Healthcare Reform: Let Your Mind Wander

Although a large portion of our current healthcare system is financed by employer-provided insurance, I am not sure why. It seems that businesses fell into this responsibility. As more businesses started offering bigger and better benefits packages to recruit highly qualified workers, more employers felt the pressure to offer similar enticements to compete for the best and brightest employees. Over time, the expectation grew that employers would offer health insurance.

What if businesses ceased their role as the keepers of our nation’s healthcare program? In fact, some commentators believe that could happen. Under the recently signed healthcare reform bill, it may be less expensive for employers to drop insurance and pay the $2,000 penalty per employee, rather than provide insurance to employees.* Let’s use our imaginations and consider the following outcomes:

1. Employees would be forced to use the insurance purchasing exchanges.

2. Employers would eliminate the administrative and financial burden of providing healthcare benefits. The savings could be used to hire more people or invest in equipment and research and development.

Whether you love or hate the new healthcare reform bill, I think this scenario warrants some thought. If your company didn’t have to provide health insurance, how would it use the newfound dollars? If your employees were confident that the healthcare exchanges provided solid coverage, would they accept elimination of your company’s healthcare coverage?

Share your thoughts by clicking on the “comments” link below. I look forward to hearing from you.

* According to Congressional Budget Office analysis, employer sponsored insurance coverage will still account for 61 percent of the healthcare marketplace in 2019.

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Lazy Feedback Limits Achievement

Maintaining regular employee feedback is one of the most difficult disciplines required of managers. With the grind of deadlines and scheduling demands, busy managers feel like they are barely keeping their heads above water. Who has time to point out a minor indiscretion or an error that you could fix just as easily yourself? Shouldn’t your subordinates notice when you change their work and make the necessary adjustments on their own?

If you are like me, you have had all of these thoughts at some point in your career. You may have also realized that you were wrong, just as I have over the years. Careful feedback is difficult to produce but well worth the effort in the end.

Most people can’t evaluate themselves effectively. And even for those who are realistic about their performance level, obvious flaws can continue to fly past their radar screen. In the publishing industry, we say, “Everyone needs a good editor.” That same idea rings true in any endeavor. Honest, specific feedback makes the difference between mediocre performance and the highest levels of achievement.

The challenge for HR professionals and managers is to find an effective method of delivering feedback without breaking the bank of limited time and resources. Many organizations still rely on the annual review process. While better than no review at all, piling a laundry list of indiscretions on employees once per year gives them little chance to improve their performance before they receive their annual rating. On the other hand, requiring managers to provide feedback more often may be unrealistic.

Over the years, I have gleaned the following ideas from the HR community.

1. Use recognition practices to reinforce good performance. By sending thank-you note when employees perform well, you reinforce good behaviors — and hopefully discourage bad ones.

2. Every three months, schedule a 45-minute brown-bag lunch with each employee on your team. Everyone has to eat lunch, so the time commitment is easier to swallow (no pun intended). Prepare a list of three items that the employee is doing well and a list of three areas that need improvement. Allow the employee to provide input on which items to focus on during the lunch period.

3. Implement a performance management software system. That is a major endeavor, but one that pays off for some organizations. Initially, be prepared for some dissent from the ranks. Effective performance management requires time commitment from managers. Point out the benefits through case studies and examples of improvements as the system shows results.

Performance management is a thorny issue. A good system will threaten poor performers, as well as managers who don’t want to spend time on providing employee feedback. However, stick with it. When performance management is done well, it can raise employee achievement to new heights and have a significant impact on the bottom line.

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