HR BESTIES - HR Besties: Employee Benefits, Open Enrollment and Everything in Between

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

Today’s agenda:  *Special* benefits Cringe corporate speak: pay your dues Hot topic: All things employee benefits and open enrollment Jamie provides a rundown on open enrollment (yes, Americans do indeed have to opt into benefits annually) How does HR play a role in benefits and healthcare? Educating yourself to provide the best information to employees on topics such as deductibles, HMO plans, dependant care, HSA's vs. FSA's, etc. Information is key. Working alongside brokers and insurance to ensure there are no hiccups Questions/Comments  Your To-Do List: Grab merch, submit Questions & Comments, and make sure that you’re the first to know about our In-Person Meetings (events!) at https://www.hrbesties.com. Follow your Besties across the socials and check out our resumes here: https://www.hrbesties.com/about.  Subscribe to the HR Besties Newsletter - https://hr-besties.beehiiv.com/subscribe We look forward to seeing you in our next meeting - don’t worry, we’ll have a hard stop! Yours in Business + Bullsh*t,  Leigh, Jamie & Ashley Follow Bestie Leigh! https://www.tiktok.com/@hrmanifesto https://www.instagram.com/hrmanifesto https://www.hrmanifesto.com Follow Bestie Ashley! https://www.tiktok.com/@managermethod  https://www.instagram.com/managermethod https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyherd/ https://managermethod.com Follow Bestie Jamie! https://www.millennialmisery.com/ Humorous Resources: Instagram • YouTube • Threads • Facebook • X Millennial Misery: Instagram • Threads • Facebook • X Horrendous HR: Instagram • Threads • Facebook Tune in to “HR Besties,” a business, work and management podcast hosted by Leigh Elena Henderson (HRManifesto), Ashley Herd (ManagerMethod) and Jamie Jackson (Humorous_Resources), where we navigate the labyrinth of corporate culture, from cringe corporate speak to toxic leadership. Whether you’re in Human Resources or not, corporate or small business, we offer sneak peeks into surviving work, hiring strategies, and making the employee experience better for all. Tune in for real talk on employee engagement, green flags in the workplace, and how to turn red flags into real change. Don't miss our chats about leadership, career coaching, and takes from work travel and watercooler gossip. Get new episodes every Wednesday and Friday, follow us on socials for the latest updates, and join us at our virtual happy hours to share your HR stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

So you know how sometimes in a job you think about things like salary, responsibility, but in HR we're always like, what about the benefits, like the total rewards, right? Well, what kind of benefits really feel like a reward? I have an example. So when I lived in Australia, you know, again, I can't go through an episode without matching this. I figured I'd just check. Get it out.

So there, like a lot of places globally, you know, benefits generally aren't a part of employment. Like, for those globally listening, again, the U.S. is kind of odd, and so oftentimes your medical and health insurance depends on whether where you or your spouse, partner, your parent works, and so they're often part of odd. And so oftentimes your medical and health insurance depends on whether where you or your spouse partner or your parent works. And so they're often part of work. But globally, a lot of time that's like part of the government, part of your taxes or otherwise. So it's not really tied to

employment. But sometimes, so we lived there in Australia and we were like in the US, it's like an H1B equivalent and people are like, what's that? Like it's kind of a classification when where you can live there because you're working there. And so in Australia, you know, a lot of your medical insurance, all of that is covered by the government, unless you're what the category that we were. Which I think was a four or five, seven, but it's been a few years. But which was the classification. I'm sure that's right. And it was in 457. It was 457. So luckily though, with my husband's company, they still covered all of our benefits. And so we got exceptional benefits. And they were so exceptional

that I don't think we had, I don't think we had a copay, but I had learned later on, not only did we have benefits, but you got other things. You got things like chiropractic free, unlimited, chiropractic, or maybe unlimited, like three times a week limited, but chiropractic. What's the needle, the needling? Acupuncture. Yeah, acupuncture. Like all the holistic therapies.

Yes, yes. I love that. Yes, which I took advantage of. I started taking advantage of acupuncture four weeks before we left. Not soon enough, but also massage. Oh, I was going to ask. Oh, I die. That's my fave.

