Employee Benefits, Traditional and Non-Traditional - 2023 Tourism Workforce Summit
Well welcome everyone welcome welcome this is our final panel of the day uh employee benefits traditional and non-traditional we have three wonderful panelists here with us and um I am Caroline R out I am the Workforce Development specialist with the tourism Association this event has been uh sort of the the brainchild of cat uh fence and myself um as we're trying to spread the word about the tourism industry to young people old people parents teachers anyone basically who will listen to us about what it really is to work in the hospitality and tourism industry and um I just want to let our three panelists know um I will be asking questions of you you do not have to look at me everyone's getting a crick in their neck from turning around but it's all good you can you can pretend I'm just the uh omnicient voice above so let's go ahead and get started shall we um let's start with our panelists introducing themselves we'd love to hear your name uh what your organization is and its connection to the tourism and hospitality industry Colby would you start off sure my name is Colby bracie I'm the Human Resources Director at the non ANM Resort we are a 109 room Resort in Kenny bunkport um we're open annually from April to December so seasonal is um I think it's pretty clear how we're connected to tourism and Hospitality as a resort um but we in addition to being a hotel we've got a restaurant we do lots of special events like weddings and conferences and whatnot as well Daryle uh my name is is Daryle Degan I started a company called 8co and we provide Recruitment and temporary staffing solutions for the hospitality industry wonderful and Beth hi I'm Beth Bordowitz I am the inaugural executive director of Merit the Maine retirement Investment Trust and our relationship to the tourism industry is that all businesses in Maine will need to be participating in this program over the next year and we think that particularly businesses in the tourism industry um are going to be large participants in the program is there because there are many businesses that not offer a retirement savings plan and that is we will be offering a retirement Savings Program so I'll get into a lot more detail about that going forward uh Beth is going to do a short presentation at the end of our session today so just wanted to give everyone want a little heads up about that um but let's go ahead and start with some questions so for uh our panelists what kind of benefits program does your company offer or um proposed to other businesses and how does your offering affect the gain and retention of employees um so we we do have a traditional benefits program with health insurance 401K um but being a seasonal employer almost all of our employees are e either seasonal or part-time or considered part-time um so they don't qualify for the health insurance typically um so we do have lots of non-traditional offerings as well which include things like um mental health reimbursement we're part of a transportation program that transports people between Sanford Kenyon bford um we provide two meals a day we have lots of swag sweatshirts things like that um there's there's quite a few things that we've had to think of in order to keep people on board or to to attract them um and I think that the non-traditional aspect of our benefits program um is what attracts a lot of people to us just because going into a seasonal type job most people aren't expecting benefits of any kind um so when they hear that we've got all this stuff and um you know their their family can stay with us for $49 and things like that um it's it's something something that they weren't expecting so it'll attract them a bit more than a competing property that might not give them anything at all uh so the type of benefits that we offer uh traditional benefits such as Health Vision dental insurance for all of our employees um vast majority of them are all fulltime so um and then I myself come from a culinary background so when it came to choosing what type of benefits we wanted to offer it really came as well what is the industry lacking in and that's when we started offering the traditional benefits then we went one step further and started offering things like short and long-term disability life insurance um bonus structures as well such as referral bonuses bringing new people onto our team performance bonuses as well um and so essentially we just kind of looked at it from the ground up and being like what does the Frontline worker really want and what is it they want to see implemented first and foremost and we started off like I said with the traditional benefits and then that glide into more on the compensation side which I'll talk a little bit more about as we go along and darl actually just to clarify um the business that you have started 86 and Co um you are essentially you have a bunch of employees under your roof so to speak and what is it that you do with them that that contributes to the hospitality industry yeah so we have a culinary task force um essentially whenever a restaurant or hotel whatever type of Food Service environment it is um we all know there's been an issue with uh finding reliable staff um so essentially we are chefs for higher uh we can come in for however long an establishment might need and whatever position they need it in and we essentially cover for that term and then when we're all set the restaurant's all set we move along to a different environment so our team gets the um they get the benefit of being able to change their work environment quite frequently and it kind of keeps it a little bit more alive uh compared to a normal Chef job so to speak that's fascinating I think it's a wonderful concept actually than um so for you've actually already sort of begun talking about the traditional benefits which I guess we can all agree that would be something like health insurance or um Retirement services or shorter long-term uh disability but I wanted to to touch on what Colby was starting to mention with the non-traditional um benefits that are offered through the non ANM Resort and if you could sort of reiterate some of those those programs that you started and why I would love to hear more about how those came to be sure um I think we are always looking to add value to our employees Liv so um we we just looked at ways that