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  • You work hard to recruit and hire the best employees that you possibly can. It’s only logical that you want to keep these employees engaged, happy, and working well on your team.

    Employee turnover can be an inconvenient, time-intensive challenge. But employee turnover costs even more than time: it costs money.

    Costs of Employee Loss

    According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Center for Community and Economic Development (CCED), turn-over rates are very costly for organizations.

    The costs of employee turnover are both tangible and intangible. These costs include separation costs and replacement costs.

    Separation Costs

    Separation costs can include:

    • Costs incurred for exit interviews
    • Administrative functions related to separation
    • Separation/severance pay
    • Increases in unemployment compensation
    • Lost productivity
    • Lowering current employee morale
    • Decreased customer service
    • Disruption to the organization’s ability to operate efficiently and effectively
    • Increased over-time or temporary employee costs
    • Loss of workgroup synergy
    • Performance differential (the loss of skills and knowledge between the separated employee and the new hire)

    Replacement Costs

    Replacement costs can include:

    • Attracting applicants
    • Entrance interviews
    • Employment Testing
    • Pre-employment administrative expenses
    • Medical exams, drug testing, background checks
    • Training costs

    SHRM estimates that it costs $3,500.00 to replace one $8.00 per hour employee when all costs were considered. Of course, the higher the wage: the higher the turnover cost.

    ***

    Now you know the cost of employee turnover. Check back next week to learn more about how to prevent turnover by retaining great employees in Part II of this series: Employee Retention: Keeping Top Talent.

  • Recently, I turned 48. Forty years ago, the age of 48 looked and sounded ancient. When I hit my 30s, it no longer seemed so old. I’ve been seeing a lot of stories recently about people I know or know of who are dying in their 50s and 60s. As I look at my two daughters, I grow more concerned about the prospect of only being on this planet for another 10-15 years.

    Every morning I curse my 4:55 a.m. alarm when it wakes me so I can meet my buddy Kurt for our 6 a.m. workout. Having a workout partner helps on those cold Cleveland mornings — and there are many! However, as I was making that trek in to work out, I thought how lucky I was to be working for a company that values employee wellness the way GMS does.

    Healthy Employees are Productive Employees

    There definitely is a financial component to this value. Small businesses and large companies alike can see a $3 reduction in their health insurance premiums for every $1 that they spend on employee wellness.

    In addition, healthier, fitter employees tend to be more productive employees. In a recent article, Lee Dukes, president of Principal Wellness Company says “It’s in every employer’s interest to have healthier, happier, more productive employees.” To that end, “Employers have to do more than offer wellness programs; in order to see the benefits, they have to incent participation.”

    Incentivizing Wellness

    In my travels as a sales rep, I talk to business owners across a wide range of industries. I have yet to meet anyone who dismisses wellness as a fad, but most only pay lip service to it. Most are not willing to offer employees incentives to stay healthy.

    Should we as employees be interested in our own health? Absolutely! Can we be more interested if there’s an incentive? Yes.

    I have seen firsthand at GMS an uptick in physical activities among employees every year in the third quarter when we have our annual wellness contest. I have also seen many of those habits in my fellow employees carry on throughout the year.

    Many of these same Ohio small business owners I talk to don’t think about healthier employees being more productive employees. They buy into the idea that it’s none of their business what the employees do with their personal time and habits. However, healthier employees are not just more productive, they also tend to work more injury-free, greatly helping small businesses in their risk management and lowered worker’s compensation claims.

    Long and Healthy Lives

    When I go home at night and I’m too physically tired to do everything my daughters want me to do, I do take some comfort in knowing that I’m doing what I can to make sure that I’ll be around for another 30-40 years.

    Have you thought about these issues? I’d love to hear what others are doing to help ensure they lead long and health lives. What are some ways employers can incentivize wellness?

  • Your PTO Policy

    When an employee calls to say they woke up feeling like death warmed over, do you have to tell them to drag their butt to work because your company doesn’t have a Sick Time Policy? Or when you receive vacation requests, do you have to think twice about how to track it because your Time Off Policy is so complex? Unfortunately, many would answer yes to these questions because of inefficient Paid Time Off (PTO) Policies.

     

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    Keep It Simple

    As a benefit that many companies offer to their employees, PTO Policies are constantly evolving to accommodate the changes in the working world. However, many employers fall into the trap of overly complicated policies that are not only difficult for employees to understand, but difficult to track. Keeping a simple policy that will make employees happy and maintain effective workplace attendance is easier than you might think. 

