Break from the Grind January 29, 2019

Absences and Distractions Following the Super Bowl Could Cost Employers Much

Super Bowl-related absences could cost employers more than $2.5 billion in lost productivity, and if all of the workers who watch the Super Bowl spend just one hour of their work day discussing the game or come in one hour late, that adds $1.7 billion to losses, a survey finds.
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More than half of professionals (54%) surveyed by OfficeTeam know someone who’s called in sick or made an excuse for skipping work following a major sporting event, such as the Super Bowl, NBA Finals or World Series.

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In a separate survey, senior managers identified playing hooky the day after (42%) as the most distracting or annoying employee behavior when it comes to sports, a 20-point jump from a similar survey in 2017. Senior managers also cited spending too much time talking sports (18%) and showing up the day after tired or under the weather (17%) as most distracting or annoying behavior.

And employers have good reason to be annoyed. According to an estimate from global outplacement and executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., Super Bowl-related absences could cost employers more than $2.5 billion in lost productivity. Even those who do choose to go to work on Monday will likely face some game-related distractions.

“If all of the workers who watch the Super Bowl spend just one hour of their work day discussing the game or come in one hour late, the productivity losses could hit $1.7 billion,” said Andrew Challenger, vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. He added that this is on top of the $2.5 billion loss from people calling out of work.

“Employers should accept that people are going to spend some time discussing big plays or the best commercials on Monday. Consider allowing employees to come in a bit later or encourage fans to bring in leftovers from their Super Bowl parties and throw a potluck during lunch. Use this opportunity to increase morale and workplace satisfaction,” Challenger suggested.
Products January 29, 2019

Wolters Kluwer Makes Retirement Plan Distribution Processes Easier

New integrations make filling out Form 1099s and rollovers to individual retirement accounts (IRAs) automatic.

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Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. announced that its Distribution Tracking Software (DTS) is now fully integrated with the ftwilliam.com 1099 Software module.

With the launch of the software’s new integration features, users can now push their distribution data that was collected in DTS into the 1099 software, which automatically populates the data appropriately into 1099 forms—eliminating the process of manually inputting 1099 data. ftwilliam.com’s technology can identify the need for a distribution to require multiple 1099 forms, as well as instances when multiple distributions should be combined into a single 1099 form.

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Additionally, the new ftwilliam.com DTS integration with Millennium Trust allows both Millennium Trust and ftwilliam.com to further simplify the manual set-up process of automatic rollovers. With this integration, users can push information collected in DTS to Millennium Trust automatically. This alleviates the need to manually upload participant data in order to set-up an IRA with Millennium Trust. A third-party administrator (TPA) simply selects the participants on the DTS Distribution dashboard and pushes a button. DTS then automatically creates the file and transmits the data to Millennium Trust on the TPA’s behalf. This streamlines the process and minimizes the risk of error.

Additional features of ftwilliam.com’s DTS include:

  • Global and plan level dashboards;
  • Custom notifications and alerts;
  • Real-time updates to keep users and their clients informed on the status of a distribution;
  • At-a-glance distribution summary view, to see everything needed to know about a distribution in one place, with the option to add custom notes or activity;
  • Document exchange, allowing users to send any document via the portal for download and receive signed/completed forms and documents from plan sponsors and participants;
  • Document template manager, allowing professionals to upload their own templates, use ftwilliam.com’s templates, or create their own, instantly create custom custodial directives, force out notices, spousal consents, and more;
  • Clone/Split distributions functionality allowing the user to clone a record and add the additional funds destination when participants request a distribution be split into multiple sources;
  • Default DTS specifications making set-up faster;
  • Batch import distributions for force outs, plan termination and conversion; and
  • Batch print and attach custom documents to distribution records.
More information is at http://product.ftwilliam.com/products/distribution-tracking-software/.

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