Yes. And so at one point, my husband had needed a massage. And so someone was like, oh, I can give you all sorts of recommendations. I can give you recommendations for a place that's experts on a sleep-type massage. He's like, oh, I can give you all sorts of recommendations. Like I can give you recommendations for a place that's like experts on like a sleep type massage. He's like, great. And so we were out to dinner with friends and we were talking about this and how wild

this was for us. Because we're like, if you're in the US, like, yeah, if you, if you can get it covered by insurance, like either one, you're probably in a pain, things you're on the phone with someone for hours, you know, going back and forth with things. And this guy starts chuckling and he's like, well, what kind of massage did you get? And I'm like nasty, like, no, like not, you know, not the kind that you're thinking of.

And he starts chuckling. And so he's like, you know, I took advantage of one of those, those once laughing. He's laughing. I mean, I'm kind of laughing. You know who wasn't laughing? His wife? Yep. Crossed her me at the dinner table.

Oh my God. And so he kind of realizes and he's like, moving on. No, absolutely not. No, no, no, no. Back it up. Reverse this. And I also am like, I want to hear it. I also don't want to witness the fight in a nice way. I kind of wanted to have my nice meal. Because even though we didn't have to pay for these benefits, we did have to pay for very expensive food in Sydney. And so all of a sudden, she's like, no, tell me about this.

And so he kind of started it. But so he got, as part of his insurance things. No. Yeah. He had sexual favors covered. A special kind of massage. And for the record, he did not work. This person did not work.

My husband did not know him through work. This was not a work friend. So I will let his identity, Renee, nameless. But yeah, I don't think anyone, government, HR, or otherwise probably intended. But yeah. Well, geez, talk about total rewards. Yeah, that is not covered here in the United States. I'll tell you that. Okay. Yeah, no, no.

I don't think so. I don't think so. But yeah, so that was, I thought the benefits were interesting enough. But yeah, you don't know what that's like to sit across the table from someone and seen on their face when she finds out that her husband got a government or employer covered health care. Oh, my little yank sesh. While they were married, like they were together, like she could tell depending on the job, you can read it on her face. He didn't have to say it. Right. I want to say it was like engagement because he I think he's trying to go back

and do the time and say, yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's trying to play it off. Oh, my gosh. But I took advantage of the acupuncture, which I had never had and haven't had since. Because again, it's, it's pricey back here in the US. You got poked too. Have you thought about a gift for yourself this year? More and more, I like to think of gifts of experiences, not just things. So I thought of one that has the power to help me grow, learn, and become a better version of me. Give yourself the gift of language by getting Babbel.

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Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. Oh, wow. Well on that note, that high note, thank you so much for that story, Ashley. That was really something. Moving on to our agenda, shall we cover it?

Next up, I'm going to cover the cringe corporate speak, if you all are aligned with that. Then we'll shift, of course, to our meeting hot topic. And today, that hot topic is all around open enrollment, employee benefits. We'll throw some in there. But so many of you all have reached out to us with questions on open enrollment. You want us to talk about open enrollment, all of those things.

So really, this is an HR besties listener request sort of topic here because boy, Lee does not like it. But this is Jamie's wheelhouse here, right, Jamie? And you know, so we've all been there, we've all done it. So we'll have a discussion. And then of course, per usual, we'll round things off with some questions and comments at the end. How does that sound? Good. Perfect agenda, like a warm blanket every time.

There you go. All snuggly. All right. Well, today's Cringe Corporate speak. Let's jump right into it. Pay your dues. Cringe, cringe, ick, ick. Oh my gosh.

You got to pay your dues, right? And what does this mean for maybe people that have never heard it? Boy, I've heard it, I want to say thousands of times working in corporate America, but it means you got to earn your right to do something, right? You got to pay your dues. You got to roll up your sleeves, do some sweat equity. You got to experience something before you're rewarded or get promoted or get some sort of carrots or respect in some places. I mean, you got to pay your dues. Have you all heard this? Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. And it's usually an older white male that says it.

