The window for the open enrollment period is ever shrinking—with December 15th being the last day to enroll or change plans for coverage starting January 1, 2025, and January 15th serving as the last day on the calendar for enrolling in or changing a plan with a February 1st start date.
This is a critical period for both employers and employees, which makes clear communication practices that stress the urgency of this time of year even more important. Employees must be able to make informed decisions about their benefits.
As such, here are some top tips to follow at your company to ensure communications are paid attention to and benefits engagement is maximized.
As the clock ticks on the end of open enrollment, make sure your communication calendar still delivers a steady flow of information, and stress last-minute reminders. Also, encourage employees to approach your HR team if they are unclear about benefits information and have questions. Time might start to feel limited, but you don’t want employees to feel rushed or frantic.
Benefits information can feel overwhelming to many employees, especially when it involves making coverage changes, understanding premiums, or truly absorbing the differences between plan options. Therefore, break down the information into bite-sized, digestible pieces. Use bullet points, infographics, or short videos to explain key points, including:
Clear, concise, jargon-free communication will enable employees to understand their options and minimize the chance that costly mistakes are made.
Employees consume information in different ways, and your approach to connecting with them on open enrollment shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. Use a mix of communication channels to guarantee everyone is reached in time. Consider the following:
Truly, by leveraging varied communication platforms, you ensure a multi-generational approach to boosting benefits enrollment at your company.
The open enrollment process should be tweaked and modified from one year to the next and should never remain static. Always welcome employee feedback and seek to improve processes to ensure everyone feels accommodated and happy with the open enrollment season.
The team at FullHR would love to consult with you to learn what open enrollment challenges you have faced, and help you make the process become more efficient. Reach out to us today.
Succession planning is mission-critical for companies of all sizes and spanning all industries. Simply put, a succession plan ensures that, when an important decision-maker or senior-level leader leaves the company, your organization isn’t caught flat-footed. A succession plan allows you to identify key roles, to recognize promising new talents, and to ensure future leaders are well-prepared to assume new roles as they become available.
Succession planning isn’t a one-and-done kind of activity. On the contrary, it’s wise to review your organization’s succession plan on a regular basis, and to revise it as necessary.
As you try to take stock of your succession plan, here are a few questions that may help you to think critically, analytically, and systemically.
1) Does your succession plan account for each member of your leadership team?
Succession planning probably doesn’t need to encompass your entire team; for example, you are unlikely to need a succession plan for an entry-level sales rep. But neither is succession planning meant to encompass the CEO only. Every leader or executive should have a succession plan in place, ensuring continuity for if and when they leave the organization.
2) Are you preparing your up-and-coming leaders?
Your plan should help you to identify potential leaders, and to ensure they’re ready for success before they are promoted. Professional development is a critical aspect of any good succession plan.
3) Do your leadership candidates know they’re being considered for advanced positions?
It’s difficult to prepare future leaders for success without actually communicating with them about the opportunities that lie before them. Make sure your succession plan includes a communication plan.
4) Are you hiring to get a diversity of views, or just to replicate the boss?
A common succession planning error is looking for a successor who is, for all intents and purposes, just a clone of the current boss. Make sure you’re recruiting and hiring with the goal of bringing in a wide range of mindsets and perspectives. Your organization will be richer and more robust because of it!
5) What tools are you using to evaluate your talent pool?
From CVs to 360 performance reviews, there are numerous tools available to help you size up future leaders. Are you using all the tools and resources at your disposal to ensure an informed decision?
6) Are you challenging your up-and-coming leaders?
One way to ensure your top talents are ready for a promotion is to challenge them with new projects or expanded scopes of responsibility. Rather than allowing anyone to “fail forward,” provide employees with opportunities to prove themselves.
These and similar questions can help you appraise your current succession plan. If you’d like to talk more about the role of HR in ensuring a viable succession plan, reach out to the FullHR team at your convenience!
At larger companies, middle management serves an important function. Simply put, middle managers play a vital role in liaising between executives and entry-level employees, ensuring strategic alignment and operational efficiency.
