Tag Archive for thoughts

| April 25, 2013
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Navigating the Personal Insurance Maze

For the past month or so, I have been working on getting personal health insurance. Where do you start? A simple Google Search on health insurance Arizona just gives you way too much information. Narrowing the search down, really did not help much either. What I found were broker houses and the insurance companies directly. Which approach is best? There are lots of questions and the answers to those are sometimes hard to find. I want to share my experience…

I am not one to just pick something and go with it from the start. I like to research, read reviews and even posted some Twitter questions to my followers. Lastly, I reached out to the 3 doctors that I could not be without. Getting help from as many folks as possible. So, all of my initial discussions narrowed down to 3 particular insurance companies (United Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Az and Cigna).

Time to go shopping on-line. I pulled up their sites and their information on what insurance plans they offer, what cost per month is and how usable their website was. Taking a straight cost approach, Cigna was significantly higher per month than the others. Not even close.

So, I went the route of going through the process with both BCBSAZ and United Healthcare. The costs were pretty much the same for their plans – one was cheaper but the deductible was a little higher. A wash in my mind. I filled out the  on-line forms. Plenty of additional information on you health status is needed. So, if you have had surgeries or other healthcare throughout the years, keep records. Makes filling out the forms much easier.

After a few weeks, I got an answer from each of them. Since I have had some surgeries, 2 full hip replacements, knee cleaned out and some minor other items, I was told that my premiums were going to have to be increased to cover what they felt were risks. Here is where you don’t realize how different the process is. I found out from one of the reps, that by law the raising of the premiums can be 15 – 80%. One company came in with a 22% increase and the other was 80%. Same information provided, much different result. My initial reaction to the 22% was no way – that is crazy. When the 80% came in, I almost fell over.

I have always felt that health insurance (or insurance in general) is a necessary evil that really is black magic. Now that I am my own employer, I see the black magic up close and personal. I don’t want to debate healthcare reform that many refer to as Obama-care. We all as consumers know that something needs to be done to fix a broken healthcare system. Just look at the example of trying to purchase a premium. That is screwed up. Add the other many well documented issues from patients. Talk to your doctors about their experiences with the healthcare insurance companies. Something needs to be done!

For those that asked me to share my experience – here you go! I hope in the years to come, we actually fix healthcare.

 

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Category: Observations | Tags: , , ,
| April 23, 2013
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Is NHL Hockey Leaving Arizona?

The Phoenix Coyotes have been owned by the NHL league for about 3 years… We have had 2 failed attempts of new ownership during the past 2 playoff seasons. Are the Coyotes leaving? I am afraid if I don’t get the last game, then I will not see another NHL game here in Arizona.

Is a team really necessary? Since I am a die hard hockey fan, I would immediately say, “hell, yes!” Let’s look at it a different way, we are one in the top 10 in largest cities in the US. We currently have all 4 major league sports teams. Just makes sense…

Why so much struggles?

  • Good intentions that have gone terribly wrong. Needed a new arena to actually see games. Got that, drawback it is in Glendale. Making it out to games on weeknights is tough, makes the actually getting back to my place around 11pm. I am okay with getting up the next morning, but if you bring your family… The kids and school are a difficult chore.
  • Team ownership was in Real Estate. We all know what happened in that space. Our home values are still recovering. Lost that owner, NHL steps in and keeps the team running on a budget. The team performs well, and the past 2 years we had potential owners come forth.
  • 2 Owners step up and leave… What are the real reasons as to why those owners left? I don’t know exactly, but a simple view of everything shows that City of Glendale, The Goldwater Institute and NHL are not ever going to workout a good deal. City of Glendale is under new leadership that frankly is not in favor of being a “sports” city. Everything they want, is in favor of improving a very bad deal that the city is under. The Goldwater Institute likes to think of themselves as the watchdogs for the people… Not sure what they actually do! Don’t really care, they don’t represent “the people” as much as they do “themselves.” Can someone enlighten me on what that group does, really? The NHL wants a team to stay in Phoenix in words but their actions don’t quite match. All three parties are not really working together for the best possible outcome. They each have their agenda’s and they are sticking to them.
  • Players want to play! We have been very fortunate that our players have done well, despite the overall team ownership and future is concerned. Last season we were just a bad no call away from going to the Stanley Cup. The city was on fire… The players played well. This season, we get a lockout shorten season. I think the worries of the teams future is on everyone’s mind.