we could do that um we we did hear where we're looking for something Beyond just compensation so um the things that we've offered include again two meals a day um as sweatshirt and other clothing items throughout the year um we do a stipend for better help online counseling um which is new in the last couple years that we've been doing um but that's been great the transportation um it's not directly through us but we um paid money to participate in the program so any of our employ employes who live in any of the communities um are able to take the bus and and in addition um they can take the buses around Sanford B feraco Old Orchard Beach um using their employee pass so if they wanted to take it to you know Walmart or something um they could do that and that's that's free for them um we also do an a um referral bonus program um it's a monthly thing so every month that the persons that our current employees um referee stays with us they get $100 um so it's it's both to refer the person and to keep them as a longterm hire um and I I think that's most of what we offer um but all kinds of of different things um we also have super flexible scheduling which um I sometimes forget about as far as a benefit because just in it's the nature of our business we're 24 hours and people can kind of work whenever that works for them but um we offer that for our salaried employees too our office employees employees um we don't hold anybody to some sort of 8 to Five schedule and that's been super helpful for us as well um especially as we're looking to hire some younger folks that might be young parents um they are really able to work in a way that works for them um and if they encounter any sort of child care issue it's not a huge deal if they have to bring their kid to work once in a while we're very flexible on that sort of stuff too thank you um and for darl I'm wondering what was one of the uh impetus like what what what reason did you have to start 86 and Co and were there reasons related to the benefits realm um because as you said most people working in the food uh industry struggle to gain those kinds of benefits so I'm I'm wondering if that is related to why you created the company itself uh yeah I mean part of the reason was was really looking for more flexibility uh being a chef myself and I think just to touch upon flexible scheduling that's one of the biggest factors in and US retaining um our employees long term is because they get to tell us what's what their ideal schedule is what days off they would prefer to work what shift times they want to um be working and I think that as employers or managers we really need to be connecting with our staff more on that um particular basis because work life balance has to come into play now and aside from compensation uh that's probably one of the next most important factors I mean Hospitality has been kind of notorious for having long grueling hours um usually working on a salary and that's one of the motivating factors behind why I created the company and to bring on Chefs that have that similar mindset is you know we want to kind of change the way that this industry has been viewed as so we can start bring bringing on Fresh Talent um I spoke at a community college a few months back and that was the number one thing that all of these uh young people were bringing up is like I don't want to be spending every single weekend behind the stove I do not want to be spending um all my time like 12 16 hour days working in a kitchen like I want to have a life and I think that is something that we're seeing come through more and more and more with this next Generation that that's coming up and you know we should really be um taking notice of that and trying to reimplement those things now you know get ahead of the curve while we can Beth did you have anything you wanted to add um not that okay um so as I'm sure many of you will agree uh the as we've talked about the tourism and hospitality industry given that it's often seasonal given that it's often temporary it can be very difficult to integrate a health benefits uh type of program which is why it's so important to not only look for traditional uh modes but also explore non-traditional uh approaches as well so I think it's really great to hear these programs that are coming out of um businesses here that are showing to be very successful and that perhaps there's something that you can integrate into your business as well but speaking of that if traditional this is a question for our panelists if traditional benefits aren't a possibility whether it's because of the seasonality because it's such a small organization whatever the case might be um what non-traditional benefits do you think are probably the most Paramount for employees within an organization I think it depends on what your goals are for your employees you know are you focused on in enhancing Wellness in your organization if so then it's probably something like mental health sick leave Etc um so I think it depends on what kind of goals that you have for your organization um a blanket statement would be that it's flexibility um in scheduling everybody wants to be able to choose when they can work especially if you're a 7-Day A Week business or a 24hour business um you know somebody's got to work on Saturday so there are people who want to do that and people who don't want to do that um and to offer that choice I think is really critical for people um and can't go wrong with [Laughter] food um I think what because we also do not just temporary staffing we also recruit for other establishments on a permanent basis so we head hunt for them and one of the things that I'm seeing more and more candidates start to request is assistance with accommodation or relocation assistance if it can be provided that's probably the largest barrier for talent coming into the state because you know in order to get an apartment someone needs a job but in order to um get a job they want you to live in the state so you know it's it's a double- edged sword sometimes and that's something I think that uh there's actually a business in Lincolnville called Wales tooth Pub um and this is not going to be you know the same for everybody but they managed to purchase an inn not too far from them just solely for the the basis of employee housing um I'm starting to see more hotels offer up uh portions of their rooms for seasonal employees and