Benefits Mgmt
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Salary and Benefits are NOT Engagement Tools
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So you’re thinking about getting married. You go out and buy a ring with a diamond in it, you figure out a romantic place to ask, and then you get down on one knee and pop the question. Somehow, she says “yes.” They key is that there are probably a large number of reasons she…
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HRO is not Dead
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HRO has seemed dead for at least a couple of years now. A couple years ago it was almost all I was writing about, and there were mega deals to be had every other month. All consultants were talking about to their clients was deciding if they should outsource or not. At the time, HRO…
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Problems with Wellness?
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I’ve listened to radio shows where the host clearly knows she is on the wrong side of mass opinion. In fact, they are probably not on the wrong side of mass opinion, but instead just trying to get conversation and debate going. Sometimes on the radio, they are actually just trying to piss off an…
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Myths of Employee Engagement: Part 2
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Yesterday I posted some basic reactions to WorkUSA’s research on employee engagement and manager communications. Today, I’d like to continue with some reactions to the second half of their “key findings.” Some of you may thing “Does Dubs always have to disagree?” Well, I don’t always. But I do like to put my particular spin…
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Social Security Reform Revisited
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This past week, President Bush resurrected the issue of Social Security Reform. As part of this political season, it seems he wants to flex some presidential muscle by attempting to re-establish his core initiatives which have stalled in congress over the past 6 years. Clearly, the war on terror has made a robust domestic agenda…
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100% Claims Audits Revisited
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Nearly one year ago, Double Dubs graciously asked me to be a regular contributor on this most amazing blog of his. I think all of us can agree that what he has built here is impressive. He has created a reference tool for HR professionals (both in and out of the technology space) to come…
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Traditional Outsourcers – Vendor Updates
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Outsourcers: This is a rather boring category as there are only 2 traditional outsourcers worth mentioning. However, the last several years have been interesting for both of them, but I’ll back up an entire decade since many people I talk to are pretty far behind on their news (the below in alpha order): ADP Global…
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A Technological Approach to Claims Audit
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The last two weeks I wrote about the ineffectiveness of traditional claims audit and the inherent conflict of interest some companies face when they perform such audits. This week I’d like to introduce a company that brings a different approach to the industry: HR Best Practices. HR Best Practices was founded by Howard Gerver five…
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Independent Consulting: Perception or Reality?
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Last week, Barbara Martinez wrote a very in-depth article which appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal (September 18, 2006; Page A1). A subscription to WSJOnline is necessary to view the article, but I encourage you to read it if at all possible. In the article Ms. Martinez writes about independence in…
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TCO: Measuring Risk
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In a prior post I wrote about the Total Cost of Ownership (“TCO”) in the context of risk. Today I would like to write about techniques to measure the cost of risk, particularly in the case of administering benefit plans. The shortfall of TCO modeling for administrative functions is that typically, quantifying the costs of…
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TCO in the Context of Risk
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Many regular readers of SystematicHR know that I conducted a Total Cost of Ownership study to determine the cost of benefits administration. The results were released last December. Double Dubs commented on it here, and it is how I originally came to find his great blog. Generally, TCO is a means at getting at hidden…
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Relationship Management V – Implementation
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I was talking with a client this week about the implementation of an outsourced solution to payroll, HRIS and benefits administration that he would soon be going through. He has every intention of engaging third party assistance with the implementation. He’s seen things go very wrong for companies who attempted to go it alone with…
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Social Security Reform
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Donald Glade of Sourcing Analytics writes a great opinion on Social Security reform here. Just thought I’d point it out.
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Attraction and Retention vs. Cost Containment
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Deloitte and ISCEBS (International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists) recently pushed out their annual list of top 5 total rewards priorities for 2006Deloitte, 2006. “Top Five Total Rewards Priorities for 2006.” Retrieved from http://www.iscebs.org on January 31, 2006.. The group of individuals surveyed was ISCEBS members and Deloitte clients. Remember that the results are…
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7 Habits of Effective Communications
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While I’m not a “communicator” in HRIT we are often involved in communications at levels we don’t think about. Basically, any time we’re implementing a system that will include a form of manager or employee self service, or designing a report for distribution, we should be thinking about what the communication effect is. More broadly…
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Wal Mart HMO – really…
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Nope, I wasn’t kidding. Is there anything that the “great” Wal Mart won’t do or try? Wal Mart HMO press release. ExtendChoice(TM) is a defined contribution health care program that allows employers to provide their employees tax free dollars to be used to secure their own individual health insurance and/or pay for qualified medical expenses.…
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ADP Benefit TCO study
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ADP’s benefit TCO study presented some very interesting numbers as well as a few questions: First, I’m not at all surprised that outsourced benefit administration is less costly from a TCO (total cost of ownership) measure than in-house benefit admin. However, let’s look at some of the unspoken assumptions in the survey: The average size…
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KPMG does not know the difference between DB and DC?
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Well, we all know there is a HUGE difference between accountants and actuaries. (Do I need to tell any actuary jokes?) But this press release is a rather harsh example of why a good HR consulting firm lime Mercer, Towers Perrin or Wyatt should be doing your benefits consulting and not a Big 4 firm.…
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Off-topic for me – 401(k) plans
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Since I work for one of the major HR consulting firms, I heard this statistic and didn’t believe it. Then I saw it written on BLR.com. (ok – now you know I don’t work for Hewitt – and no, I don’t consider them a real consulting firm anymore) Hewitt says its study of nearly 200,000…
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Total Comp Statement Implementations
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Regina had this to say about total compensation statements (TCS) and branding. I absolutely agree. However, I wanted to write about some of the technical considerations around TCS as well. We all know that implementation for any system is never as simple as it should be. Ideally TCS should be composed of ALL the elements…