We are so excited to show off Stephens, Bastian & Cartwright, LP’s new website! Based in Decatur, Texas, their approach is strategic, consultative, educational and analytical.
Visit the site at sbcinsurance.net!
Contact us to learn more about custom website design, SEO optimization, email marketing, and social media solutions!
We are excited to show off our new website creation for Nielsen Benefits Group! They are a trusted and innovative employee benefits consulting firm challenging the status quo of typical offerings.
Visit the website at nielsenbenefits.com to learn what they are all about! Explore their blog that we post for while you’re there as well!
Contact us to learn more about custom website design, SEO optimization, email marketing, and social media solutions!
At eTekhnos, we post for clients weekly to ensure traffic on their Social Media sites. Here is an example of our latest custom piece about Holiday Parties that our content writer on staff recently wrote and published for our clients.
The Perks of Holiday Parties: How They’re Still an Asset to Your Company
The end of the year is upon us and a majority of companies celebrate with an end-of-year/holiday party. Although the trend of holiday parties has diminished in recent years, it’s still a good idea to commemorate the year with an office perk like a fun, festive party.
BENEFITS OF A YEAR-END CELEBRATION
CREATING THE RIGHT FIT
Regardless of office size, if planned right, employers can make a holiday party pop, no matter your budget. Whether this is your first go at an end-of-year celebration for your employees, or you host one every year, keep a few things in mind:
TAKE AWAY TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL HOLIDAY PARTY
According to the Society of Human Resource Management, statistics show in recent years only 65% of employers have offered holiday parties—down from 72% five years ago. Consider the following tips when hosting your next year-end celebration.
Ultimately, holiday parties can still be a value-add for your employees if done the right way. Feel free to change it up from year to year so these parties don’t get stale and continue to fit to your company’s culture. Contemplate new venues, ideas and activities and change up your steering committee to keep these parties fresh. Employees are more likely to enjoy themselves at an event that fits with their lifestyle, so don’t be afraid to get creative!
Contact us about our custom content and article postings!
Not so long ago, it was only large corporations that could even consider setting up self-service portals for their employees. But now, thanks to the outsourcing model, companies with only a handful of workers are taking full advantage of employee portal technology.
They’re saving everyone involved – employees, the HR department, management – significant time, money, and effort.
Perhaps best of all, by reducing paperwork and speeding access to important information, such employee portals are helping companies to boost employee satisfaction and loyalty – and, in turn, productivity. Here’s how:
LESS WORK
Think of the employee portal as your HR department embracing the power of e-commerce. That means eliminating the tedious filling out and shuffling of paper forms and having to decipher employees’ scrawl. And it means no re-keying of data into a computer. In addition, most follow-up phone calls are done away with, as well.
Instead, workers can visit their company’s employee portal via any web-equipped computer or hand-held device and gain direct – and entirely secure – access to a wide range of useful work-related information all on their own, with practically no need for anyone in HR to get involved.
INSTANT ACCESS
Employees can view insurance benefits, 401(k) plans, company policies, you name it, all with just a few clicks of their mouse. And they can browse or print out any number of important documents, such as the employee handbook. Likewise, should their employer decide to make it possible – and many do – employees may enter and update their HR-related data all on their own. They can change their withholding status, enroll for new benefits, or update time and attendance records.
Naturally, all of this employee portal activity is controlled with the latest in security techniques. Each employee can be assigned his or her own, unique log-in ID and password for authorizing entry to the portal. In addition, the HR department can specify exactly which data and documents are to be made available to each particular employee.
MORE PRODUCTIVITY
Clearly, this kind of employee portal pleases its users. They no longer have to waste time filling out form after form or waiting on hold when calling HR for, say, an explanation of their medical plan. Moreover, the people in HR are freed to devote their time and energy to productive tasks, as well. It’s win-win for everyone.
Not only is self-service technology helping employer-clients control benefit administration costs, it might also be insurance carriers’ missing link to employee consumers once they leave the workplace.
This potential is not lost on MetLife, a large New York-based provider of non-medical group benefits with accounts at more than 3,500 organizations. To better service the needs of close to 17 million employees working at its client companies, MetLife embarked on an effort five years ago to build an online employee benefits portal called MyBenefits.
By all measures, the online self-service portal has been a hit. Recently, MetLife announced that the one-millionth employee had registered to access accounts online through MyBenefits.