Beyond so I think that's another area that if you want to look into attracting Talent that's not within this already talent pool start to look at some more creative ways to bring people into the state um and then just to add to that you know the non-traditional benefits it's something that's unique to you you know what is it that you can offer that your competitors can um proba another example is say Joseph's College of Maine I don't know if any of you've heard of them they offer free education to some of their employees who come on board and um there was a story that was told to me that one janitor put himself and four of his children through college completely free of charge I mean that right there is employee retention for the long term because you're able to not only help that individual but you're able to help their family as well so look into areas like that that you can become creative with and I think you'll you'll start to drive talent to your organization thank you um speaking of housing I I wanted to bring up two things number one in our previous session um we actually learned that Sugarloaf did a very similar thing they bought a hotel that was nearby um their facility and it allowed them to provide um housing for a lot of their seasonal employees but that actually leads into my next question um what are some challenges that you through your business or that you have observed oberved other businesses facing um in provide PE in uh providing benefits whether traditional or non-traditional for their employees it's the eligibility of course and the cost um so providing benefits usually is going to be expensive sometimes it doesn't have to be um but I I think that if you want to be an employer of choice and you want people to understand that they're valued you need to spend some money on doing those things um so it's it's really just looking at your budget and figuring out how you can reallocate money in order to give back to the employees um so yeah I mean those are the two main hurdles I think that that we at least have faced um and I imagine that most small indoor seasonal businesses in main face um but I there there's a saying if if you want to you will so um you know if you want to add that kind of value to your employees lives then you'll figure out a way to do it yeah I agree on the cost Factor um especially when we start to implement health insurance that was one of the things our employees kind of came to us and said look like it's fantastic that you have this gold plan put in place but like I just can't afford it and so one of the things we implemented was uh a plan choice you know bronze silver and gold so we're kind of allocating to everybody's budgets like they might not want the best Healthcare option but they might want to just have it so being able to kind of look at that as um a way that you can help offer still offer something but offering on more of like a sliding scale and then understanding that you know you cannot be everything to everyone you know you can't just be able to offer all these different types of benefits just to bring people in the door because you're going to trip yourself up down the line you know what's the what can you reasonably afford to bring in that's not going to hurt your bottom line that's one of of the things I would and actually darl you brought up a really good point earlier uh when you were mentioning St St Joseph's um and how education and having that as a benefit is really beneficial uh is quite desirable for many employees um and we were also talking in the previous panel about how that same realm training gaining those training skills gaining as as an employee being able to say oh yes I have gone through this nationally nationally recognized training and it was paid for by the business where I'm working um and one of the key words that I think a lot of people were coming at it with because as you both mentioned the costs can be rather challenging um but viewing it as an investment not not only in your employees but also in your business um our previous panel talked about how uh even though it was focused on seasonal employees um those employees were going to be leaving in the winter or in the spring for another position elsewhere and how they helped them write their resumés and create their uh uh letters of recommendation and make suggestions on places where they could go etc etc and by and large providing that assistance to them that guidance um actually brought many more of those seasonal employees back to the business when it was time for them to return you know when it was time for for the height of the Season once again um so I thought I would bring that up that it's a vital piece of this industry um where am I sorry okay um so these challenges that we've all talked about and I'm sure you've all experienced them uh how would you say for our panelists that you have overcome these challenges to best meet the needs of your employees and your business um I think that was a good point that you can't be all things to all people so we've really honed in on what it is our employees are looking for um and like you just mentioned Caroline we also do focus on um helping connect people to either winter work or school through the Community College um and that definitely does leave an impact on people that that we want to see them succeed even if they're not going to be with us for a time um so that I think has been really helpful um let's see what else we um we have reduced our eligibility requirements for our 401k so although um some of our seasonal folks maybe aren't eligible for health insurance they are still eligible for retirement um so you can kind of manipulate things in that way to at least give them something um and yeah I think that's that's kind of how we've overcome we just really have tried to create a focus it's been helpful yeah just um I found the directo approach like you were saying just asking the employees themselves like what is it you're looking for because everyone's unique you know someone has to get home from school uh sorry get home from work to pick up their kids from school some people um want to have a promotion they want a title uh some people just want to have money like it really just depends you know what the motivating factor is behind any one individual it's not it's good to have a standard you know for all of your employees to have a benefit program in place or a