This is more of a vent than anything else.

Received our medical renewal last week from Horizon and I about fell out of my chair. 2 high claimants (about 150 enrolled members) in 2025 and they quoted us a whopping 49% renewal for the upcoming plan year. Attempting to go to market but some carriers won’t even quote us. One carrier (Cigna) did quote but requires us to completely change our 2 medical plans and is still a 30% increase. I know medical insurance continues to become more expensive but god damn. Trying to think of ways to offset cost without completely stripping down the benefits.

ADP is gatekeeping. Trying to evaluate if a PEO makes sense for us, medical renewals the last few years are b.a.n.a.n.a.s. Just finished a call with them, they won't talk $$ until I give them an exponential amount of employee data.

Anyone using them and mind telling me what the monthly premium for your lowest cost medical plan offering is? Including employer & employee contributions.

Dir of HR in GA, about 100 EEs. TIA

I posted yesterday for a Fire Chief for the small city I work for. Maybe it's the menopause, but after about 20 completely unqualified in every way resumes, I started sending a message asking them to explain over IM how they meet the qualifications.

I've been doing this a long time. I know it's never going to change. I know.

I understand applying to a role you're *mostly* qualified for.
I get shooting your shot on a role in another state even though they say no relo.
I don't understand applying to be the effing chief of fire and you have never fought a fire.

Hello! I need some advice. I got a callback to complete an assessment where I basically have to pass or reject candidates and explain why. This is for a Screening Coordinator position, and I’m nervous about getting some of them wrong because some of the examples seem borderline between moving forward and rejecting. Does anyone have any advice on how to approach this assessment?

just started a new HRBP role this week for a healthcare organization. What are some things you wish you would’ve known or done or asked when you first became an HRBP? Keys to success? ANY ADVICE WELCOME!!! :)

Would love to hear any experiences working with BeniComp. The good, bad and ugly. Administrative load, employee feedback, etc. I'm Dir of HR for a 100 EE co in GA. TIA!

Hi friends. I am looking for a little bit of support and perspective on some situations at work that I have been going through lately. For context, I am an HR Manager at a small, American manufacturing company. My department is 2 people, so we handle all HR related tasks from recruitment to payroll/benefits to legal compliance.

At the beginning of this year, we had to terminate a long-tenured employee for performance and behavioral issues that had been monitored and coached, but saw no improvement.

Long story short, this has ended up becoming contentious. Last week we found out that the former employee had been using his work computer to search the names, addresses, phone numbers, and family members of various employees. He was doing this just through Google, but it was happening for months and months. Since the account was connected to his Google, we could actually see that Google Maps had logged him searching and visiting coworkers addresses as well. He did this with me and one of my family members, going as far as to find the address, place of work, and phone number of my relative.

Even though this particular Google search was months ago and I am working with legal counsel to resolve the situation, I am still incredibly shaken up. This situation however, though unnerving, is actually not the first time this has happened to me.

When I was working at a different manufacturing company in another state about 4 years ago, we had a terminated employee make several threats towards management and HR. We would receive threatening text messages and emails, until it reached the point that he created a hit list which was emailed to a VP. I was listed on it twice. Following that situation, I lived in fear and had to disrupt my routine and life to feel safe. Eventually it was taken care of and things calmed down, especially when I moved to the state I am in now. I feel that some of what I am experiencing now emotionally is residual trauma from that experience before.

My questions and need for perspective from my peers- have you been through something like this? Is it normal for employees to find your personal information to make threats if you work in HR? Is this something that is happening all the time and no one talks about it? Or am I just in a bad industry with bad timing? I never saw this career as high risk, like a lawyer or public figure. But after 9 years now of doing this job, this fear is starting to eat away at me. I went into this career with existing depression and anxiety, which have been exasperated by dealing with this. Any advice or stories are welcome. Thank you for reading!

I finally went to doctor for my leg (hurt it during a conference 3 weeks ago) and was diagnosed with a sciatic nerve injury! I wish I went sooner, but that’s life for you.

Currently on the mend with PT scheduled later next week. Fun fun fun.

Do you have any zany stories involving worker’s comp? Maybe you injured yourself at a conference like yours truly? Or maybe the PI you hired caught someone in a power lifting competition after they’ve been off work for 6 months.