Will we have a NHL team next season? I doubt it! I don’t see anyway that the NHL can and will sponsor the team after this season. They will have to entertain all of the ownership options that include which cities the team will move to. I hate to say it… I will miss the team and many of the players that have been more than open with the fans. Phoenix will be losing their last sports city fine representative in Shane Doan.

I have a solution.. New owner from Phoenix, that will move the team to a central location for all of the metro Phoenix fans to enjoy the games. One can only dream.

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Category: Hockey | Tags: , , , ,
| April 10, 2013
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Incentive Programs Working or Not?

Copyright (c) 123RF Stock PhotosWith experience or being around a long time, you get to see lots of programs come and go. One of those programs that seem to change frequently are incentive programs. Wikipedia puts, “an incentive program as a formal scheme used to promote or encourage specific actions or behavior by a specific group of people during a defined period of time. Incentive programs are particularly used in business management to motivate employees, and in sales to attract and retain customers.” Can you think of some? I know quite a few (well, lots). It is one of those tools to help the organization to instill a continuous improvement in performance. Think back on those programs, did they work? How did they make you feel?

When I look over the many incentive programs that I have experience with there are some common themes of those that have been successful.

  • The incentive program was well thought out. Answering the questions of what behavior are we going to reward. That behavior has to be above the expectation of all employees. Going after the top of the class. Hopefully inspiring others to what to reach the top.
  • The program awarded past performance.  The program has a timeframe that is long enough to help develop a better picture of a sustained performance.
  • The reward is timely, specific and impactful.  What is the award that is given? Debate around money, plaques, pat on the back and public recognition need to be considered before implementation. Setting the award will be critical in how well the program is received by the employees.

Let’s face it, this is a touchy area that managers have to navigate carefully. I have seen many a program start off with the best intentions, but fail shortly after implementation. Why? The list is long. The critical ones that pop up quickly are the incentive program is not focused on top performance. Many programs are focused on getting “all” to do what their expectations are normally (attendance). Some programs are set up that the employees can work the system to be eligible for. This has a huge effect on the employee base, as they will “see” the gaming going on and the program could demotivate many folks. Lastly, the award has to be meaningful. Some expects say that money should not be a motivator, that just the recognition should be enough.

Over the last couple of years, I am seeing some new incentive programs that will be interesting to see how well they will work. Those are the incentive programs for lowering health insurance costs. Those particular incentives to be healthy. Helping add money to the flex spending accounts for employees that are not overweight. For employees that attend health seminars or complete a company sponsored information session. There are many examples. With the raising cost of health care, these incentive programs are popping up everywhere. Is it too early to tell if they are working? Are they fair? Time will tell.. I know for me, I got healthier by increasing my exercise and diet, so that I could get some additional funds to help offset my health care costs.

Do you think incentive programs work? As a manager, I know I spent more time dealing with the incentive program than maybe the organization planned. Please share the good, bad and ugly…

Image courtesy of: Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

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Category: Leadership, New To Management, Observations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
| April 3, 2013
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Long-term Volunteering 411

I have been doing a lot of thinking about my volunteering and how to make sure that I get the most out of my opportunities. I shared, in my last post, about making sure that you do your homework about getting into a volunteer opportunity. That post was for the more event-driven volunteering. Those items that are really short-term. I got a call from a friend that was asking me more about the longer term volunteering. I really did not have an answer to the question off the top of my head. In the spirit of getting to learn more and sharing those experiences with my readers.. Here we go – long-term volunteering!

Long term volunteering is really those opportunities that you get to work with an organization to help out beyond an event activity. Some people volunteer on boards of organizations, others help out with training or just want to come into the organizations workplace and help out doing whatever is needed. The fact is, these opportunities are always available, but organizations are seeing that those volunteer numbers are going down, significantly. I asked those folks that I volunteer with and they said recruiting long-term volunteers is harder than ever before. I guess it does not take too much to see that in olden days, back in the 50′s and 60′s, many adults dedicated their lives to volunteering. They were able to be home with the family, but had time to spend helping out. Today, most families are two incomes and there is little time to volunteer for a longer period of time. I definitely can use my example here. I was working full-time, helping raise my family, involved in my kids sports and just could not spare any time left to volunteer differently from the occasional event. Now that I have semi-retired, I have more time and have been working with 2 different organizations for almost two years. Simple fact, the baby boomers (and the everyone else) is getting older. The baby boomers have over represented themselves in volunteer opportunities for 30 years. Long term volunteering has suffered lower enrollment for quite some time, it may never get back to the good old days.

