6 Tips for Getting Compliance Buy-In

Everyone agrees that benefits plan compliance is important… but how important is it to your decision makers? Because compliance isn’t something that receives lots of fanfare or is easily measured, getting team buy-in for compliance resources (that includes tools, time and energy, and if we’re honest, sometimes sweat and tears) can be a challenge.

Let’s dig into how to market benefit plan compliance internally to boost compliance resources AND celebrate the professionals that maintain the second highest line item on the company’s financials compliantly.

1. Impact of non-compliance on the organization’s brand

• • Not all press is good press, it would be hard to find an executive that would think a DOL press release with their organization’s name in the same headline as a settlement a good thing.
  • In July of 2023, it was reported by Bloomberg Law that a major law firm appeared to be scouting employees of Fortune 500 companies regarding the companies’ health plans. If successful, this could open the door to more employee lawsuits against plan sponsors[1].

2. Impact of non-compliance to employee attraction and retention

• • At its core, compliance ensures that benefit plans run smoothly. Thus, there may be a negative impact on employee attraction and retention if there are compliance errors within the benefits plans.
  • Ensuring a compliant health plan is paramount to employee retention because 67% of employees believe the health plan to be the most important benefit[2].

3. Fines and Penalties

• • FY 2022, the Employment Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) recovered $931 million
    in investigations[3].
  • Of the 907 civil investigations, 66% resulted in financial results for plans or other corrective actions[4].

4. Bottom-line consequence beyond fines and penalties

• • Healthcare costs are often the second highest line item on the organization’s financials. This corresponds with 68% of employers believing that the health plan is the most important benefit[5].
  • The human resources and accounting departments’ labor diverted from previously scheduled tasks and projects to work on audits, especially if the documents required are challenging to locate.
  • Attorneys’ fees to assist in navigating the audit and documents request.

5. Shine your own buttons! Compliance can build an HR professional’s credibility.

• • Discuss compliance as active projects and build them into performance reviews.
  • Discuss compliance as opportunities to gain SHRM and HRCI advance your organization credits through compliance work projects.

6. Compliance Red Flags

• • Only one person knows how to maintain the compliance of the benefit plans, where records are maintained, and where compliance processes are located.
  • Compliance is rarely discussed within departmental meetings and in performance reviews.
  • There are few or no documented compliance training hours.

The Dashboard breaks down complex compliance matters into achievable and recordable tasks through reminder emails and central repository for important records. Contact us today to find out more!

[1] Hansard, Sara, “Employer Lawsuits Heat Up Against Health Plan Administrators,” Bloomberg Law, July 6, 2003.

[2] Miranda, Dana, “Best Employee Benefits in 2024,” Forbes, February 6, 2023.

[3] https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ebsa/ebsa20221212

[4] Id.

[5] Id.