by Syndicated Insurance Resources | Nov 22, 2017
Holidays create a flurry of projects, as well as a mixed bag of merriment and stress for your insurance business, customers and their employees. While productivity for holiday-related activities increases, workflow is potentially impacted. Here are a few tips to offer your employer-clients to help employees survive holiday stress.
Encourage Eating Right. Treats seem to magically appear in mass quantities over the holiday season. From baked goods to potluck dishes — the opportunity to overindulge and gorge on yummy things can lead to sluggish behavior. Suggest that your employer-clients find ways to encourage healthy choices.
Promote Wellness: Colds and flus tend to spread during the fall and winter. Advocate wellness practices like frequently washing hands and staying home when sick, etc. Place hand sanitizers and tissues around your office. Suggest that your employer-clients engage their teams by asking employees to share creative activities that encourage staying well.
Reward Employees. Show employees that the work they do is valued and appreciated. Give gifts to those who go the extra mile. Suggest employer-clients bring in a chair massage therapist for a day for their overachievers. Other ideas include: Buying gift cards. Creating special awards. Giving handwritten thank you notes for a job well done. Finding other ways to publicly acknowledge employees who take initiative to get things done. If you have the budget for it, offer to pay for some of these things as a thank you to your employer-client.
Provide Flexible Scheduling. Help team members balance work and personal schedules by offering adjustable hours. Allow remote work opportunities. Consider four-day work weeks with longer workdays. Build a trust relationships with clear expectations by allowing employees to accomplish goals in an adjustable shift and/or telework environment.
Increase Holiday Pay. Buying gifts places additional financial stress on some employees. Consider offering additional shifts to earn more money over the holidays.
The holiday season is a perfect time for you and your employer-clients to showcase gratitude and compassion. Remove chaos by taking steps to ensure a safe environment is created for team members.
How do can you help employer-clients and their employees cope with stress?
by Syndicated Insurance Resources | Jul 14, 2017
Everyone is eagerly waiting to learn about next steps for health care coverage in our nation. Repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a top priority for the new administration. As you can imagine, there are many moving parts to this process. This is similar to watching a tennis match as the ball get strategically lobbed back and forth over the net. Meanwhile, the spectators (aka the American people) are forced to watch from the sidelines.
To date, the House passed the American Health Care Act (ACHA) in May. In turn, the Senate released a bill called the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) that is currently out for review. If the Senate passes the BCRA then both the ACHA and BCRA could go to a joint committee for reconciliation. Alternatively, the House could decide to vote on the BCRA.
Thursday (7.13.17), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) made the following comments on the Senate floor: Today, the Majority Leader unveiled a revised discussion draft for legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare. Let me say at the outset that this bill isn’t perfect. There are some things in the bill that, given my preferences, I would do very differently.
But, one thing I’ve learned in my 40 years in the Senate is that, people who demand purity and perfection when it comes to legislation usually end up disappointed and rarely accomplish anything productive. That’s particularly true when we’re talking about complex policy matters.
The next vote on this legislation will presumably be whether to let the Senate proceed to the bill. Regardless of your position on this particular draft, if you support the larger effort to repeal and replace Obamacare, you should, at the very least, want to have a debate on this bill.
Under the rules, we’ll have an open amendment process. Members will get a chance to make their preferences known and to have the Senate vote on them. Taking that opportunity is the very least we can do.
Keep in mind, Mr. President, virtually every Republican in this body has supported the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare more or less since the day it was signed into law. We’ve all made promises to our constituents along those lines. This legislation, while far from perfect, would fulfill the vast majority of those promises.
If we pass up this opportunity, we’re looking at further collapse of health insurance markets, which means dramatically higher premiums and even fewer healthcare options for our constituents. And, make no mistake, Mr. President, while some are talking about a bipartisan solution to prop up markets in the event this bill fails, there is no magic elixir or silver bullet that will make that an easy proposition.
I have to think that, at the end of the day, if we fail to take action to fulfill the promises we’ve all made, we’ll have to answer to the American people for the missed opportunity and the chaos that will almost certainly follow. I hope all of my colleagues will keep that in mind.
No matter what the outcome, everyone is impacted by the proposed changes. From the individual mandate to the employer mandate, your friends, family, and customers need you to be informed about the changes so you can help them navigate the insurance waters.
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by Syndicated Insurance Resources | Nov 28, 2014
The Affordable Care Act is the most sweeping health care legislation in decades. Starting Jan. 1, 2015, companies with 100 or more full-time or full-time equivalent employees must comply with the employer provisions of the law.
Syndicated Services and its affiliated companies are committed to ACA compliance—both in letter and in spirit. We are also committed to using our expertise to help clients navigate the complexities of the law and to understand the nature and extent of the additional staffing costs they will incur.
Syndicated Services is a member of the American Staffing Association, The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations and National Association of Professional Insurance Agents. Our company follows the developments necessary for compliance with the Affordable Care Act. We have recruited industry leaders to assist our clients with questions and concerns regarding compliance.
As set forward in the ASA Statement of Principles, we are dedicated to the legal and ethical management of U.S. workers. We will, therefore, work diligently to help our clients implement legitimate workforce strategies and will not participate in practices that violate the law’s intent.
Key Contacts for ACA Compliance
Rachel A. Estermyer, HR Management
[email protected]
404-395-2643
John Yarbrough, Certified Health Care Reform Specialist
[email protected]
404-395-2643
Doug Scott, President Syndicated Services, Inc.
[email protected]
704-651-1144
Jean Burger, Certified Payroll Professional
[email protected]
877-333-8195 Extension 9
