Insider's Insurance Guide

You need it. You don’t want to pay an arm and a leg for it. Health insurance coverage is something that every person in the United States needs to have. But, the problem lies in knowing what to get, where to get it and how much you need. In some cases, you really do not control these issues because your employer provides them for you. But, are they providing enough coverage for you? Should you consider more? To help you to know what health insurance is the right coverage for your needs, here are some strategies to keep in mind.

How Much Is Enough? This is a difficult question to answer. In fact, only you can answer it. If you are the only person that will be covered, your terms may be lower than that of a person who is the income earner in a family. In any case, the coverage that you get should provide for most medical treatments to be administered. It should include coverage for specialists and also for treatment at a hospital. It should also include preventative care. Do you include dental and vision? That is up to you but it is wise to have nonetheless.

The Deductible – Many people have no idea what the deductible is on their health insurance. In most cases, this number is the amount of money that you will pay before the health insurance kicks into play. The fact of the matter is that you can raise this number, if you can afford to, and get a lower price on your health insurance coverage. You should only do this, though; if you can afford to make the higher amounts of payments should they all hit you at once.

Gotta Have The Pills- In many cases, prescription coverage is a must. Even if you do not take any pills or products right now, who knows what is down the line. Medications are very expensive and can often leave you paying more for them than the doctor that prescribed them. When you factor in the duration of how long you are likely to take them and if you will take them for the rest of your life, prescription coverage on your health plan is a must.

Co-payments may be a pain to pay but they help to lower your cost of visiting the doctor significantly. But, can you afford to make that much of a payment? What options do you have with the insurance carrier?

Lastly, the health coverage that you get should come from the doctors that you know, trust and want to work with. There are many cases where there is little choice by you as to whom you go to see. Make sure to go with a health insurer that fits your needs here.

STRATEGIES TO RETAIN HUMAN RESOURCES

INTRODUCTION

            The Indian economy has been going through a massive transition and transformation process. Restructuring and the process of mergers and acquisitions that had taken a toll of the employment are now giving way to expansion of employment. Finally companies are increasing their advertising budgets and there is a steady growth in employment. The appointment columns are now getting thick and the Internet sites are wooing people to put in their resumes to try their luck for new careers. While this is indeed a welcome development for the HR professionals, moving to different locations to interview prospective candidates, it has also brought in its sweep the problem of employee turnovers.

            In all industries, the problem of employee turnover has always been an issue.

            Human capital is one of the most critical components of strategic success for many companies.

EMPLOYEE TURNOVER

            Employee turnover has been defined as, “the rate of change in the working staff of a concern during a definite period” in other word sit signifies the shifting of the workforce into and out of an organization.

            Employee turnover is the cause and effect of instability of employment, apart from being a measure of the morale and efficiency or otherwise of workers.  

CAUSES OF EMPLOYEE TURNOVER

            Employee turnover is the outcome of resignations and dismissals. Resignations may be due to such causes as dissatisfaction with working conditions, insufficient wages, bad health, sickens, old age, and family circumstances and so on. Dismissals on the other hand, may occur due to participation in strike or union activities, misconduct, insubordinate and inefficiency. But dismay is a lesser cause of employee turnover.

 MEASURES TO CONTROL EMPLOYEE TURNOVER

            A high rate of turnover is bad both for the workers and the industry. Hence efforts should be made to reduce it or to retain the present workforce. Employee retention plays a key role to prevent employee turnover.

TOP TEN WAYS TO RETAIN AN EXCELLENT EMPLOYEE

            Employee retention is one of the primary measures of health of the organization. Exit interviews with departing employees provide valuable information, which can be used to retain remaining staff. Heed their results. The more significant source of data about the health of the organization is existing interviews.

1. A satisfied employee knows clearly what is expected from him every day at work. Changing expectations keep people or edge and create unhealthy stress. They rob the employee of internal security and make the employee feel unsuccessful. Its not advocated unchanging jobs just the need for a specific framework within which people clearly know what is expected from them.
2. The quality of the supervision an employee receives is critical to employee retention. People leave managers and supervisors more often than they leave companies or jobs. It is not enough that the supervisor is well liked or a nice person, starting with clear expectations of the employee, the supervisor has a critical role to play in retention. Anything the supervisor does to make an employee feel unvalued will contribute to turnover. Frequent employee complaints center on these areas.

·        lack of clarity about expectations,

·        lack of clarity about earning potential,

·        lack of feedback about performance,

·        failure to hold scheduled meetings, and

·        Failure to provide a framework within which the employee perceives he can succeed.   

