For example, many early stage companies fail to develop a core asset to their internal HR department: the Employee Handbook. With employee disputes, litigation processes can often cost companies upwards of $50,000 win or lose. “I didn’t know” is not an excuse in court. The Employee Handbook is a critical tool in protecting your business. Having an effective handbook in place can help keep your company out of court, while also improving internal ops, motivating employees, and establishing clear communication between employer/employee.

This prompts us to outsource. Outsourcing is when a company hires another company to perform some of its functions. The two primary reasons a company will opt to outsource are cost and skill set. In short this means that the third party outsourcing company is offering to provide the required work at either a significantly lower cost or will provide higher quality work or possibly both of these requirements.  Sometimes time also plays a huge factor since most outsourcing companies can get the job done faster.

If you are a startup company it is advisable to outsource most or all of your HR functions. A start-up company with 3 employees has been equated with well established company with more than 50,000 employees when it comes to employment law.

With an increasing number of new laws regulating employment cropping up through the years, it is important to recognize that HR is not your core competency as a startup company and instead let specialists manage your employees. This will allow you concentrate more on your core competencies since time, resources, or expertise may not be in abundance. The specialists bring in fresh viewpoints, tried and tested processes as well as competent policies that help in the management of employees. This in turn saves a lot of time and effort on the part of the management and additionally in the standardization of HR processes.

Apart from expertise that comes with outsourcing, you also get access to the most recent or up to date technology without having to make costly investments. If you are a startup company you may not have many of these infrastructures.

Outsourcing your HR department can be an effective strategy, but it is dependent on the amount of knowledge acquired on when and what to outsource. A lot of successful outsourcing groups offer cost savings, effective and efficient service as well as standardization of processes. You should not only associate HR outsourcing with recruitment but also for operational, administrative, and strategic functions.

Bottom Line: HR Outsourcing is a necessary but costly aspect of scaling an early-stage company.

At BayPoint we’ve developed a way to provide our clients with the tools and support of an outsourced HR department without driving up the costs.

Check out our slide deck or get in contact with one of our advisors today to learn more about how we carve these resources in to your existing budget.

References

Outsourcing Your HR Department by Mohita Nagpal, DARE /Link/ Retrieved April 18, 2013

When to outsource HR duties and when to hire by Dan Emerson /Link/ Retrieved April 16, 2013

Is it time to outsource Human Resources? by Toddi Gutner /Link/ Retrieved April 18, 2013

We encourage HR professionals to develop a strategic approach to salaries and benefits as it is increasingly becoming important. A rigid labor market together with low inflation means employers have to be creative in order to remain competitive in recruiting and retaining staff without facing significant increases in pay bill costs or disruption of normal business functions.

Employee benefits in general refer to forms of value, other than salaries or payment granted to the employee in return for their contribution in an organization. Benefits are steadily becoming more expensive for businesses to provide to employees and as a result the range and choices of benefits are changing quickly to include, for example, flexible benefit plans. PPACA has recently intervened to this end to offer some employers a temporary tax credit to encourage them to provide insurance.

Recent research has shown us that a number of companies struggle with communicating benefits information to its employees. We urge HR professionals to incorporate the technology and tools in their reach to make communication strategies more successful, and to file their efforts to ensure uniformity.

In order to communicate effectively, we advise companies to start with understanding the three-to-five year strategic priorities of the business – these may include healthcare cost management, improving productivity and customer service growth by acquisition, and attracting and retaining talent. Productivity improvement programs are also another strategy that helps tie job behavior to rewards that may either be financial (e.g., bonuses and pay raises) or nonfinancial (e.g., improved job satisfaction).

Obtaining the right level of financing on terms that you can afford is also another strategy. It may be quite easy to understand the difference between an angel investor and a venture capitalist and knowing which one is right for your business but the process of actually finding an investor and giving them the documentation that will encourage them to invest in your business can be quite difficult.