And it's usually an older white male that says it. Well, he had to pay his dues, right? Back in 1940, whatever. I'm sure. I'm sure he really paid them just being white male. Not bitter anything, but that does come up a lot in the workplace. Ashley, you've heard it too? I have. I do think it tends to be people that have been in the workplace for a while and had it rough coming up. I've actually

heard it from from women as well in talking about what it was like for them coming up and how and trying to say, you know, things feel better if if you've worked hard through them. But dues to me often is is something that should not be necessary in this aspect of sacrificing often your personal life for the sake of professional goals and other people's financial rewards and all of that. And so I've heard it often said, like, pay your dues, you just got to do it. It's what you got to do. And no likey. Yeah. I mean, I even starting out, because I'm older now, even starting out in corporate,

I feel like I heard it a lot more back then in the early 2000s than I would now. Because before it was about seniority. And if you had seniority, you were promoted. Not necessarily like you have the best experience for the position or you're more qualified. You've been with the company 10 years, so you're going to move into this leadership role. So I've seen it more now, not so much now because of I think that the job market has changed and more people's actual previous work history and their experience and their skills as opposed to seniority or paying their dues.

Well, I did look up the origin, like what an Ashley thing to do. I just did it. Oh my God. Did you dress up as me for Halloween recently? Right. And it says the earliest examples of the use of that phrase, pay one's dues, date back from the 1600s. Wow. Right? Which is just to pay your financial or moral obligations off. So isn't that interesting? Yes. I thought that was interesting.

That is interesting. Payment, legally due, or obligatory. And so in the workplace when this is used, there is kind of like this hazing feel about it or it's a penalty. It's got that vibe, right? You can't just show up and be good at what you do and then be rewarded. That would be weird. You have to pay your dues first.

You have to, quote, serve your time. Have you heard that one too? Like it's very aligned. Like I'm in fucking jail. Prison. Exactly. Yes. Yeah. Prison vibes at work. Right. It has that, which means it's not a meritocracy where you're working. Right. I mean, it's not about being a high performer or anything. One of the benefits, I mean, I've talked about my sales job before law school, but the corporate value there was meritocracy, which was interesting again, because there was no strategic HR legal function as plenty of my stories have, but the value was meritocracy. And I really did,

we saw that in action. And so as I think back to it, it was such a healthy environment in that sense in that there was no sense of like, this is the way things need to be. On the flip side, when I went to law school and started as a junior associate, and again, I actually had relatively pretty good experiences in law firms, but aside from things like the flu shot in front of HR. Yeah, that was weird. Go back and listen. But in law firms, I'm trying to think law firms, consulting, financial, like accounting type things, one thing was often you do all the like, what they call grunt work,

maybe that's another corporate cringe, but you do that work. Like, for example, like they'd call it like non-billables in the law firm, which is like putting together presentations for other people to deliver. And you do all the work, all the research and all these things, but you do not have the opportunity to present it.

Your name is often not on the presentation. And so there's this aspect and it's like, it's really is an organizational industry culture aspect of like, oh, you haven't earned that yet, despite actually doing the work. And so I love seeing on social media, I know both of you all have seen videos on things like this about giving people credit and respect and a health, certainly

a healthy workplace that those should not be things that you have to earn. Yeah, you're going to, you're going to hear this phrase a lot in seniority based organizations, right? I mean, so Ashley touched upon that, but boy, I have. I have. And I, well, I don't work at those places anymore. It's amazing how that math equation tends to work. Plus someone that actually has like, potential and things often that tends to equal peace out. Exactly. So let's be mindful. If you use this phrase, say it in a cheeky way, like be sarcastic with it, man, you know, because it, boy, it pisses me off.

Yeah. You can't have those donuts until you pay your dues. Exactly. You got to serve your time first, Betty. Show me you've completed your to-do list for today. Then you can earn your donut. Oh, gosh. Oh, well, shall we move on to the hot topic? I kind of said that with a little cheerio. Yeah, we're using the four in the fournac sense. Look at Jamie. Jamie's raring to go. She's ready. Oh, I know. Kick us off, Jamie. It's that special time of year for so many people, especially here in the US. Open enrollment, what the hell is it?

in the US. Open enrollment, what the hell is it? Yes, yes. So open enrollment in the US is every year annually, companies will host open enrollment, which typically means that it could be an active or passive enrollment for your benefits. So that could be medical, dental, vision, ancillary benefits, life insurance,

short-term disability, long-term disability, et cetera, et cetera. And so essentially annually, if there is not a qualifying life event, you are able to change, drop, add whatever you need to do to your coverage. And so typically, obviously this falls for human resource professionals. I started actually off my career at Tractor Supply Company in the benefits department. I learned insane amounts about benefits then. As you knew from the episode a few weeks ago, I've been in HR Department 1 many times. Open enrollment falls on the HR slab. What does that mean? Well, it actually means the whole year you're doing things.

