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Author: Site Staff

Posted on October 28, 2009June 27, 2018

Auto-Enrollment in Retirement Plans Could Crimp Savings, GAO Report Says


Automatic enrollment programs could inadvertently reduce defined-contribution plan participants’ potential retirement savings because they could have chosen a higher contribution rate on their own, according to a Government Accountability Office report.


“Some participants would have selected a contribution rate higher than the default rate had they not been subject to automatic enrollment and had they chosen to enroll in the plan voluntarily,” the GAO report says.


The report, conducted for Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, also said some automatically enrolled employees are likely to accept default investment funds, such as money market or stable-value funds, with “relatively low future prospects for return on investment.”


“Low default contribution rates and an apparent lag in the adoption of automatic escalation policies raise questions about the adequacy of long-term savings rates under automatic enrollment,” the GAO report says.


The GAO report also cites concerns that an Obama administration-backed proposal to require employers who aren’t already offering a retirement plan to automatically enroll workers in an IRA could undermine existing and the creation of new 401(k) plans.


“To the extent that the automatic IRA approach offers significantly lower costs—including the relative costs of fiduciary liability—employers may decide against adopting a 401(k) or may eliminate an existing one,” the GAO report says.



Filed by Doug Halonen of Pensions & Investments, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.


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Posted on October 28, 2009June 29, 2023

Short-Term Workforce Planning

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Workforce Management, October 19, 2009, p. 38 — Subscribe Now!

Posted on October 28, 2009June 29, 2023

Long-Term Workforce Planning

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Workforce Management, October 19, 2009, p. 40 — Subscribe Now!

Posted on October 28, 2009August 31, 2018

Dear Workforce How Do We Restrain a Bully Senior Manager

Dear Cowering:

 

This requires a two-pronged approach that involves your top executives and the dysfunctional, aggressive senior manager.

Engage the CEO
Before confronting the manager, make sure your CEO will back the intervention, both strategically and legally. Do not meet with the manager unless the CEO also is present. (It also might be necessary to have your legal counsel be part of the intervention team.)

Even though this manager has contributed greatly to your firm’s success, this question also must be asked: How many people have left your company, or perform at less than optimal levels, because of his chronic angst?

Confront the bully: assessment and intervention
Remember this for objectivity: Adults who become bullies often were bullied or abused during childhood. It evolves as a defense mechanism. Unfortunately, the behavior works if it goes unchallenged.

I don’t buy the manager’s fear of “losing face” with colleagues. This assumes he has some genuine concern about his relationship with colleagues. I suspect he has bought into his own self-centered image—namely that “the king” doesn’t make changes for anyone. Perhaps on some level he is afraid of not having the capacity to mature and grow personally or professionally. In that case, a deeper sense of inadequacy may be revealed.

Intervene
a) Stroke the ego and reframe the behavior
When detailing examples of his bullying behavior—physical or otherwise—it is important to also acknowledge his positive contributions to the firm. He may not believe he can channel his aggression without being stifled. However, he needs to learn to be dominant without being domineering, as ultimately such behavior puts his own career and the company in jeopardy. Does he really feel proud of himself when pushing around people who are not his equal in size, synapses or status?

b) Provide learning options
For this individual, change won’t happen from one “constructive confrontation,” from reading a self-help book, or even from typical management methods. Suggest that he voluntarily avail himself of confidential executive coaching/anger management courses (off site) for two to three months, at the firm’s expense. If this is turned down, it may be necessary to mandate he take such classes.

c) Group intervention
There may need to be a group intervention before this senior manager opens up to the above approaches. Such an intervention might include you, the CEO and any colleagues he sees as “near equals”—and, perhaps, even people he has particularly aggrieved, professionally or personally. Have a professional consultant facilitate the intervention.

This is a challenging undertaking, so make clear to upper management that outside expertise likely will be needed to get the process moving. Getting this valued manager to drop his bullying ways will be good for your firm in the long run.

SOURCE: Mark Gorkin, “The Stress Doc,” Washington, October 9, 2009

LEARN MORE: Distinguishing a bully from an earnest but troubled supervisor is not always easy to do.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

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Dear Workforce Newsletter
Posted on October 27, 2009August 31, 2018

Value of Individual Health Care Coverage Mandates Questioned


Large-scale individual mandates aren’t necessarily the most effective way to get people to enroll in health insurance, a panel of experts said Monday, October 26, during a meeting of the Congressional Health Care Caucus.


Such a mandate, which is under consideration as a component of health care reform, “is problematic in a free society” and wouldn’t necessarily have a 100 percent success rate, said Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, who chairs the caucus.


The Internal Revenue Service, for example, mandates that all citizens pay taxes, “but 15 percent of the population don’t comply,” he said.


