Last week we talked to attorney and TLNT contributor Eric B. Meyer about some of the latest rule clarifications and changes handed down from the NLRB and OSHA. We also talked to Fran Melmed, also a frequent contributor here at TLNT, about some of the health care reform challenges (including the latest survey data from Mercer).
Tomorrow at 2 pm Eastern/11 am Pacific, we will be talking to TLNT contributor Linda Robertson from Financial Finesse about the ways companies can maximize employee benefits, especially in this tough economic environment. Later in the show, we will also talk to Vadim Liberman from The Conference Board about non-CEO executive compensation as well as how our understanding of business ethics has changed and progressed.
You can listen to it live from the web or you can dial in to (818) 572-8036 to listen to the show or to ask a question. You can also follow the show hashtag on Twitter by searching for #TLNTradio. After the show airs, the archive will be available shortly after the end of the live broadcast.
Maximizing employee benefits
While pay may be slowly thawing, benefits are still taking some hits. And as we discussed in our last episodes, the changes will continue to come as the realities of health care reform rear their head once again.
Still, argues Linda Robertson, employers can do a better job of helping employers maximize their employee benefits. And as she wrote here on TLNT, there are four key areas employers can improve:
- Short staffed HR departments that are forced to triage and focus on only the most urgent issues as opposed to the longer term strategic planning that education requires.
- Concerns about legal liability associated with crossing the line into providing employees with “advice” about benefits.
- Cynicism that education doesn’t really work because retirement plan providers have struggled to increase retirement plan deferral rates despite offering online and live educational support.
- Uncertainty about the best way to actually help employees make benefits decisions.
We’ll talk about those four issues and what employers can and are doing to combat them with all of the other challenges they are facing.
Non-CEO executive compensation and ethics
When you think of executive compensation, what do you think of? If you’re like most people, you think of CEO pay and that’s where most of the focus is usually. That’s why I was intrigued by this piece by our second guest, Vadim Liberman, Senior Editor for The Conference Board Review, that takes a look at non-CEO executive compensation:
Through it all, there’s one story you’re probably not reading—and it’s this one, about people like Stacy Smith, Andy Bryant, David Perlmutter, and A. Douglas Melamed. You may not recognize the names of Intel’s next four highest-paid execs, but combined, they made $26.3 million last year. Add to that the compensation of the company’s other senior leaders, and you begin to see that Otellini’s pay is just a fraction of the organization’s total executive compensation. Yet despite the huge aggregate sums paid to non-CEO executives (we chose Intel’s at random), the press and the public continue to pant over the compensation of CEOs and only CEOs. Why?”
We’ll talk about that “Why?” question along with talking about his excellent piece on ethics during our show.
Miss our last episode?
You can catch it below, or on the show website.