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These pages will tell you how your Short Term Disability plan should be designed to get maximum value.

See Links To Articles On This Page There are multiple in-depth summaries of the design factors you need to consider when you design your STD plan. They're located further down the page... scroll down as you read this page and then link to those that look helpful to you.

Not only can you control costs with appropriate design, you can actually reduce other disability-related costs. Here are the topics covered in the linked pages:

First, understand how STD fits with the HR philosophy of your company and with needs of your employees

Protect Workers Against Disability at Reasonable Cost

Control Short Term Disability Costs

Benefit Start Date -- Lower Cost while Protecting Maternity Claimants

Benefits Duration

How Generous Should Benefit Amounts Be?

Should Employees Contribute?

Can You Discriminate, and How Should You Do It?

And Here's How It Saves You Money

You may think that disability is just another cost you have to pay.

It is, but it's more than that. It can be a money-saver for you.

There are two ways in which a short term disability plan can save you money. First, there is the turnover factor, and second, there's the Workers Compensation factor.

How Much Does Turnover Cost You?

It probably costs you MUCH more than you think.

The Department of Labor reports that each position you have to replace, assuming you are a company with under 200 employees, costs you from $6,900 to $34,000 -- per lost employee.

The reason, of course, is cost-effectiveness. The new employee -- line worker or executive -- has to be trained, has to learn the responsibilities of the job, and has to acquire some level of proficiency at the job.

Until that happens, the employee is less effective than average.

While disability isn't the only cause of turnover, it's a part of it. The sooner you can get a person back to work at his regular job, the sooner he brings his level of proficiency back to work for you.

The right Short Term Disability plan can help hold those workers, attract new, quality workers, and -- even if marginally -- help reduce the cost of turnover.

Think About This Statistic

Here's another statistic that ought to give you pause:

• Up to 20% (!!) of Workers Compensation claims are filed in the first two work hours -- on Mondays!

Does that speak volumes, or what?

It's a fact that most, or at least many, workers live paycheck-to-paycheck. They can't afford to miss a week, two weeks, or more of work. We're not talking convenience here; we're talking survival.

So when Clyde tears up his knee in Sunday's pick-up softball game, don't you suppose he'll manage to come into work on Monday and just "happen" to have a fall in the first hour?

Trust me. It happens.

What That Means to You, the Employer

And who pays for those Workers Comp claims? You do, that's who. Your mod rate reflects the claims made, and the money comes out of your pocket.

So that argues that it's false economy to NOT have an STD plan. Plus, don't you think that having workers who are financially secure might just make them more productive?

Benefits matter. It's worth getting some disability insurance quotes to see what an STD plan will cost (competitive quotes on disability insurance probably only cost between 1/4 and 1/2 % of total salary).

Evaluate Your Options

If you think that your current STD plan doesn't meet your needs, or if you'd like to evaluate your costs or design, and you'd like a free overview of your options, click here to have someone at BBI contact you to discuss your plan.

In addition to helping you evaluate costs, we can do a benchmark analysis for you that shows you what your competitors are doing, how they design their plans, and what options are most common.

 

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