    An accrual table based upon tenure is a simple way to track the amount of time an employee may take off. It fosters employee loyalty as they work to climb the ladder to achieve more vacation time, while the accrual method regulates how frequently time off can be taken by not awarding PTO all at once.

    Charmaine Hollaway wrote a recent article addressing increased vacation time requests around the holidays. An organization can effectively manage such requests by creating a time off policy that incorporates the following:

    • Place a cap on the number of days that employees may request during a vacation leave.
    • Regulate the number of employees from within a department that may be out at any given time.
    • Mandate how much notice employees must provide prior to taking vacation.

    Simultaneously tracking a Vacation and Sick policy for employees can be further simplified by automating the accruals through your payroll service. Working with a professional employer organization like GMS makes this possible. Our HR Account Managers can help you design a policy that is tailored to your company’s needs and we can automate the tracking to take that time-consuming task off of your plate. So the next time you look to update your PTO Policy, consider simplifying the process.

    Quote Source: Midwest HR

    Image Source: Call Center Comics

  • Virtually every company in America is bound by the Federal Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).

    This law “regulates the status of employees (versus independent contractors) and provides for a minimum wage and overtime unless the employee meets an exempt classification.” However, the scope of this law is not simply limited to employees’ wages.

    Protecting Whistle Blowers

    Did you know that an added feature of the FLSA is the protection of employees who may be labeled “whistle blowers”?

    Under the FLSA, an employee cannot be retaliated against for filling an official complaint against their employer with a government agency. According to an article on JD Supra’s legal website, a recent 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling has expanded this law to include “intra-company” complaints. They have also stipulated that this complaint can be in written ororal form.

    Forming a Written Policy

    As with any kind of employee-related issue, the best protection for an employer is the proper documentation of any employee events. By documentation, I don’t just mean that a supervisor should write it down and file it. All the documentation in the world doesn’t mean a thing unless the employees know what the rules of the game are.

    That’s why every company should have a written policy on how to handle employee complaints—and every employee should know exactly what that policy is. The tricky part is knowing just how much is too little and when you may have gone too far in setting up your company rules.

    Avoiding FLSA Issues

    Companies with the strongest Human Resource infrastructures in place are the ones who are least susceptible to FLSA penalties or potential employee lawsuits. To help protect themselves from ever-evolving government regulations, companies are looking for assistance in employer liability management.

    For many companies, a Professional Employer Organization like GMS can help.

  • In a former life I was a general manager. A large part of my position was screening and interviewing potential new hires. This important yet time-consuming process included:

    1. Phone screening
    2. Background checks
    3. Scheduling initial interviews
    4. Clearing my schedule to make time for interviews
    5. Conducting interviews

    …you get my point.

    Recruiting Takes Major Time

    My assistant managers and I would spend between 1 to 3 hours each week on these administrative functions, depending on the season. That averages out to 100 hours over the course of a year.

    During this entire time I was unaware of the HR and recruiting assistance offered by a professional employer organization (PEO) such as Group Management Services Inc., which would have cut those hours by more than half.

    Saving time – sounds good right? It gets even better.

    Finding the Best Candidates

    In a recent Inc. article, Ed Powers shares this insight about initial recruiting efforts:

    “Get a big funnel. You don’t want to be overwhelmed with candidates who all look the same, but you do want to have enough candidates so that you can be selective within a large pool. Reaching out beyond your usual go-to sources can uncover skilled candidates you may not have realized were out there.”

    When recruiting to add to your team, it’s important to:

    • Have a larger reach of candidates
    • Ask consistent questions
    • Fully comply with EEOC and labor laws

    Who can consistently meet those criteria: your HR recruiting professional from GMS, or you?

  • We’re happy to announce that this week, Group Management Services (GMS), received the Weatherhead 100 award in recognition as one of Northeast Ohio’s fastest growing companies. From 2008 through 2012, GMS experienced a 55.5% growth in sales, making us the largest Ohio-based professional employer organization. The Weatherhead 100 award is given to companies whose net sales grew from at least $100,000 to over $1 million in the last five years and employed a minimum of 16 people full-time in 2012. 

     

     

    Mike Kahoe founded Group Management Services in 1996 and has built the company into an industry and regional leader with over $30 million in revenue. An 8-time Weatherhead recipient, GMS services over 800 clients in 42 states.  With over 90% of our clients renewing their contracts each year, our administrative outsourcing services touch the lives of more than 14,000 employees.

