TECHNOLOGY TO SUCCEED. TOOLS TO HELP YOU WORK SMARTER

PICKERING understands the demands on your time & attention in running your business, and as your insurance advisor, we are continually looking for ways to make your job easier. That’s why we have partnered with MyWave® to provide you with a variety of valuable HR services and tools at no cost to you. Richard Gaines, Attorney, has advanced degrees in taxation, estate planning, wills, trusts and business planning.

David Branfman, Attorney specializes in New Media, Trademark, Copyright and Entertainment Law.

In addition, PICKERING has a renowned ERISA attorney on retainer to assist our clients’ with sophisticated plan designs and compliance issues.

Paul Champlin, CPA specializes in corporate tax and payroll support. DePauw, Business & Tax Services Bookkeeping Services for Business and individuals.

Our range of value-added services includes delivering you custom solutions for all of your health care management needs, including benefit plan analysis, contribution strategies, health & wellness education and training, and developing employee policies and consumer-driven programs.

Understanding the increased complexity of employee benefits is a challenge. Staying abreast of the issues you face and developing strategies to meet the constant demands of business can give you a competitive edge. Randy Pickering’s communication programs will help you stay on top of the changes affecting the employer group insurance industry & consumer-driven employee programs.

Our firm is committed to keeping you and your employees informed. We can build and customize a wellness campaign specific to your employees’ needs. Through our online services, we can deliver you payroll stuffers, ready-to-use employee newsletters, posters, and educational brochures on health and wellness designed to help you drive consumerism in your workplace. We can also design wellness programs ranging from basic to comprehensive. Many programs require a minimal investment of time and money. More substantial programs often use more resources, but the many benefits to supporting and encouraging employee health and wellness outweigh the costs.

In Addition to general day-to-day services, PICKERING will release a Request for Proposal to the marketplace in order to review all your vendor options now & at renewal. Evaluating, negotiating with, and recommending insurers and providers to our clients are our specialities. Our position in the marketplace allows us to enjoy preferred financial arrangements with insurance vendors. We actively cultivate long-standing relationships with major carriers, and those relationships allow us to negotiate aggressively and obtain cost efficient proposals for our clients.

Our Benefits Help Desk provides extensive assistance directly to your employees on your behalf. The center aids plan employees and their dependents in resolving issues that arise during the year on claims, coverage and other administrative issues to use their benefits effectively. The Benefits Help Desk is staffed by dedicated professionals who know your benefits and have facilitated access to insurance carriers to get the answers your employees need. We have Spanish speaking staff. We also assist you in providing throughout the year new hire packets, worksheets, etc.

CobraAid was created to assist group health insurance brokers and small to medium size employers with the complex and often confusing task of in-house COBRA administration. CobraAid provides COBRA manuals, HIPAA Privacy Manuals, COBRA

software & e-mail support to thousands of employers throughout the United States. CobraAid's products were developed specifically for the small employer. We understand that many companies do not have the HR expertise to learn complex COBRA software, the time to attend COBRA seminars, or the budget for expensive COBRA outsourcing. Full Cobra Administration can be available upon request and quotation.

We are committed to helping you offer collateral on all levels to your employees, including a complete employee handbook. Our dedicated staff of professionals can help you develop and implement employee policies as well as individual policies to promote a healthy culture for your entire workforce and maintain a positive work environment by offering solutions for your organization’s human resource challenges.

PICKERING also utilizes two of San Diego’s largest administration companies – one specializing in ERISA compliance, actuarial services & complicated 401(k) plan designs. Both firms also provide attorneys and compliance personnel as well. In total, PICKERING provides a vast array of technical advisors to address issues with ERISA, plan designs, discrimination & changes due to the Health Care Reform Act – PPACA. These valued partners offer our clients the best in their respective fields of expertise.

PICKERING is dedicated to helping you create and maintain a positive work environment by offering solutions for your organization’s human resource challenges.

Our services include:

• Clarification and advice on compliance with employment laws such as FMLA, ADA and EEO
• Employee Handbooks and Policies
• Employee Communications
• HR Communications and HR Tools (MyWave® Elements Portal)
• Zywave Learning™ (On-line Training Portal)
  
• CobraAid
• Online Enrollment

Often it can be more difficult to deliver the message than it is to create it. We recognize that many employers are seeking a more effective and efficient means of communicating important information to their employees. Fortunately, newer, more efficient ways of communicating human resources and benefits information are emerging every day.

Technology-based systems are forging the way toward improved communications, increased productivity, streamlined processes and cost savings for many human resources and benefits departments. PICKERING is pleased to be able to offer you such a system.

Understanding the complexity of employee benefits plans is a challenge even for experienced benefits managers. Employers need to keep abreast of constantly changing trends, laws and other regulations. Employees need to be able to understand their benefits well in order to be wise consumers and understand the value of their “hidden paycheck.” Unfortunately, most employers have limited resources in this area.

The PICKERING team helps you tackle your employee communication challenges. With strategic planning and a thorough understanding of your communication objectives, we provide custom communication materials that will help both you and your employees understand your plans and the issues influencing your benefits decisions. Below are the types of custom communications we offer – with a few samples included.

Benefit communications; include memos, flyers, payroll stuffers, posters and articles used to announce benefit changes, introduce new benefits or plans, or to help employees understand and use certain benefits.

Benefit Statements; We provide benefit statement items such as total compensation statement packets and a summary of an employee's benefits package, including salary and benefits.

We supply everything you need, including letters, flyers, articles, payroll stuffers, posters & e-mails to help support your CDHC campaigns.

Everything from employee-facing articles to payroll stuffers to Legislative Briefs, our health care reform content keeps employers and employees in the know on this hot topic.

You’ll have access to educational articles covering many benefit topics. This also includes a quarterly Benefits Bulletin newsletter about the newest legislation issues and benefits trends, along with a monthly one-page newsletter covering highlights of current HR and benefit news.

Access a full employee handbook, as well individual policies, that you can provide to your employees to communicate company policies or procedures.