HR’s Next Generation: Observations from Teaching Compensation

I finally got the chance to return to school – not as a student, but as an instructor of two compensation courses: one at Seneca College and the other at the University of Toronto. The students at Seneca are early in their career, pursuing their HR or payroll designation while the students at U of T are graduate students completing their Masters in Industrial Relations and Human Resources.

After just over a year of teaching, I realize I’m learning as much as they are. The first thing I learned is that, despite my expertise in compensation, my knowledge of the tricks of trade, and my many “been there, done that” stories did not necessarily mean I know how to teach. My wife, a grade 4 school teacher, could have told me that, but, of course, I had to learn the hard way.  I ask for a sincere apology from my first set of students, the poor guinea pigs.

But I do have some interesting observations about the upcoming generation of HR professionals.  I also learned of few of my own lessons and I share them with you here.

• Students continue to struggle with the ongoing disconnect between theory and practice.  Perhaps its just part of a teacher’s experience in educating, but I find the disconnect between academia and actual business application to be a little concerning.   In the real world of business, certain behaviours regularly take place side-by-side with the actual practice of the business.  These include the need to prioritize actions based on business needs and objectives, available resources, and, of course, budget.   It also includes certain subtleties such as sensitivity to internal or external politics.  Unfortunately, I found too many students unfamiliar with how to integrate that awareness into their practices; they were not necessarily sensitized, during their earlier academic training, on how to determine where to focus their energies.  I’ve come to understand that I need to help them grasp the practicalities and realities of a real-life human resources professional.

• I became a better communicator.  I had to learn to communicate better in order to teach the mysteries of compensation, pay equity, incentive plan design, market analysis and related areas.  The benefit to me is that I find myself to be a better communicator with my own clients and am more sensitive to ensuring work nuances and project outcomes are clearly understood.

• People rise to the occasion.  They may have gone kicking and screaming the whole way, but when challenged, my students rose to the occasion and did a great job.  Often, diploma content is focused on learning and remembering material as opposed to developing independent and critical thinking, but my students enjoyed the challenge of the latter.  They valued the “ah-ha” moments that occurred when they rose above the basics of the matter and achieved some real learning through their own mental processes. They were not used to it, but did so when asked.

• Self confidence required in business.  Finally, I realized that one of the most important lessons to teach students (and it was the one that was least present before) was self confidence, specifically, the confidence to defend one’s position, speak in front of the class, and challenge another’s point of view. Being spoon-fed or told one is always right does not prepare a future professional to confidently respond to a challenge and defend one’s position. I found that just as important as the actual topic is the need to give students confidence to move forward in their careers and become able contributors to their future organizations. My job as a consultant is to provide effective recommendations and to build my clients’ confidence about how to go forward. So, too, I wish to give this to my students.

There is a lot more I could talk about such as the differences between college and university and opinions about pay equity.  I’ll have to leave that for another blog. For now, I need to get back to marking assignments.

Steven Osiel

VP, Total Rewards

Spare Yourself Administrative, Litigation Grief

As a Service Consultant who works closely with benefit plan administrators across Canada, I notice some common benefit related tribulations that can take up a fair bit of my clients’ time.  Let me share a few with you and, perhaps by reading through, you might be inspired to correct any lapses or gaps that might exist in your benefit plan administration.  Basically, I’m writing now to spare you some administrative or litigation grief later.

• Beneficiary appointments/updates – Those of us in the benefits world are well aware that people usually don’t think much about their insurance details…not unless there is a problem.  We get that.  But, in the event of a problem, details obviously need to be in order.  A major one is that of beneficiary appointments and this applies to life, optional life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance (AD&D).  Considering that families often evolve, plan members need to occasionally re-visit their beneficiary decision. As a plan administrator if you are aware of a change in an employee’s life such as marriage, divorce, or a new child, this is a good opportunity to remind them to update their beneficiary information.  Otherwise, there could be an issue at the time of claim and that is not a good time to discover that an ex-spouse is still listed as primary beneficiary. 

Reminding employees to remember their beneficiary designation is also an opportunity to discuss adding or removing dependents from benefits.  Keep in mind that original signatures are always required.  Given the advancements in technology, some clients are moving to paperless environments; despite that, it is important to remember that an original signature is always required for beneficiary purposes.

• Make sure to inform ALL carriers – When there are updates to name, dependent, coverage, or salary, most plan administrators are great at informing the health and dental provider about the changes.  But if you have multiple carriers – one for disability, one for life, etc. – don’t forget to inform ALL of them of these changes, too.  Obviously, all providers need to be made aware of personal updates affecting an individual’s coverage.

And, to wrap up, I have a suggestion on how you can save yourself some time by reducing the number of benefit questions you may get.  If you find yourself spending too much time telling people how many units of dental scaling they are entitled to or whether or not there is any room left in their vision benefit for a new pair of glasses, you should direct employees to your insurer’s resources for answers to common questions.  Most insurer websites have personal and secure log-in features allowing plan members to look up coverage details, claims status, etc., and enables on-line claiming.  Encourage plan members to register for on-line access and free up some of your time.