1. The ability of the employee to speak his or her mind freely within the organization is another key factor in employee retention. Does your organization solicit ideas and provide an environment in which people are comfortable providing feedback? If so, employees offer ideas, feel free to criticize and commit to continuous improvement. If not, they bite their tongues or find themselves constantly “in trouble” – until they leave.
2. Talent and skill utilization is another environmental factor for key employees seek in the workplace. A motivated employee wants to contribute to work areas outside of his specific job description. How many people could contribute far more than they currently do? You just need to know their skills, talent and experience, and take the time to tap into it. As an example, in a small company, a manager pursued a new marketing plan and logo with the help of external consultants. An internal sales rep, with seven years of ad agency and logo development experience, repeatedly offered to help. His offer was ignored and he cited this as one reason why he quit his job. In fact, the recognition that the company didn’t want to take advantage of his knowledge and capabilities helped precipitate his job search.
3. The perception of fairness and equitable treatment is important in employee retention. In one company, a new sales rep was given the most potentially successful, commission-producing accounts. Current staff viewed these decisions as taking food off their tables. You can bet a number of them are looking for their next opportunity.
4. The easiest to solve, and the ones most affecting employee retention, are tools, time and training. The employee must have the tools, time and training necessary to do their job well – or they will move to an employer who provides them.
5. Without the opportunity to try new opportunities, sit on challenging committees, attend seminars and read and discuss books, they feel they will stagnate. A career-oriented, valued employee must experience growth opportunities within the organization.
6. Take time to meet with new employees to learn about their talents, abilities and skills. Meet with each employee periodically. You’ll have more useful information and keep fingers on the pulse of organization. It’s a critical tool to help employees feel welcomed, acknowledged and loyal.
7. No matter the circumstances are, never and ever threaten an employee’s job or income. Even layoffs loom, fail to meet production or sales goals, it is a mistake to foreshadow this information with employees. It makes them nervous; no matter how phrased the information; no matter how explain a from the information, even if you’re absolutely correct, the best staff members will update their resumes. I’m not advocatingkeeping solid information away from people, however, think before you say anything that makes people feel they need to search for another job.
8. Staff members must feel rewarded, recognized and appreciated. Frequently saying thank you goes a long way. Monetary rewards bonuses and gilts make the thank you even more appreciated. Understandable raises, tied to accomplishments and achievement, help retain staff. Commissions and bonuses that are easily calculated on a daily basis, and easily understood, raise motivation and help retain staff. Work is about the money and almost every individual wants more.

CONCERN FOR THE HUMAN RESOURCES

There must be certain non-conventional methods or systems whereby, cordial industrial relation in an organization can be secured and human resources can be managed better for attaining the retention objective of the organization. A few of the methods, which can be of Human Resource” may be as follows which will, establish the fact that the management really cares for their employees and are concerned.

1. Introduction of presenting memento
2. Sharing of information with the unions
3. Appreciation note
4. Discharging certain 7 social obligation
5. Meeting   with the Unions’
6. Tea-together
7. Award to the best worker
8. Birthday and marriage gifts
9. Barakhana

STRATEGIES FOR BETTER HEALTH CARE

            The workers’ health and wealth are in the health and wealth of an organization. Only mutual health care activities would ensure the much-expected result. The sweet homes of employees should be a home of nutrition principles. Management’s investing heavily on the umpteen Number of HR strengthening activities can bring the agenda of “prevention is better than cure” in the first priority to safeguard health. They are the backbone of healthy organizational climate.

            All enterprises can adopt ac multifaceted health care strategies and build it up in their personnel policies. The vital strategies to be concentrated are discussed as below.

• Strategy I : Health watch of HR
• Strategy II : Diet Counseling Centers
• Strategy III : Work spot stress / Fatigue releasing fitness centers / Yoga centers
• Strategy IV : Organize workshop / meeting / seminar on health care
• Strategy VI: Display food and nutrition visual aids at vital places

HUMOR FOR RETENTION

            As more and more organizations reengineer, merge, restructure, downsize, right size, and even capsize, employees confront uncertainty on an almost daily basis. The rules keep changing in terms of what they’re supposed to do how they’re supposed to do it, which they do it for, and whether they get to do it at all. And since most have little or no control over the making of these rules, the result is often a sense of powerlessness that translates into increased stress, decreased wellness, demoralization, absenteeism, and lower productivity, all of which affect rates of employee retention.

            So the big question for both individuals and organizations-is: how do you keep up spirits, continue to work-effectively, and maintain health and sanity in a crazy-making situation? The team of welfare workers described chooses to laugh. They could also choose despair, cynicism, bitterness, or negativity, but instead team members choose laughter. As one worker states, “We could either cry, or we could laugh/ but you can only cry for so long. We’d had enough of crying, and it was time to do something else.”

