If you want to attract and maintain a high-quality workforce, one area your business needs to excel in is employee benefit packages. These include all of the non-wage related perks that come from working for your company. There are many facets to these packages, including:

  • Worker’s compensation packages
  • Overtime
  • Health insurance
  • Dental insurance
  • Paid holidays
  • Stock options

Not all companies will include each of these into their benefits package—some will have all of these and more; others will have fewer perks. It all depends on the individual company.

That’s where C3 comes in.

Tailored Solutions For Employee Benefit Packages

The idea behind offering employee benefit packages is to make working for your company competitive. To offer the best, you need to tailor your packages to your industry, your business, and your employees. Starting with this in mind, step one is the investigation phase:

  • Understand the competition
  • Identify pain points of the industry
  • Compensate for individual pain points of the employees.

UNDERSTANDING THE COMPETITION

If the goal is to have a competitive employee benefit package, the key is to know what other businesses are offering. Do some investigating to identify what other companies provide for their employees.

IDENTIFYING PAIN POINTS WITHIN THE INDUSTRY

Does your industry typically have their employees work overtime? Does your industry require people to stare at screens for long hours of the day—thus, increasing the chance of needing an optometrist?

Understanding the pain points of your industry will elevate the focus and compensatory factor of your employee benefit package.

COMPENSATING FOR EMPLOYEE PAIN POINTS

Employee benefit packages can be created malleable. There can be different options offered to the individual employee—that way they have a say in the matter and can focus on the pain points most important to them.

For example: If paying back their college debt is the single most important aspect in their life—the reason for aiming high in their career—offering tuition assistance or college debt assistance could be more beneficial than offering paid holidays.

The key is to understand what the pain points of your employees are, and then designing a plan that caters to them. When in doubt, communicate effectively with your employee to determine what areas they would like to focus on.

ENSURING THAT YOUR EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PACKAGE IS COMPLIANT

The next phase of building the employee benefit package is to ensure its compliance. The most common compliances are:

  • ACA Mandates
  • HIPAA Privacy & Security
  • COBRA
  • ERISA
  • Updates to the legislation

ACA MANDATES

In 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) set precedents of coverage for employers who had at least 50 full-time equivalent employees. This number is determined by both part-time and full-time employees.

If you’d like to calculate how many full-time equivalent employees, use the C3 FTE employment calculator here.

The ACA mandates to determine minimum healthcare coverages to be included in employee benefit packages. The robustness of the healthcare coverage is determined by the minimum value requirement.

HIPAA PRIVACY AND SECURITY

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was created to protect personal health information (PHI) and to help employees fill their healthcare coverage while between jobs. Within HIPAA, there are what’s known as the Privacy Rule and the Security Rule.

  • Privacy Rule – The HIPAA Privacy Rule applies to any healthcare organization or associated business with access to their patient’s or employee’s healthcare records. Electronic PHI is going to be shared—the Privacy Rule ensures its safe exchange.
  • Security Rule – Similarly, the Security Rule sets guidelines for physical, technical, and administrative safeguards for protecting ePHI.

These safeguards must be instituted at your company’s employee benefit package level.

COBRA

COBRA stands for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. This act was instituted to offer workers and their families the ability to choose group health benefits if a sudden loss of job (voluntary or involuntary) renders them unprotected.

This act was first signed in 1985 and was later revised in 1999 and applies to employers with 20 employees or more.

ERISA

Another compliance to be aware of when creating your employee benefit package is ERISA or the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. This act is a federal law that includes requirements for retirement plans and welfare plans.

Small employers are subject to ERISA unless their business includes government employers or churches.

UPDATES TO THE LEGISLATION

When new updates are made to any of the above compliances, it’s important to keep tabs of the changes. This way you can never position your company incorrectly. C3 offers consistent annual revaluation of your business’ employee offering to ensure you’re always compliant.

HOW C3 DESIGNS EMPLOYEE BENEFIT PACKAGES

Considering both the support to employees that a benefit package provides and the number of mandates and compliance regulations surrounding the package, it’s important to get it done right. That’s why C3 offers comprehensive solutions when it comes to employee benefits.

Not only will your solution be catered to your industry, but it will be catered toward the people you make up your business. That’s the promise of C3—innovative solutions to fit your business’ needs.

Sources:

IRS. Minimum Value of an Employer-Sponsored Health Plan. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-12-31.pdf

HHS. HIPAA Privacy and Security and Workplace Wellness Programs. https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/workplace-wellness/index.html