I know I have a quarterly meeting set up with a broker to review our claims, see where we're trending, see what our increase may be for the upcoming year. It's also making sure you're promoting benefits like, oh, I see our claims are going up. Maybe we should promote that we have a telehealth medical service that they don't have to go to the emergency room for that ear infection. They can just get on the telehealth visit and get an antibiotic prescribed. So it's also the education throughout the year, right? But then it's also sitting down, maybe with a broker,

maybe with a third party, but also involving your finance and then looking and presenting maybe to the executive leadership team, like I had to this summer, and show them the numbers and how bad our increase was. And then basically having to toy with how can we make sure our employees are the least amount impacted by this large increase. And so there's just so much that goes into it that open enrollment may only be two weeks out of the year, but it's truly a whole year worth of work, even if you're like maybe meeting with new medical providers.

Like I've gone to Blue Cross Blue Shield offices in Chattanooga before. And when we were vetting them as a possible new medical provider, I mean, there's so much more that I don't think employees even realize that HR is a part of taking care of open enrollment. Jamie, you shared a lot there, but I promise you that our global listeners are still caught on the first line, which is, yes, you heard that right. Every year, Americans have to opt in to receiving benefits, and they pay, what, 80% to 68% of the cost. I don't know what the average is right now.

They pay a significant amount of the cost. Maybe I had that flipped with company. Yeah, it's flipped. But still, it's a lot. It's flipped, I flipped it. But it's a lot. Oh, it's a lot, it's a lot, yeah. And companies are funding the vast majority.

So if you have a company funding the vast majority of that healthcare cost, the benefits cost for an employee, you can imagine perhaps the level of quality. You can imagine the cheapness that may go into it, right? Because you have a business entity that's trying to retain as much revenue and profits they possibly can. So just, yes, you heard that right. Like every year we have to look at the benefits,

opt into the benefits and figure our benefits out of what we're actually gonna receive. Cause I've only worked with global teams and it is so funny. Like I've had so many dinner conversations and just, I mean blank stare, just the word open and roll. What does that mean? Like wait what? You have to do wait what? Like what? So yes, I've just like confirming that first line, that brilliant line of Jamie's. That is a thing.

Yeah, and I'll make a very bold statement. Health care in the United States is literally a joke. They make it insanely difficult for people to understand simple care. They make it difficult even to get things that should be routine or just going to the doctor shouldn't be expensive. Everything is incredibly difficult. That's why I think human resources plays a very delicate part in that because obviously we can't control the UnitedHealthcare system, you know what I mean? But what we can do is educate ourselves to try to better educate our employees and try to set them up for success, but also going up for bat.

I remember one year we were impacted with a significant increase. I want to say it was like 24%. And it was right around COVID. It was actually for the 2021 plan year. And I remember I reported to the CFO, I remember going to the CFO and I'd be like, we cannot pass this cost down. We have to figure something out. What we were able to do is, we were able to, as the employer, assume that increase on our end so that premium stayed the same for employees. We did promote that. Looking back at the claims review, we had some people during COVID that had significant hospital stays, not just because of COVID, we also had people with illnesses. That there was nothing, you know what I mean, shit happens.

There was no preventative care. Yes, that's why, you know why you hear human resource professionals always encouraging to do your wellness visits. Women, get your mammogram, prostate checks, do all the wellness things, get your annual physical. But there's also shit happens like COVID. No one expected a global pandemic and people to sometimes be in the hospital for a month long on a ventilator. Open enrollment though for me, literally I've- Yeah, I know. There's so much you want to say, right? There's just so much. Yeah.

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Jamie, what I would love to say is that you went into something very important. And that was very insightful and enlightening or is, you know, for some folks listening here is how that process even works with HR. You know how HR gets blamed for everything? This is one area. It's like, well, HR now is charging us whatever for health care. And I've only seen what you said. And I've been in that position too, where we're over here telling that we're the middle person, right?