I hope that helps!

Amy Gasparini

Pal Service Consultant

Too Much Sugar in Your Benefits Program?

In a drug landscape weighed down by the high personal and fiscal costs associated with Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, the media’s recent debate on sugar regulation comes as no surprise.  This attack on sugar almost makes sense when you consider this sequence: Too much sugar has an unhealthy impact upon diet; poor diet is a critical risk factor contributing to obesity; obesity has implications for ill health and all this manifests itself both at work and at home.   

I’m not going to make a statement as to whether or not sugar should be regulated but I’ll direct you to one recent National Post article and to its rebuttal and you can decide for yourself.

Instead, since March is National Nutrition Month, and because we’re in the business of helping you with your benefits, retirement, and compensation programs, I’ll share some tips on how to reduce your exposure to too much sugar which, I hope, will be good for you, your employees, and your benefit experience.  I invite you to share this information within your workplace.

As a trained chef, I’ve studied nutrition and here are my hints on how to avoid consuming more sugar. 

1. Processed Food – Almost all processed products on the supermarket shelves, including health foods, are topped up with extra sugar.  “Low Fat” products are some of the worst culprits because the fat is often replaced by sugar to boost flavor and, consequently, calories.   Be careful: Some of our typical Canadian breakfasts contain more than 65 grams of sugar – equivalent to nearly 3 Skor chocolate bars or 13 teaspoons of sugar!
2. Your Own Food – Cook from scratch with items that have only ONE ingredient. (Fruits, vegetables, spices, meats, legumes, etc.)  As a guide to the freshest one-ingredient items, shop the outside of the grocery store and avoid the aisles.
3. Read labels. You would be surprised at how much sugar is used (and in large amounts, too) in foods wherein you wouldn’t expect to see it.  Ingredients are listed in order of concentration so see if sugar is in the top five.
4. Watch condiments and sauces. Ketchup, some salad dressings, and even mustard list sugar as their second ingredient. 
5. Know sugar’s other names.  Sugar is masked by the following names:  Molasses, cane sugar, dextrose, glucose, and sucrose, to name a few.  These are all sugar. 

Finally, I’ll share this last thought with you: There is no exact right amount of allowable sugar per day but the recommended daily limits (and these are not goals, they are limits) are as follows:

Men:   36 grams

Women: 20 grams

Children: 12 grams

What do you think? Looking at your benefit plan utilization, is there anything there that suggests the negative manifestation of too much sugar in your workplace?  Comment below.

Allison Brown

New Business Development

Bill C 13, Part 15: CPP Contributions with respect to Uninsured Disability Plans

In typical governmental fashion, the Federal Government announced in December of last year -- with little notice and preparation -- that CPP deductions (both the employee's and the employer's portion) must now be made on non-insured employer-funded disability plans. This includes STD and LTD benefits and is potentially retroactive to 2006.

While our industry has been scrambling to determine the level of employer support that could be provided for self-funded disability programs administered by insurance companies, in reality, there has been little progress on companies altering their administrative systems to pay an employee's CPP portion directly to CRA. Lobbying by the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association ("CLHIA" -- our insurance association voice) has resulted in the CRA likely accepting CPP payments from December 16, 2011 rather than retroactive to 2006.

As it now stands, since it appears that insurers will not be updating their administration systems anytime soon, we are advising employers to revise their own internal systems to allow for the inclusion of any required CPP amounts. Another avenue to explore could be to change these disability programs from self funding to an insured basis. This will avoid the deduction but may attract other financial consequences.

Talk to your consultant on the course you should be taking as well as other options available.

Tom James
VP, Consulting

Welcome to 2012




 

I am excited about 2012 because we continue to see signs of economic improvement, not just here but in the United States, too.  In Canada, the unemployment rate was last reported at 7.5 percent in December of 2011 while in the United States, it fell to 8.5 percent in December of 2011, the lowest since February 2009. 

In addition, as you know, we operate in a changing industry.  The evolving drug landscape alone means that insurance companies, who typically apply a percentage increase to the cost of providing a drug plan every year are applying a lower factor this year.  Note: That doesn't mean plans will cost less than last year's (all things being equal), just that the increase will be less.  And please also note: At renewal, your Pal consultant looks at your unique organization and claiming trends to determine whether or not that factor is appropriate for you.  If justified, we will negotiate to the differential, if there is one.

If you're reading this, that means you're at our newly refreshed website and I hope you like it.  We will continue to post news items and resources here (our annual Reference Guide, our Guide to Provider Trends, retirement calculators, handy links, etc.) but we have something new: A more dynamic dialogue through our blog that will be a forum for both of us -- should you choose to comment and I would welcome that -- and an opportunity for us to talk about some of those matters of interest that don't necessarily make it into our newsletter or other communications.

I want to close by personally inviting you to contact me to discuss how we can continue to work together to help you achieve your corporate and human resource goals through benefits, retirement, and compensation strategies.  And please let me know what you think of our new site!

Wishing you good health and happiness in 2012.

Michael Worb
President & CEO
Pal Benefits Inc.