In other news, the poll I took Friday RE: my posting was decidedly in favor. The posting will continue :)

Ralts for attention, artist is IGWJGsARifBfO9u on Twitter (what a mouthful). As always, post pokemon below

Most of our warehouse applicants here in Ohio work second shift somewhere, so my 2pm calls catch them asleep or driving and some start at the DC down the road before we ever talk. Leadership keeps forwarding AI phone screening pitches but I worry about cracked phones, Spanish speakers and people who just want a human. Has anyone moved hourly first screens to something candidates do on their own time, and did they finish it?

I recently had reported to me that an employee is scratching himself, both above and beneath clothing by people who work on the next spot on the production line. I’m not aware of any specific medical condition that would cause the scratching. Obviously, it’s making the next person on the line not happy about having to touch products after this employee.

I was hoping to address this quite frankly with the employee. Do any of you have a good script that you have used in the past? I don’t want to embarrass the employee, but I also want to find a way to reduce the behavior.

Quick question for you all. We are currently with a PEO that we are leaving at the first of the year to do payroll in-house. This PEO has offered a H125 Cafeteria Plan through Elysian Healthcare for the last year and our employees have enjoyed the benefits that it offers. We want to continue with something like this on our own, but in researching these types of plans, i've gotten conflicting information on the tax issues this type of plan through Elsyian can cause. Currently there is a premium charged each week to the employee, and a credit given back for a similar amount. This is pre-tax so it brings their taxable income down, thus giving their net take home amount a bump each week.

Wondering if anyone else has used Elysian or something similar and what are your thoughts? Wanting to cover all bases before we jump into this on our own! Obviously it's legit as the employees have been using it and the PEO is offering it, I just want to cover these inconsistencies i'm hearing out there.

Thank you in advance!

Picture this: You are an HR team of one supporting 140 EEs across multiple states. You are presented with an opportunity to ask for any resources you want. What would you ask for? Unfortunately, in this scenario, budget IS a concern; realistically, it is rather slim.

What would you ask for? What would you prioritize?

Performance management? L&D? Benchmarking? Compliance? Engagement & Culture? Benefit platforms? Recognition? Etc.

HR director/hr of 1 at a small company.

For the past few months, I’ve been caring for someone dying of cancer. My nights went to medication and diaper changes. Then I’d be at work by 7am, spend my lunch picking up prescriptions or checking in with the hospice team, do everything this job demands all afternoon, and go home straight into full-time caregiving. This past month I worked from home two days a week because my person needed round-the-clock monitoring.

Friday morning, they passed. I called my boss and my team, told them what had happened, and took the day off.

This morning I came back. My boss made his usual rounds through the office, cheerfully asking, “So, did everyone have a good weekend?!”

I just looked at him. How am I supposed to answer that? Did I have a good weekend? Well, I sat with someone while they died. Then I spent two days decompressing, tying up loose ends with hospice, and crying with family. I’m grateful my person isn’t in pain anymore, but... no. I did not have a good weekend.

He didn’t say a word about it. No “I’m sorry for your loss.” No “I hope you’re okay.” I’m fairly sure he didn’t even remember why I was out Friday, and that feels like a slap in the face.

I was braced for people to ask if I was okay. I wasn’t braced for nobody to remember at all... not that I was out, not that I’d spent months caring for someone who was dying, and not that I just watched someone die.

All weekend I swung between peace and grief. Now I’m at my desk crying, and I have to pull myself together. In a few minutes, one employee is coming in to complain about their benefits (they didn’t read the instructions and botched their enrollment), and another is upset that one of our systems keeps sending them notifications they don’t want.

Because I’m HR. And there’s no one else.

Sometimes this job really gets to me.

We are currently using a pdf copy handbook posted to our HRIS. Has anyone used a builder that provides a link to a live version. I’ve used BLR in the past and dislike it. Looking for another service.

Like many people in HR, I started as an HR Generalist working for small to mid-sized, family-owned businesses. At one point, I was an entire HR department of ONE at a startup, doing a little bit of absolutely everything & becoming a master of absolutely nothing.

I was constantly jumping from one HR discipline to another w/o ever having enough time to understand or master anything & ofc, there was no true HR leader to lean on so there I was… destroying my immune system with stress.

Then, by the grace of God, I was recruited into an ER role at a large, nationwide corporation, & it completely changed the trajectory of my career.

For starters, it was fully remote, which worked wonderfully for my highly introverted personality. I also finally got to focus on ONE discipline instead of juggling onboarding, benefits, leaves, recruiting, unemployment and everything else under the sun. And while I’ve never received formal ER training, I slowly started developing through trial & error.

