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Monthly Archives

October 2017

Oct 23

Impact of rising benefit costs

By Sponsor Insight

By Mike Harrington, president, Synergy

A business encounters many costs, but the most volatile expenses are those surrounding employee benefits.

Last year, employers spent an average of $8,669 per employee, an increase of nearly $500 from the year before. Multiply that rising number by each staff member and the costs can significantly pile up. There are a number of ways the rising cost of benefits negatively impact your business, but there are also several methods for alleviating this major issue.

Hurts your bottom line

The initial implications of this trend are clear. The more your organization spends on employee benefits, the less profits it will make. One of the biggest culprits hurting your bottom line is the price of prescription medication. Already taking up 30 percent of an employer’s health care costs, prescriptions are set to rise 7.3 percent in 2017, with specialty meds rising 16.8 percent.

The bill employers have to foot for healthcare is rising overall, with 77 percent of organizations seeing increases, and nearly a quarter of those employers seeing an increase of 16 percent or more. These numbers provide hard evidence that profits will rapidly shrink if action is not taken.

However, any action must be approached carefully and strategically. One area where making a wrong decision can be especially devastating to a budget is in compliance. A single slip-up can cause lingering legal issues and attract hefty penalties and fines.

As healthcare reform continues to hang in the balance and confuse business leaders across the country, cutting corners to skimp on costs in this area is not a viable option. During these confusing times your business needs an expert versed in compliance, whether it’s a cost-effective outsourced partner or a higher-priced in-house talent.

Damages retention and recruiting

One increasingly-common way organizations are circumventing profit loss is by passing employee benefit costs to employees through higher deductibles, co-payments, and premiums. While this can look good on financial statements, it is resulting in decreased employee morale. Some workers may brush off increased healthcare costs, but many others will be motivated to look for a new job that offers more affordable benefits or a higher salary. After all, if costs go up once, employees will expect them to go up again.

Similarly, the rising cost of employee benefits is impacting the hiring and recruiting of businesses. Even if you’re able to attract an in-demand candidate into an interview and entice them into considering a formal job offer, it won’t take much to push them to a competitor. When you’re offering a similar salary and responsibilities as someone else, being able to tell a candidate that they will get great benefits at a low cost can be the deciding factor in securing their talent. Additionally, only 20 percent of employers continue to offer a retiree program. Candidates who see such a program in your job offer will take notice and view your organization as a career destination.

Ways to lessen the impact

Despite the gloom and doom surrounding the rising cost of benefits, there are a number of strategies that can lessen the negative effects.

  • Consumer-directed health plans such as HSAs are one option that allows employees to have more involvement. Such a plan provides tax incentives while also encouraging participants to consider the cost of healthcare services more deeply, meaning they may not go to the emergency room for minor health issues.
  • Utilizing virtual doctors and health hotlines can deliver an affordable alternative to employees going through costly office visits when they just have one or two questions. Not only does this save money, but it takes the anxiety out of a visit to the doctor and can help employees catch bigger illnesses before they fully develop.
  • Wellness programs are a popular option, and for good reason. Encouraging employee health with a trained coach/leader can promote healthy lifestyle choices that lessen the potential of preventable diseases and injuries. Rewards for certain milestones and regular checkups are typically included in such a program.
  • Audit your healthcare programs regularly. Whether due to confusion or ill intent, it’s often discovered that ineligible dependents are being covered when they should not be. Searching for costly inefficiencies such as this is necessary for those serious about accurate and legal benefit administration.

The rising cost of benefits

It can be difficult to take action and implement new strategies for combating the rising cost of benefits without experience, and especially when you have other pressing core business concerns. That’s why the greatest solution of all could be engaging with an expert PEO. The right outsourced HR partner can provide strategic direction and instantly save money by connecting your organization to a larger employee base providing better and cheaper benefits.

Mike Harrington is the president of The Synergy Companies. Joining the organization in 1995, Harrington has held several leadership roles within the company working to ensure its effective delivery of human resource and PEO services. Prior to joining Synergy, Mike spent five years with Safeguard Business Systems in direct sales and sales training and support. He holds a BS degree in marketing from Eastern Illinois University.

