HR folks, lend me your brains.
I have several (largely, male) employees who don't understand our health insurance (and they don't want to understand them either). This is just as many blue-collar types as white-collar types, so this won't be a rant on that stuff.
Instead of the (largely, male) employees asking questions to me, they have their wives call me to make sense of everything.
The (largely, male) employees don't have a problem with this. Almost like they would just assume tell me, "I'm too dumb or lazy to understand this. Here, talk to her." And if I made them sign a statement with that exact statement, they would.
However, we, as HR folk, are NOT supposed to talk to company outsiders (generally). So how do you handle this?
I've sucked it up, and decided that (as in many previous blogs), yes some of my employees are too stupid to understand insurance coverage and I'm willing to talk to wives. Even though, I know I should.
What do you do?
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4 comments:
A way to split the middle would be to send materials to their home with info the wives can get firsthand. If you mail it, then it should get past the first line of defense/idiocy.
Weird that they all are that lazy about something so important, though.
I never talk to a spouse or parent about an employee's pay, performance or benefits. I agree with Ben's recommendation to send materials home. That way the employee can share the material with whomever they want.
The only exception to this is if an employee is incapciated (ex. hospitalized) of deceased.
I have always felt that as an employer you have a private realtionship with the employee. You should not openly discuss the terms of that relationship with others.
I work in health insurance. In general, we've realized the only health care decisions that males make is to die of a preventable chronic illness. Women make the health care decisions. From the context of your post, the benefit might as well be selecting linen patterns as men are about involved in linen patterns as they are in health care decisions.
I don't know anything about HR policies but I do know health insurance. You're basically requiring that guys tell you if they lemon yellow or sunshine yellow would go best with their the califlour blue walls in their bedroom.
Talking to spouses would really solve the problem for everyone.
By the way, great blog.
Agree with Deadhedge...unless they are asking about PHI, there should be nothing confidential in discussing bennies w/spouses...I'd bet the farm they are asking about coverages, out of pocket costs and that stuff. Unless you simply don't have the time, talk to 'em. You know you will have to talk to somebody about it, better to get it done with the spouse than having to explain it to the employee who already doesn't get it.
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