Retaining skilled employees is a significant issue for any business. A high rate of employee turnover can result in a loss of knowledge and skills, as well as have a direct impact on a company’s bottom line. The cost of losing an employee includes not only lost productivity, but also the expense of recruiting, selecting and training a new employee. Consider the ideas presented below to help reduce turnover and increase satisfaction among your company’s valued employees.

Why Employees Stay

• Some of the factors affecting retention include:
• Compensation
• Good leadership
• Challenging and fulfilling job
• Relationships with immediate supervisors and staff
• Recognition

Ways to Increase Retention

The following are a number of ways to help increase retention:

• Acknowledge and reward your employees’ contributions and provide regular, constructive feedback
• Make sure your compensation package is fair and competitive
• Provide a forum to encourage new ideas and open communication
• Provide training programs and mentoring to enhance skills development, learning and career growth
• Provide employee assistance, wellness and health programs
• Support work-life balance
• Offer flexible work arrangements, such as varied hours and the possibility of telecommuting
• Provide leadership opportunities

Employee Attitude Surveys

Employee attitude surveys allow your staffers to give confidential feedback on their opinions of your company in terms of satisfaction with the job and how their jobs and work environment might be improved. To help build a relationship of integrity and trust among company employees, the results of your survey should be communicated effectively and acted upon by your company.

There are a number of different ways to conduct an employee attitude or satisfaction survey– from simply filling out a paper survey to taking an online survey or hiring a consulting firm to do all the surveying and analysis work for you. If you work with a consultant to administer an employee satisfaction survey, make sure you have access to the data. By personally reviewing the data and analysis, you’ll be able to make a better assessment of employee satisfaction. The survey results can provide you with key information on how to improve workplace processes, policies and morale to retain existing staff and attract new employees.

Some of the topics that can be covered in a survey include:

• Satisfaction
• Senior Management
• Functional Expertise
• Compensation
• Customer Service
• Communication
• Mentoring
• Leadership
• Teamwork
• Staff Development

Benefits of Employee Attitude Surveys

• Facilitate company’s development and change.
• Focus the company on specific needs or gaps in service or training.
• Provide management with employee feedback on company morale.
• Provide feedback on the impact of company policies and procedures.
• Results can be used to motivate employees and improve job satisfaction.

Developing a Health and Wellness Program

A company health and wellness program refers to activities or initiatives undertaken within the workplace that are designed to support your employees’ general health and well-being. Programs will often differ from business to business in terms of the range of initiatives offered.

Health and Wellness Initiatives

Some simple initiatives to consider include:

• Providing filtered water.
• Having your air-conditioning and heating systems checked and maintained on a regular basis.
• Increasing the nutritional quality of food available in the workplace.
• Providing desk chairs that are ergonomically designed to support the back.
• Empowering employees to include physical activity into their working day, such as encouraging walking at lunch.
• Providing incentives such as such subsidized memberships to local health clubs. Be sure to check with your local health clubs to see if they offer corporate rates.
• Providing more flexible work hours.

New Rules Expand Exemptions Based on Religious and Moral Objections

Effective as of October 6, 2017, two companion interim final rules issued by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury, and Labor expand exemptions related to the Affordable Care Act requirement that non-grandfathered group health plans provide coverage without cost-sharing for contraceptive services (referred to as the “contraceptive mandate”). Previously, the contraceptive mandate was subject to exemptions for religious employers and accommodations for certain other non-profit religious organizations and closely held for-profit entities with sincerely held religious beliefs against certain contraceptives.

Expanded Exemptions

The new rules exempt entities that object to establishing, maintaining, providing, offering, or arranging (as applicable) coverage, payments, or a plan that provides coverage or payments for some or all contraceptive services based on their sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions. For this purpose, the term “contraceptive services” includes contraceptive or sterilization items, procedures, or services, or related patient education or counseling.

• Religious Exemption. This exemption applies to non-governmental plan sponsors—including non-profit organizations and for-profit entities (whether or not they are closely held or publicly traded)—that object based on sincerely held religious beliefs.
• Moral Exemption. This exemption includes the plans of plan sponsors that are non-profit entities, as well as for-profit entities that have no publicly traded ownership interests (as defined under the law).

Disclosure Requirements

Exempt entities will not be required to comply with a self-certification process. However, where an exemption applies and all or a subset of contraceptive services are omitted from a plan’s coverage, otherwise applicable ERISA disclosures must reflect the omission of coverage in ERISA plans.

For more information on the interim final rules, please click here.

Used for Reporting in Early 2018

The IRS has released the final 2017 Instructions for Forms 1094-B, 1095-B, 1094-C, and 1095-C to help employers prepare for calendar year 2017 Affordable Care Act (ACA) information reporting. Employers will use the final versions of the forms and instructions in early 2018 to report on health coverage offered (or not offered) in the 2017 calendar year.

Key Changes for 2017 Reporting

The 2017 instructions differ from the 2016 instructions as follows:

• Instructions to Forms 1094-C and 1095-C: The final instructions have been revised to remove discussion of section 4980H transition relief, as none is available for 2017.
• Instructions to Forms 1094-B and 1095-B: While no significant form revisions are listed in the instructions, the “Additional Information” section refers reporting entities to regulations relating to the requirement to solicit the taxpayer identification number (TIN) of each covered individual (including available penalty relief for failure to report a TIN if certain regulatory requirements are satisfied).

2017 Forms

The following forms are now available for calendar year 2017 reporting:

• Form 1094-B (transmittal)
• Form 1095-B
• Form 1094-C (transmittal)
• Form 1095-C

Information Reporting Deadlines

The upcoming deadlines for submitting Forms 1094 and 1095 are as follows:

• Applicable large employers (ALEs)—generally those with 50 or more full-time employees, including full-time equivalents—must file Forms 1094-C and 1095-C with the IRS no later than February 28, 2018 (or April 2, 2018, if filing electronically). ALEs must also furnish a Form 1095-C to all full-time employees by January 31, 2018.
• Self-insuring employers that are not considered ALEs, and other parties that provide minimum essential coverage, must file Forms 1094-B and 1095-B with the IRS no later than February 28, 2018 (or April 2, 2018, if filing electronically). A Form 1095-B must also be furnished to “responsible individuals” (may be the primary insured, employee, former employee, or other related person named on the application) by January 31, 2018.