To address the problem of people with pre-existing conditions, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of DHE Consulting, proposed the idea of portable insurance policies that would offer coverage regardless of employment or medical history, and carry over into an individual’s retirement.


A brief “open enrollment” period when individuals could sign up for guaranteed coverage would be another alternative to a “draconian mandate,” he said.


Janet Trautwein, CEO of the National Association of Health Underwriters, suggested that automatic enrollment, successfully used in 401(k) programs, could be made available through the proposed insurance exchanges in the respective health care reform bills, perhaps coupled with late enrollment penalties.


As a result, insurance pools would grow, “bringing down costs for employers,” she said.



Filed by Jennifer Lubell of Modern Healthcare, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.


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Posted on October 27, 2009August 31, 2018

House Democrat Tells Medical Students Health Care Reform Will Pass With a Public Option Included


Although “there are items that could be better and provisions that could be added,” Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Illinois, told a regional meeting of the American Medical Student Association on Saturday, October 24, that health care reform legislation in the House has the correct architecture that will allow lawmakers “to hang improvements on it as we go along.”


Schakowsky, who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and serves in the House Democratic Party leadership position of “chief deputy whip,” predicted a bill will be introduced on the House floor by November 5 or 6.


She spoke at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago on Friday, giving a formal speech before being joined on stage by three white coat-wearing medical students—Shamie Das, Avash Kalra and Lakshman Swamy—from the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, to record an interview with her for their “Radio Rounds” talk show that is broadcast on a Dayton station and over the Internet.


The four sat around a coffee table in what one student described as an “Oprah-like setting.”


The voice of medical students “couldn’t be more important” to the health care reform debate, Schakowsky said in her speech, because they know the shape of the health care system they want and they know the health care system their patients need.


“When you talk, we listen,” she said.


Saying that Congress was “in the final days of this great battle,” Schakowsky predicted a health care reform bill would pass.


“I am very optimistic at this very moment … that we are at long last going to have affordable, quality health care for all Americans—and isn’t it about time?” Schakowsky said. She also predicted that reform legislation will include a government-run health plan, which “three months ago no one in Washington thought we had a chance at passing.”


While acknowledging that the “public option” was “probably not the best name in the world,” Schakowsky said a government-run plan is needed to give both patients and doctors a choice, because—according to a letter from the American Medical Association—94 percent of the nation’s health insurance markets were noncompetitive.


“Doctors are often told they have to take what the insurance company pays or they won’t be in the network,” she said, adding later that insurers and other defenders of the status quo “are focused like a laser beam on killing a public option.”


The AMSA split from the AMA in 1967, partly because of the senior organization’s opposition to Medicare and lack of opposition to the Vietnam War, but Schakowsky noted that both organizations are now on the same page.


“We’re in a different situation now,” she said. “Doctors have been victimized by this health care system.”


Workforce issues related to reform also are important, Schakowsky said, and students applauded when she spoke of expanding the federal Health Services Corps program, which gives $50,000 to new doctors to use toward paying off medical school debt in exchange for practicing in an underserved area for two years.


She also called for new loan repayment plans, lower interest rates for students going into primary-care specialties, and pilot programs to test the medical-home and accountable-care organization concepts.



Filed by Andis Robeznieks of Modern Healthcare, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.


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Posted on October 27, 2009August 31, 2018

Workforce Development 2010 Webcast Spending and Staffing Trends for U.S. Training

In the webcast, attendees will learn:


  • How learning and development spending and staffing have been affected by the economic downturn
  • Which segments of learning and development have been most affected
  • Where organizations are allocating learning and development resources and where they’re cutting back
  • How organizations’ learning and development functions are changing their delivery methods for greater efficiency and effectiveness

This webcast will be presented by Karen O’Leonard, principal analyst at Bersin & Associates and author of Bersin & Associates’ annual Corporate Learning Factbook. O’Leonard’s presentation will be filled with statistics on spending, staffing and programs that can be used for benchmarking your organization against its peers. All attendees will receive complimentary webcast presentation materials and an executive summary of Bersin & Associates’ 2010 Corporate Learning Factbook.


The program has been approved for one hour of recertification credit through the HR Certification Institute.


Register for this event, which is free to registered workforce.com members, here.

Posted on October 26, 2009August 31, 2018

New York Drops Mandatory Flu Shots for Health Care Workers


The state of New York has reversed course on an earlier decision mandating that health care workers receive flu shots, as State Health Commissioner Richard Daines has suspended the requirement.


Earlier, the state’s health department had said all health care workers would need to be vaccinated by November 30.


But demand for the H1N1 vaccine by the state’s health care providers has exceeded supply. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has allowed New York to enter actual orders for 146,300 doses of vaccine, while the state’s health care providers have requested more than 1.48 million doses, according to the department.