Lately, studies have shown that middle management is actually in jeopardy, with more and more employees eschewing these mid-level positions. Many reasons have been given for the decline of middle management, including workplace burnout, inadequate work-life balance, or a lack of clarity about expectations.
All of this raises a question: What can HR leaders do to ensure that their middle managers are well cared for? We have a few suggestions.
Consider a few guidelines to keep your middle managers happy and engaged.
Reduce Reporting Requirements
One thing that quickly drains time and energy from your middle managers is the need to file seemingly endless operational reports, sharing their intel with executives on a monthly or even a weekly basis. Consider cutting back on reporting requirements (or using AI to automate some of your reports), or even getting rid of the reports that don’t really get read. Free more time for managers to interact with their team members or to do meaningful creative work.
Provide More Autonomy
Nobody likes to be micromanaged, and that includes the people you have in middle management positions. One way to reduce micromanagement is to come up with a clear set of guardrails: Determine, as a department or as a company, which areas require more oversight, and which areas can accommodate more freedom and independence.
Allow Middle Management to Air Their Concerns
Something else to consider is that many middle managers feel like they lack a safe space to share their fears, struggles, or concerns. Make sure your middle managers know where they can turn when they need to process or troubleshoot issues, without fear of finger-pointing. Make sure the lines of dialogue remain open and unencumbered.
Explain Why Their Roles Matter
The “mushy middle” sometimes struggles to identify their import in the workplace. Provide middle managers with regular reminders of how their role fits into the big picture, and how their daily activities promote team goals and core business objectives. Do everything you can to keep middle management from feeling like they’re just doing “busywork.”
Provide Training That Makes a Difference
While nobody likes wasting time in training sessions that feel pointless or disconnected from daily realities, everyone wants to feel supported in their professional development. Provide opportunities for your middle managers to get additional training and collect feedback to ensure the sessions offered are actually meaningful.
The bottom line: Employees who work in middle management play an important role in keeping your company running smoothly and effectively. Protect these important positions however you can. And with any questions, reach out to FullHR directly.
Most businesses place a big emphasis on maintaining happy customers… and rightfully so. But what if having happy employees is just as important?
The argument for employee happiness goes something like this: The only way you can provide a really rich and satisfying customer experience is through team members who genuinely like what they do and see the value in helping to achieve broader organizational goals. An employee who is disgruntled is seldom going to go the extra mile to serve their customers joyfully and enthusiastically.
In other words, promoting employee happiness can lead to customer happiness. And that’s just for starters.
Consider a few additional reasons to prioritize the happiness of your team members.
Enthusiasm is contagious. One reason to focus on happy customers is that doing so can help you convert your customers into brand advocates. When your team members use enthusiastic and emotive language to describe the organization they work for, it’s much easier for their love and passion to seep into the way customers describe the organization, particularly to their own family and friends.
Valued employees = valued customers. If your employees are genuinely happy in their day-to-day work, that’s a pretty clear indicator that they feel valued. And only employees who feel valued can help customers feel valued.
The way you treat employees affects how employees treat customers. This is sort of a variant of the Golden Rule: Do unto your employees how you would have them do unto customers and clients. The way you treat the people who work for you provides them with a model for how they should treat the folks they interact with day in and day out.
Happiness helps you sell your brand values. Another angle to consider: If you can’t sell your own people on the value or the greatness of your brand, you shouldn’t expect to sell it outside, either. Learning how to translate your organizational vision into real satisfaction starts with your employees, then extends out to your customer base.
Happiness and engagement go hand in hand. Employee happiness is not quite the same thing as employee engagement, but the two certainly go hand-in-hand. The employee who feels genuinely happy about their work is more likely to be detail-oriented, to invest in excellence, and to do everything with a good attitude.
It’s not uncommon for businesses to say that customer happiness is their #1 priority. While having happy customers is obviously desirable, this may be an example of putting the cart before the horse. Working to ensure your team members are happy may be paramount. And that’s an area where HR can show tremendous leadership and initiative.