Oct 23

A terrorized British city turns to an all-American play for healing

By Programming

By  Matt Trueman, reporter, The New York Times

In the wake of the May terrorist attack at Manchester Arena, which killed 23 people, including the attacker, the space outside the nearby Royal Exchange Theater became a site of public mourning. St. Ann’s Square slowly filled with flowers and other tributes – soft toys, football jerseys, balloons — covering an area the size of a swimming pool. Every day for three weeks, the theater’s staff walked past on their way to work.

At the time, the artistic director Sarah Frankcom was facing a gap in her autumn schedule, the result of a leading actor’s clashing commitments. One play kept coming to mind: Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” An all-American classic, Wilder’s 1938 portrait of small-town life at the turn of the century nonetheless seemed to Ms. Frankcom to chime with the atmosphere in Manchester at that moment.

“All over town, there was a real sense that people were meeting each other in simple, everyday actions,” she recalled. The scene in St. Ann’s Square was a case in point. “We suddenly all went, ‘Oh, that’s why we have town squares, isn’t it?’ It wasn’t about looking at flowers, but about needing to be together.”

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Oct 16

Important considerations for establishing major gift metrics

By Sponsor Insight

By John T. Keith, J.D., consultant, Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates

Fundraising success is increasingly a vital component of an organization’s ability to fulfill its mission.  Campaigns have increased in prevalence and frequency and often are dependent upon 90 percent of the dollars being contributed by 10 percent of the donors.  (In higher education, this can reach 95 percent of the dollars from 5 percent of the donors, a threshold nearly unheard of 15 years ago.)

This leads many organizations to rely upon major gift fundraising at all times, rather than merely for special projects of need.

At the same time, it has become more common for board members to have backgrounds in businesses that foster a sales culture and therefore look for data-driven accountability from the nonprofits they support.  How can we modernize our approach to goal-setting and accountability without sacrificing what makes philanthropy so different from sales transactions?

The art of fundraising focuses on fostering support for your mission by developing relationships with donors and aligning their philanthropic goals with organizational needs. Yet, in philanthropy it is important that we focus on both the art and science of fundraising by tracking the metrics behind those relationships.

Here are a few things to consider as you explore incorporating metrics into your major gift program.

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Oct 16

How to recognize employees without a promotion

By Sponsor Insight

By Mike Bensi, advisor, FirstPerson

“Let’s promote him!”

This is unfortunately a very common response by leaders when they have a great performer within their company. He’s been with the company “long enough,” and now the leaders find themselves wondering what they’re going to do so he doesn’t leave the company.

What are some signs that making the person a manager might be a bad idea?

  1. He’s not good at managing. Sure he’s great at what he’s doing right now, but does that mean he’ll rock at managing other people?
  2. Your company is just too young or too small. Within flat organizations, you’ll find limited available management and leadership roles. At larger firms, you’ll find more opportunities for advancement, but it could take years for the person to get there.
  3. The person just doesn’t want to manage. Recent research is finding fewer people who have leadership aspirations.

So what can a company do to recognize the work the employee is doing, without handing out a promotion?

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Oct 16

Finding adequate shelter for families can be challenging

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

A little over a year ago, Mike Chapuran’s first day at Family Promise in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood didn’t go quite as planned.

Trying to get a sense of his new position, he started his first day answering the nonprofit’s phones. The first caller was a family, which he had to turn away because the shelter was full. Then came another call, and by 9:40 a.m., he had turned away five families seeking shelter.

Twelve minutes later, he suggested the caller call 211 or one of the other two family shelters – Dayspring or Holy Family.

“The mom told me, ‘I’ve already called all of them, I’ve been calling them for weeks. I’m staying in an attic and it’s 80 degrees and my infant won’t stop crying. Do you know how hot it gets in an attic?’ I felt powerless, but imagine her powerlessness. I’m just in a job. She’s has a kid. My point is on the day I arrived here, I was like ‘I didn’t know this was a problem in Indianapolis.’”

Unfortunately, Chapuran’s first day was not unusual. Every day, about 10 families are turned away. Other family shelters in Central Indiana – Dayspring and Holy Family — have similar experiences.  According to Coalition for Homelessness Intervention & Prevention (CHIP), 6,000 school-aged children will experience housing instability. Dayspring, Holy Family and Family Promise will take dads, but Salvation Army and Wheeler only take mothers and children.

