One-on-One education and communication is the engine that drives employee engagement. Think about it, does any super important life changing communication do well as an email, text message or web direction? No. People like to learn about the most important aspects of life by personal conversation, transformational conversation, conversation where the person has the ability to ask questions to gain clarity.
Compensation and employee benefits are among the top reasons for employee loyalty to their employer. Financial planning is a serious matter and needs special attention. The great thing about direct, one-on-one education with employees is that we can help them fully understand their financial options so that they can make informed decisions for themselves and their families. We can speak about a wide range of focused messages, including total compensation, health cost containment, retirement participation and contributions, dependent audits, and wellness initiatives.
But, we can accommodate other methods of communication. Telephonic and Web-based applications are available as well and we use these primarily for following up with employees who cannot attend a meeting. Eastbridge Consulting Group of Avon, CT statistically reported that face-to-face communication is by far the best and most successful way to educate employees on their benefits.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) created new reporting requirements under IRS Code Sections 6055 and 6056. Under these new reporting rules, certain employers must provide information to the IRS about the medical plan coverage they offer (or do not offer) to their employees. Code Section 6055 requires self-insured health plan sponsors to report information on minimum essential coverage (MEC) to the IRS and covered individuals. Code Section 6056 requires applicable large employers (ALEs) subject to the employer shared responsibility rules to report information on the health coverage offered to 95% of the full-time employees to the IRS and covered individuals.
At VRI, we provide you a mechanism for “validating” that you offered coverage to 95% of the full-time employees. We provide a teaching and tracking method that is language-specific and educates the employees on their coverage rights, responsibilities, affordability-tested contributions, and essential benefits. We also teach the employees that the public exchanges are not available for subsidy if the employer has met all of the ACA tests: MEC, Essential Benefits, Affordability Test, Actuarial Value Test, and offered to 95% of eligible employees.