solid working schedule but at the end of the day what makes them tick and the only way you're going to find that answer just by asking them and and being able to compile that data on the back end and be like okay what action can I take that's not going to obliterate my bottom line but I can still be able to provide a really good uh work life balance or a good benefit program and really just go from that great I'm just gonna jump in here with just also I think I think it's important to as an employer just to know sort of what some of the options are out there like like I'm a sole employee and we were able s to um like set up a Cera which I'd never heard of before so just even and I'd been around you know human human resources for a long time so just knowing that there are options out there so that maybe you don't have a big budget for health insurance but you can find a way to find a product that will take the dollars that you have and be able to at least make an effort to offer something for your employees and there's a huge number of programs and under the like just available to employers but there it's a lot to learn and that actually leads me to my next uh question activity um I actually I'd like to open up a question to our audience um and say what are some of the challenges that you have experienced in your businesses um that you have potentially created some solutions to or things that you'd like to have some solutions to if you want to take a minute think about what you've run into any issues yeah you hi hi I'm Jessica I'm from Sunday River um so pre pandemic we had a daycare that was open to um anybody who came to the mountain parents don't want to see with their kids they just wanted if they're not putting in a program or if they're too little they just want to drop them off and then when the pandemic came um we're in a really small town we're in Western Maine and one of the um the local uh daycare or whatever was was basically overwhelmed with people they didn't have anymore so we uh were able to accommodate our team members by that daycare became a team member only daycare we no longer had it open to the public our guests were not super pleased but we had to take care of the people who were there that we were serving um and since then it is still just open to uh team members and then people that live in our local community and part of it with Co we were able to justify it by saying like we can't have different kids in here all the time but it stayed that way CO's not here anymore and um it's a huge benefit for our employees our team members to know that they can have child care at a discounted rate and it's right there at work with them and the kids come trick-or-treating through the offices and it's very cute so that was one of the challenges we fa and that was how we got around it would you say that um an additional benefit to creating that program for your employees is that they showed up to work more and they stay you know having sort of residual effect because if they did not work there they could no longer bring their child there so that's yeah I don't work for um this particular industry I come from the Human Services World um and have many of the same struggles in terms of turnover and Recruitment and Retention um but this particular problem I had about 140 employees before I retired as uh the CEO of our nonprofit organization and we had a culture of I wonder what I can get away with in terms of workers C versus a culture of safety yeah so it was you know it was costing the agency a lot of money when we're already spending upwards to over a half a million dollars in health benefits for employees and so then we had these exorbitant War his comp costs and I this just sounds so odd but we instituted um a a program a benefit that really involved $10 gift certificates $10 gift certificates and every single month we we said I wonder when the magic is going to go away from the $10 gear certific but it never went away and we served um four specific geographic regions and so the staff associated with that geographic region um everybody on the staff would get a $10 gift certificate if there were no l time accidents in that geographic region now obviously we were not saying who who might have made a claim or whatever so it had to be a loss time accident not just a claim but a l time a l time incident or accident or illness and um it dramatically changed how the staff felt all all of a sudden it was everybody's business your safety is now my business for a $10 gift certificate I'm not kidding you and the deal was if there was a l time accident in that geographic area nobody in that geographic area you get the $10 gift certificate and then we wipe the Slate clean for the next month so you were only going to go one month without even if the person was out on comper you know an extended period of time you only went one month without that $10 gift certificate and every other month we went between groceries um and gas so and people people would just like staff would just saying you know I went to the grocery store and I bought a bag of potatoes and they were thrilled I mean it we just could not believe a $10 gift certificate could have that impact on on our first of all our morale and and whenever people got the $10 gift certificate I wrote a little safety message to all staff and they all got it and they were thrilled and most of them more humorous and um so it just lightened everything up and it really impacted our workers comp cost well and it's um one thing I like to sort of pull from what you said I mean the $10 gets certificates that's great that's cool but it also sounds like it that was sort of subsequent and what really seemed to peque everyone's interest is that oh now I'm not the only one thinking about my safety someone else is thinking about it too and someone else on top of that and someone else on top of that so it becomes much more of a team uh mentality you're looking out for one another um which is also a benefit of working in this industry again so many of the tourism and Hospitality businesses uh they are very bilial there's a community to them and it's what brings people back year after year season after season whatever the case might be and it sounds like that program sort of exemplified that sentiment um throughout throughout the staff okay does anyone else have a challenge or a program that you implemented in your business