And we're over here telling the company, we can't pass these costs down. This is insane to our employees. It makes us non-competitive from a total rewards perspective, all these things. And we were like, do not pass the health insurance costs down to the employee. We have got to eat it this year.

We've got to do the, I mean, oh my gosh, right? I mean, that's how it is behind the scenes. That's what I've always seen, you know, HR really rallying. One thing is also, Jamie had mentioned claims review. And so some of what we do here is like, is a peek behind things. And so a lot of people in the response we get on social media a lot is HR claims review. That's just HR trying to get the sick people out of the organization. And trust me, again, while I am sure there are exceptions to the rule, and we will readily admit that,

but the way that works is as you're going through the benefits and going through it with the broker, and they're explaining things. Because it is, to Jamie's point, every year it starts much earlier when employees are enrolling and do all that. It starts much earlier than you start getting these quotes. And oftentimes people are like, OK, maybe we

should shop other providers to get competitive on cost. But then it's a real pain in the ass for everybody when you switch providers, because not only is it just having to get a new card, but there are certain physicians and healthcare providers that are within the network, aren't within the network. And so it completely jack up someone's care. But what you also see, in addition to these increases, there's part of that is, again, this thought of who bears the increase. It's really important for organizations to explain how much the employer side is contributing because it's a lot.

Then you may have employees that are like, okay, if I'm not in benefits, can I just get a raise? Which is something. You've got to think about how you're gonna answer that. Or they'll say, oh, this employee's starting, but they'll offer not to take benefits if we'll increase their salary. And you're like, okay, like, so maybe we'll put a pin

in that one. But the claims review part of that, so let's get back to that, because I'd love Jamie to answer that in a second. But the claims review part, just to provide what that looks like is not a list of employees and who has what. It is not a list of medical conditions. What it is at times is a thing saying, here are the very high claims.

And it is, so it's not a name or any identifying information like that, but it's like it may be like end-stage renal failure. Like there's this, you know, there's, you know, and so HR's role in that is to make sure that the other leaders in that room are not speculating who is that person. Oh, yeah, we end their employment because that is that is something that that absolutely can can happen, but is to keep that in it tends to balance out. But that's why it's so wild in the US. But so claims review is is not a who has what type thing.

It's explaining those costs and why it's so expensive. Yeah. I've never seen names. Oh, no. I mean, that's a HIPAA violation. That's a HIPAA violation. Exactly. I'm just sharing.

Yeah. Like you wouldn't see names. I've never had a leader ask, who the hell is that? Even in a small organization. But what it helps us do as we're planning the next year is, oh, okay, we see that 25% of the claims are the renal failure. So we want to make sure that what the, do the prescription offerings align to what's happening there? Are we doing education and wellness in these areas to help prevent this? Like those are the types of commerce.

I mean, we're getting deep and strategic on how can we help our workforce here? We've got 25% of these high claims are X. Oh my gosh, we need more education, support, learning, you name it, perhaps in this area. That's really the value of the claims review to help hopefully in the future offset some cost or reel in some of those claim costs or, ah, future, you know, offset some costs or reel in some of those claim costs or like, you know, so. What would you all say? Like, let's say there's a new hire starting and they're like, I don't need my benefits. I'm on my husband's, my wife's benefits. My otherwise.

Tri-care. That's what it always is. Tri-care. Yeah. I won't take benefits. Will you increase my salary instead? What do you all say to that? Let me run that up the chain. Let me go through the chain of command. Let me call our lawyers. Typically no. It wouldn't be based on that.

It would be, hey, well, just negotiate with me and let me look at what my internal equity is and let me look at the external salary market. Let me look at all these, like, does that even make sense? But it wouldn't be the tit for tat, hey, you're not doing this. So that equates to, oh, a $3,000 raise a year then for anyone who opts out of benefits, right? I've never seen an organization, I'm sure there's some out there, but I've never worked for one. How about that? Where there was some sort of equation to say if people opt out, that equals a 5,000 increase on base or a $2,000 bonus or something like that.