WHY LAUGHTER?

            We all know that it makes us feel good, but in today’s bottom-line oriented workplace, the term “feel good” is too nebulous to have much impact on how people go about structuring their job interactions and professional relationships. And most organizations are not going to promote humor as part of their culture because some “touchy freely” wellness devotee thinks that having the boss come to work dressed as a chicken will create a happy afterglow.

            So any discussion of the benefits of laughter needs to be more tangible and focused on addressing-positive morale, a major factor contributing to the retention of valued employees. Remember though, humor is a coping mechanism to aid in employee retention, not a cure-all for other systemic problems affecting organizations.

JOB STICKINESS

In today’s healthy job market–where job seekers in even non-technology areas can find positions fairly quickly – employers must do something to make their companies “sticky” if they want to avoid costly turnover.

PAY IS IMPORTANT

            What contributes to stickiness? Obviously, pay is important. Employees may love their jobs and their company, but if their incomes lag comparable jobs by more than 5 to 10 percent, it’s goodbye stickiness and goodbye job. Similarly, benefits have to be at market levels. They need not be great – although thoughtful benefits are a way smart companies retain worker – but they can’t be markedly worse than benefits available at most other comparable jobs. 

A SENSE OF PURPOSE

            The person doing the job also should know to whom he or she is responsible. The manager, supervisor or boss should be empowered to say, “yes, do this” or “no, don’t do that.

CORE VALUES THAT ARE UNDERSTOOD AND REWARDED

            Every organization has its own values. They may be wacky or unwritten. But unless everyone knows what these values are and believes they are followed with consistency, satisfaction drops. Suppose our flexible workaholic company suddenly penalized an employee for leaving early one day. That action would dissolve the stickiness that had been established over time among everyone.

CIVIL BEHAVIOR

            But some workplaces are populated by those we may politely label “difficult.” If they’re not screaming or slamming doors or berating colleagues or subordinates, they’re ignoring them, belittling them or regaling them with stories of their own brilliance. These clunkers may be hard to spot when you’re being considered for a job, but they can make any position and company decidedly unstuck. If prospective bosses or colleagues are described as “very demanding” or “brilliant, but temperamental,” watch out.

TOP 10 WAYS TO MOTIVATE TODAY’S EMPLOYEES

1. Pay employees fairly and well, and then get them to forget about money.
2. Treat each and every employee with respect. Show them that you are about them as persons, jot just as workers.
3. Praise accomplishments and attempts:

·        Both large and small

·        Verbally and in writing

·        At least 4 times more than you criticize

·        Promptly (as soon as observed)

·        Publicly … and in private

·        Sincerely

1. Clearly communicate goals, responsibilities and expectations. NEVER criticize in public-redirect in private.
2. Recognize performance appropriately and consistently:

·        Reward outstanding performance (e.g., with promotions and opportunities)

·        Do not tolerate sustained poor performance-coach & train or remove!

1. Involve employees in plans and decisions, especially those that affect them. Solicit their ideas and opinions. Encourage initiative.
2. Create opportunities for employees to learn & grow. Link the goals of the organization with the goals of each individual in it.
3. Actively listen to employees concerns-both works related and personal.
4. Share information promptly, openly and clearly. Tell the truth … with compassion.
5. Celebrate successes and milestones reached — organizational and personal. Create an organizational culture that is open, trusting and fun.

A SURVEY

            Survey results include responses from 451 HR professionals and 300 managerial or executive employees.

            Employees cited the following three top reasons they would begin searching for a new job:

• 53 percent seek better compensation and benefits.
• 35 percent cited dissatisfaction with potential career development.
• 32 percent said they were ready for a new experience.

            HR professionals were asked which programs or policies they use currently to help retain employees. The following three are the most common programs employers are using to retain employees:

• 62 percent provide tuition reimbursement.
• 60 percent offer competitive vacation and holiday benefits.
• 59 percent offer competitive salaries.

            Most HR professionals surveyed (71 percent), in large organizations (those with more than 500 employees), thought it would be extremely likely or somewhat likely to experience an increase in voluntary turnover once the job market improves. Forty-one percent from small organizations (1-99 employees) said it was extremely likely or somewhat likely that turnover would increase. Fifty-three percent of respondents from medium organizations (between 100 and 499) thought the same.