Our firm is innovative to our industry and caters to early stage business startups and small businesses. We can help guide your HR professionals on the global standards for employee benefits.
References

Seven Characteristics of Highly Effective International HR Professionals by Warren Heaps

http://internationalhrforum.com/2012/08/12/seven-characteristics-of-highly-effective-international-hr-professionals/ Retrieved April 2, 2013

Pettit, J. & Ahmad, A. (2000) Compensation Strategy for the New Economy Age.

Stern Stewart & Co. Research.

Companies of all sizes are implementing successful wellness programs –  companies like Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Prudential, Johnson & Johnson, to name a few.   An estimated 29% of companies now have wellness programs and more are starting them.[1]

What do wellness programs offer that will influence the bottom line?

Typical results often look like this:

• 20 to 55% reduction in health care costs
• 32% decrease in short-term sick leave
• Savings of $3 to $6 for every dollar invested in wellness
• 30% drop in workers’ comp and disability costs
• Enhance recruitment and retention [2]

According to the United States Census Bureau, approximately 60% of Americans obtain their health insurance through employer-sponsored health insurance. [3] That translates into a significant cost for organizations, especially when coupled with the fact that two thirds of our population is obese.[4]

Obese people are candidates for ailments like diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood cholesterol, stroke, hypertension, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and breathing problems, and some forms of cancer.[5] According to the National Health Care Statistics, the typical American diet is responsible for most  preventable diseases, including 91% of diabetes, 82% of heart disease, and 71% of colon cancer.[6] Smoking and lack of exercise are also causes of many chronic health conditions.

These statistics all translate into higher health care costs for unhealthy employees, more unscheduled absences due to sickness of the employee or family members, and increased “presenteeism”  - whereby employees are basically present only in body, thus accruing costs to the employer through lowered productivity and customer service.  Employee turnover is another huge factor in employer costs, with replacement costs ranging from 75% to 150% of the employee’s annual salary.[7]

In planning a wellness program, several questions will have to be answered.

1. What levels of participation can be expected?
2. Are individual needs, temperaments, and goals taken into account, or is the program to be one-size-fits-all?
3. What objective data will be evaluated?  What differences will I see in my employees?
4. Will the program need capital expenses and will we be able to commit to them over the long haul?
5. What tools will be needed to launch, grow and sustain the program?

Each company must carefully examine the options available in order to select the program that best suits its long term goals and objectives.

There are many organizations that help set up wellness programs, but an employer will want to review the above questions to identify specific ROI-based goals.  Then the best tools will need to be selected that will enable the company to achieve the desired outcomes.

[2] Ibid.

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance_in_the_United_States Retrieved March 29, 2013

[4] http://www.uscorporatewellness.com/USCW%20-%20White%20Paper%20(ROI%20Analysis).pdf Retrieved March 28, 2013

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

What is Telemedicine?

Telemedicine, according to the American Telemedicine Association, is the use of telecommunications technology for medical, diagnostic, monitoring and therapeutic purposes when distance separates the users. Telemedicine makes use of computer and communications technology to capture and transmit text, audio and video information as a substitute for face-to-face contact between patient and doctor.

Telemedicine Options

Telemedicine options can vary from simply using a validated 24/7 telephone service to get a medical doctor’s advice on things like sore throats or influenza or non-narcotic prescriptions, to a real-time mode, where live video  and audio allows the physician, patient, and specialist to communicate interactively.   A third option, called the store-and-forward mode, is used when parties are not available at the same time, enabling medical information, including video, to be emailed or placed on a server for the specialist to view.

With real-time consultation, the physician can do an examination with the use of ENT medical peripherals,[1] so that one’s condition can be viewed by both the physician and the specialist.  This enables the specialist to diagnose and recommend the proper treatment immediately.  This method also provides training for the provider in providing diagnostic, treatment, and follow-up care.

What this does is enable a person to consult a specialist anywhere in the world and not have to travel to the specialist’s office.   This type of medicine can offer huge savings to both employer and employee. Reduction of travel time and the stress of battling one’s way through organizational paperwork and red tape are added benefits that cannot be overlooked.