    As a professional employer organization, GMS helps small and medium sized business owners focus on what matters most – growing their business. With GMS, business owners can eliminate the time and costly resources dedicated to administrative duties such as:

    • Human Resources
    • Payroll & Tax Services
    • Benefits
    • Risk Management

    Group Management Services has continually expanded its services for small and medium sized business and in 2013, launched Group Captive Management, a self-insured captive insurance company. To enhance their third-party administration services, GMS merged Ogden Benefits Administration, Employee Benefit Concepts and Variable Protection Administrators into their offerings this year. 

    The Weatherhead School of Management has been recognizing the region’s fastest growing companies for more than 25 years. The Weatherhead 100 awards were established to celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit of Northeast Ohio and to recognize those companies which serve as leaders to all the region’s businesses. 

  • The news channels are flooded with updates on the trials and tribulations of the Affordable Care Act’s website and accompanying registration process. Politics aside, the implementation of this piece of legislation could mean big changes and larger financial challenges for your health benefits plan.

    Most small business owners today are able to provide some form of health insurance coverage for their employees through large commercial healthcare plans. However, with the Affordable Care Act, these plans will come at a cost for business owners. In fact, Ohio businesses are expected to see a 71% increase in these premiums. 

    These high increases may force you to reduce or eliminate the health benefits you are able to extend to your employees, forcing them to buy insurance from the government’s healthcare marketplace.

    An Alternative to Government Healthcare

    The appeal that the Affordable Care Act has for many Americans is also one of its biggest challenges for those looking to enroll. Long wait times, sparse customer service and other registration obstacles will make it difficult, not to mention aggravating, for your employees to secure health benefits which match their needs.  

    Fortunately, you have another option for your company’s health benefits. You can implement a self-insured plan. Self-insured companies are responsible for their own medical costs, eliminating the need to subsidize the healthcare expenses of other insurance groups.  

    How Self-Insured Policies Work

    Self-insured healthcare provides plan flexibility, control and the potential for premium reductions for your business. Companies are responsible for contributing to a claims fund each month and that money is used to cover all employee medical expenses beyond their out-of-pocket costs. With a self-insured plan, you can still provide quality care to your employees and protect them from having to navigate through miles of government red tape.

    An essential component for any self-insured policy is known as the TPA, or third-party administrator. TPAs ensure that your employees are getting all the benefits promised to them in their insurance policy.  

    Who Has the Time?

    Of course, if you’re a small-to-medium sized company, you are probably thinking “Sounds great, but we don’t have the time or resources to manage self-insured policies ourselves.” 

    That’s where GMS comes in. Our services:

    • Let you focus on growing your business. We cover everything from eligibility to claims management and even customer service.
    • We’ll worry about the policy details. You worry about growing your business.
    • Save you money. We underwrite a custom policy for your group so you won’t pay for extra insurance that you don’t really need.
    • Limit your risk. We offer stop-loss insurance, which minimizes your exposure in the event of an unforeseen and major health claim.

    Learn more on how a self-insured plan administered by GMS can drastically reduce your health care costs, increase the cash flow of your business and ultimately provide better coverage for your employees and their dependents. Contact us today. 

    Image credit: 

    Creative Commons Image: Images_of_Money

     

  • With the waters of healthcare becoming murkier every day, employers and employees abdicate many of the cost-auditing responsibilities regarding their healthcare to their insurance company. Unfortunately, placing this level of trust in your company’s health insurance carrier leaves the proverbial fox to mind the hen house.

    Those who purchase health coverage through a commercial provider mistakenly believe their insurance company is actively advocating for them and monitoring the costs incurred for healthcare services. While this is far from the case, the shocking part of this reality is that the insurance companies are forcing you to pay more than you should for your company’s coverage.  

    Benefits of Self-Insured Plans

    A self-insured health plan can reduce healthcare premiums for your small business by reducing overhead and other management costs charged by big insurance plans. When you have a third-party administrator like Group Management Services manage your self-insured plan, you ensure your employees receive everything promised to them in their plan and limit you from spending more money than anticipated. 

    Negotiate prices: Insurance companies are billed by the hospital based on what the hospital thinks they should charge for their services. On the other hand, TPAs look at what the hospitals pay Medicare – which is often considerably less than what the hospital would bill to an insurance company – and negotiate healthcare costs from there. This can have significant impact on healthcare costs (in your favor). To learn more about this business model, I encourage you to read this article from the New York Times about the “$1,000 toothbrush.” 

    Eliminate Price Secrecy: The practice of provider and hospital consolidation in the marketplace creates an uneven playing field for insurance companies to negotiate true cost-savings for their members. A TPA like GMS will underwrite a custom policy for your group so you don’t pay for coverage that the group doesn’t need and monitors all claims to reduce your financial risk. 