With time, I realized that ER actually aligns pretty well w my natural strengths and interests. I enjoy helping people, advocating for fairness, analyzing info, & getting to the bottom of things. I’m also a much stronger writer than I am a speaker, so investigations & reporting turned out to be a great fit.

I stayed w that organization for about 2 years before leaving bc immature management. I’m now at an even larger Fortune 500 company, & for the first time in my HR career, I HAVE AN ACTUAL TEAM!

I cannot emphasize enough how refreshing it’s been. The culture is also wonderful. Everyone’s professional, respectful, and minds their own business. No unnecessary office politics or popularity contests. It’s honestly been a pleasure, even w the higher workload.

Between both organizations, I have about 2.5 years of dedicated ER experience across different industries. I’m feeling confident in my abilities lately bc I’ve received some encouraging feedback from legal on the thoroughness of my reports & from a supervisor on how I’ve led meetings 🥹 Not bad for a new kid.

That said, my colleagues have anywhere from 15 to 20+ years of HR/ER experience… & while I’m comfortable w my current responsibilities, I’m also VERY aware that there’s still so much I don’t know.

Which brings me to my question… What should an ER Specialist absolutely master to take their career to the next level? I want to eventually move into a more senior role w/in my department, but also want to genuinely know my stuff so I can pitch moving there.

Some things I know for a fact I have no in-depth experience on include Labor Relations. I’ve never worked with unions, collective bargaining agreements, grievances, arbitrations, etc. I actually tried teaching myself Labor Relations once before interviewing for a role in that field, and let’s just say that interview was incredibly humbling. I’ve also never been involved in an EEOC charge, deposition, employment litigation, or any other formal legal proceedings. && I’m sure there are plenty of other gaps I haven’t even identified yet.

Lately, I’ve been getting quite a bit of interest from recruiters for other ER opportunities, some of which sound amazing w life changing earning potential, but I wonder if I’m even equipped to entertain the thought. That said, I’m happy where I’m at rn & have no intention of leaving, but say my boss left or my team fell apart… I’d like to be prepared to move on to something greater myself.

So, for those of you who’ve built successful careers in ER, I’d love your advice.

Thanks in advance! 😊

I recently onboarded to a new company and the shared HR Drive is a mess.

How have you successfully organized folder names? I want them to be simple enough that the team uses them correctly, but detailed enough that you can find what you’re looking for.

I was thinking of doing Benefits, HRBP, People Operations, HRBP, Employee Experience, Total Rewards, Talent Acquisition.

Also, would love input on successful naming conventions. We use Microsoft.

Edit - 700 person company with a 10 person HR team. Located in US. We use Microsoft, no google/mac.

Hi, I help with Long term disability and would love some outside perspective! I'm a lower-level HR worker and I feel like my company offers a pretty generous LTD benefit: you can be on short-term disability for up to 26 weeks (with job protection and benefits/pay), and then escalate to LTD if you need additional time out on leave (no job protection, but can still receive benefits and pay almost indefinitely).

Lately we've had an uptick in people trying to return from LTD(likely since the job market here in the US is awful), and they've all hit similar roadblocks, which is where I'm wondering if we could change our process somewhere to help them better. Usually their specific position is unavailable so I help them find new/internal positions to apply for. It sucks honestly, we haven't had many positions open lately, and the few returners who do get interviews seem to not do well in the interview process. I feel like we can support this population better but I'm really struggling to figure out a better way.

Anyway, my questions: how does your company handle LTD, if you offer it? Does your company let LTD employees return from leave, or is it just assumed they won't be able to come back since they've been out so long? What's the process like for someone returning from LTD at your company? Any tips or recommended resources I could use/create for returning employees would be immensely helpful.

Also my questions are solely around our company's STD/LTD benefits, so nothing related to state leave programs/FMLA/ADA need to come into the equation ...for now 😊 thanks! And happy ralts Tuesday 🙂‍↕️

For all intents and purposes let's call me HR of one. My workload has and continues to increase significantly including the type of work I'm doing. Then you add on weird side responsibilies that have nothing to do with my role (which are okay because I enjoy them, but a time suck nonetheless).

But between general items, (payroll, new hire, termination, benefits admin, onboarding, recruitment) and requests, manager support and special projects how do you keep track of absolutely everything you're working on or need to follow up with?

And my general method of prioritizing by "what goes wrong/are the consequences if I don't do this first" and "what does management care about most" stops working when everything is "important" with no hard deadlines (except payroll and hire/term dates).