Americans also like to get medical information online, and many medical providers provide access to helpful medical information that people can research online.   Patients can often get advice from their own physicians through these portals.  Information on specific symptoms may motivate one to obtain treatment sooner.

Successful Monitoring

Telemedicine has been shown to reduce not only the cost of health care, but to provide better care of chronic conditions and fewer or shorter hospital stays.   Self-monitoring/testing devices allow physicians to monitor or test patients at their homes or other places.   Pro-active self monitoring devices for chronic conditions may achieve better disease management success and allow physicians to detect any developing problems.

In Summary

Telemedicine provides a cost effective means to give medical care and access to doctors and specialists that can save both the employer and the employee valuable time and money.

In these difficult economic times, many employers view these ancillary benefits as things to cut first to stem a diminishing cash flow. However, smart employers are using voluntary benefits to enhance their benefit package while keeping the costs of employee benefits stable.

Employers are doing this in several ways.

1. Adding voluntary benefits to complement existing employer-paid benefits. For example, an employer can add on voluntary benefits to things like life-insurance and long-or-short term disability benefits. This takes the burden of paying for the benefit off the employer’s shoulders and allows employees the opportunity to buy coverage for themselves and their dependents, suited to the employee’s own needs.
2. Restructuring an employer-paid benefit to include an employee buy option. An employer may pay for the base-level benefit and the employee could have the option to upgrade to a richer benefit and pay the difference.
3. Replacing an employer-paid benefit with a voluntary one. Instead of the employer paying for the benefit, such as disability, life, or dental insurance, the employee bears the cost.
4. Offering discount cards through affinity partnerships allow employees to enjoy discounts on things like auto or home insurance at no direct cost to the employer.

The most frequent types of offerings in the voluntary insurance market are short-term and long-term disability, supplemental life, critical illness insurance such as cancer or heart policies, accident, and hospital indemnity policies. Other types of voluntary benefits might include things like a prescription drug card, pre-paid legal, dental, or discount offerings from various kinds from many companies.

Several advantages for both employer and employee are derived from the use of voluntary benefits.

“Not only does offering voluntary benefits cost small employers virtually nothing and help level the benefits playing field with larger companies, it also affords employees access to various type of insurance coverage, typically with looser underwriting requirements and at group rates that are ‘lower than if they went out and got coverage on their own,’” says Bernard DiFiore, President of BenefitMall, a Texas-based benefits wholesaler.

One key to helping employees make the adjustment from paid to voluntary benefits is to find a vendor that can ensure that products are competitive priced, administratively simple, and easily explained to employees. Another key is flexibility. The “one size fits all” package doesn’t work anymore. The needs of a 25-year old single individual are not the same as a 40-year-old married person. Voluntary benefits allow each to decide what is best and affordable for them.

Voluntary benefits will undoubtedly play a crucial role in the workplace of the future, where employees will be able to choose from an extended list of benefits for which they will pay for wholly or in part.

Workplace wellness programs like those offered here at BayPoint Benefits will help your company in these ways:

1. Reduced Absenteeism.  Healthier employees get sick less, saving costs not only in paid sick leave, but also in the temporary help, re-scheduling time, and lost business resulting from prolonged absence.  A healthy employee will also influence his or her dependents, thus reducing time off needed to care for sick family members.
2. Improved Productivity.  Healthier employees work longer hours with greater focus. This seems obvious, right? But small improvements make a big difference over time. Just one hour of extra productivity per day adds the equivalent of nearly one full week of work – every month.
3. Improved Employee Morale and Retention.  Healthier employees are also more loyal. A company-sponsored program sends a message that the your care about your employees’ welfare.

You don’t need a huge upfront investment to get a good ROI on your wellness programs.  For example, one company found that installing a hand sanitizer dispenser in the bathrooms and near doors cut down employee sickness days by 50%.  Not only that, but fewer employees showing up to work sick meant a lower spread of sickness among employees.  Staying healthy reinforces itself.