KEY RETENTION STRATEGIES

• Select the right people in the first place through behavior-based testing and competency screening. The right person, in the right seat, on the right bus is the starting point.
• Offer an attractive, competitive, benefits package with components such as life insurance, disability insurance and flexible hours.
• Provide opportunities for people to share their knowledge via training sessions, presentations, mentoring others and team assignments.
• Demonstrate respect for employees at all times
• Offer performance feedback and praise good efforts and results.
• People want to enjoy their work. Make-work fun. Engage and employ the special talents of each individual.
• Enable employees to balance work and life. Allow flexible starting times, core business hours and flexible ending times. (Yes, his son’s soccer game is important.)
• Involve employees in decisions that affect their jobs and the overall direction of the company whenever possible. Recognize excellent performance, and especially, link pay to performance.
• Base the upside of bonus potential on the success of both the employee and the company and make it limitless within company parameters. (As an example, pay ten percent of corporate profits to employees.)
• Recognize and celebrate success. Mark their passage as important goals are achieved.
• Staff adequately so overtime is minimized for those who don’t want it and people don’t wear themselves out.
• Nurture and celebrate organization traditions. Have a costume party every Halloween. Run a food collection drive every November. Pick a monthly charity to help. Have an annual company dinner at a fancy hotel.
• Provide opportunities within the company for cross-training and career progression. People like to know that they have room for career movement.
• Provide the opportunity for career and personal growth through training and education, challenging assignments and more.
• Communicate goals, roles and responsibilities so people know what is expected and feel like part of the in-crowd.
• According to research by the Gallup organization, encourage employees to have good, even best, friends, at work.

CONCLUSION

            Key employee retention is critical to the long term health and success of any business. Managers readily agree that retaining the best employee ensures customers satisfaction, product sales, satisfied co-workers and reporting staff, effective succession planning and deeply embedded organizational knowledge and learning. Employee retention matters, training time and investment, lost knowledge, insecure co-workers, costly candidate search aside, failing to retain a key employee is costly, Losing a middle manager costs as organization up to 100% of his salary.

Internet leads are unlike leads from any other source, and they require a different sales strategy. An Internet insurance lead is better qualified than other leads because the prospect who originated the lead has shown himself or herself to be uniquely proactive. Unlike a person who has been called by a telemarketer or responded to a piece of direct mail, the consumer behind an Internet lead for health insurance, life insurance, or homeowner’s insurance initiated the contact, using a search engine to find a solution to a problem and completing an online form, requesting contact from a sales person. The Internet lead is primed to take action. Here is how to proceed:
1. Call all leads. Many sales people look over their Internet leads and cherry pick the ones they think are best. This is a mistake. Top closers realize that sales is a numbers game. They need several fresh leads each day. Besides, unless you are psychic, how will know which lead is good and which is bad? Never assume! Just as with an inbound call, you do not know which insurance lead will result in a sale. Remember, when you delete a lead you do not like, the only thing you guarantee is that you will not make a sale.
2. Contact is king. Now that the prospect has taken the first step, you have to be just as proactive in reaching him or her. Immediately call the consumer at work and home, (no matter the time frame they may have indicated on the lead). At the same time, or even before, send a personalized email introducing yourself, your company, and explaining why you should earn their business. Place at least six calls per day for the first 3 days after receipt of the insurance lead. Vary the times that you attempt over the initial three day period. Try the following times for better odds of reaching the consumer at work: 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m., before regular office hours; 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., over the standard lunch break; 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., immediately after office hours. Leave a voice mail on the last call of the day. If you have not had a response after 24 hours, send a follow up email. Continue trying to contact the consumer on the weekends. Once contact is established remind the consumer that you are following up on their request.
3. Listen to the client. Ask questions, but spend most of the first call listening to the client. Never rely entirely on what the consumer has put on their lead. Find out what problems they have that you can solve. Are the problems real or just perceived? Do you have flexible and creative solutions to their particular needs? Remember that it is your job to educate first, and sell second. Communicate clearly the advantages of working with your company. Respect the consumer’s requests and wishes at all times.
4. Be persistent and courteous. After you’ve established contact do not assume that the business is yours. Aggressively move down the process. Constantly sell yourself and your company. Respect the consumer’s requests, and listen to their needs. Bridge the gap between their request and your company. Be the consumer’s advocate by focusing on solving their problem. Educate the consumer about comparing competitors’ fees and services. Why should the consumer be your client? Why should they stay with you? Answer both of these questions before leaving the first call.
5. Recycle your leads. Many consumers are turned off by the initial rush their online request unleashes. Others find that their needs have not been met. Maintain a regular call and email follow-up schedule for those leads that did not convert. Today’s insurance lead could be tomorrow’s client, if you persevere.