I have not seen that. Jamie, have you seen that? A contractor. Right, there you go. Independent contractors are not employees. And if you're not classified as employee, you're not eligible for employees, but Jamie. Yeah, I have seen some companies when I've done consulting, I have seen some

companies actually offer like a lump sum amount if they chose to not. But more often than not, that is not typically how it works. For instance, like right now at my job, we're on my husband's, my husband has a richer plan than we are able to offer. So I'm on my husband's, I don't get any kind of stipend or allotment. And I understand that, you know what I mean? Like that's okay with me. Because you're electing into benefits. Exactly. Right? Or you know, you're opting in or not or out or shifting or changing, you know,

so. But it is, it is a, I will add that note, that it is an especially important thing to be mindful of when you are classifying people and to sign whether you're going to have them be an employee or a contractor. And if you have people that are full contractors in name only and in real terms,

like the Department of Labor might look at them and say that person is absolutely an employee, which is what they tend to say and say, prove me otherwise. In that situation, what you can have is that contractor that comes back that's like, wait a minute, speaking of total rewards, not only have I been paying this employer side of taxes, but also all of these benefits I would have been entitled to if I'd been properly classified. Now I need to be compensated for these. And that's where you can get into real legal and financial issues. And there's organizations, like in law school, there's a good famous, I'll just say some tech company, tech company cases of things like that. And

some of it was like stock related, for example. And it's messy. And so often, even those organizations that have the more richer, robust benefits, that makes it more likely that when someone is denied those based on their status, then they're like, hold on a second, let me see about that. And so being mindful of that. But one thing as well, I think Jamie talked about is even like qualifying life event, like people are like, what the fuck is that? And there's definitions to these. That's why it's hard because HR tries to put these in simple terms, but like whether and what that depends is whether you, again, there's definitions to these. That's why it's hard because HR tries to put these in simple terms. But like whether and what that depends is whether you, you know, again, there's like this open enrollment period and people are like, oh, shit, I miss,

I missed that. I missed those million of emails you send. But which is why we said you need to use creative subject lines like the pictures of your wife with another man. So I'm from from many episodes ago. But but in addition to those is whether you can opt into benefits during the year if certain things happen, births, divorce life events, all these things. But is in those open enrollment processes, really thinking about the questions that your employees have. And one of these groups Jamie

and I are part of, people constantly are like, what can we do for open enrollment? And I say, often brokers, so like insurance brokers, you know the questions people have, put it in real terms. And if you go to chat GPT and write, what are questions about open enrollment that my employees will have? How can we put those into real terms and then send that to your broker? I'm sure brokers are like, oh, but if you make that for people, like you know the questions people will have. You've got to put it in realistic terms to help people understand what things really

happen. I think that's one thing is really making those materials very, very employee friendly so it's not so hard, which isn't easy to do. See, I was going to ask you all for best practices. I think that's definitely one, Ashley. Jamie, are you aligned? Yeah. Any best practices on your end? I would say as an HR professional, truly take a minute to understand what your offerings are. So understand what a deductible is, like truly understand what it is. And when I was, you know,

fresh out of college, working at Tractor Supply, having to answer these questions, I didn't know what the fuck this shit was. So me getting a true understanding of deductibles and HSA versus FSA and dependent care accounts and co-insurance and co-pays and, you know, HMO plans, high deductible, and truly understanding those so you can better explain it. One thing I always like to do for anything is for me to make sense in my head, sometimes I like to dumb it

down even for myself. When I'm talking to someone, it's easier for me to even explain because I've dumbed it down for myself. For instance, one thing people will always ask, someone, it's easier for me to even explain, because I've dumbed it down for myself. So for instance, one thing people will always ask, well, what's the best plan? Because it's a cafeteria plan. So we have three different medical plans to choose from. Well, they're all the same as far as what they cover. It's how costs are allocated.

