Just Got Word

A recent survey by US staffing agency, Accountemps found that 1/3 of HR managers cited communication issues as the main cause of staff morale issues. Communication was also the most popular solution to the problem of low morale, with 38% of managers stating that communication, over monetary and other rewards, was the best remedy to poor morale at work. It’s easy to turn to incentives such as days off, recognition programs and monetary bonuses in an attempt to boost staff morale, but if there is a fundamental lack of clear communication between managers and staff, these “solutions” are unlikely to have any long-term impact on staff attitudes. Employees like to feel that their superiors are honest and transparent and that they are kept in the loop in terms of the overall plans of the company. This is particularly important in the recent tough economic times, when threats of redundancy and gossip has the potential to damage staff morale. Good companies not only need to reco...

Fast. Accurate. In whatever format you want. At Just Got Word, we like to make a statement. If your employees and other benefit users don't appreciate your company offerings, maybe you need to market them a little better. Get the word out about what they got.  Let us make a statement for your organization. JustGotWord LLC. 212.535.0870

Two forces are at work, literally laying in wait to decimate the ACA (aka Obamacare). There are the Trump campaign promises to throw it away, coupled with increased Republican power. In an Election Day upheaval, we now have a clean Republican sweep at the Federal legislative and executive branches, which means impending Republicanizan on the judicial branch. With virtual control of the White House and both chambers, the GOP will have the votes to cast Obamacare away. The question isn’t if they’ll do it. The relevant questions are how they’ll dismantle it and to what extent . Those on the party's conservative wings are already clamoring for repeal as a top Trump administration priority. But Trump himself has consistently vacillated on this complex issue. One moment he makes unequivocal denunciations (‘it must be killed’) with furrowed eyebrows, and the next, when pressed for an alternative, he comes up with vague notions sounding similar to what Obamacare already offers. So wher...

Watch the video . (thanks Tim)

For a number of reasons, both good and bad, companies, unions and benefit funds are faced with difficult business results that lead to reductions in employee benefit 'entitlements.' Examples would include measures like reduced monthly pension amounts and increased participant cost sharing in medical benefit plans. But there is no need to stick your head in the sand, and, in so doing, keep participants (ne: recipients) in the dark. What is needed is a communications plan to create an actionable strategy to keep everyone informed and up-to-date. Too often, communications is an afterthought to lengthy and painful financial strategy sessions.  It doesn't have to be. At Just Got Word, we specialize in putting together participatory communication action plans that get everyone on the same page.  We find this to be very supportive of employee recruiting and retention goals.

Just Got Word LLC has been retained by Factuarial, a New York-based actuarial services firm, to design and execute a social media strategy to help fuel Factuarial's ongoing growth.  Just Got Word will redesign Factuarial's website, and create a vibrant network of social media outlets to ramp up their expanding presence. We do social media, and we do it well.  Let us do it for your firm.  We are creative, fast and reasonably priced.  Let us help you wake up and energize your world.

For those of you wondering what the future holds for union pension plans, here's a quick glimpse of what the future will bring.  This just in from the Duluth News Tribune: "An estimated 700 people packed Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota on Tuesday to oppose major pension cuts proposed by the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Plan. One by one the Teamsters, many of them retired, stepped to the microphone to ask the U.S. Treasury to reject the cuts and find a different solution to the sea of red ink threatening to swallow the giant retirement fund. “We worked hard for our money,” said Teamster Dennis Henderson of North St. Paul. Others angrily described the proposed cuts as unfair and devastating. Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury appointee who hosted the session, said he was determined to make sure retirees were heard. It’s the seventh feedback session on the cuts he’s held around the country. There was a similar turnout for a session in Detroit on Monday. ...

Kudos to Amy Howe of ScotusBlog for a well written 3/4/15 piece on the oral arguments presented to the Supreme Court on the merits of continuing the "state-based" Obamacare subsidy (King v. Burwell). If you don't have the time or the interest in reading the article, but you are interested in knowing if the subsidies will be killed off and spawn an insurance "death spiral," then let me sum it up as per Amy's interpretation of the questions and answers between counsels and judges. The judges tipped their hands by the questions they asked and the concerns that they raised. They are very much behind keeping things exactly the way they are now. As Amy puts it: "Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg all seemed like solid votes for the federal government, defending the subsidies, while the challengers could clearly count on the votes of Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito." I wasn't a math major, ...

Just Got Word LLC was recently awarded a custom website development contract by a major construction company based in Colorado.  Just thought we should get the word out that we can help your organization design and post custom websites.  If you need your old website replaced by something imaginable and creative, please contact us.

It's tough for financial writers to come up with new material so they have to be creative.  Unfortunately, the following attempt at saying something new demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the current bond market, which affords no opportunities for the small investor.  In fact, it's safe to say that with the current benchmark bond interest rates in play, the bond market is dead. This is one of the main reasons the Dow has surpassed the 17,000 mark -- money that would otherwise go into a vibrant bond market is instead finding its way into equities markets, and driving up stock values along the way. In the article, "Retirement Investing, Are You Doing It All Wrong?" the writer refers to an expert economist who argues investors should own more stocks the older they grow, not fewer, which also means those approaching retirement should cut back their participation in the bond market. What bond market is this author referring to? There is currently no bo...

An easy way to do this is to provide your employees with an annual total compensation statement like the one we just did for a blue chip financial services firm based in downtown Manhattan.  Here is a sample of the one-page statement we did for their employees.    Sample total compensation statement We can do personalized annual statements for your organization too.  Contact Just Got Word LLC for information and rates.

Since the dark days of 2008, employers have taken some steps to fix the 401k, the backbone of the nation's private retirement savings system. But Nobel laureate Robert C. Merton says that in the rush to upgrade these plans, sponsors and administrators have overlooked one big problem: They are managing the plans with the wrong goal in mind. "The only way to avoid a catastrophe is for plan participants, professionals, and regulators to shift the mind-set and metrics from asset value to income," explains Merton , who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1997. In recent years, employers have tried to improve 401k's by introducing features such as automatic enrollment and products including target-date funds. But these moves are not likely to be sufficient. To fix the 401k, he argues, employers and the financial services companies that manage the plans must get past the ongoing obsession with two things: account balances and annual returns. These metrics, M...

As a result of Obamacare, employers must understand, navigate, and adapt to a quickly changing, highly complex, and still uncertain marketplace for health benefits.  Here are some of the critical challenges: ·          Helping Employees, Dependents, and Retirees Understand Obamacare: Effective internal communications is an essential ingredient for an engaged, productive workforce with low turnover.  This is heightened under the dynamics and complexities of Obamacare. Unfortunately, employees will look to their employer to explain Obamacare (i.e., Affordable Care Act), even if the employer is not changing benefits.  Employees have friends and family who will need help understanding Obamacare.  The airwaves, mail boxes, and street corners will be packed with messaging from all angles and interests – some pro, some con, some partisan, some factually wrong, some even fraudulent, much of it confusing, and all of it...