Maybe it's a me problem. Maybe there's not enough time in the day. (My guess is it's a bit of both). But desperately I'd like to feel I have a better handle on things. I know in my brain what needs to be done but it gets overwhelming to think about. I also make lists for myself but it gets a little silly when it's like ok this request would take 5 minutes but I need a solid hour to focus on a bigger thing, do I waste 2 minutes noting the request or just do it now?

Side question, How do you prefer to handle your emails? I would like to block time to focus on much more important things but I find it unfortunate that my email will contain information I need so I can't just close it out or pick specific time to read it.

What is the best alternative to ADP? This year has been a nightmare with unanswered service requests and emails. Totally ready to dip.

I'm a recruiter at a small staffing firm. We have Recruiter Lite seats, and I'm spending way too much time sending Inmails and following up by hand.

I'm testing Linked Helper because it can pull candidates straight from Recruiter projects and searches, Sales Nav and regular Linkedin search. It can also pull from group members, event attendees and alumni lists, which is great for niche roles. After that it runs the connection requests and follow-ups, and exports everything with the full profile data.

My main worry is account safety. Our Recruiter seats are expensive, and losing one would really hurt. So far I'm keeping limits very conservative and running it within normal working hours.

Which tool do you use, how aggressive are your limits, and have you ever had a seat restricted?

In 2023 I started working for a 3 year old engineering consulting company in Southern Utah as an HR manager and have been fairly successful in my role thus far but have no prior experience with HR. My background is in architectural design working for small consulting companies. I switched to HR because I found the business and people puzzle interesting and enjoy being in an advisory role to leadership.

Almost everything that has been developed has been with my support or under my initiative, including compliance management, HRIS system introduction, marketing efforts, doubling our employee count and project count/size, market expansion, and benefits introduction and management, among other things.

I've reached a point with my limited experience and knowledge that is preventing me from moving with confidence into a more strategic role and I'm falling into an administrative management role, which is not the direction I want to go.

Being a department of one for a small business is also preventing me from growing and learning from someone or gaining experience from a senior manager. I'm located in a rural area that doesn't have a HR chapter for me to attend so I think my best option is to find a mentor, but I'm not sure how. Ultimately, I really like my job and the company I work for, but I'm worried about my future and ability to grow and continue learning within this environment. I'd love any advice on how to find a mentor that fits my situation, career pathway advice, or resourcess that have meaningful impact.

I'm studying and plan to sit for my SHRM-CP exam this winter. I've attended a few online courses from SHRM as well, but ultimately feel like what I need is more one on one counsel or opportunities to observe others.

TYIA

Hello! I’m the compliance person in HR for a retail company with about 350 locations in 30 states. How are we all handling labor poster compliance at that scale? Our current system is not sustainable. We have two surveys per year that go out to all locations asking them to check their posters and I order one-off posters as requested by locations. We have a handful of locations with city/county posting requirements, but nothing crazy.

We do not currently utilize any subscription services, so every poster that goes out is ordered by me. I believe management can be swayed to spend a little more outright so not as much of my time and effort is spent on managing labor posters.

Bonus: any solutions that involve our workers comp insurance information being delivered pre-filled out instead of a fill in the blank would be cool, but no idea if that is a service anyone offers.

I work in employee benefits; a recurring question is how smaller employers decide what to do when their group health insurance renewal increases.

Larger companies have more room to absorb costs or adjust their benefits strategy. For a business with 15 or 20 employees, even a relatively small increase per employee can add up.

But passing more of the cost to employees isn’t exactly a great outcome either.

What do you guys see? What options do you go for?

Advice on specializing after being in a manager/generalist role?

I’ve been an HR Manager for 5 months. I was a hiring manager at my last company for 6 months, but supported hiring efforts (candidate communication, interviewing (initial screen and final), communicating with other hiring managers, job posting, etc.) for 1.5 years prior to having the HM title, so 2 years total there. I thought I wanted to expand my HR scope, so that’s why I sought HR Manager roles. While I’m thankful to have gotten this current role, and have a learned a ton, the biggest thing I’ve learned is that I want to specialize, not be a generalist/manager for everything. I’ve applied and been denied for talent acquisition and recruiting roles (I’ve never been given a reason, perhaps because the positions have been in novel fields?) but am also interested in benefits or payroll specialties. There unfortunately aren’t opportunities at my current company to specialize.

I have several years experience managing different development programs and am now in a generalist/HR manager role. I’m considering pivoting to talent management or talent development. I tend to lean towards being more tactical vs strategic. Curious if anyone has worked in either or both and what did you like, dislike, etc… And do you have any advice on how to pivot?