Improving Your Internal Communications

Good internal communication is an essential ingredient of business success. 

Companies that might be very good about communicating with suppliers and customers often fail to give their internal communications the same degree of attention. Communications need to flow between people who are coordinating projects and managers to ensure the success of the business. They also need to flow from those who manage the business to the people they manage. The Forte Newsletter, which provides tips for growing businesses, recommends the following strategies:

1.     Identify objectives. The objectives of your internal communication strategy will depend upon the culture of the enterprise, its business goals, and the particular challenges it faces. Typical objectives could include sharing information between management and team members, ensuring an understanding of the organization’s overall objectives, and enabling on-demand access to key company information.

2.     Audit current practices. Once the objectives have been determined, you need to audit your current communications systems and identify what additional pathways or technologies need to be introduced to meet them. Those who use the system and depend on it are well placed to assist in this task. Form a committee made up of team members from various parts and levels in your company to conduct the audit and make recommendations for improvements to the communications systems. 

3.     Target your audiences. Different methods of communication may be needed for different groups within the company. Some sections will require specific information not needed by other parts of the business. First, identify the various audiences—senior management, production personnel, sales, and marketing for example—and the types of information each requires. Then determine the communications methods each audience needs to both send and receive this information.

4.     Set up the right communications methods. Thanks to developments in technology, there is a wide range of communications methods you can use. The list includes fixed telephones, cellular phones, faxes, the Internet, a company intranet, emails, regular meetings, and the traditional printed pieces such as memorandums and newsletters.

Employers aren't 'Paying and Dumping' employees into exchanges

Even though the play-or-pay mandate for employers with more than 50 employees was pushed back to 2015 in July, the individual mandate is still on track to take effect Jan. 1, 2014. With many exchanges now open, it was anticipated we’d see employers preparing to dump employees into the exchanges in droves.

Up to this point, however, that has surprisingly not been the case.

Read the full story here....

Small Business Committee Hearing on Retirement Savings Notes Role of PEO's

The role of professional employer organizations (PEOs) in providing access to retirement benefits was highlighted October 3, 2013, during the House Small Business Committee’s hearing on the “Challenge of Retirement Savings for Small Employers.”

One witness testified about how using a professional employer organization (PEO) helps his company provide retirement benefits to its employees. “By using a PEO to access 401(k) benefits, QTS no longer has the administrative burden associated with a 401(k), my personal risk associated with being a plan administrator is minimized, and QTS is able to offer employee benefits that are competitive with larger companies,” said Ray Rucksdashel, chief financial officer for Houston-based Quest-Tec Solutions (QTS). PEOs provide payroll, benefits, tax compliance, and other HR services to more than 250,000 small and mid-sized companies nationwide. Through a PEO, the employees of small businesses gain access to employee benefits such as 401(k) plans; health, dental, life, and other insurance; dependent care; and other benefits typically provided only by large companies. Approximately 2.5 million people are covered by a PEO arrangement.

A recent study by economists Laurie Bassi and Dan McMurrer (McBassi & Company) showed that PEOs provide access to retirement plans for small businesses that may not otherwise sponsor them, and that the employees of these businesses participate at much higher rates. Ninety-eight percent of PEOs offer some type of retirement plan to their small business clients. By contrast, in 2011, only 16 percent of all employees of the smallest companies (those employing fewer than 10 workers), and 30 percent of those at companies with 10 to 49 employees, were offered any type of retirement plan, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

“If Congress is looking to increase small business access to retirement plans and participation in retirement plans, it need look no further than PEOs,” said Pat Cleary, president and CEO of the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO). “PEOs make it possible for hundreds of thousands of small businesses to provide retirement plans for their employees, and they make real retirement savings achievable for millions of small business employees.”

Click to read a one-page summary that Ray Rucksdashel referenced in his testimony.

Affordable Care Act: Exchanges will open despite government shutdown

Now that Congress has “shut down” the federal government, will the public exchanges open on time?

State and federal officials say yes. They believe enrollment can open, on schedule, and operate normally for a while even if the federal government has to function without “enacted annual budget appropriations.”

Click to read the full article in BenefitsPro.

Rick Ratner, President

EMT