or that you've taken part in that maybe you worked somewhere and it had a program that you were a fan [Laughter] of last year we had an intern that we wanted to work with us um and she had a housing need we couldn't offer a housing but we were able to come up with a small stien to cover some of the costs associated we wouldn't obviously we didn't have enough resources to pay the whole amount but we offered her a total amount and that was enough to do it so it's just that little extra being able to offer that was important to her it was important to us and gave us a better intern because we're able to make that that exception and we thought about doing it again we just had to have the right C come along anyone else I actually just want to mention a a program that I'm seeing coming up more frequently in uh restaurants or food establishments which is called a kitchen appreciation fee I don't know if anyone's heard of that before it's something that's becoming or gaining some traction anyway and essentially what it means is at the end of a a your meal and you get your check there's been anywhere between 1 to 3% of the bill that's been added on as a kitchen appreciation fee and it's where that the cooks and the chefs and the dishwashers they actually start to get a cut of this which is you know exclusively it's been for front of house staff but since this fee has been introduced it's now um the back of house is able to get a portion of that and when I went out and interviewed a few different restaurant owners about this and might mention we wrote a piece about it um it's surprising how much it affected the morale of the backa house staff like quite substantially and this was probably on any given month it could be anywhere from $2 to $500 and you know in peak season it's a little bit more but when we were talking to some of the cooks they were like Yes actually incentivize me to come to work because if it's a busy night I get more of a cut you know I get the more checks we do the more we're going to make and for some people like that was their CMP bill paid you know that was their phone bill taken care of and when you're a Frontline worker or you're you know usually on kind of the lower end of the pay scale literally every dollar counts and so if you can look at ways or creative ways to implement that in so everyone is inclusive of it I think it's going to really help with the the retention of Staff or it's a way to kind of think outside the box of being able to either retain them or bring bring more people in y yeah go for it I was just gonna Echo what Don said um about adding on that it as someone who comes from a boutique Hospitality background I think it's important to not look at it as a All or Nothing situation when it comes to benefits instead of um projecting out and marketing that will cover your entire tuition as an employer and all of that sometimes it's just putting the word out there with your current employees for a retention perspective to say if there are initiatives in education or coursework that you're interested in talk to us um come to us maybe we can front that upfront cost of it and we can do a interest free payment back that will help you enroll in this program that you otherwise wouldn't have been able to do without that Capital to be able to spend on it and it can be creative um in what you're offering without having to as a small employer commit to something that's larger that's a really good point be good actually does anyone have anything else that they'd like to mention share contribute all right well my last question for our panelists um what recommendations would you have for other tourism Centric businesses on building a stronger more complete or more comprehensive rather benefits program yeah um like I started saying before you need to focus on what your company's um object objectives are um so three questions you can ask yourself is are you looking to improve employees satisfaction loyalty Wellness or productivity question two are you looking to attract new Talent retain existing Talent OR reduce your turnover and then question three are you wanting to slash a to um just offer what is legally required are you looking to do industry Norms or best practices um and so once you have the answer to those three questions you can kind of tailor your offering or even your survey questions to that objective um see what it is that people are looking for within that frame um and then offer something within that and I think um once you start that ball rolling people will automatically be more engaged and and a little bit happier about what it is they're getting from you um and then hopefully you'll be able to add more as time goes on but just by by starting with a very clear Focus I think is a is a good path uh I actually get this question somewhat frequently when uh a client will call and be like you know we're recruiting for this position what do you think of the the benefits and compensation package and you know how can we improve this and my answer is always you know look at your competitors go on Google Maps do a 15 mile 30 mile radius around you look at what they're hiring for in similar positions and what are they able to offer that you don't and that lies some of the or that's where the answer can be found is you know if they're able to attract uh more employees than you can or if it's better quality employees what are they doing that you're currently all um someone mentioned stipend uh in the audience that's um something we're seeing much more frequently that's being um incorporated into benefits package a phone stipend travel stip end um everything's getting more expensive nowadays so if there's anything that you can do to kind of help on a compensation side that is um that's where I would probably start as well um and then the other thing is if you can have employees work from home even if it's just one day out of the the week take them up on that I mean that boosts morale quite significantly and uh one of the things I see requested a lot is a four-day Work Week people would rather work longer days in lie of having an extra day off you know they're able to kind of check a lot more things off of that task list than um than if they were working constantly um I actually come from from Scotland and came over here 10 years ago and there were two things that shocked me the most about American culture and the first one was