, and many other factors could impact your business unexpectedly. How long could you survive a full or partial shutdown? Days? Weeks? Months?
We understand that losing access to your business hurts the bottom line, so we provide a range of business interruption insurance options. By evaluating your specific risk factors and drawing upon the global Acrisure Agency Partner network, we can develop coverage to keep your business afloat if disaster strikes.
Business interruption insurance replaces the loss of income due to suspended operation as a result of prescribed events and factors. Unlike property insurance which covers physical damage and associated costs, this coverage is intended to recoup lost revenue.
Consider Your Risks
Business interruptions affect each business differently depending on the nature of the business, its location, current economic conditions, and several other factors. If your business could be affected by one or more of these tell-tale risks, we advise you to consider business interruption coverage.
- Volatile Location – The possibility of natural disasters, high rates of crime, aging municipal infrastructure, and political instability could all halt your business. Whether a result of nature or human interference, if the location of your business is unstable, so is your ability to stay open.
- Tight Interdependency – While being a part of an interconnected network of businesses or supply chains can increase your company’s productivity, the same dependency can create cascading problems when issues arise. If you rely on an outside source for parts, labor, or services you need to prepare for possible repercussions.
- Critical Equipment – When vital pieces of machinery are damaged, wait times for repair or replacement may freeze your productivity. Beyond insurance policies written to repair and replace such assets with physical insurance, business interruption coverage can be used to offset lost production earnings.
- Financial State – Bills don’t stop just because business is on hold. Depending on your business’ success and age, business interruption coverage can mean the difference between bouncing back and throwing in the towel.
Audit Your Policy
Depending on the length and severity of a shut down, business interruptions can eat away at a company’s bottom line. Would your business be able to weather the storm?
Thoroughly reviewing your current policies and unique risk factors is the best way to determine if you have adequate business interruption insurance, but you don’t have to go it alone.
Combining data and historical factors, our team can audit your current policy. By assessing your risk level, valuations and coverage needs, we get to know your company inside and out to develop holistic solutions.
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DOL Issues Model Health Care Transparency Disclosure Documents
This article is from RISQ Consulting’s MyWave Connect portal, a resource available to all RISQ Consulting clients. Please contact your Benefits Consultant or Account Executive for more information or for help setting up your own login.
Overview
The Department of Labor (DOL) has released the following three model disclosure documents related to a November proposed rule on transparency in coverage for group health plans and health insurers in the individual and group markets.
- Proposed Transparency in Coverage Model Notice
- Proposed Negotiated Rate Data Elements
- Proposed Allowed Amount Data Elements
These documents were issued as appendices to the proposed rule, and are intended to be used to satisfy its disclosure requirements.
Action Steps
The transparency in health coverage proposals would apply to issuers of insured plans and sponsors of self-insured group health plans. However, they would not apply to grandfathered plans.
The Departments have requested comments on both the proposed rule and the required disclosure documents. Comments must be submitted by Jan. 14, 2020.
Health Care Transparency Proposed Rule
The November proposed rule would impose new transparency requirements on group health plans and health insurers in the individual and group markets—including self-insured plans. Specifically, the proposed rule includes the following two approaches intended to make health care price information accessible to consumers and other stakeholders, allowing for easy comparison-shopping.
- First, each non-grandfathered group health plan or health insurance issuer offering non-grandfathered health insurance coverage in the individual and group markets would be required to disclose personalized out-of-pocket cost information for all covered health care items and services through an internet-based self-service tool and in paper form available to participants, beneficiaries and enrollees (or their authorized representative) upon request. This includes estimates of the individual’s cost-sharing liability for health care for different providers.
- Second, each non-grandfathered group health plan or health insurance issuer offering non-grandfathered health insurance coverage in the individual and group markets would be required to disclose to the public (including stakeholders such as consumers, researchers, employers and third-party developers) the in-network negotiated rates with their network providers and historical payments of allowed amounts to out-of-network providers through standardized, regularly updated machine-readable files.
The provisions included in the proposed rule are proposed to apply for plan years (or, in the individual market, policy years) beginning on or after one year after the finalization of the rule.
Model Disclosure Documents
In conjunction with the proposed rule, the DOL issued the following model disclosure documents:
- Proposed Transparency in Coverage Model Notice—As part of an estimate of an individual’s cost-sharing liability, the proposed rule requires plans and issuers to provide a notice of any required prerequisite for the item or service, and a notice explaining certain limitations that are applicable to the individual’s cost-sharing liability estimate. This model notice is intended to satisfy those notice requirements under the proposed rules.
- Proposed Negotiated Rate Data Elements—Under the proposed rule, plans and issuers must disclose in-network provider negotiated rates through a machine-readable file posted on an internet website. The “negotiated rate” is the amount a plan or issuer (or a third party on behalf of the plan or issuer) has contractually agreed to pay an in-network provider for covered items and services. This model disclosure includes a table that identifies proposed data elements that a plan or issuer would be required to include in each negotiated rate machine-readable file.
- Proposed Allowed Amount Data Elements—Under the proposed rule, plans and issuers must disclose certain data elements to the public, including allowed amounts for out-of-network providers, through a machine-readable file posted on an internet website. This model disclosure includes a table that identifies data elements that a plan or issuer would be required to include in each allowed amount machine-readable file.
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