Questions about the role HR can play in cultivating employee happiness? We’d love to chat with you further. Reach out to FullHR any time!
There have always been challenges with rallying your employee base around a shared vision or a common set of values. Those challenges have been exacerbated by the era of hybrid work, with fewer and fewer companies having their full personnel in the same geographic location each day. When your employees are working remotely, at least part of the time, it presents some real obstacles to culture-building.
What, if anything, can HR leaders do to ensure a strong sense of culture for their dispersed, decentralized teams? In this post, we’ll share a few ideas.
First, it may be helpful to know why building culture amongst a decentralized workforce even matters.
There are a number of benefits to robust culture-building, but we’ll focus on just two. First, the lack of a shared culture can make it more difficult for employees to find common ground for communication and collaboration, which may result in a less effective, less productive team.
Second, culture is a major factor in employee satisfaction and loyalty. Your team members will be more likely to commit to your company if they feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. In this way, a strong culture can help you minimize turnover.
With that said, how can HR teams create a culture in which even remote and hybrid workers can thrive? Consider a few suggestions:
Even if your employees are working from different locations, a shared culture can unite them. Follow these guidelines to ensure your company culture remains central. And with any questions, reach out to FullHR directly.
Sooner or later, every manager encounters an employee who is talented and knowledgeable yet fails to meet workplace expectations. Initiating conversations with these employees can be difficult, and many managers feel ill-equipped to deliver negative feedback.
When handled appropriately, however, these conversations can not only improve relationships between managers and employees, but potentially result in significant improvements to the employee’s performance. Here are some tips to help guide these conversations
Set the Right Tone
When you first sit down with the employee, be clear and candid with them about the nature of the conversation. Demonstrate right from the get-go that you’re on the same team, and that the goal is for a constructive and collaborative discussion. Say something like: “My goal for this conversation is to have an open and honest dialogue, to provide clear feedback, and to work together on a plan for your performance development.”
Invite Self-Reflection
It’s often helpful to provide the employee with a chance for self-assessment. Ask them to take a moment to reflect on their performance, and to evaluate whether they have met their own personal goals and expectations. Also ask if they have anything they might wish they could change or improve.
Connect Performance and Goals
One way to motivate employees is to connect their current performance with their long-term career goals. For example, you might ask them to reflect on how their current role contributes to their professional development, or to inquire about the kinds of skills they hope to develop.
Provide Clear Feedback
When delivering constructive feedback, clarity and specificity are essential. Rather than speaking in generalities, offer some concrete examples of the issues or inefficiencies that you’ve noticed. Leave no room for ambiguity. Also make sure you seek comments from other leaders or managers, ensuring the feedback isn’t only coming from you. This makes it harder for the employee to blame you personally, or to assume it’s an interpersonal misunderstanding as opposed to a real issue with performance.
Demonstrate Vulnerability
Empathy goes a long way in these conversations. You can convey empathy by sharing relevant personal experiences. For example, if your employee struggles with organization, you can share about a time when you messed something up due to poor organization, then highlight some of the steps you took to address the problem.
Offer Positive Reinforcement
It’s also important to provide some positivity. Reiterate that you value your employee. Enumerate some of their strengths. And underscore your sincere desire for them to do well.
Be Clear About Expectations
Before you conclude the meeting, be very clear and deliberate about expectations moving forward. Ensure your employee knows the benchmarks you’ll be using to assess their performance improvement.
Ask Questions
Finally, provide the employee with a chance to weigh in on the feedback they have received. Often, this will lead to some healthy self-reflection and accountability. Also ask what steps they think they might take to better align their performance with the expectations you have provided.
Managers must be ready to have candid conversations with employees who are struggling. These tips should provide the parameters for healthy feedback and effective coaching. With questions, reach out to FullHR at your convenience.
No matter what kind of business you’re in, you need insurance coverage to manage your financial and legal risk. In fact, most states require small businesses to maintain certain types of coverage, including workers comp insurance.
As you seek adequate insurance coverage, there are a number of considerations to make, including the type of coverage, the limits to your coverage, the agent or broker you purchase from, and beyond. And then there’s the question of timing. Simply put, there are certain times when it is especially beneficial to purchase coverage or to review the terms of an existing policy.