The portal enables employees to log in-either from work or from home-and get answers to frequently asked questions, learn about plans and coverage specifics, obtain price quotes for certain products, and enroll in dental benefits, critical illness insurance, long-term care, life insurance, auto and home insurance, disability insurance, and banking services.
Users can also check their claim status for certain products, locate a dentist who participates in a MetLife preferred dentist program, or learn about retirement savings options. A popular feature is service e-mail, such as e-alerts that notify employees of claim updates.
The first iteration of the MyBenefits portal was launched in June of 2000, according to Sachin Shah, vice president of MetLife Workplace Solutions. MetLife has upgraded the portal several times since that initial launch, with the most recent upgrade taking place in 2003. Shah estimates the site is being accessed an average 800,000 to a million times a month, and transaction activity has been almost doubling each year.
There were three primary considerations in launching the portal, says Shah. First, customer companies were anxious to reduce processing burdens incurred by benefits administration.
“Our employer customers-plan sponsors, or HR offices-needed to promote more self service, and reduce the related costs of the administrivia with benefit programs,” he says.
The ability to lower administration costs has been a key selling point to employers, he adds. “In our business, things that we can do to provide employees a better way to manage their benefits, without having to call the HR office, are real winners. It takes work from employers, who would otherwise be getting phone calls and inquiries.”
Second, organizations are gradually reducing their financial stake in benefits plans. “Employers are beginning to cost-shift to employees, and that cost shifting continues to grow, certainly on a dollar basis, because costs in aggregate for medical programs in particular have gone up,” he explains.
“That cost shifting has required us to work with employers to begin to provide much more information to employees, and get them to become more aware of, and educated in, benefits offerings.”
Third, Shah says, there’s a strategic shift occurring in the benefits administration marketplace. “Employers are getting out of the benefits administration business,” he notes.
“Strategically, the marketplace is moving toward a world in which we have two customers – the employer, and more importantly, the employee. Making a sale to the employer is no longer a guarantee of revenue, as it was in the past. It’s just a point of entry. Ultimately, making the sale to the employee, and keeping the employee as a customer, has become our driver of revenues and earnings.”
Read More (Source: Joe McKendrick, Insurance Networking News)
Not so long ago, it was only large corporations that could even consider setting up self-service portals for their employees. But now, thanks to the outsourcing model, companies with only a handful of workers are taking full advantage of employee portal technology.
They’re saving everyone involved – employees, the HR department, management – significant time, money, and effort.
Perhaps best of all, by reducing paperwork and speeding access to important information, such employee portals are helping companies to boost employee satisfaction and loyalty – and, in turn, productivity. Here’s how:
LESS WORK
Think of the employee portal as your HR department embracing the power of e-commerce. That means eliminating the tedious filling out and shuffling of paper forms and having to decipher employees’ scrawl. And it means no re-keying of data into a computer. In addition, most follow-up phone calls are done away with, as well.
Instead, workers can visit their company’s employee portal via any web-equipped computer or hand-held device and gain direct – and entirely secure – access to a wide range of useful work-related information all on their own, with practically no need for anyone in HR to get involved.
INSTANT ACCESS
Employees can view insurance benefits, 401(k) plans, company policies, you name it, all with just a few clicks of their mouse. And they can browse or print out any number of important documents, such as the employee handbook. Likewise, should their employer decide to make it possible – and many do – employees may enter and update their HR-related data all on their own. They can change their withholding status, enroll for new benefits, or update time and attendance records.
Naturally, all of this employee portal activity is controlled with the latest in security techniques. Each employee can be assigned his or her own, unique log-in ID and password for authorizing entry to the portal. In addition, the HR department can specify exactly which data and documents are to be made available to each particular employee.
MORE PRODUCTIVITY
Clearly, this kind of employee portal pleases its users. They no longer have to waste time filling out form after form or waiting on hold when calling HR for, say, an explanation of their medical plan. Moreover, the people in HR are freed to devote their time and energy to productive tasks, as well. It’s win-win for everyone.
These days, most corporations have their own intranet, which is somewhat like the internet except for the fact that it’s only accessible to those within the company. However, Intranets are not just useful for large enterprises, SMEs can benefit from them hugely too.
An intranet means that internal communications within a company are simplified substantially and make for more success in terms of growth, as productivity increases. It’s basically an internal database which every employee can access, with different permissions for various staff.
For example, it’s doubtful that you want junior office staff to be able to access all of your financial reports and forecasts for the year, so these are just given permissions to access certain areas of the intranet which is relevant to their job.