So something along those lines. This one, you're going to see higher premiums come out of your check. But when you go to the doctor, you're going to pay less. This one's the exact opposite. You're going to see higher premiums come out of your check, but when you go to the doctor, you're going to pay less. This one's the exact opposite. You're going to see less premiums come out of your check. But if you're normally a very sick person, this plan might be a better option for you just because the costs associated with this, you're going to see you're going to have a lower deductible, et cetera. So you as an HR professional, you're going to get asked

a bazillion questions and some of them you might not know and that's okay. And so make sure you do have someone like a broker or some sort of third party that you can ask those very difficult questions that you can't answer, but also be knowledgeable enough to answer the questions about HSAs and FSAs, and deductibles, et cetera. Well, and make sure you're saying the right thing, because. Oh yeah. Potentially from having seen this in action, it is important if you're in HR

and you're not absolutely 100% positive, do not say it. And so that's why having the broker's phone number and getting information from the broker and providing that can help, because the game of telephone can be hard. And for example, like pregnancy is a condition that sometimes people can sign up in an open enrollment, but if you don't sign up in open enrollment, for example, in the US there's something called short-term disability, which is generally shortened as STD. But so because we do not have, as we talked about, we do not have generally required paid maternity

or paternity leave, organizations as a cost-effective thing, which is, I think, really important to look into, is STD-type plans and making those really beneficial. I personally have liked to see those where the employee makes the contribution rather than the employer, unless it's very generous, because where the employee makes the contribution rather than the employer unless it's very generous because when the employer makes the contribution, then when the payments are made, generally that's as W2, so taxes are taken out as opposed to when the employee makes the contribution and then it's 1099, so the taxes aren't taken

out as much. And again, you can explore that, but for me that is a benefit if you're not going to have a very, very meaningful contribution. The point being that I've had situations where I know HR professionals have told someone, oh my god, you're pregnant. Congratulations. Sign up for STD. Yeah, it's short-term disability, but.

But those policies often, not only can you generally not sign up when you're pregnant and have that pregnancy covered, but also at times there's waiting periods. So if someone gets pregnant, you know, six months or whatever. And so those are the questions that can be really important. And so then you put the, you're either put in a situation where the employee has been counting on this money and then at the last minute it's like, what the fuck? Or the employer then has to make it right out of their own pocketbook, which may have happened. What I recommend is having a presentation

and working with your broker to have the materials really easy to read and have a presentation called everything you need to know about benefits, but didn't know to ask. So things like that to like make it more meaningful and have those put together. Yeah, and another thing about short-term disability is there's a pre-existing condition

clause in a lot of those and you do have to fill out an EOI, which is an evidence of a durability. So for instance, if you are, I told y'all, I know, I fucking know this shit, unfortunately. I'm glad we got an expert. So why I say that is, you know, if you're six months pregnant and now January 1st, 1,125 rolls around and you're due in March, more than likely that short-term disability, just because you picked it up during open enrollment, will be denied. Because they would have known that you've been pregnant nine months and you've known longer than the three months that you had the baby. So just keep that

in mind, too. Be familiar with the blackout period too. A lot of short-term disability plans, there's a waiting period, and it also only covers while you're quote unquote incapacitated. So for a baby, that might be six to eight weeks, depending on if it's a vaginal or a C-section birth. So just be very knowledgeable about these things and also how they go hand in hand with leave. So whether it's LOA or FMLA, just being like how they work hand in hand and the benefits that are available to your employees. And you have to be knowledgeable to answer these questions, but Ashley is 100% right. There are resources out there and there are people that can help.

But don't say, yes, you can pick up short-term disability now, and they're banking on that money and they have zero PTO balance left. And then baby comes and they have to come back to work at exactly six weeks because they can't afford to stay out any longer. So you all are exemplifying like one of my best practices in this space, right? So I am not a benefits specialist. I did take a job that I could learn about benefits in, right? Because I knew, hey, that specialty of HR was not of interest to me. And it's not, you know, I'm not an expert in it. And I hadn't had

the opportunity yet. And that really helped, right? So I had to dig in and do negotiations and review everything and own it right for for a smaller business. But education is key. Education information is power, you know. So the more you can give, your employees do it. I mean, bring in the big insurance company, bring in any benefits experts you have across your business if you work for a large organization, familiarize yourself with everything, learn, learn, learn, right? But I absolutely push employees and anybody, especially here in the United States, like you own that for you. You really do. You can't rely or depend on me or even the benefits expert, especially like, or the health care agency or whatever.

Like you make those decisions for you. You need to educate yourself because see how complicated it is. Oh my gosh, you know, so inform yourself, but as much as you can, if you're in, you know, if you're in that capacity in the organization to be able to give your employees more and more and more information and, and resources and connects hotline website, whatever, like do it. Like they need so much information and support here. But education really is, it makes a huge difference in this space for sure. One thing we'll add in our sort of weekly newsletter.