    Audit bills: TPAs have the resources and knowledge to help your employee check each bill to ensure there is no double billing for equipment or health care services. A TPA can challenge prices for services that are beyond “reasonable and customary,” substantially reducing patient bills and keeping your claims down.

    Employee peace-of-mind: With the changing landscape of healthcare, you can assure your employees have job security along with quality and affordable health coverage. A TPA’s main concern is you and your employees, ensuring a more personable and attentive service experience. 

    Increased cash flow: Self-insured plans managed through a TPA brings the control of processing of health claims back in-house, minimizing losses and reducing administrative costs. 

    Self-insured plans through a third-party administrator like GMS can give you more control of your coverage and help cut costs, while still providing quality coverage to your employees. Interested in how a self-insured plan could help your business? Get a quote now or speak with one of GMS’ TPA experts. 

  • In 2014, small group health insurance premiums in Ohio are expected to increase by 71%. As a business owner, you know that healthcare is already a significant expense, and increases like this are likely keeping you awake at night, wondering how you can keep employees insured AND pay the bills.

    Fortunately, you can start sleeping better again, because Group Management Services has a completely unique and customizable solution that enables you to provide the coverage your group needs while limiting your expenses and business risks associated with healthcare coverage.

    To give you an idea about how GMS can do this, let’s first take a look at how small and medium-sized businesses are covered today: fully insured plans.

    Fully Insured Healthcare Plans

    Under fully insured healthcare plans, the insurance company will determine your business’s premiums based on projected claims, which are determined by the Experience Rating (soon to be Community Rating). In essence,  groups are rated on a scale. The closer to 1 the  group is, the healthier. The healthier the  group, the lower the premium.

    The problem with this scenario is that the insurance company determines how healthy a person is AND how much that person’s premium is going to be. As a business owner, they don’t provide any solutions or alternatives.  Self funding with GMS provides options.  

    A Healthcare Solution For Business Owners

    As a business owner, this can be pretty daunting.

    Enter our two-step solution, which not only limits your healthcare expenses, but keeps the quality of those benefits at the level your employees deserve.

    Step 1: Self-Insured Healthcare

    GMS is proud to announce the launch of Group Captive Management (GCM), a self-insured captive insurance company that benefits your business in many ways:

    1. Save money: We will underwrite a custom policy for your group so you won’t have to pay for insurance that your group doesn’t need.
    2. Increase cash flow
    3. Limit your risk: Stop-loss insurance will minimize your exposure
    4. Spend time growing the business: GMS covers everything, from  eligibility to claims to customer service. Don’t spend time buried in the details. Leave that to us.
    5. Keep employees happy: Instead of dropping insurance altogether, reducing employees’ to part-time hours, laying employees off, or going out of business, you can offer great health benefits  while competitors are struggling to cope with the healthcare changes.

    Step 2: Third-Party Administration

    We are also proud to announce today the acquisition of third-party administrators: Ogden Benefits Administration, Employee Benefit Concepts, and Variable Protection Administrators.

    This acquisition, in conjunction with our self-insured plans, provides even more benefits to small and medium-sized business owners:

    1. Further earn your trust: With our TPA services, we hold ourselves accountable for the policies we underwrite for your group. You will know that your employees are getting all the healthcare benefits promised.
    2. Lower your premiums: GMS now has access to tools that can keep your healthcare claims low, which keeps your premiums lower and your cash flow higher.
    3. Centralize points of contact: You no longer have to hire and pay a separate TPA. Now, you can work directly with GMS for all of your healthcare benefits needs.  

    Let’s Get in Touch

    Sure, there are a lot of healthcare changes coming your way. But you don’t have to navigate them on your own.

    Regardless of whether you’re a client or a prospect, the time is now to make your business simpler, safer and stronger. Give us a call at 330-659-0100 or contact us for more information about our self-insured and TPA services today.  

  • Effective September 1, new withholding tables will result in increased take-home pay for Ohio workers.  Governor Kasich’s plan will lower the income tax rates 10% over the next three years with a majority of the decrease coming in 2013. In addition to the lower payroll withholding rates, small businesses will see tax savings of up to 50%.  And while that’s great for payroll and businesses, Ohio will also see an increase in sales tax by .25%.   

    A brief description of the withholding rate change was released by Tax Commissioner Joe Testa on August 26th, and can be found at: http://www.tax.ohio.gov/Portals/0/communications/news_releases/NR_TaxWithholdingCut.pdf.

    The Department of taxation released an update of the sales rates on their website at:  http://www.tax.ohio.gov/sales_and_use/rate_changes.aspx.

    Have questions? Leave a comment below or contact us at 330-659-0100!