“Over the last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged that New York would only receive approximately 23 percent of its anticipated vaccine supply by the end of the month,” Gov. David Paterson said in a news release. “As a result, we need to be as resourceful as we can with the limited supplies of vaccine currently coming into the state and make sure that those who are at the highest risk for complications for the H1N1 virus receive the first vaccine being distributed right now in the United States.”


After the mandate had been issued, some nurses in Albany County vowed to fight the rule.


Daines said in a news release that vaccination of health care workers continues to be an important safety measure, and he urged workers to receive both the seasonal and H1N1 vaccines.





Filed by Jessica Zigmond of Modern Healthcare, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.


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Posted on October 23, 2009August 31, 2018

Observance of Wiccan New Year Ends in Religious Discrimination Suit

Last Halloween, Gina Uberti took vacation days to celebrate the Wiccan new year in Salem, Massachusetts, the town infamously known for the witch trials of 1692 that ended with the hanging of 14 women.


Less than a month after Uberti took part in the festivities of Samhain, one of the holiest days in the Wiccan calendar, she was fired from her job as a district sales manager for Bath & Body Works.


In a complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut last week, Uberti alleges she was unfairly terminated for practicing Wicca, known as the largest of neopagan religions.


Uberti alleges in the lawsuit that her boss said just before she was fired, “You will need a new career in your new year. … I will be damned if I have a devil worshiper on my team.”


Uberti says in the suit that her troubles at work began shortly after she returned from her trip to Salem. Her boss lamented that Uberti had chosen to go on vacation during a particularly important week at work, Uberti said. Uberti said her vacation had been approved by another manager a year in advance and that she had taken that particular time to celebrate a Wiccan holiday.


“That is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” Uberti’s boss, Sandra Scibelli said, according to court documents.


Until she was fired November 20, 2008, Uberti had worked for the retailer for eight years, first as a manager in the company’s Milford, Connecticut, store and then as a sales manager from her home in nearby East Haven.


Uberti filed charges in February with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which granted her the right to sue in September.


Bath & Body Works is part of Limited Brands Inc, based in Columbus, Ohio.


“We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate against race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, sexual orientation or marital status,” says Robin Hoffman, specialist, external communications for Limited Brands. “Additionally, we do not comment on pending litigation.”


Uberti’s lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for emotional distress and damage to her career as well as lost pay, vacation days and pension benefits, as well as other restitution.


Tal Marnin, an attorney with White & Case in New York, says U.S. law prohibits religious discrimination regardless of whether the religion is widely practiced or not.


“The employee has to show she is a sincere believer and that her attending the ceremony was part of her religious observance and practice,” Marnin said.


The company would have to show Uberti’s absence caused it an “undue hardship,” Marnin said.


The Wiccan new year, Samhain, takes place the same day as the Celtic new year. It is considered one of the four holy festivals, or Sabbats, according to the complaint. Uberti says in her complaint that for the previous six years she had received and taken time off to make the annual new year’s pilgrimage to Salem.


Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects covered employees from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.


—Jeremy Smerd


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Posted on October 23, 2009August 31, 2018

Congressional Analysis Finds Health Care Plan Excise Tax Would Hit 34 Percent of Group Plans in 2019


About one-third of group health care plans would be affected by a proposed 40 percent excise tax on insurers and third-party administrators offering the highest-cost health plans by 2019, according to a congressional analysis.


U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, R-Connecticut, who requested that the Joint Committee on Taxation analyze the provision in health care reform legislation that the Senate Finance Committee passed last week, released the results Tuesday, October 20.


Under the provision, the excise tax would apply to that portion of a group health care plan premium that exceeds $8,000 for individual coverage and $21,000 for family coverage. For plans covering early retirees and employees in certain high-risk professions, the tax threshold would be $9,850 for individuals and $26,000 for families.


In 2013, the first year the tax would be imposed, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that 19 percent of plans offering single coverage and 14 percent of plans offering family coverage would be affected by the excise tax.


However, the analysis found that the percentage of plans affected would increase steadily in succeeding years. By 2019, 34 percent of plans offering single coverage and 31 percent of plans offering family coverage would be subject to the tax.


Under the measure, the tax thresholds would rise in tandem with the annual increase in the Consumer Price Index, plus one percentage point. However, the Joint Committee on Taxation noted that medical inflation is expected to increase even more and boost the percentage of plans affected.


While the tax would be paid by insurers and by third-party administrators in the case of self-funded plans, it is likely that costs would be passed on to buyers, according to the analysis.


“Generally, we expect the insurer to pass along the cost of the excise tax to consumers by increasing the price of health coverage,” the analysis said.


Of five congressional committees that have passed health care reform legislation this year, the Senate Finance Committee is the only one to include an excise tax based on cost of coverage.


The Congressional Budget Office estimated earlier that the provision would raise more than $200 billion over a 10-year period.



Filed by Jerry Geisel of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.


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