Healthcare is wicked expensive I learn very quickly to not get hurt um and then second um I found it really confusing that paid time off is not mandatory you know over there we get four weeks every single business has to has to do it it's it's regulated by law but over here you just have to go to burnout like that just seems to be like what the end result is and so looking at ways that you can increase employee morale by offering that time off or are having vacation personal days sick days I mean it's it's really going to significantly in increase um productivity and morale for sure the Washington Post did a study recently that um one day working from home is equivalent in employees Minds to an 8% pay increase wow so good for that well wonderful so at this point um you all had a piece of paper on your chair if you could grab that piece of paper out it focuses on the Merit program and Beth is going to do a short talk with all of you to uh expand on what the Merit program is and how it's going to affect all of us very soon all right well thanks so um yeah my my role on this is to provide a non-traditional approach to a traditional benefit so let's go a little bit of a sideways um way into the panel so Merit is coming to a workplace to your workplace and it was developed by the state of Maine to alleviate the retirement savings Gap so basically 41% of Mayers don't have workplace retirement plan that number is actually higher in a a lot of other states but it's still a pretty high number so the goal here is for the state to provide a workplace retirement plan so I guess one thing um here raise your hand if you do offer some kind of re retirement plan yeah so quite a bit of you in in this room um and there there'll be a role for both those who offer a plan and those who don't so Merit is meant to cover all main employers with five or more [Music] employees that do that do not offer otherwise offer a workplace retirement plan but all main employers with five or more employees will be receiving either an email or a letter from Meritt starting at the end of January they're going to either need to register with Meritt or to go online and say that they are exempt because they offer a workplace retirement plan so they don't have to participate in Merit or that they have less than five employees and we know that for many businesses and that's can be a rolling number it could be five one week and seven the next or 200 the next that it can move so it's an annual average but basically on the day that you apply whatever number if you have more than five then you're going to register your employees employers with 15 or more employees will need to register by April 30th of 2024 employers with four to five or more by June 30th of 2024 or they all need to go inline and say that they're exempt so this is a program where the employer facilitates the program but it's not the their program it is the state's program so there's no cost to the employer except there is a little time if they're exempting it's under five minutes if they're enrolling I've watched employers enroll it's about 15 minutes 10 to 15 minutes depending on how much how quickly they can do it but it's a pretty very simple and clean process and there's no employer fiduciary responsibility so the employer does facilitate but they are it is not their program all these employers every employer will receive an email that will have a link or a letter with an email address and that will have some instructions if they're exempt they basically go online click this link there's two radio buttons I am exempt and then the next one the reason why and they're done if they need to upload if they need to register with the program they will upload they will say they're going to register and then they'll walk through a few steps to to upload basically their employer employee data and that can be um it can be manually done or there's a spreadsheet form that you can use and upload in bulk and then and then the employer's role is now done for 30 days then we the program will be reaching out to all of your employees three times in those 30 days saying that you are going to have a rth IRA account open for you and you'll have 5% of your payroll contributed to that Roth IRA and you'll be putting our default investment options however you can opt out of any one of those you can opt out of the program entirely you can change your contribution or you can um change your Investments if they don't opt out they will be registered and the program will send information to the employer 30 days later 32 days later saying here are your employees that are now enrolled in the program and you're here's how much each of them wishes to contribute into the program so you'll be able to as Employer set that up and then administer that with each payroll we will the program will notify you if there are any changes four days prior to that payroll but um typically these changes are pretty rare anyone who runs a retirement plan knows that generally changes are rare but they could happen and we will let the employer know employers can make their payroll provider a teammate so that their payroll provider can have a role in the program and we are working with as many payroll providers who will talk to me will working with them to make it so they're they're getting ready a lot of the payroll providers are getting ready to to offer this program um the pilot is started yesterday so we have as of probably right now four employers who are enrolled so I've been able to watch and test it out so far it's took on very smoothly the employers who have participated in that pilot like the program so far um and I know a key question probably for people in this room seasonal employees do they count and so they do count for the five whether or not you have five employees at a given time um but for seasonal employees if they you have as an employer you can have the choice you can enroll them on day one when you on board just as part of your onboard checklist or you can say I'm going to wait 120 days because an employee does not need to be enrolled until they have worked 120 days for you so if you have this was particularly a big concern of the summer camps they have a lot of people who are not working 120 days so if they're going to work 120 days or more you can do it on day one or you can register them on day 120 one thing that's really great about this person program is that