Payroll Deductions

No one enjoys receiving bad news. No one enjoys hearing that they will be taking home less money at the end of the day. Everyone believes that the company has other ways they can save money. Everyone believes that the company is being greedy and using employees to help increase profits. Our company is small, less than 1,000 employees and most have been working here for many years. We are presently going through some changes within the company and will be requiring a significant increase in employee financial contribution to help offset health insurance costs. This change is necessary to help the company continue to grow its revenue and with the increasing costs of health insurance it is essential for the employees to take on some of the burden.

The first group is management. All employees including management will see the payroll deductions but it is undoubtedly going to have less of an impact on higher paid employees. The greater group to be affected is the central body of employees. This group can be broken down even farther into persons with families and persons without families. The persons who have families might welcome the news that they will remain on the same healthcare plan even though the payroll deductions will be significant. Individuals without families may wish the company would seek other health care alternatives that would put less strain on their personal finances. All employees will be affected directly in their net incomes. Payroll deductions will mean less money being brought home at the end of the day. This will affect each individual in unique and diverse ways. We will look to senior employees as the individuals most likely to help facilitate an understanding of the issue. It is not the job of senior employees to talk with others about the changes but the less resistance we experience from senior employees the less we can expect to see from the workforce as a whole. Senior employees have been through changes with the company in the past and will hopefully comprehend the necessity for individuals to help shoulder the burden of health care costs. The main body workforce will benefit from letters detailing the change and an open healthcare seminar to go over changes. Employees will form opinions about the reasoning for the changes immediately and why the company has elected this route. Workers may feel that the company is looking to grow profits by spending less on employees or that the company is in poor financial health and that this change is needed to continue operation. Neither rumor nor idea is accurate but will undoubtedly be presumed by numerous