All articles by Candid
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid keeps compliant in France
Big Bad Boss has been reading one of those benefits bulletins again. All of our consulting friends send us these little updates to tell us what is happening in the world of benefits. Smarmy Consulting is the worst; it sends us not one but three newsletters, all pretty much saying ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid reviews benefits technology
It has been a few years since we looked at our benefits system, so it’s time for a review.I have wanted to change it since we first signed up because I never wanted the wretched thing in the first place. Big Bad Boss overruled my judgement and went with the ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid looks for low-cost perks
Perhaps I can get employees to pay for their own rewards. I bring up the case for voluntary benefits. No, even Big Bad Boss remembers the heartache we had over dental cover. Setting it up was far too much work, and at the end of it we had a miserable ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid learns networking skills
I have a friend, also in HR, who sprinkles her conversation with the names of key players in the industry like fairy dust. She looks at me quizzically sometimes and declares that I simply must know So-and-so; he is head of reward at Household-Name-Corp, or Thingy who is VP of ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: New starter questions Candid's incentive schemes
He is not, as we had intended, getting stuck into our purchasing budget, but bizarrely he is shaking things up in HR instead.I’ve come to realise that all Higher Beings think that HR is a waste of space, and let’s face it: they may have a point. Consider my colleague ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid sets email rules
Mind you, I am not as bad as some. My colleague Lazy Susan has hundreds of unread emails at any time. I can see the little badge count clicking up every day and I get doubly stressed by proxy.Big Bad Boss is just as bad. He says that email is ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid challenges the EAP
Naturally, Big Bad Boss calls me in to explain. The employee assistance program (note the transatlantic spelling) was foisted on us by the US headquarters, so really it is nothing to do with me. I have had no influence on choice of supplier, nor have I had any day-to-day management ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid tries to make a PMI claim
It seems like a good idea to put this through the health plan. I am paying enough tax on the benefit; I might as well use it for a change. I realise that although I have been responsible for this plan for a couple of years, I have no idea ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid cleans up pensions data
There isn’t a mail-out we send without Smarmy cautioning us that the addresses are incomplete, nor a valuation made without it saying the birth dates look to be inaccurate.Our old administrators, Hugely Expensive Consulting, washed their hands of the issue. It says the data was perfectly good when it handed ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid meets the Highest Being
The effect that this news has had on us all is momentous. Reception has been redecorated. Facilities have cleared away all the piles of junk hiding in corners, and suddenly provided the new storage furniture we’ve been requesting for years. They have even bought a fancy new capsule coffee machine ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid goes after a pay rise
Normally at this time of year, I am running around looking after everyone else, making sure all the budgets add up and having interminable pointless conversations about the forced distribution for merit reviews that we disguise as ‘guidance’.I am still doing all that work, and more, but I am also ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid battles with PMI admin
One thing you can say for our employees, they know their rights and they know how to follow them up. Vigorously. For some obscure reason, many people have suddenly had their claims refused by our provider. I can’t understand why. Finally, one of the employees tells me what the contact ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid facilitates pensions workshops
I do wish the Higher Beings (our management team) wouldn’t interfere in my work plan like this. I had already been thinking we needed a refresh given upcoming changes in legislation, but I work much better when my projects are my own idea than when they are reduced to a ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid battles with team meetings
I know team meetings seem like a good idea. They are a good idea. It just isn’t ideal with this particular group of people.Real teamwork involves mutual respect and a degree of compassion. Yeah, like that’s going to happen. I have nothing against the organisational development team. Well, that is ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid resists bikes for work
You might think I don’t take our employee requests seriously, but really I do. I discussed it long and hard with the local HR manager, and we decided the demand didn’t support such a programme. In London, we just don’t have any demand, thanks to Boris and the adjacent Tube.Besides, ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Striking a work-life balance
In case you haven’t come across the word ‘Europeanise’ before, it means to make a ridiculous US policy into something sensible and workable over here. He probably should have asked my colleague Lazy Susan to look at it; she has taken work-life balance to a whole new level, so you ...
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Confessions of a benefits manager: Candid rues poor technology
Let me tell you what is wrong with it. The battery no longer holds a charge for more than 30 seconds, so, in a meeting room, I have to sit wherever my power cable will reach, even if that is in a corner on my own. My laptop, a computing ...
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ArticleConfessions of a benefits manager: Candid researches multinational pooling
However, I have to look at these things creatively, and as most of the players are in Belgium, perhaps I can engineer a visit as part of the project.Big Bad Boss wouldn’t normally go for that, because suppliers must come to us, not us to them. But, given we are ...
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Confessions of a benefits manager: Candid revamps the pension newsletter
He has the audacity to tell me it will be good experience. Personally, I don’t look for good experience in the office, because I don’t like to be disappointed. I am certainly not going to look for it in the context of pensions. Silly man.Still, I can see why he ...
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Confessions of a benefits manager: Out with the old
After last year’s annual cull, we are a much smaller department and have several spare desks nearby. Unfortunately, the extra spaces have become a dumping ground for anything people don’t know what to do with.I am sick to death of looking at parts of a broken lamp, an ancient binding ...