Leadership Perspectives

Happy Thanksgiving

by Doug Hammond, Chief Executive Officer

In the spirit of the holidays, I want you to know how much we value and appreciate everything you do for NFP. After all, our company wouldn’t have anywhere near the success we have today without your collective and individual efforts. I see how much good we’ve done as a company and community, and it makes me very proud that we’re part of the same team.

Your gifts and talents are undeniable, but what’s even more impressive is how respectful and supportive you are of one another and our clients. Our clients see that we put people first — and it keeps them coming back and expanding their relationships with us. That helps make us a strong company, inside and out.

Sharing Success
We don’t take that strength for granted, and it allows us to do great things. Sharing our success through charitable giving is important. In fact, it’s an essential part of the NFP community spirit, and one that I want to highlight this Thanksgiving as we give thanks for all the good in our lives.

This year, I’m thankful that our community came together to fight diabetes and raise awareness and funds for the American Diabetes Association in our fall charity campaign. But we didn’t stop there. We built houses, raced for cures and donated our time and money. Through our collective efforts, we contributed to many worthy causes, including the fights against breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, leukemia and lymphoma, lupus and more.

In Our Backyard
We didn’t just look outward, either. The devastating flood in Baton Rouge affected so many, including our own family, friends and coworkers. When we asked for emergency help, you didn’t hesitate. You embodied the NFP Way and raised money that went to help the victims get back on their feet again. Thank you for always stepping up. Your participation is incredible and shows how tightly knit our NFP community is.

Thank you for being an integral part of this company. All of the leadership at NFP wishes you and your loved ones a very happy Thanksgiving. We’re grateful for all that you do for NFP and that you’ve chosen to be part of the NFP team.

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PeopleFirst

RECOGNITION

Unsung Hero, Glenda Morris

Employees in our Atlanta office feel right at home, thanks to office administrator Glenda Morris. She’s as friendly as she is detail-oriented, always ensuring that meetings are set up correctly, that conference rooms are available and that clients feel like the most important people in the world. Glenda adds a personal touch. Not only does she remember vacation time and work anniversaries; she also remembers staff family members’ names and children’s interests. Glenda’s diligence and kindness make our Atlanta office a great place to work. No one is more deserving of appreciation or recognition.

Glenda shares her home with Chrissy and Pearl, two cats who are as different as night and day. She also loves spending time with her three grandchildren, Kate, Sam and Sarah.

Unsung Hero, Tammy Gagnon

Tammy Gagnon, the assistant CFO in our St. Johnsbury, VT, office, has been a dedicated asset to our company and our communities for over 21 years. She serves not just her local office but 25 locations in the region, and she recently took over the accounting for our Boston office. On top of it all, she’s a team leader for the Epic integration project in her office. In addition to her work duties, Tammy organizes an annual NFP Open golf tournament attended by employees, clients, carriers and other local agencies that raises money for the Vermont chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. This year’s event had 100 participants and raised $5,000! Thanks, Tammy, for embodying the NFP Way.

When Tammy has free time, she enjoys spending it with her husband, Sylvain, and daughters, Michelle and Kristen.

Know an Unsung Hero? Submit a nomination form to humanresources@nfp.com.

New England Leadership Event Brings Women Together

Our Women in Leadership initiative knows no bounds. Maria Scarpa and Karen Greco of PPI Benefit Solutions, an NFP company, attended Cigna’s inaugural New England Women’s Leadership Event last month. Keynoted by Rosanna Durruthy, Cigna’s Chief Diversity Officer, the conference brought together female leaders from the region's employee benefits industry for a networking and educational opportunity.

L to R: Janine Pecott-Khongkham (Cigna), Anna Croce (Cigna), Maria Scarpa, Wendy Sherry (COO, Cigna New England) and Karen Greco

Halloween Fun

Offices across the company got into the Halloween spirit with pumpkin carving and costume contests, along with children’s face painting, balloon animals and a whole lot of candy!

Plainview, NY, Office


White Plains, NY, Office



Austin, TX, Office


Aliso Viejo, CA, Office


Warrington, PA, Office


Joe Pisko of the Warrington, PA, Office


New York Office




Norwell, MA, Office

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COMMUNITY

Feeling Artsy in Atlanta

Employees from our Atlanta office volunteered with the Foundation for Hospital Art and helped put the finishing touches on paintings before they were donated to various hospitals. We’re proud to support their vision of making hospitals throughout the world beautiful places for healing.

Back L to R: Jeff Hintz, Toni Wright, Donna Dravis, Chuck Garland and Camille Lewis
Front L to R: Becky Harman and Erica Camp

Plainview Supports St. Jude

Our Plainview, NY, office raised $1,480 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by hosting a bake sale and working with local businesses to hold a raffle. After seeing all of the employees’ hard work and community spirit, the office’s managing directors stepped in to round up the donation to $2,000! Thanks for your gift to St. Jude and its mission to find cures and save children.