In another study on company vending machines, swapping junk food for sandwiches and low calorie vegetable and fruit snacks, and replacing sodas with bottled water and milk, significantly improved worker morale and performance by cutting out sugar highs and lows.  The cost to the employer? Nothing, save for a few grumbles from some sweet-toothed employees.

Offering free clinics and screenings proved useful to another business.  A diabetic screening revealed that a significant number of employees were diabetic or pre-diabetic, and encouraged these employees to adopt a healthier diet and life style.  Another tool that employers can use is a subsidized or partially subsidized exercise program.   Smoking cessation programs, in addition to creating a smoke-free company environment, will pay added dividends on an employer’s investment.

A wellness program is also a valuable resource in reducing insurance and medical costs for both employee and employer.  Despite the fact that the U.S. spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation, U.S. citizens are not any healthier; in fact, studies have shown they may be among the unhealthiest people in the world.   Incredibly, preventable chronic illnesses account for approximately 80 percent of illnesses and up to 90 percent of all health care costs.[1]

What this means is that money and pills are not the instant cure – a healthier lifestyle is the answer.  Prevention is the key, and wellness programs are the vehicle to saving on health care costs for both you and your employees.

La Cocina is San Francisco’s first Incubator Kitchen. La Cocina was designed to reduce the obstacles that often prevent entrepreneurs from creating successful and sustainable small businesses.  By providing shared resources and an array of industry-specific services, business incubators ensure small businesses can succeed. La Cocina follows this model by providing commercial kitchen space and technical assistance to low-income entrepreneurs who are launching, growing and formalizing food businesses.

Let us tell you more about La Cocina:

La Cocina’s Mission Statement

The mission of La Cocina is to cultivate low-income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market opportunities. We focus primarily on women from communities of color and immigrant communities. Our vision is that entrepreneurs will become economically self-sufficient and contribute to a vibrant economy doing what they love to do.

The Story of La Cocina

La Cocina (pronounced la co-see-nah, meaning “The Kitchen” in Spanish) was inspired by its current home, San Francisco’s Mission District. It is located in an ethnically diverse and economically vulnerable neighborhood that thrives in part due to the many small informal businesses that serve the community. As is the case in many cities, food lies at the heart of this community, and you don’t have to look far to find hidden entrepreneurs in the kitchens of many homes.

Recognizing a need to formalize these food businesses and the opportunity created when you turn inconsistent and illegal home restaurants into sustainable legal businesses, organizations like Arriba Juntos, The Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment and The Women’s Foundation of California and one very special and visionary anonymous donor created La Cocina. La Cocina is both the space-a modern building and commercial kitchen that has been featured in Metropolis Magazine—and the program—an innovative business incubator that supports a growing roster of small businesses.

La Cocina was born out of a belief that a community of natural entrepreneurs, given the right resources, can create self-sufficient businesses that benefit themselves, their families, their community, and the whole city. The food that has come out of this kitchen since 2005 reflects that aspiration and, quite simply, tastes amazing.

Breaking Down Barriers

The food industry has a notoriously high cost of entry: the fees for licensed and insured commercial kitchen space, the start-up costs to open a restaurant, the standards set to compete for shelf space at specialty stores and large retailers. Such restrictive barriers to entry often discourage burgeoning food entrepreneurs from launching a business. Those who do face an uphill battle for success in an overwhelming and incredibly crowded marketplace.

La Cocina provides a platform for these motivated entrepreneurs to hone their skills and successfully transition into the highly regulated and competitive food industry.

For more information on La Cocina and their programs check out the website: http://www.lacocinasf.org

The Emerge financial wellness program helps employees focus on their jobs by providing practical solutions to everyday financial stressors, achievable recommendations, and customized resources for a full range of personal and job-related financial issues; 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For more information click on the LINK

The membership is exclusive for BayPoint Benefits clients. BayPoint Benefits clients will be able to access the premier workplace financial wellness benefit, Emerge Workplace Solutions (“Emerge”), FREE (for the lifetime of your company) for all Baypoint clients that currently employ less than 100 employees. We have established a relationship with Emerge to offer our clients an entire Financial Wellness Benefit Program with a complete Wellness Resource Center with best-in-class online multimedia, including interactive courses and quizzes, video e-learning, financial calculators, and webinars; as well as a fast, simple, and FAIR way for employees to receive up to $2,500 in case of a financial emergency.