So if you don't have it, go to our, I think we have it in our show notes for the podcast. If we don't, I'll make sure we have it in there so you can get our weekly newsletter. But we have, we have discussion questions. One that I'll add as well is questions to ask internally, things like this and things to ask, like a little bit of a checklist of again, the things just to know. One you will see in that things like 401k,

which we won't even get into in this, but it's talking about like, it's like the retirement plan. But one question is if employees make changes to their 401k online on whatever broker website, how does that get transmitted to payroll? Because that is probably the number one thing I've seen organizations get wrong

and those systems don't talk to each other. And if and when you figure that out, it is very, very, very time consuming and expensive to fix that. It can involve having to reach out to the IRS for things on that. But basic questions like that to ask internally, because trust me, you'd rather figure that out now today

than figure it out two years from now. So we'll have some kind of just questions like that to ask internally, whether an HR team of one talking to your broker, HR team of two plus talking internally, but just things that are going to be important for you. An HR team of global that is like, I will have a checklist for you. That's like, enjoy your life outside of America because you win. But for real. Oh my gosh.

Yeah. Because open enrollment benefits in the US hard. Yeah. To some TLDR. Yeah. Shall we shift gears to some questions and comments? Yes, please. What do we think?

Please. What do you got, ladies? Questions and comments? No question from me, but I do have a quick comment. Health care in the US is so hard. We even segregate it by body, some of your body. Eyes are different and teeth, dental. So ear muffs for those internationally listening or don't know about US healthcare, you know, I wouldn't

read up on it if you don't have to. But yeah, like it's different plans for your eyes, different plans for your teeth and then your body without the eyes or the teeth. I will never understand that. It is so complicated, but I'm sure it all comes down to capitalism. So just a quick comment. Isn't it cute? Oh my gosh, yes. Questions or comments?

I was just going to make a quick comment. I think one thing, well, actually two things that I see a lot is typically the company will provide you with some form of life insurance and you don't designate a beneficiary. And this is grim, but it's the truth because I've seen it in my 21 years. It's so important that you set up a beneficiary. I know a lot of times they're like, it needs the social, take a minute to reach out to whoever you need to to get their birthdate or social or whatever. Because I've seen the backside of that. That was dark. Okay. And the second thing is when your HR professional

is sending emails about open enrollment and benefits meetings and fucking pay attention, okay? Thanks. Thanks so much. You'll save me a headache. And save yourself from getting denied if you didn't do it on time. It's a problem Yes, because I will I will save your ass, but I will make you feel guilty for it My mind out I'll have a comment which is as we started this episode with a story of Australia

I'll end it here and it certainly won't be my last. But when we were leaving Australia, we left on a Sunday and we flew back from Sydney to Louisville where we had been before we moved to get our shit, to have my parents watch the kids, to test drive cars because we had to get new cars again. Flew, closed on our house. And then I started work on Friday. Wow. For a global consulting firm. And so I went to meet with our doctor. And I say our doctor because there wasn't a pediatrician. We all went to the same doctor. Shout out Dr. Gerald Enright.

They're on Darling Street in Belle Main. Lovely man. But so I went to meet with him and I was like, listen, we're moving back. And I haven't had like, I'm like, I haven't had Xanax before. I'm like, but I am feeling anxious about everything and moving back. And he's like, Oh my word. I'm not, I'm not even using an accent because I'm going to fuck it up. But he's like, Oh my word. He's like, you Americans. He's like, you are moving back in the most American of ways. Of course you need this. Oh my goodness. He goes, but my dear, he's like, Ashley, we do not call it Xanax here. It is Calma. And I was like, excuse me. And the medicine was K-A-L-M-A.

Same, same medicine, but it is, that's how it is in, so in Australia, it's not Xanax, which does have like anxiety, like stress. It's the opposite. It's Calma. I love that. Language is powerful. So there we are. I love that. You paid powerful. So there we are. I love that. It is. You paid your dues. I do love that. I did.

You did it. You did it. Oh, you're the best. Paid those dues for that calma. Well, on that note, hard stop, ladies.