Some of the most advantageous times to consider your business insurance needs include:
Insurance offers year-round protection for your business, but there may be certain seasons where it makes more sense to make your insurance purchase.
Remember that, when you choose a certain month to buy insurance, that’s when your renewal process will occur each and every year. As such, it can be wise to look at your fiscal calendar in order to determine the time of year best suited for buying insurance, taking into account your cash flow and the price of your insurance premiums.
A final question: Let’s say you’re launching a brand-new business entity. Is insurance something you need from the get-go, or can it wait until your business is more firmly established?
There are certain types of insurance, including general liability, that you’ll probably want from the very beginning. After all, as soon as you start your business, you begin courting risk. A good broker will be able to tell you more about the types of coverage best suited for your new business.
Something like workers comp may be able to wait until you start bringing on employees, assuming you don’t have personnel on staff from the very beginning.
If you’re ready to move forward with business insurance, or simply have questions about the timing of the process, reach out to us directly. At FullHR, we are always happy to address questions about small business insurance coverage, and to help our clients get the insurance they need at rates they can afford.
If you’ve managed a team for any length of time, then you’ve surely realized one basic fact about the workplace: That even the happiest and most cohesive team will experience turnover eventually. People leave because they crave a change, they find a better offer, or they are simply ready to move on.
While turnover is inevitable, it’s usually not welcome. In fact, extensive turnover can be incredibly costly. It results in elevated recruitment and onboarding costs. It can drain your team’s morale, disrupt customer service continuity, and more. Above all, extreme turnover is a major red flag about your company culture.
But while you can’t always avoid turnover, sometimes you can minimize its frequency. It all starts with developing the right plan.
There are a handful of steps we’d recommend as you develop a plan to reduce employee turnover.
Hire with Diversity in Mind
One important way to ensure your team remains highly functional, even with the occasional departure, is to hire with cross-coverage in mind. Be proactive about hiring people who bring different skill sets to the table, as opposed to laser-focused specialties.
Develop a Transition Plan
When you do have an employee leave, it’s important to have some kind of a template, allowing you to guide a smooth transition. Maintain an internal document denoting the expectations for employees during their final weeks: What do they need to complete, and to whom do they need to pass off their unfinished projects?
Train for Cross-Coverage
When one employee leaves, another employee will likely need to fill their role and perform their duties, at least until a new hire can be made. Invest in cross-coverage training, ensuring your employees are prepared to step into new responsibilities as needed.
Be Strategic About Delegating
Empowering your employees to take on new projects and duties can accomplish two things. One, it shows existing team members that you trust them, which can go a long way toward boosting satisfaction and retention. And two, it shows employees that they can be flexible and adaptive, even when there is a sudden departure.
Normalize Time Off
It’s much better to have employees take vacations or sabbaticals than to have them burn out, then quit. Create a culture in which people feel like they can take their PTO, even if that means the occasional mental health day. Remember, this is an area where you can lead by example: When the boss or manager takes time to recharge, everyone else will feel the freedom to follow suit.
Turnover happens, but with the right strategy, you can mediate its effects. Questions? Reach out to the FullHR team any time you want to chat.
Ever since the COVID lockdown, remote work has become standard practice for many businesses. Even at companies that have launched “return to work” initiatives, there remains a lot of interest in flexible or hybrid work arrangements.
As such, one of the big challenges HR teams have taken on is finding a way to create and sustain a meaningful work culture, even with many employees working from their home offices or kitchen tables.
Whether your team has struggled with building a meaningful remote work culture or you’re simply looking to shake things up a bit, here are a few action items to think about.
1) Create a mentorship structure.
Encourage employees to sign up for mentorship relationships. Pair older and younger employees and invite them to take a few minutes each week to check in with each other, digitally, to share insights and experiences.
You might even opt for a “reverse mentorship” model, asking junior employees to share their perspective with more senior team members. Fresh perspectives can benefit everyone!