For over 24 years, Family Promise of Greater Indianapolis, initially called the Interfaith Hospitality Network, has been part of the network supporting homeless families. It began with a talk given at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church by the founder of a Hospitality Network program in New Jersey. Dr. Dean Lindsey was at the talk, researched the program and problem, and then formed a local outreach group to connect with congregations. Working as volunteers, they persuaded eight congregations to split the effort that first year, each hosting four families for a week.

Since 1994, volunteers and congregations have helped over 750 families with children. Today, two different congregations offer hospitality every week, serving a total of eight families. The network now includes 36 churches, and another 18 that support the effort of a church close to them.

Congregations provide overnight lodging and meals for up to four families. Families daily arrive daily at the church at 6 p.m. and stay until 7 the next morning. On Sundays, volunteers wash sheets, and then transport the rollaway beds to the next congregation.

“If a parent has a job and works until 6, we don’t want to be an obstacle to employment so we have the Uber and Lyft fund. We will have volunteers go pick them up for the week.  We don’t let our model get in the way of what actually matters, which is working,” said Chapuran.

Host congregations serve dinner and breakfast and plan activities for the children. Members of the congregation spend the night at the shelter, and then each morning transport families to the Family Promise Day Center. Children go to school or daycare.

The Day Center, located behind St. Rita’s Church on Indy’s Eastside, provides support for adults who either cannot work or are seeking work. They meet with a case manager to build skills such as budgeting, while applying for housing or employment. Adults can use the computer lab to prepare resumes, research jobs and apply for jobs online.

“We have success stories. We have the mom who comes back seven years later, and we don’t know she stayed in the program. She’s wearing nursing scrubs, and she donates food to us and says, ‘Seven years ago this program saved my life.’ She then talks about the volunteers and how they doted on her children and how she got a job as a CNA at $15 an hour and the program helped her get that. And that now she’s has an apartment.

“We have another mom who says after she puts her kids to bed and turns off the lights, she loves it because she has to get mad at her daughter for turning on the lights and reading a book at 9 o’clock at night,” he said.

When a family leaves, support continues. Four years ago, the program added an AfterCare home-based case manager who continues to work with families. The belief is that INH helps people find housing and AfterCare helps them keep it. The nonprofit’s name was changed when it added the program, and is now part of an affiliate network of over 200 Family Promise branches.

The case manager visits families at their houses or apartments, and currently serves 32 families.

“That’s scary because that’s a lot. So she has to prioritize those most in need. Families will do a monthly budget with her one meeting, and then next month when she’s back, revisit it. There may be a meeting in between to work on things like providing a connection for a school uniform resource. But it’s really budgeting on the first of the month, and then coming back the next month to try to help create long-term goals as motivation,” said the executive director.

And it is making a difference. Two years after leaving the IHN shelter program and working with AfterCare case manager, 82 percent of families have retained housing.

In the past year, the case manager has connected six families to the Boner Center IDA program. The family starts an account and saves a minimum of $25 a month. When they hit $3,000, it’s matched and can be used for school, entrepreneurship or buying a home, according to Chapuran.

“So we’re hoping that through that program we’ll have some homeowners here in a few years,” he said. “Housing is the key. There’s no panacea. Right? But housing affects employment, affects school, affects every thing.”

Most families, according to Family Promise, stay about 60 days to save up the first month’s rent and security deposit.  The nonprofit now has a donor to provide a family’s security deposit, which according to studies, reduces the average family stay.

“We just gave a fighting chance to the family. The family did the work. It’s not a homeless person, it’s a mom who has three kids. One of them was diagnosed on the autism spectrum, she had to do appointments, lost her job and then it snowballed from there. It could happen to anybody,” said Chapuran. “We can stabilize those parents so that the kids’ lives hopefully are stable and in school. So we’ve got to take the long view.

Family Promise of Greater Indianapolis phone tally for two months.

Permanent housing for families, particularly with multiple bedrooms, is rare to find.

“Your family of five with dad, mom and three kids is shot. They wait. We’ve had a family that’s come back here twice despite our best efforts and getting social security and some other supports, and despite a part-time job has come back here twice. The mom has significant disabilities, retaining a job is hard. She’s half blind to be honest, and a permanent support-housing unit is necessary for her and her twins. But she’s been waiting nine months now.”