L to R: Paulette Shore and Michael Behan

Great Northeast Employees Support Great White Gala Against Cancer

NFP was a proud sponsor of the inaugural Great White Gala Against Cancer in Chatham, MA, hosted by Jay Foran, the managing director of our Northborough, MA, office and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Employees in our Northeast region, as well as their friends and family, joined together to raise almost $200,000 to fight cancer. 235 people attended this event. We strongly support the institute’s mission to provide expert, compassionate care to people with cancer while advancing the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, cure and prevention of cancer and related diseases.

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WELL-BEING

You Stepped Up to Stop Diabetes

Thank you for making this fall’s fundraising campaign a success. This year we teamed up with the American Diabetes Association to raise money and awareness to prevent and cure diabetes and to improve the lives of all people affected by the disorder. Many of our offices participated in multiple legs of the campaign – from Helping Hands to Diet Root Beer Float fundraisers – but they all culminated in ADA’s Step Out: Walk to STOP Diabetes events. Across the company, we had 142 walkers who raised over $20,000 toward the cause. Your generosity truly makes a difference.

Lafayette, CA


Aliso Viejo, CA


Pennsylvania and New Jersey Offices


Austin, TX


Beltsville, MD

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DEVELOPMENT

PeopleFirst Performance Cycle: A Nimble Approach

We want you and all employees to grow in your careers at NFP. One way we can help is to facilitate low-stress, meaningful performance evaluations. We’ve been investigating our own internal process and industry best practices, and the feedback is clear:

• The traditional annual performance review is so yesterday. People want more frequent and less formal feedback, all year long.
• Ratings should be simplified and intuitive, like a Yelp review.
• Employees want to both receive and give feedback — not just on their own performance but also on their career options and the company as a whole.
• Regular one-on-one meetings between employees and their supervisors are the best way to help all parties stay on track.

Based on this information, we’re rolling out a new way to conduct performance reviews. Starting in January, we encourage supervisors to:

• Commit to regular 1x1 meetings with each team member.
• Schedule “check ins” three times a year to dive deeper into employees’ career options and aspirations, discuss progress on ongoing goals and explore how those goals fit the overall success of NFP.
• Leverage the new functionality in the PeopleFirst Portal and the PeopleFirst Performance Toolkit to keep all parties up to speed. This new toolkit contains links to training and tools, where employees and their supervisors can get real-time answers to performance-related questions.

Stay tuned for an email in December about the new PeopleFirst Performance Toolkit and how you can adopt this new approach. If you have any questions in the meantime, email learning@nfp.com.

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Regional Office & Platform News

Allowable Plan Expenses: Can the Plan Pay?

As NFP’s retirement consultants work with their plan sponsor clients, the issue of what plan services can be paid for with plan assets often arises. The payment of expenses by an ERISA retirement plan (401(k), defined benefit plan, money purchase plan, etc.) out of plan assets is subject to ERISA’s fiduciary rules. The “exclusive benefit rule” requires that a plan’s assets be used exclusively for providing benefits. ERISA also imposes upon fiduciaries the duty to defray reasonable expenses of plan administration. General principles of allowable expenses include the following:

• The expenses must be necessary for the administration of the plan.
• The plan’s document and trust agreement must permit use of plan assets for payment of expenses.
• The expenses must be reasonable and incurred primarily for the benefit of participants/beneficiaries.
• The expense cannot be the result of a transaction that’s a prohibited transaction under ERISA, or it must qualify under an exemption from the prohibited transaction rules.

In light of today’s plan fee environment, it’s incumbent upon fiduciaries to request full disclosure of fees and expenses, and how they breakdown with services provided, as well as a full explanation of who will be the recipient of fees.

Ultimately, the ability to pay expenses from a plan trust is a facts-and-circumstances determination that needs to be made by plan fiduciaries. Because it's possible that the Department of Labor may challenge such determinations, it’s important that fiduciaries consult ERISA counsel prior to paying questionable expenses from a plan trust and document the decision and the reasoning behind it.

Start the Group Long-Term Care Insurance Conversation

It’s Long-Term Care Awareness Month, and there’s never been a better time to start talking with your clients about long-term care (LTC) insurance plans for next year. LTC insurance can protect your clients well into retirement, and employer-sponsored LTC insurance garners unique, preferential tax treatment. As the year winds down, take some time to talk with your clients about their future and how they can knock out a “be proactive” resolution first-thing in 2017 by adding LTC benefits. Learn how to tackle the LTC conversation on the LTCI Partners website, grab LTC materials to show your clients in our Marketing Resource Library (MRL) and contact Steve Cain for more information.

