Can you make a horse drink water ?

cebudragonlady

Two of our lower-paid female employees have children who are not covered by health insurance. Reason being , is that this company does not pay for dependent
coverage. So I arranged for a rep from the local community health clinic to visit our plant and tell these employees what the benefits were ( cost monthly of coverage only for children $ 4 - $ 27 ).The two employees verbally said they wanted to sign up, and agreed to come in to the clinic to register. So the rep said the employees would be calling the employees at home. A week passed, and I called the clinic to follow up. The rep said one employee had missed an appoinment to register at the clinic, and the second could not be reached at home. So I asked the rep to come to our factory again. The rep agreed to come last Monday. On the Friday before ,I repeatedly reminded both employees of the appointment. Very early Monday, both employees said they wanted a postponment of the appointment as both said they forgot to bring the paperwork necessary to enroll. On Tuesday, the rep came in - and only one of the employees had even brought in part of the paperwork... that employee still has to go to the clinic to finish the registration .While the other employee brought , again, nothing - and still has to go to the clinic to register the children.I will have to follow up with the clinic later to find out what happens.

I tried. Some employees just want to do it the hard way.

Don D

I think a better subject for your question would be: 'Will HR ever realize its limitations?' Early on we should have learned that 'HR cannot be all things to all people'. You sound to have gone way above and beyond in your efforts to expose your employees to what's out there for them. You have no obligation to make the horse drink. Just pop his rump and head him in the direction of the pond. Then go back to mending fences.

Rockie

If all else fails,drown him in the pond!

franfields

I agree with Don. Unfortunately, you have now set up an expectation to put forth the same unappreciated effort for everyone that comes along in the same situation.

bamahr

I had the same problem. What started as my attempt to change employee's view about HR, turned into an extreme dependancy for me to do even the simplest of tasks. With cut backs that took our HR Department from three to me, it was impossible to handle all of their requests. I eventually put all customer service numbers for benefits on our Intranet Page and put information in pay check stuffers. When they call I give them the number to customer service. I do assist when absolutely needed.

Rockie

Smart! You are absolutely correct. We enable the employees not to take care of their own business; therefore, our valuable time is spent on huge amounts of mundane tasks and our "real" job duties suffer. As long as they know there is someone out there that will do this for them, they have no incentive to learn it for themselves. Just like kids doing the laundry....as long as mom will do it for them, they don't even know where the soap is kept!

moneyman

But working in the healthcare industry with bosses that are doctors, it is very hard to tell them, go call this 800 number. That is what we find to be our big problem. You can help and educate everyone else, but the doctors themselves rely on their office staff to run their personal lives (and you always wonder why the wife-who-doesn't-work can't take care of some of these things).

Don D

Moneyman; it is no more simple nor complex to enable a medical doctor than it is to enable a rhesus monkey! The mentalities may be (a little) different, but the process is the same. Now, it may be true that some among us peons are perhaps blinded by the light they insist that they emit and therefore do cater to them a bit more willingly. All of you who work in medical settings have my permission to put this on your bulletin board! x:-)