Besides family permanent housing, Family Promise is working to fill a 17-week gap from December to February. At that time, one rotation serving four families at a time closes. The nonprofit continues to recruit congregations.

Chapuran is hopeful that he will find new congregations and maximize the nonprofit’s existing resources.

But most importantly, he knows that volunteers getting to learn a family’s story can realize that it’s all shared experiences.

“Read the stories, but even more important than serving a meal at Dayspring, is talking to a family at Dayspring, learning a story. Learn that’s a mom, who went through 24-hour childbirth just like you, who then was worried about getting the baby to latch. It’s all shared experiences. “

Oct 16

Battling homelessness relies on dedication, collaboration

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

The thought process in itself is pretty elementary. Identify a problem, and then get smart heads get together to find a solution. On paper, it sounds good, but real life can be another story.

The problem of homelessness is an issue that has vexed politicians and social service agencies for a long time. It’s complicated because it is so multifaceted.

In previous nonprofit positions at the Damien Center in Indianapolis and the Orange County AIDS Services Foundation in California, Alan Witchey has worked with marginalized populations and saw how their plights can spiral into homelessness. Since 2015, he has been the executive director of the Indianapolis-based Coalition For Homelessness Intervention & Prevention (CHIP), and housing has become his primary job focus.

One thing he has come to believe is that solving the problem of homelessness has to be a group effort.

“Coming to CHIP was a great opportunity to think about how to solve homelessness from a collective perspective. An agency cannot solve a community problem alone. It can help people, and do good work, but it takes people working together, especially on a large issue like homelessness. One of the things, I think, has been very exciting is that I have really seen evolution and change in philosophy in Indianapolis among the homeless providers,” said Witchey, a 1990 graduate of Indiana University.

And what are some of the changes?

One is agreement to use a coordinated entry system. Together with providers, CHIP is launching a common housing application and vulnerability assessment.

According to Mike Chapuran, executive director of Family Promise, a nonprofit family shelter on the city’s Eastside, local shelters have verbally agreed to the updated system. Before now, a family seeking shelter would have to call each shelter to find one with a vacancy. Now, those seeking housing will complete an application, and CHIP will manage the list and prioritize the need.

And while it won’t immediately solve the capacity problem in the city for homeless families and individuals, it will prioritize housing, and add data to better understand the extent of the problem.  “That’s an enormous change for our community,” said Witchey.

CHIP realizes that the actual homeless numbers aren’t always easy to quantify. Every January, volunteers go to shelters, transitional housing and encampments to gain an annual Point-in-Time (PIT) count. This year’s results found the amount of people homeless in the city increased by 10 percent – giving Indianapolis the highest homeless count since 2014. Currently, 1,787 people are without homes, according to CHIP.

“We don’t ever think that we get to everybody, but we think we’re pretty good at counting, getting to a lot of people, not everybody,” Witchey said.

For example, the Hispanic homeless population is well hidden in Indianapolis and across the state. And Witchey believes there are other populations that are missed from the count.  The LGBTQ population, as well as some other youth populations, frequently double up or sleep on somebody’s couch and would be missed.

In July, CHIP teamed up with Outreach, which has been working with homeless youth for over 20 years, and the Indiana University Public Policy Institute (PPI) to conduct the first Youth Count Indy of ages 18 to 24. The data will help build a case for federal funding, expand advocacy efforts and educate the public. Outreach, a faith-based nonprofit, opened a new program facility on the city’s Eastside in April and hopes to serve more than 400 to 425 annually.

CHIP is not a direct service provider, but is helping to lead the way and change systems.

“I think we’re going in the right direction, and we still have a ways to go. There are some communities that are way ahead of us, and we haven’t been acting this way for a long time.

“You cannot expect a homeless service provider to be thinking systemically because they are dealing with the immediate crisis. People are walking in the door homeless every day, and they’re trying solve having no place to live,” said Witchey.

Chapuran agrees that his staff is constantly responding to a family’s crisis. When a mom needs a ride to work, it’s difficult say “no” because a collaborative meeting takes precedence. But he also understands it is important work for changes to happen.

Collaborative work can be challenging. While an agency receiving HUD funding has a requirement to participate in developing collaborative solutions, many of Indianapolis’ providers are privately funded. Witchey believes it’s CHIP’s job to build a compelling case to work together.

