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.
Every company has a clear interest in creating a safe work environment for its employees. Safety is paramount for the health and wellbeing of your team members, for ongoing productivity, and for legal compliance. Of course, simply expressing a zeal for safety is not enough. It’s critical to go further, developing a robust plan to protect your workers from accidents and injury.
A good starting point is to establish the right workplace safety goals. While those goals may look a little different from one company to the next, there are a few steps that can help any company develop a sound paradigm for measuring workplace safety initiatives.
Involve Stakeholders
First and foremost, it’s critical to solicit feedback from all stakeholders, including team members and managers. They’re the ones who are in the trenches each day, and they’re the ones who can provide insight into the biggest safety obstacles and barriers that they see.
Identify Specific Hazards
Your workplace safety goals will typically revolve around prevention and control of the most common risks that employees face. As such, it’s important to start with a clear sense of what those hazards are, whether eye strain, back injuries, or exposure to toxic materials. Use employee feedback, past injury data, walkthroughs, and audits to identify your biggest threats.
Align Safety with Mission
It’s also important to ensure that employees see a clear connection between safety and the company’s mission. Emphasize the ways in which achieving your safety goals helps your team develop the best product or service, create a healthy culture, aid customers, and serve the community.
Set SMART Goals
Consider the SMART framework for your workplace safety goals. That is, create goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and bound by time. Here are some examples of SMART safety goals:
Create an Action Plan
Once you identify some goals, create a corresponding action plan to help you achieve those goals. Make sure you specify who is accountable for each step, and the deadline associated with those steps.
Evaluate and Revise Your Plans
Solicit feedback and check your progress regularly. Don’t hesitate to revise your workplace safety goals as needed, or to fine-tune your plans for achieving those goals.
Ready to take the next step on workplace safety? We’d love to help. Reach out to the team at FullHR to schedule a consultation with us.
One way in which HR can serve employees is by providing them with guidance on using their insurance benefits most effectively. For companies that offer auto insurance packages or discounts, this means instructing policyholders on what to do following an accident or a fender-bender, maximizing the success of a potential claim.
For those who are involved in accidents, one of the best ways to strengthen a claim is to take clear and accurate photos at the scene of the accident. Obviously, this assumes little to no injury. Safety always comes first, and the top priority should always be getting the right medical care for anyone who was hurt.
With that said, it’s always best to take a few cellphone photos of the accident scene whenever possible, including the damaged areas of both vehicles, plus the general surroundings (e.g., signs, medians, fences, anything else that might indicate the severity of the collision).
What follows are a few general guidelines for taking good, clear photos.
Consider all the ways to empower your employees in benefits utilization, even when it comes to auto policies. With questions, don’t hesitate to contact FullHR directly.
It’s hard to overstate the impact of clear communication on employee engagement. By maintaining open lines of communication, employers and HR leaders can help employees to better understand their responsibilities, avoid costly errors, and enjoy a shared sense of purpose with other team members.
To put it differently, robust workplace communication helps employees to better understand what’s expected of them, and what role they play in furthering the company’s mission. And, it helps employees to have a clearer sense of connection with their colleagues and supervisors. All of these effects are closely linked with strong employee engagement.
Leaders constantly communicate verbally, during one-on-ones and team huddles, as well as in written form, whether via handbooks or employee emails. The question is, what are the hallmarks of clear, engagement-boosting communication?
There are a few essential traits:
As for specific strategies to enhance workplace communication, consider just a few suggestions.
These are just a few ways in which business leaders and HR teams can step up their communication game, ultimately boosting employee engagement. We’d love to tell you more, or to discuss broader strategies for improving employee engagement. Reach out to FullHR at your convenience.
When choosing a group health plan for your company, there are a number of factors that must be considered. After all, insurance can be complicated, and this is a high-stakes decision. Choosing the right plan will not only prove financially advantageous, but it can help attract and retain top talents, as well. By contrast, the wrong plan can prove not only costly, but ineffective at improving your employee experience.
As a leading employee benefits brokerage, FullHR offers a range of options, and one that we want to highlight is our group health plan that offers a $0 deductible. In other words, this insurance plan means that employee coverage can kick in right away, with no requirement to meet a certain threshold first.
There are a number of benefits to choosing this plan, including:
1) It’s easier to understand.
Those of us who work in insurance are used to dealing with the technicalities of premiums and deductibles all day long. For folks who just want to know how much they’ll owe for their medical needs, thinking about deductibles can be confusing or frustrating. The $0 deductible plan provides a simple and consistent copay instead of a deductible, providing an ease of use that many employees will prefer.
2) Employees can enjoy coverage right away.
When faced with major medical needs, employees like to know that they’ll be covered by their insurance company. That’s not always the case when you’re dealing with a deductible, but thankfully, this plan allows coverage to kick in right away. Employees don’t have to worry about hitting a certain dollar amount before their insurance actually becomes useful to them.
3) It can help with employee retention.
Simply put, having a useful, easy-to-understand group health plan helps demonstrate value… and thus, it helps demonstrate the extent to which you care about your employees. As such, a good group health plan can be an invaluable way to retain top talents.
For companies with between five and 200 employees, this no-deductible plan can be a uniquely effective option. We’d love to tell you more. Reach out to FullHR with any questions or concerns.