2) Plan “wildcard” days.
Many businesses schedule wildcard days once every week or two. The premise is simple: On wildcard days, employees are encouraged to work on projects or initiatives that are beyond their normal scope of duties.
For example, you might have employees planning community service endeavors, brainstorming new business strategies, or developing teambuilding exercises. This can be a great way to shake off the monotony that often comes from remote work.
3) Emphasize shared experiences.
It’s helpful to remind employees that they’re not in it alone; that they have team members and colleagues, even if they don’t see each other in a physical workspace each day.
A simple way to create a sense of shared experience? Make a group playlist and encourage employees to add songs to it. Everyone can listen throughout the day and chat with one another about standout tracks.
4) Rethink office hours.
It’s important to maintain a sense of work-life balance for all employees. However, it’s equally important to acknowledge that some employees may be more or less productive during different times of the day.
For example, some employees may benefit from having early morning brainstorming sessions but taking a longer break for lunch; or knocking off early but regrouping for an evening planning session. Encourage this kind of flexibility whenever possible.
Remote work is here to stay, so it’s important for teams to think long-term about developing a strong culture. Outside-the-box thinking is essential, and the suggestions we’ve offered are just a jumping-off point.
Questions about building a strong, cohesive team? Reach out to the FullHR team at any time.
Insurance is a critical investment for any business, allowing you to mitigate risk and maintain financial stability. Not all insurance coverage is created equal, though, which means it’s important to do some due diligence. A good place to start is having a candid conversation with your broker.
There are a number of key questions that can help you size up your options and make an advantageous decision. Here are a few good places to start.
1) What kind of insurance do I need?
A number of factors can determine the types of coverage you require, including your business location, your industry, and more. Your broker should be able to counsel you on the types of coverage that are legally mandatory, those that are recommended, and those that might not be as necessary.
Some examples of different types of coverage include:
2) How do I submit a claim?
If you experience some type of incident at your business, you’ll want to know how to file a claim right away. Often, time is of the essence when it comes to having your claim processed and the issue resolved. However, the person who sells you your insurance policy is usually not the person you’ll file the claim with. Make sure you ask about the point of contact for filing a claim, along with any apps or online dashboards that might expedite the process.
3) How much will my insurance cover?
To determine how effective different policies are, you’ll want to consider their payment limits. Generally, business insurance policies fall into one of two categories:
4) What are the factors affecting my insurance costs?
When thinking about the pricing for your business insurance, it may help to consider some of the factors that determine overall cost. Some of the most common factors include:
5) How can I save money?
Finally, ask your broker if there are any ways you can keep your costs down. For example, you may be able to secure discounted rates by bundling different types of coverage.
Questions about your small business insurance needs? We’re happy to address them. To speak with someone from FullHR’s insurance team, reach out to us at your next convenience.
Every employer espouses the value of employee engagement. It’s actually knowing how to engage employees that’s the problem. Thankfully, there are plenty of practical steps that businesses can take to bolster engagement among their personnel. And with many of these solutions, HR can lead the way.
Employee engagement is essential for building a strong, versatile, productive workforce. Make sure your HR team is thinking strategically and taking initiative here. And with any questions, reach out to FullHR at your convenience.
The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) upended the personal insurance and employee benefits spaces. Today, the ACA provides innumerable options for individuals and families to obtain health coverage. It also creates regulatory hurdles for small business owners and HR teams.
To help you navigate these hurdles, ensuring the best coverage options for yourself, your family, or your entire team, Full HR is pleased to offer an ACA Open Enrollment Hotline. For now through December 15, we’ll have operators available each day from 8AM to 6PM, offering guidance through the various ACA and Medicare options that are available. We invite you to call us with your questions, or with any needs you have as you seek to navigate the plans available to you.
Our hotline is available for customers in the following states:
When you call, one of our health insurance sherpas will walk you through the enrollment process, helping you sign up for coverage with any and all major carriers. We’re here to help individuals get the medical insurance they need for their family, and also to equip HR teams to outline the best options for their employees.
