As Greg posits in his article, the choice of whether to allow employees to work from home is unique to the organization and often situational. There is no one-size-fits-all solution that can be applied.

Our experience at Jacobson is that allowing a work-at-home option has helped us retain high-performing employees. We have tenured workers successfully reporting in from across the country! We’ve seen tremendous success doing this with our contract employees, as well. We deploy work-at-home project teams for our clients’ critical workload fluctuations. Besides providing cost savings to our clients, it also broadens the viable candidate pool considerably. Candidates with very specific software skills and targeted experience come together virtually to complete a project in a timely fashion. However, executing this type of work requires strong project management methodology and sophisticated technology. A lot of hard work and dedication goes into making it possible.

Where do you stand on the work-at-home debate? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Margaret Resce Milkint, managing partner at Jacobson, and David Mendelsohn, partner at DLA Piper, formed the Women’s Insurance Networking Group (WING) to tackle these issues head on. If you ask WING members what males have to do with it, their answer is “a lot!” Their vision was to form a women’s networking group where men are part of the conversation.

“Male voice, perspective and participation are crucial to our success in advancing the female leadership initiative,” says Margaret. “We need and value their active support, sponsorship and healthy push back to move forward and change the game!”

WING defines enlightened males as “those who understand the importance of diversity and equality in leadership.” The events provide a platform for women and man to sound off on the issues that affect women in leadership.

At Jacobson, we are committed to diversity awareness and an inclusive workforce. Personally, I am proud of the work Margaret is doing and honored Jacobson has the opportunity to sponsor WING.

WING’s next event is May 9^th in Chicago. It is a free luncheon that is open to all industry members. Of course, enlightened males are encouraged to attend!

For more information, or to register, click here: http://www.jacobsononline.com/EventRegistration.aspx?idEvent=396

Not all are in are agreement, the AMA and other groups have requested a halt to the ICD-10 implementation, citing burdensome or even devastating implementation costs for physicians. The first extension was granted back in September 2012 in response to opposition of the original October 1, 2013 deadline. As I blogged about last year, the decision was met with mixed reactions back then, too.

There is plenty of work to be done before the deadline hits—that is something we all can agree on! Ready or not, the October 1, 2014, deadline stands firm.

This merger will make us a truly global company and we are adding some immense talent to our team. Barbara Schönhofer, chief executive of ejs, will join the Jacobson executive management team as senior vice president and chief executive officer, global executive search. We look forward to Barbara’s dynamic leadership and feel it embodies the same values we expect from our leaders. We are equally excited to welcome the rest of the ejs staff.

This is the next step in our evolution – but not even close to the last!

The primary reason to grow staff during the next 12 months continues to be an increase in business volume, with 47 percent of companies listing this as a reason to hire. Coming in second, with 46 percent of respondents, is expansion. It seems there are some exciting developments coming down the pipeline at many organizations!

This return to hiring, along with a steadily decreasing unemployment rate, do promise a difficult recruiting climate. All functional disciplines were rated by respondents of the study as “moderately difficult to fill.” As demand increases, the difficulty-to-fill measure is expected to continue its incline. While insurers will continue to be faced with recruiting challenges ahead, the outlook is mostly positive for our industry.

I invite you to view the full results summary for a closer look at these projections. If you missed the webinar, you can view the webcast here. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you would like more information about the study.

I invite you to read Compass and Kirk’s article here. How do you intend to simplify this year?

The 2013 labor market promises a strong emphasis on talent as the differentiator in an increasingly competitive market. Employers will strive to attract and retain the brightest and best to tackle the skills gap and embark on growth initiatives.

On a related note, last week marked the beginning of the January ’13 iteration of our Semi-Annual Insurance Labor Outlook Study. This data gathered in the study will help us further understand what we can expect to see happening in the labor market, as well as this year’s hiring plans for insurers across all sectors. All industry organizations are invited to participate in the survey and receive the results free of charge. You can find more information on the survey here. I am excited to see the outcome of this year’s survey and to give my take on the results.

Best wishes for a prosperous 2013!

Perhaps one of the most interesting takeaways Margaret shared with me came from an audience member.  Lee Webster, Director of Human Resources Standards with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), brought up the ROI of succession planning—certainly an issue that deserves a deeper look.  The measurement of the ROI of a succession planning process is a vital component that allows organizations to evaluate and adjust.

As Webster said, “The succession planning dialogue must include a progressive and dynamic component on the effect of choosing the right leader, as well as the effect the leader has on the capital value of the enterprise. We must create the opportunity to look at risks from a human capital point of view. When we focus on the return, we can begin to account for how well we are doing.”

This is certainly interesting food for thought for the insurance industry as the industry faces up to the challenge of an aging workforce.  As the industry strengthens its talent pipeline, we must keep the end goal in sight by continuously measuring the value of our succession and engagement strategies.

In the short term, I view this development as moderately positive for the health Insurance industry and perhaps even stimulative for the health insurance labor market.  Over the past several months, as the uncertainty around the Supreme Court decision grew, I have seen countless health insurance decision makers put developmental projects on hold until some clarity emerged.  I now expect a bit of a dam break in the flow of these projects.  Additionally, health insurers can now plan for an expected increase in covered lives due to the survival of the “individual mandate tax.”  Together, these impetuses should lead to a modest, industry-wide uptick in hiring over the near term.  Moreover, the industry avoided what would have been a major negative shock had the Supreme Court struck down the individual mandate but upheld other aspects of the law including the “Guaranteed Issue” provision.

My view of the longer term impacts of this law is less sanguine.  The health care crisis in this country is a crisis of cost, not one of evil health insurers who need to be reigned in via a central authority dictating the terms of their market. Throughout history, central control of markets has invariably led to mal-investment, skewed markets and unintended consequences.  I have argued since 2009 that the health care cost crisis needed to be solved with market friendly reforms that took advantage of the immense power of capitalistic choice (aka consumerism).  One can make a strong argument that the seeds of our cost crisis were planted by the very body that passed the PPACA, as the endless stream of Washington generated coverage mandates, managed care restrictions and cost-less (to the consumer) benefit increases led to an economic imbalance that ensured consistent health care cost inflation.

The long-term consequences of yet more market interference is not in doubt. We will see continued and likely accelerated, cost escalation. Further, the medium to long-term marginal impact of this law on the labor market will clearly be negative.  For all the talk of job creation, every high school economics student understands that an increase in tax decreases economic activity. In this case we have both an individual tax and a tax on employment – and one that will disproportionately impact the segment of the economy most responsible for job growth: small businesses.

All that said, this is not the first time that lawmakers – in their zest to improve the conditions of their constituents – have passed counter-productive laws.  Even with the PPACA, the United States continues to have one of the most supportive economies for entrepreneurship and innovation.  I expect that our health insurance organizations and other businesses will learn to innovate within the framework of the new law and our economy will continue to outpace the rest of the developed world.

In the spirit of our 40th anniversary, I wanted to share an infographic detailing 40 current stats for the insurance labor market. Below is just a preview; click it to view the full infographic.