What can be done to help organizations improve longer term volunteering?

  • Organizations can definitely improve their overall recruiting, training and use of volunteers. My experiences with this subject, highlight that many organizations are not setting up these engagements for success. They do a great job of communicating the passion and what is needed, just don’t show that same level of passion for making (it) happen. I was asked to help develop training material for one organization to improve the productivity of their employee base. I was excited! Jumped in and started working on it. Developed and ready to go. Six months later, I am still ready to go. Start, stop, pause and start again is frustrating. Making the experience positive for the volunteer is no different from what the organization should do for their paid employees.
  • Organizations should break the long-term volunteer opportunity into shorter engagements. It maybe easier for someone to sign up to six months than forever. I did an engagement based project for one organization that was supposed to be two months (was four months ). Any long-term volunteer opportunity could be looked at and broken down into more manageable pieces. Looking at some of the stuff that I am working on now – I have a sales cycle, relationship building cycle, and admin throughout. Breaking that up, could add additional volunteers that can focus on each cycle. Potentially  improving their number of volunteers and the overall effectiveness.
  • Organizations need to take advantage of the 24×7 mindset. If you want volunteers, you may have to be open to having them on “their” time. Having them work within “your” business hours, maybe too difficult for most working adults. Technology has improved accessibility to information. Make your information accessible to your volunteers. Set those volunteers up with the necessary access.
  • Organizations are going to have to get creative with their volunteers. Baby boomers are getting older – they are the ones with the overall experiences of being there, done that. Those entering the workplace today, are demonstrating that volunteering is going to be something that they want to do. They only lack the experience. So, setting up volunteer opportunities in a team will help everyone. For me, I really enjoy teaching and sharing my knowledge with others. So, if I get to work with someone who is new and has a passion for what we are doing… I can get an extra dose of fulfillment – getting the job done, helping the organization and helping someone learn.
  • Organizations need to insure that they are staffing properly. The org needs to insure that they are not burning out their volunteers. Insuring that they have enough volunteers to cover the task(s) at hand.
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Category: Volunteering | Tags: , , , , ,
| April 1, 2013
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Volunteering 101

When was the last time your volunteered? Volunteering is nothing new. I bet we all have done it from time to time. How did your volunteer experience go? I have had a mixed bag of experiences over the past couple of years. As many of you know, I retired from corporate America and now am working on my own and volunteering my time at many organizations.  I want to share my experiences with how to insure that when you do volunteer that you are getting the most out of your experience.

Why do you volunteer? Let’s face it, no one is volunteering for the money, there is none. We basically do it because we like how it makes us (the volunteer) feel. Giving back to makes us feel good! I also volunteer to help me to continue to learn new things. When I feel good and learn something – I am in the best place possible. Think about why you want to help and match your wants to the organizations needs.

Have you ever had a volunteer experience go totally wrong? Or was not what you expected? Some of the best laid plans go totally south from time to time. I usually like to look over the organizations website to fully understand the organizations volunteer opportunity. Most larger organizations have a volunteer coordinator that can be an excellent resource to fully understanding what the opportunity is and what you will be doing. Make sure that you have your basic questions and concerns covered before you sign up! For me, I have done some volunteer work with expectations that were communicated and followed up on. When I got there, everything was different. Put that experience on high alert. I spent the next four hours stuffing envelopes. I did it, but definitely was not overly happy with my experience.

Do you go back to past organizations? This is the true test to how well that past experience went – you come back from more.

What is it that made you come back? I come back when I feel that the time that I spent volunteering was worthwhile. Worthwhile for both the organization and myself. Some people love to stuff envelopes – me not so much. I also like to come back, when everything is planned out fairly well. That means that the communication channels are open and being used. It means that expectations of the volunteer opportunity are pretty clear. Nothing is perfect and flexibility is needed, but when you go into the opportunity thinking one thing and it is a complete 180 degrees from that thinking – it is tough.

The only problem with what I have written here, is that the small volunteer opportunities usually are not well communicated and expectations clearly set. You could miss out on a pretty awesome opportunity. So, I like to take a little time to call or email the folks to discuss further the volunteer opportunity. Hearing their passion for the opportunity and how they answer my questions, usually sell me.

Best advice – Do some research on the organization and volunteer opportunity.  Discuss it with someone within the organization. Decide on if this is right for you. Get behind and give 110%. This should give you everything that you wanted in that volunteer opportunity.

Anything you do differently?

Category: Volunteering | Tags: , , , , , ,
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