that big group of people that we talked about in the last session who might work one job in the summer or one job in the winter they'd have the same account so if both of their employers are in Merit then their account will be the same and their summer employer will contribute and their winter employer will contribute so that's my really quick rundown but I'm happy to take any questions about that a lot to cover in a short time yep is there an employee contribution option there is not yeah no no I understand the yeah sadly there is not um and a lot of employers are like really happy to have this program that doesn't cost them anything and would be you know happy to make a contribution so there is um because we're one of the goals of the programs to assure that the employer has no fiduciary obligations or responsibilities they cannot make um a contribution we I have heard that this program is established in six or seven other states at this point and so we I have heard of employers who maybe offer a higher pay and suggest strongly that it go into the account but it's their money they can the employee can do what they want with it if they do it that way are there other plans in the works to implement other traditional benefits for employees like healthare Etc is this a pilot for more things this is I'm not aware of any it doesn't just say they won't come because I think this was created to address a need and there's a need in healthcare as well as well and I can sort of speak to that um while there aren't any programs in in effect right now um these discussions are starting to come to a real head and people are getting to the point where like like you know what we need to create these programs um these discussions have been happening for decades and it seems like in the wake of coid and the changing uh mentality of a lot of our incoming workers or people who've been in the industry for a long time and they're shifting to a different role um people are realizing the need is even greater than it ever has been and so there are a lot of programs that are uh I would say in their infancy so quick question I'm new to HR but um our company we offer the 401K after a year so what I'm hearing is that day one or day 120 our full-time employees with and part-time and seasonal would be able to participate in Merit and then participate in our own 401K sadly no so if you offer a 401k then that then yeah you don't have both and so um I say sadly no be but so if you have a 401k and that's not unusual for it to only be available to full-time employer employees or to after a year is your plan then no um can't they can't offer both the individuals can sign up for merit so if they're interested they can do it on their own and have contributions right from their bank account so they can do it on their own so we can at least provide them the information and then when we get that information from whoever it is the powers at Fe we'll just say we offer 401K after a year right you would you as a company would go online and just say yep we you know we offer 401k and that your responsibility is done and for many companies that offer 401K you may not even get the letter because we're going to do a match against Department of Labor data so if you filed a Form 5500 we'll do a match and we hopefully we be exempting you without you having to take any action but there are so many permutations of qualified retirement plans that certainly some employers who offer one are going to get a letter there might be five companies under the same 401K sort of filing so um but yeah hope we hopefully we'll we're going to do whatever we can to make this as easy as possible for the employers it is that the same for the 403 briefer not for profit yes is there a minimum age associated with this program is it 21 18 18 18 yes go ahead you had mentioned the cut off date for the larger employers for April 30th when will we be able to what's the first date that we'll be able to go on and exempt ourselves or it will be after after January so we're we're trying to find a date that's going to be right given the holidays in January and all the employer obligations with end of the year beginning of the year so probably around the third week in January these letters will start to go out I'll say the website is live now but what the letter will have is a code that will just make it just facilitate the process for you was there any push back from employers by saying this is going to cause work for my bookkeeper or my finance department so I you know we have had knock on wood very little push back none because I think what that what I have found is is sort of more like your question like we want to be able to offer this but the 401K is expensive or I don't want the fiduciary responsibilties s talking with my hands and then the mic goes crazy this is the old New Yorker in me what can I say um but yeah but so most employers really want to do right by their employees and they are making their choice among here if I have my bundle of money which which is the most important for and for me to offer and so there are many employers I've spoken to and of course I probably am getting not um a full view of the entire environment but they're really like when can I start I'd really like to be able to offer this if it's simple for me and I can do this I want to bring it on anyone else have any questions can employees opt out of this 100% yes I mean hopefully 100% won't but so right now national average is about 30 28 to 30% do opt out but that's why they'll hear once the employer registers them they'll hear three times in that first month from us saying you know here's your choices this account's going to open if you don't do anything and then there'll be some employees that will ignore those letters and they'll be fine and they'll just go on and they won't even really notice that this 5% come out of their payroll and they'll have started saving for retirement and then there'll be some who will look at their next pay pay P Che and be like what happened to that money I was going to spend on diapers or CMP or whatever and they'll be able to call and because it's going into a Roth IRA there won't be any penalty if they just call right away and say I want to stop now so there's an expectation we know that that will happen for some people so you're making people L and then giving them inform their the rest of their Liv for you so I'm not