According to Microsoft: “In order for a company to succeed, all players must understand its goals. Neither long-term nor short-term goals should be confined to upper management meetings. It’s Business 101. Everyone needs to be working toward common goals”.
By building an intranet, employees and bosses alike can share information across the board; not only is it easier to set up and share appointments and information, but as a part of an intranet, employees can communicate better, leading to less confusion following meetings, when everyone has to take notes and remember everything afterwards.
Not only that but intranets have evolved dramatically over the past decade as CMS and social are added and the introduction of cloud computing often means that an intranet can be accessed from anywhere. This is ideal in these days of BYOD and telecommuting, as it makes for a more flexible workforce and again, ups productivity
That’s even before we go into the benefits presented by ROI, which can be substantial, depending on what model you use and the size of your business.
Developing an Intranet
It’s a good idea to carry out sound planning before implementing an Intranet; whilst they can and will benefit a business of any size, needs vary and so it’s worth investing primarily in a decent consultancy firm. These will be able to carry out an audit of your company and recommend what will benefit your business the most.
A modern intranet should be well organized and easy for users to navigate, especially if you don’t want to spend a fortune training your staff; again, this is something that can be discussed with a consultant.
A well planned business infrastructure is much more likely to be a successful one and one that your company can see clear benefits from. The ability to share internal information across the whole of your staff often does away with the need to constantly send internal memos and emails.
Discussion boards on an intranet can also help staff to come up with collaborative ideas before meetings or when working on a project, cutting down the time needed for physical meetings as everyone is aware of their position on a project.
Read More (Source: Kerry, elcomcms.com)
Not only is self-service technology helping employer-clients control benefit administration costs, it might also be insurance carriers’ missing link to employee consumers once they leave the workplace.
This potential is not lost on MetLife, a large New York-based provider of non-medical group benefits with accounts at more than 3,500 organizations. To better service the needs of close to 17 million employees working at its client companies, MetLife embarked on an effort five years ago to build an online employee benefits portal called MyBenefits.
By all measures, the online self-service portal has been a hit. Recently, MetLife announced that the one-millionth employee had registered to access accounts online through MyBenefits.
The portal enables employees to log in-either from work or from home-and get answers to frequently asked questions, learn about plans and coverage specifics, obtain price quotes for certain products, and enroll in dental benefits, critical illness insurance, long-term care, life insurance, auto and home insurance, disability insurance, and banking services.
Users can also check their claim status for certain products, locate a dentist who participates in a MetLife preferred dentist program, or learn about retirement savings options. A popular feature is service e-mail, such as e-alerts that notify employees of claim updates.
The first iteration of the MyBenefits portal was launched in June of 2000, according to Sachin Shah, vice president of MetLife Workplace Solutions. MetLife has upgraded the portal several times since that initial launch, with the most recent upgrade taking place in 2003. Shah estimates the site is being accessed an average 800,000 to a million times a month, and transaction activity has been almost doubling each year.
There were three primary considerations in launching the portal, says Shah. First, customer companies were anxious to reduce processing burdens incurred by benefits administration.
“Our employer customers-plan sponsors, or HR offices-needed to promote more self service, and reduce the related costs of the administrivia with benefit programs,” he says.
The ability to lower administration costs has been a key selling point to employers, he adds. “In our business, things that we can do to provide employees a better way to manage their benefits, without having to call the HR office, are real winners. It takes work from employers, who would otherwise be getting phone calls and inquiries.”
Second, organizations are gradually reducing their financial stake in benefits plans. “Employers are beginning to cost-shift to employees, and that cost shifting continues to grow, certainly on a dollar basis, because costs in aggregate for medical programs in particular have gone up,” he explains.
“That cost shifting has required us to work with employers to begin to provide much more information to employees, and get them to become more aware of, and educated in, benefits offerings.”
Third, Shah says, there’s a strategic shift occurring in the benefits administration marketplace. “Employers are getting out of the benefits administration business,” he notes.
“Strategically, the marketplace is moving toward a world in which we have two customers – the employer, and more importantly, the employee. Making a sale to the employer is no longer a guarantee of revenue, as it was in the past. It’s just a point of entry. Ultimately, making the sale to the employee, and keeping the employee as a customer, has become our driver of revenues and earnings.”
Read More (Source: Joe McKendrick, Insurance Networking News)
Not so long ago, it was only large corporations that could even consider setting up self-service portals for their employees. But now, thanks to the outsourcing model, companies with only a handful of workers are taking full advantage of employee portal technology.