When the economy is in decline, the goal of many homeowners is to avoid foreclosure. Foreclosure is not a fun experience and in fact, it can be a traumatic incident for the entire family as you are forced to leave your home where you have stayed for many years. One of the most common causes of foreclosure is the loss of job, which make a person unable to pay his mortgage payment. If you experience the same situation where you have lost your job, avoiding foreclosure is not an impossible thing to achieve. Many experts have indicated that they key to avoid foreclosure is your ingenuity and vigilance. There are several options that you have to keep the home and this article discusses two simple options that you should do to achieve it.

Avoid a notice of default in the first place

If you never receive any notice of default, then you can avoid foreclosure more easily. Nobody will foreclose your property without a notice of default. Therefore, it is very important to keep timely mortgage payment in this case. In order to make sure that you are protected, you should consider opening an insurance policy that will cover amortization payments for your home. The policy will cover your mortgage payment for a certain amount of time, usually around six months.

This protection is very important to maintain regular mortgage payment and avoid receiving a notice of default, especially if you just lost your job or are facing emergency situations like serious illness or losing of a family member. You must never forget to make monthly payment to the insurance company though. Otherwise your insurance will lapse and become useless. You may think that the extra monthly fee is a burden, but when the time comes, you will be grateful for the protection that you get.

Negotiate with your lender

On the other hand, if you do not have any debt insurance coverage, then you should try a different strategy. Do not be despair even if you have received a notice from your lender. You must not avoid them, but quite the opposite, you have to contact them immediately. Negotiate with them and find out whether a new arrangement on your mortgage payment can be done. In many cases, lenders are willing to extend the payment terms and thus you need to pay less amount of monthly mortgage payment.

Many people ignore or even try to hide from the lender when they have received a notice. This will not solve the situation, but will make the situation even worse instead. It will be impossible to avoid foreclosure if you act like this. What you need to understand is that lenders also do not like to go through foreclosure process unless it is really necessary. Those lenders do business in lending money, not managing properties. Empty properties are burdens for them because they bring no profit whatsoever. Therefore, you should be genuine if you are really serious in avoiding foreclosure.

The strategies to eradicate insurance frauds could be better understood by a careful study of the following points –

• Measurement of frauds

• Coping with frauds

• The future

The measurement of frauds can be classified further in the following way:

• Hard To Measure

• Factors Accountable

Why are the frauds unmeasured ?

Frauds are difficult to measure because of three major reasons:

a) Frauds are often undetected

b) Researches are pending

c) Evidences are often wasted

These reasons can be further explained in a better way -

Frauds are often undetected: The laws that are directed towards spotting frauds are not strong enough. In the absence of laws, no proper network can be developed for tracking down malpractices.

Researches are pending: Researchers who start enthusiastically often dry up in the middle due to the trudging time.

Evidences are often wasted: Time being an important factor, evidences lose their worth and are often lost for good.

Coping With Frauds:

There are a few good ways to cope with frauds which can be summarized as follows:

• Fraud Busting Units

• Consumer Awareness

• Training Employees

• Hunting Down Cheaters

• Increasing Fraud Bureaus

Fraud Busting Units:

The State governments across the US have focused on developing different fraud busting units after their recent expenses towards anti-fraud movements proved futile. These units are composed of former intelligence personnel and retired policemen.

Consumer Awareness:

Consumer awareness drives are becoming more and more popular amongst insurers as they distribute insurance guide leaflets across a large volume of consumers. This in turn helps the consumers to know the various financial aspects associated with their policy in their correct form and thus detect and avoid the insurance fraud rackets. They are also being offered a number of active fraud hot-lines where in they can register complaints or seek advice 24/7.

Training Employees:

Insurers are resorting to training their employees through their initial phases of employment so that they suffice the expectations of the consumers promptly. Employees are now endowed with a better training towards handling all sorts of billing discrepancies which enables them to track any form of fraudulent intentions.

Hunting Down Cheaters:

Insurers have resorted to a joint funding of the National Insurance Crime Bureau in the recent times. NICB conducts different researches and collects vital data related to alleged fraud incidents and refers to them while prosecuting. It also conducts a National Consumer Fraud Hot-line.

Increasing Fraud Bureaus:

About 37 fraud bureaus have been developed by the insurance regulators across 45 states in the US. More & more fraud bureaus are trying to curb the insurance frauds through their vast network of data exchange facilities and through incorporating new operational laws.

It is not easy to eradicate insurance frauds in a day, but if we put in our best efforts then we may try & curb them gradually. This has to be a consistent effort over generations to rule out the basic causes & make sure that the vital social issues like health, life or business are sheltered.