sure I understand the question but the the the account is is the employees so the employee has that account and they can let's say they move on to another job with a 401k and they want to consolidate bow that into a 401k you know that have to be the Roth portion of a 401k but they can do that so they own the account and they can do um they can move it into a different 401k plan if if they want to it's it's theirs if they move to a different employer who offers Merit then they'll just keep adding to that same same same 401K I 40 same same Ral siday and while it's not any cost to employers is there any are there any costs associated for employees other than the 5% withdrawal from their uh bank account like from their pay as you said or as I think Nathan sort of bringing up um who's who's paying for the maintaining of of this system y so like almost any retirement plan there are there is a per account fee so this is paid by the employee um it's a $26 annual fee um flat fee quarterly part of which goes to the state part of which goes to our program manager and a um 20 basis point um asset under management fee and then we have very lowcost funds which are the investments in the program so there's some underlying fund fees so and relative we our board this is a a public board that made the decisions in you know in a public meeting and they did look at you know how these fees compared to 401K fees and other you know similar Investments and I think they're very competitive and is it a stepped system like depending on what age you are when you get your Merit accounts I know that with typical retirement uh funds or or accounts you you know if you're 25 you put in this much and it's that that $20 a year or whatever the case but if you're 55 then now you're putting in $55 a year is is it that sort of a system so it is it's up to the employee what they put in so it's 5% default amount if they don't make any changes and it will auto escalate every year unless the employee off out of that so it's 5% the first year 6% the second up to 10% and then just stop and of course again the employee can opt out of that any time and then the default investment is a target date fund so it's one of those types of funds that will put the um become more conservative as the investor approaches their retirement age um so when and you know we enroll all of our employees and six months go by and we bring on a new employee and they already have an account do we get that information from the employee well it will you will you will just enroll them it almost won't matter from your perspective so you'll upload them into the system either on day one or day 120 and then the system will say oh we already have this person here and so that money is going into the there's no information that we need to chase down from employees that no I have a all right so um at this point I just wanted to ask does anyone have any remaining questions about traditional versus non-traditional benefits in general if you had any other questions for our panelists um good microphone I don't okay go for it um so I have I I understand that you can't sort of make everyone happy idea but um I I'm nervous about offering something that I know some of my employees will use like a health like a health s in for Chiropractic for whatever and that I know some of them won't use and I feel like the ones who don't want that would be like why can't I just have that money or you know and then do I offer a tiered level for the parttime people or they just don't get anything part two is up to you I mean I would do something for everybody but you don't have to certainly um I think that's the the more Equitable thing to do but um as far as offering something that not everyone will use I mean we we've run into that but not as much as you might imag imagine I think people like to complain but in the end you know you're helping some people and other people it's just not applicable it's not as though you're hurting them or it's costing them anything so it's you know it's not as big a deal as you might think it is um but the other option would be to offer a choice between two things if like if you wanted to do you say your chiropractor thing and then a a gym reimbursement like you can choose one or the other so everybody gets something and and they choose what it is they want to use it on or if they use it at all what what amount do you guys offer for the better um our employees pay $25 a week and we pay everything else so it ends up being quite a bit I think better help is like $300 a month is so we say so we end up with like two-thirds of it and I'm not sure if to go with your question um I'm not sure if it is possible to do this if you are not if you don't already offer health insurance but um to sort of cover all your bases a health savings account can be really great because everybody gets the same thing and they can just use it on health related things but a health related thing can be you know it can be a a teeth cleaning it can be going to the chiropractor it can be oh I need a mental health day and I'm going to go and do this or you know as long as it's applicable to personal health Health you can't do that unless you [Applause] have unless you have health insurance and a high deductible plan but you can do an FSA so you could do a um either a healthcare FSA which people can use on things like premiums copay um Band-Aids you know whatever um or there's also child care fsas that they can use toward child care expenses so those are some options as well so the H is a reimbursement account yeah and then there's an HSA um has to coincide with a qualifying Health Plan and then an FSA is it's a flexible spending account so um yeah so they can use it either there's Healthcare ones or there's childcare ones and you can contribute a certain amount contribute a certain amount um yeah yes yes and it's like some I think it's like up to two two or $300 can roll over and everything else goes away it's just be careful with that right well at this point we are all done it has been an absolute pleasure having all of you here and please thank our wonderful uh panelists here thank you thank you at this point we are going to have just a short break 15 minutes um but everyone can head right on back to the CCO Bay room um we will be starting our networking activities hosted by seasonal connect there very soon thank you again for coming
2023-11-15 03:16