Turning Point Conference Showcases New NFP Brand

And our brand keeps getting stronger! We’re proud that FirstWest, a health and retirement solutions provider for almost 30 years, is now part of NFP. They recently hosted the annual Turning Point conference, where they successfully showcased our amazing capabilities and the NFP brand transition.

The Turning Point conference is in its fifth year and is the premier event for top executives, employee benefits managers, HR professionals, and retirement and investment committee members to come together and share ideas. Attendees impart insights and best practices, discuss legislative and regulatory trends, and explore ways the market continues to evolve to meet the demands of change — all against the backdrop of the spectacular Rocky Mountains. What a great venue to tell our NFP story!

NFP Benefits Women

More than 7,000 women came together at the Texas Conference for Women in Austin to learn, share their stories and best practices, and inspire one another. The event featured keynote speakers, including Annie Clark, Linda Cliatt-Wayman and Amal Clooney, who have committed their lives to lifting their voices on behalf of women everywhere. These and other speakers champion human rights, education, diversity and inclusion.

Keynote Amal Clooney

This one-day event also featured breakout sessions and seminars with thought leaders from multiple industries. Our own Chief Human Resources Officer Kim Davis participated in a panel discussion on career transitions and how to build your own path.

Kim Davis, center

And NFP sponsored a booth in the exhibit hall with the theme “Cards For Humanity.” Our booth invited women to share what kinds of benefits they’re looking for from their companies. Women selected cards with different benefits on them, took selfies and tweeted about the experience with the hashtag #NFPBenefitsWomen. Our fabulous employees who worked the booth collected data from more than 400 women. We’ll use this feedback to help build stronger workplaces for employees across the country.

Booth visitors share the benefits they’re looking for.

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Procurement

More Ways to Save with the Q4 Vendor Partnerships Guide

We enjoy significant discounts from several companies, including Xerox, FedEx, Dell, W.B. Mason, Hertz and Avis. Get all the information you need in the latest edition of the NFP Vendor Partnerships Guide, which includes these new opportunities:

• FastPark — We receive discounted corporate rates at all 17 FastPark facilities.
• Pitney Bowes — Pitney Bowes offers us 25 percent off new postage meter equipment leases and 25 percent off supply orders.
• LanguageLine Solutions — LanguageLine Solutions is our preferred provider for all translation services. We receive low translation fees with repeated word and volume discounts.

Questions? Contact Silver Chaudry.

Ovation Travel Survey Results Are In

Thank you to those that participated in the Ovation Travel Survey. Your feedback is essential to the success of the travel program. We want you to know that we take what you’ve told us seriously. Below, you’ll find some tips that may be helpful in answering the most common questions we’ve heard.

Questions and Answers

Have additional comments and concerns? Express them in Travel Focus Group Sessions with the Ovation team. Contact Silver Chaudry if you’re interested in attending one of these sessions.

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Tools & Resources

Educate Your Clients on New Overtime Rules

Do you know about the new overtime rules? Because on Dec. 1, 2016, many of your clients will be affected by them. Help keep them one step ahead of these and other reporting challenges with the use of an HRIS system. We are now introducing Paycor, one of NFP’s recommended HRIS platforms for small to midsized employers.

The most effective way businesses can manage the new rule is to keep compensation data and hourly time tracking data together in one system. Paycor’s all-in-one solution provides the accuracy and audit trail your clients need to stay compliant and ensure labor costs don’t rise.

Watch this two-minute video and share it with your clients so they can learn more about the DOL regulations and what they need to do to stay compliant.

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Marketing

DON’T FORGET TO ORDER YOUR NFP HOLIDAY CARDS

The 2016 NFP holiday card is ready for you to order and send to your clients. As we shared in September’s newsletter, our first holiday card art contest was overflowing with talent! You’ll find the winning artwork showcased on the front of this year’s NFP holiday card for you and your clients to enjoy this season. Ordering is easy using these simple steps:

Go to NFP Brand Central. Log in with your credentials. Click on the “Collateral” tab at the top. Review information and pricing. When ready, click on the link to submit your order via email.

Then sit back, enjoy some cider and relax, knowing that this part of your holiday madness is now done.

Please place your order by Dec. 2 and allow up to 10 business days for shipping.

Send an E-Card
Want to send well wishes electronically to your clients? You’ll find instructions and a downloadable card you can send on your own through Outlook at NFP Brand Central.

Social Media

Get the word out on your office events and charitable efforts!

1. Fill out the brief NFP Social Media Post Submission Form. The form is located on NFP Brand Central, where you’ll find tools and support you need for NFP-related branding, compliance, marketing and public relations.
2. Email the completed form and any related photos to communications@nfp.com.

Make sure you’re fully connected to NFP. Follow, friend and connect with us on social media!

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