They’re saving everyone involved – employees, the HR department, management – significant time, money, and effort.
Perhaps best of all, by reducing paperwork and speeding access to important information, such employee portals are helping companies to boost employee satisfaction and loyalty – and, in turn, productivity. Here’s how:
LESS WORK
Think of the employee portal as your HR department embracing the power of e-commerce. That means eliminating the tedious filling out and shuffling of paper forms and having to decipher employees’ scrawl. And it means no re-keying of data into a computer. In addition, most follow-up phone calls are done away with, as well.
Instead, workers can visit their company’s employee portal via any web-equipped computer or hand-held device and gain direct – and entirely secure – access to a wide range of useful work-related information all on their own, with practically no need for anyone in HR to get involved.
INSTANT ACCESS
Employees can view insurance benefits, 401(k) plans, company policies, you name it, all with just a few clicks of their mouse. And they can browse or print out any number of important documents, such as the employee handbook. Likewise, should their employer decide to make it possible – and many do – employees may enter and update their HR-related data all on their own. They can change their withholding status, enroll for new benefits, or update time and attendance records.
Naturally, all of this employee portal activity is controlled with the latest in security techniques. Each employee can be assigned his or her own, unique log-in ID and password for authorizing entry to the portal. In addition, the HR department can specify exactly which data and documents are to be made available to each particular employee.
MORE PRODUCTIVITY
Clearly, this kind of employee portal pleases its users. They no longer have to waste time filling out form after form or waiting on hold when calling HR for, say, an explanation of their medical plan. Moreover, the people in HR are freed to devote their time and energy to productive tasks, as well. It’s win-win for everyone.
Not only is self-service technology helping employer-clients control benefit administration costs, it might also be insurance carriers’ missing link to employee consumers once they leave the workplace.
This potential is not lost on MetLife, a large New York-based provider of non-medical group benefits with accounts at more than 3,500 organizations. To better service the needs of close to 17 million employees working at its client companies, MetLife embarked on an effort five years ago to build an online employee benefits portal called MyBenefits.
By all measures, the online self-service portal has been a hit. Recently, MetLife announced that the one-millionth employee had registered to access accounts online through MyBenefits.
The portal enables employees to log in-either from work or from home-and get answers to frequently asked questions, learn about plans and coverage specifics, obtain price quotes for certain products, and enroll in dental benefits, critical illness insurance, long-term care, life insurance, auto and home insurance, disability insurance, and banking services.
Users can also check their claim status for certain products, locate a dentist who participates in a MetLife preferred dentist program, or learn about retirement savings options. A popular feature is service e-mail, such as e-alerts that notify employees of claim updates.
The first iteration of the MyBenefits portal was launched in June of 2000, according to Sachin Shah, vice president of MetLife Workplace Solutions. MetLife has upgraded the portal several times since that initial launch, with the most recent upgrade taking place in 2003. Shah estimates the site is being accessed an average 800,000 to a million times a month, and transaction activity has been almost doubling each year.
There were three primary considerations in launching the portal, says Shah. First, customer companies were anxious to reduce processing burdens incurred by benefits administration.
“Our employer customers-plan sponsors, or HR offices-needed to promote more self service, and reduce the related costs of the administrivia with benefit programs,” he says.
The ability to lower administration costs has been a key selling point to employers, he adds. “In our business, things that we can do to provide employees a better way to manage their benefits, without having to call the HR office, are real winners. It takes work from employers, who would otherwise be getting phone calls and inquiries.”
Second, organizations are gradually reducing their financial stake in benefits plans. “Employers are beginning to cost-shift to employees, and that cost shifting continues to grow, certainly on a dollar basis, because costs in aggregate for medical programs in particular have gone up,” he explains.
“That cost shifting has required us to work with employers to begin to provide much more information to employees, and get them to become more aware of, and educated in, benefits offerings.”
Third, Shah says, there’s a strategic shift occurring in the benefits administration marketplace. “Employers are getting out of the benefits administration business,” he notes.
“Strategically, the marketplace is moving toward a world in which we have two customers – the employer, and more importantly, the employee. Making a sale to the employer is no longer a guarantee of revenue, as it was in the past. It’s just a point of entry. Ultimately, making the sale to the employee, and keeping the employee as a customer, has become our driver of revenues and earnings.”
Read More (Source: Joe McKendrick, Insurance Networking News)