by Holley Maher
Recently I participated in a strategic planning session with 15 other executives managing anywhere from 10 to 300 employees. The facilitator posed an interesting question to the group: “What is the primary challenge you’re facing as an organization?” The answers were not surprising.
How about your company? Is your leadership team striving to accomplish any of the following?
• Improve employee engagement
• Develop more streamlined processes
• Manage industry changes
• Increase profitability
• Design and execute succession plans
Maybe the specific challenges/objectives of your company were not listed, but odds are your organizational goals include the bottom line and your employees.
Salaries and benefits are in the top three to five expenses for a company. When it comes to annual benefit planning, many employers wait until the 90- to 100-day window before renewal to begin planning. Unfortunately, this is a reactive model. Benefits are more complicated today than ever. The workforce is more diverse than ever. The Department of Labor collects more in fines each year. Many businesses are operating on a lean budget and are in dire need of predictive modeling tools to manage future expenses.
If a business has a priority to increase employee engagement and if benefits add an extra 10% to an employee’s wages, then doesn’t it make all the sense in the world to implement an innovative and well-thought-out communication strategy that engages and educates employees well beyond an announcement letter or a group meeting at open enrollment?
2016 is halfway over. Save yourself future time and money by carving out a few hours this month to identify priorities and develop a roadmap for the future.
Holley Maher (hmaher@SmartBenefitsPlus.com) is a partner at Maher, Rosenheim, Comfort & Tabash LLC, specializing in group and individual insurance.
Submitted 7 years 336 days ago