One of those changes has been the work of street workers. In August, CHIP hired Tom Tuttle, a social worker with 10 years experience, to manage the Street Reach Indy program. While a similar program to give money to organizations rather than panhandlers started in 2014, this one has a full-time position dedicated to outreach Downtown and work with businesses.

There was a time when every agency did its own street operation, sometimes reaching the same person in the same day. But that has changed in the past five years. Now, Professional Blended Street Outreach (PBSO) combines 22 different agencies and has standards for the way services are provided.

These teams provide first-response services to the city’s homeless and are made up of organizations that include local law-enforcement, nonprofits, health providers and mental health entities. Horizon House does the on-the-ground coordination.

CHIP has begun hosting quarterly provider meetings and creating common outcomes.  At these sessions, providers talk about how individual programs and agencies are doing based on those agreed-upon metrics.

Chapuran believes that Witchey is bringing providers the best practices from HUD and randomized studies that help support all of their work. Statistics show that 93 percent of the homeless who are rehoused remain housed one year later, and 94 percent of those who receive homeless prevention do not fall into homelessness over the coming year.

And while providers have made changes, Indianapolis’ housing resources have lagged. In his annual State of the City address, Mayor Hogsett committed to provide 400 additional spots for homeless residents.

According to CHIP, last year the city had 1,059 shelter beds, and 26 beds in two shelters dedicated to youth. While the city’s homeless population is smaller than other large cities, a study concluded that faith-based groups provide 77 percent of beds for Indianapolis’ homeless. So the city’s involvement is key.

Hogsett directive was simple. “We need this challenge as a community to push ourselves. And this community can rise to help solve it,” he said.

As part of the solution, CHIP, together with United Way of Central Indiana and Eskenzi Health, created and funded a new position called the Senior Strategy Director for Homelessness. Since August, Rodney Stockment has been on the job. He is responsible for helping to align the city’s efforts around homelessness and to address the challenge of finding the 400 additional beds.

“He really is mapping it out and going through all the different affordable housing projects and programs. He is finding out where there are empty units, where there are upcoming units and identifying those, so we can actually place people in them. And then, we’re working with different funders to help fund either temporary rental subsides or ongoing subsides to help people as they move into those units. So it really is a collaborative effort, but it’s great that we were able to create this position at the city,” said Witchey.

The funders envisioned a two-to-three year position focused on how to identify potential units and connecting homeless people to those units. By the end of September, Stockment had identified 168 units of the 400.

For additional assistance, CHIP brought members of the Cleveland Mediation Center to Indianapolis for a two-day divergent training on how to mediate crisis situations.

Chapuran said the training can help with immediate needs.

“We’re excited about beginning the conversation to see how we can with modest financial support and in-home case management potentially keep a family that needs housing in the home where they’re staying and help manage a conflict. While doubling up is not a perfect solution, if there’s no shelter space, it’s better than the street,” said Chapuran.

CHIP has also developed program standards and strategies for outreach, transitional housing and permanent housing.

And it has piloted new models. Over the last year and a half, Indianapolis has invested in a Housing-First model and tracked its progress. Called Penn Place, the 38 furnished one-bedroom apartments opened last winter. Residents are surrounded by support services. Witchey said an evaluation of the facility was just completed.

“A lot of those pieces have existed for many years here, but there wasn’t a sort of consistent effort to bring it here and have fidelity to that model. So we did that when we opened Penn Place about a year and a half ago, which was a collaborative between BWI Developers, Insight Development Corporation, Indianapolis Housing Authority, Eskenazi, Midtown Mental Health and Horizon House.

Are we close to solving the homeless problem?

According to Chapuran, “Other cities have demonstrated what’s possible. Utah, especially Salt Lake City has addressed and “solved” the problem of homeless veterans.

“We know that individuals are going to be without homes. There will be family that kicks them out, there will be evictions, but can we make sure that they have a roof over their heads on the day that they become homeless. There are cities that have done that.

“So in that sense, we know the solutions are out there. But in Indy right now, we are working towards them. Thanks to CHIP in the last year, especially, we are finally implementing and having the working groups create policies and procedures around what other cities are doing, and so that gives me a lot of hope,” he said.