Don’t let the complexities of the ACA Open Enrollment season keep you from securing affordable, effective coverage. Get the peace of mind you need by calling the FullHR insurance sherpas: Reach out at 866-225-1795!
Any time you start a business, you’re inevitably courting risk. This risk may come from lawsuits, worker’s comp claims, or other forms of liability. One of the most effective ways to manage your risk exposure is by investing in the right insurance coverage. The question is, what level of coverage do you really need?
The answer may depend a little bit on your industry, but more than that, it depends on the size of your company. Indeed, as you assess your business insurance needs, one of the best places to start is by taking stock of how many employees you have.
While there are no hard-and-fast rules here, there are a few basic size categories to consider.
Home-based Businesses
A lot of companies start in basements, attics, living rooms, or garages. The typical home-based business has modest revenues, and seldom more than one additional employee.
Even home-based businesses benefit from proper insurance protection, however. It’s particularly important for home-based entrepreneurs to note that their regular homeowner’s policy does not protect them against all types of liability and loss. It’s vital to take out additional coverage that encompasses any business activity that happens within the home.
Small Businesses
The small business designation is typically applied to companies with 50 employees or fewer. Meanwhile, the Small Business Administration highlights businesses that are organized for profit but not dominant within their field.
Small businesses require more robust insurance coverage than home-based businesses, including general liability as well as worker’s comp policies.
Medium-sized Businesses
A medium-sized business is usually defined as having between 51 and 1,000 employees, and revenues of anywhere from $10 million to $1 billion.
Naturally, businesses in this category need more advanced insurance coverage, including property and liability policies.
Large Businesses
At the enterprise level, it’s important to have insurance policies that can cover complex, multi-million-dollar risks. For businesses that reach this high level, we generally recommend working with a risk management specialist to determine the specific types of insurance that are best suited for addressing risk exposure.
Ready to learn more about custom insurance policies that fit your business’ size and scope? Our team is here to help. At FullHR, we’re happy to help our clients find right-sized insurance policies, whether that’s to meet the needs of a home-based business or a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Reach out to us to learn more.
It’s that time again, when many HR teams are ramping up for open enrollment season. To ensure your employees are taking full advantage of the benefits available to them, it’s important that they have a clear understanding of what those benefits are in the first place. It’s HR’s job to offer clear, consistent, and effective communication, guiding employees through the process for enrollment and persuading them that it’s valuable to do so.
Effective communication is harder than ever, particularly since so many companies still operate with remote or hybrid work policies. What this means is that simply placing a few flyers in the break room isn’t enough to reach everyone. Instead, HR needs to adopt a more robust, multi-channel communication strategy. Here are a few tips for doing so.
1) Communicate where your employees are.
Again, flyers in the break room won’t cut it if you have a significant number of employees who never actually visit the break room. Keep the flyers, by all means, but also make sure you’re providing open enrollment information across a range of digital platforms. In-house employee emails, the employee Web portal, text messages, and employee apps are all great places to communicate about open enrollment.
2) Tell employees what they want to hear.
Bear with us on this one. What we’re saying is, don’t be so laser-focused on what you think employees should know that you neglect to touch on the questions they’re asking, or the pain points they’ve expressed. Demonstrate that you’ve actually listened to employee feedback about the open enrollment process or about your benefits offerings in general, communicating with them about the things they’re most interested in.
3) Communicate early and often.
Keep in mind that most employees will need multiple “touch points” in order to make a confident decision about their benefits enrollment. Start rolling out information as early as you can and provide plenty of opportunities for follow-up.
4) See what works.
Go back to your data from last year’s open enrollment to see what worked and what didn’t, and be diligent in collecting fresh data points this year. Use surveys to gather direct employee feedback, but also keep an eye on things like email open metrics. These analytics can be potent tools for fine-tuning your communication efforts, ensuring each year builds on the last.
For a successful open enrollment season, robust and consistent communication is vital. Make sure you’re communicating as effectively as possible with your employees, using the guidelines we’ve outlined here. And with any questions about making this your best open enrollment season yet, reach out to FullHR directly.
