As a plan sponsor, you have likely lived through at least one request for proposal (RFP) process—for payroll, insurance services, actuarial or benefits consulting, recordkeeping or administration services. And from your experience, you have likely asked the following questions: Why do I need to do this? What do I need to include? and How do […]
I don’t claim to be an actuary, but how can a simple formula provide an appropriate valuation of a company’s drug plan liability for dynamic post-employment healthcare expenditures? Why would any plan sponsor want to overstate their estimated liabilities for future healthcare expenditures, and risk having to pull money out of other areas to fund […]
More than six years ago, the HR team at Cogsdale Corp. noticed that its employees’ health and benefits claims were less than the premiums being paid. “Money was just being thrown away,” says Cogsdale’s HR manager, Denise Bulger, in Charlottetown. The company turned to its benefits consultant to come up with a change and ended […]
Is flex for our company? Does it work better than the traditional one-size-fits-all approach? Many plan sponsors have mulled over these questions for the last two decades. The answers, unfortunately, are mixed. For employees, flex means choice and flexibility; for employers, it means meeting the needs of a diverse workforce and stabilizing the costs of […]
Every day, according to Statistics Canada, 14.5 million people go to work at a small or medium-size place of employment. It is no wonder these employers are often—and accurately—referred to as the backbone of the Canadian economy.
A benefits program is an investment and as with all investments there are inherent risks. Risk that the expected return will not materialize. Risk that what you thought you “bought” will turn out to be different than what you go. Risk that the cost of managing the investment significantly reduces the return. But, like any investment, […]
When you think about employee communications, what comes to mind? Websites, presentations, pamphlets, emails? If so, you’re not alone. For most organizations—and most plan sponsors—communication refers to the tools we use to deliver information after everything else is done. When it comes to changing a benefits plan, for instance, the process typically looks something like […]
You go on a trip. You know the final destination, just not necessarily how to get there. You make a few wrong turns. You arrive at your destination, frustrated at the extra time and wasted effort. If you had the time and no pressing need to get to where you wanted, you may have enjoyed […]
The key to any successful benefits plan is a program that satisfies the plan objectives while responding to the (increasingly diverse) needs/wants of employees in a cost effective manner. Based on these measures, flexible benefits work. If flex works, will voluntary benefit plans work, too? There are pros and cons on both sides, and plenty […]
The boom times of the last decade are clearly behind us—yes we heard you the first time—and the future is unclear. But where there are challenges, there are opportunities and this has never been truer in the benefits industry. Without question, there will be pain associated with job loss, reduced benefits coverage and increased plan […]