The program has been designed to operate with NO EXTRA work for HR and absolutely NO liability–ever–to the employer. Emerge is currently retailing for $3.00- $9.00 per employee, per year, but through this partnership Emerge is offering their entire 100% turnkey Financial Wellness Benefit Program FREE (for the lifetime of each company) for any Baypoint Benefit client that currently employs less than 100 employees.

If you are currently a BayPoint Benefits client and you are interested in the program please email melinda.engelman@baypointbenefits.com.

It’s time to start thinking about the food that is going to give your kids energy and make them feel good at school.

No more potato chips and candy. Here is a list of some healthy snacks characterized by salty and sweet that you can pack for your kids or make for yourself.

Salty:

1. 5 olives (any kind) (45 calories)
2. 1 small Martin’s pretzel (50 calories)
3. 2 oz Applegate Honey and Maple Turkey Breast wrapped around 2 bread-and-butter pickles (80 calories)
4. 1/4 cup hummus, 3 carrot sticks (80 calories)
5. 1 Laughing Cow Light Swiss Original wedge, 3 pieces Kavli Crispy Thin (85 calories)
6. 5 Eden’s Nori Maki Crackers rice crackers (110 calories)
7. 1 cup unshelled edamame (120 calories)
8. 50 Eden’s Vegetable Chips (130 calories)
9. One 1-oz package of Planters NUT-trition almonds (130 calories)
10. 1/4 cup Trader Joe’s Chili con Queso, 18 baked tortilla chips (140 calories)

Sweet:

1. 1 package Original Apple Nature Valley Fruit Crisps (50 calories)
2. 1 packet O’Coco’s Mocha cookies (90 calories)
3. 1 Jelly Belly 100-calorie pack (100 calories)
4. One 100-calorie pack Trader Joe’s Chocolate Graham Toucan Cookies (100 calories)
5. One 100-calorie Balance Bar (100 calories)
6. 1 Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino bar (120 calories)
7. 1 package Back to Nature Honey Graham Sticks (120 calories)
8. 1/2 banana rolled in 1 tbsp frozen semisweet chocolate chips (123 calories)

Let us know what your favorite snacks are for this fall. Are you getting them at Trader Joes? Safeway? Whole Foods? We’re curious to know your favorites.

BayKids will be having an exciting event on Saturday, August 27, ‘11, called “Moonalice Music Benefit”- LEGENDARY MUSIC for a LEGENDARY CAUSE! A night of music and fun with the popular band Moonalice. In addition to the music, there will be a Silent Auction, the proceeds of which will help BayKids to continue its work in support of hospitalized children. Doors open at 7pm, music starts at 8pm, Slim’s San Francisco. Tickets.

What is BayKids Mission? BayKids empowers children facing serious medical challenges to express themselves through the art and magic of filmmaking. They are committed to making a positive difference in the lives of hospitalized children by teaching them a wide range of moviemaking skills and helping them discover the power of self-expression.

What is BayKids Story? BayKids’ roots took hold in 1994 when founder Dave Spencer started a community outreach program for the San Francisco Giants. Inspired by the program’s success in helping children, Dave founded BayKids in 1997 with the goal of offering new and innovative ways to empower children through self-expression. Initially, BayKids developed cutting-edge multimedia programs to teach kids how to create websites, animated shorts, narrative films, documentaries, music and art.

Today, BayKids has evolved to focus its multimedia expertise on serving children in the Bay Area facing medical challenges. Working in partnership with Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland and UCSF Children’s Hospital, our digital filmmaking programs provide kids with the opportunity to explore their creativity while learning filmmaking, teamwork and leadership skills. As of July 2009, BayKids has helped over 5,000 children and their families get through cancer and other medical conditions.

Please visit BayKids website to find out how you can get involved – www.baykids.org.