GuideSpark Company Blog

GuideSpark Gives Back

sdesai — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:15:40 +0000

We’re thrilled to report that we exceeded our fund raising goal for Habitat for Humanity. We mailed off a check for a little over $1,800 to the SF Bay Area chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Everyone here at GuideSpark had a blast back in February when we shut down our computers and picked up our hammers for our first ever Day of Service. We installed doors, constructed brand new window sills, and caulked walls to help build up homes for low-income families in our community. Our fearless leader, CEO Keith Kitani, spent the day cleaning debris and building a foundation for the home’s backyard garden, using his great experience building a solid foundation for GuideSpark back in 2008!

We really do believe it’s important to take a day to give back to the community we’re a part of - as well as give our employees a chance to make our team a stronger one.

And the cherry on top was that our fundraising drive was also a massive success as we beat our goal of $1,000 by a long shot. Check out these photos from our fun day out. And if you’re interesting in getting involved with Habitat for Humanity, visit their site to learn more.

Health Care Reform and Flexible Spending Accounts

rbruens — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:07:01 +0000

Today, GuideSpark continues our series of updates on the policies and programs of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) by taking a look at Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs). The Affordable Care Act made some changes to the regulations of FSAs that took effect starting on January 1^st, 2013. Health Care FSAs now have a new annual contribution limit of $2,500. Households using Health Care FSAs will have to follow these new limits beginning this year.

Dependent Care FSAs are unaffected by this change. They continue to maintain annual contribution limits of $5,000. If you are a member of a High Deductible Health Plan (also known as a Consumer Driven or Account Based Health Plan), you cannot use a standard Health Care Flexible Spending Account. However, you can obtain similar tax advantages from using a Health Savings Account. Check the IRS website for more details.

Best practices for writing short content

bbenedict — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 22:56:45 +0000

We asked our lead writer, Sarah Leavitt, for advice on writing short content delivered to employees through various mediums. Just imagine trying to deliver a consistent message across all your channels of communication including email, Twitter, Facebook and your company blog. Effective communication is a core part of our business and as a result we have collected a set of best practices we’d like to share with you.

Sarah’s Tips:

Use active language.
Don’t speak colloquially, regionally, or in any kind of dialect that isn’t a well-thought out part of your strategy.
Be intentional.
Spell check. Always.
Make your point in as few words as possible.
Don’t make numbers your driving force – give people what they care about, and numbers of followers, fans, or likes will follow.
Don’t try to mask promotional as editorial. Treat your customers like they’re smart.
Is it relevant?
Use language that matches your medium – without sacrificing grammar, spelling, or intelligence.
Questions and opinions incite conversation. Don’t be afraid of either.
Provide a next step – some action!

I really enjoy working at GuideSpark with all of these experts. Working on the Ask an Expert series has been very interesting for me and has taught me a lot. I know that as soon as this post goes live, I’ll get an email from Sarah with all the things I need to fix. I guess I should ask for the feedback in advance. But where’s the fun in that?

My advice to all of you? Pay attention to these tips!

Reporting Health Care Costs on W-2 Forms

rbruens — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 00:50:33 +0000

It’s time for another entry in GuideSpark’s ongoing series of updates about the relevant policies and programs of the health care reform law that may have an effect on employers all over the U.S. Today, we will take a brief look at the new requirement to report the value of employer-sponsored group health plans on W-2 tax forms.

As of January 31, 2013, all employers must report the cost of the medical coverage they provide on each employee’s W-2 form. Despite this new reporting requirement, including these costs on W-2 forms does not mean health care coverage coverage is taxable. The value of the employer’s contribution to medical insurance will continue to be excluded from an employee’s income for tax purposes.

This new reporting requirement is for informational purposes only. It is designed to provide employees useful and comparable consumer information on the cost of their health care coverage.

Employers that must report the cost of their group health plans include businesses, tax-exempt organizations, and federal, state and local government entities. The one exception is federally recognized Indian tribal governments, who are not required to report this information on the W-2.

Information on Health Care Reform

bbenedict — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:53:29 +0000

We found some links that provide information about Health Care Reform that we wanted to share with our customers:

White House site on the Affordable Care Act

A state-by-state view of health care reform implementation information

We hope you find this information useful!

GuideSpark Day of Service Success

blucas — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:43:16 +0000

Now that the blisters, back strain, and bruises have had some time to heal, we can now celebrate a successful Day of Service. It was great to see everyone contribute 110%, whether we were digging ditches, laying floor planks, building fences, caulking siding, or installing furnaces, among a myriad of other tasks. Not only was our Day of Service with Habitat for Humanity a rewarding experience in terms of team building, but more importantly it was also a great way for GuideSpark to give back to the community. And, in addition to our volunteered labor, we’re also still raising money, which is a good way for anyone – GuideSpark employee or not – to contribute to our efforts. We’ll be raising money until the end of February, so feel free to contribute via our Day of Service paypal: gsgiving@guidespark.com (and remember to mark the payment as a gift!).

Health Care Reform Provisions For Female Preventive Care Coverage

rbruens — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 02:04:14 +0000

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, also known as Health Care Reform or ‘Obamacare,’ was passed into law by Congress. Over the next few years, a number of significant provisions of this wide-ranging legislation will be implemented. We here at GuideSpark want to help you understand how it might affect you. That’s why we will begin offering regular updates about relevant policies and programs of the health care reform law.

We are going to start by looking at changes in women’s preventive care coverage that affect all insurance policy plan years beginning after August 1, 2012. These changes require insurers to offer free coverage for certain prevention-related health services for woman. While much of the news coverage of this provision has focused on women’s contraception, we thought it would be worthwhile to highlight all eight preventive health services that insurers must now cover with no cost to the patient:

Well-woman visits to obtain recommended preventive services
Gestational diabetes screening for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant and those at high risk of developing gestational diabetes
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) counseling for sexually active women
Domestic and interpersonal violence screening and counseling for all women
Breastfeeding comprehensive support and counseling from trained providers, as well as access to breastfeeding supplies, for pregnant and nursing women
Contraception: FDA-approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling, not including abortifacient drugs
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening and counseling for sexually active women
Human Papillomavirus (HPV) DNA Test: high risk HPV DNA testing every three years for women with normal cytology results who are 30 or older

How to Improve Communications Rollouts

bbenedict — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:14:59 +0000

Customers often rollout the content we create for them when HR activity is at it’s peak at during open enrollment. Important information, like changes to medical benefits or new services, can get lost in the noise. We provide tips and suggestions for how to make key information stand out, and then use our reporting tools on the back end to see how well our suggestions worked. As an example, one of our customers saw their results jump over 200% based on advice from one of our top notch Customer Success team members. We asked this representative what we suggested.

First, we recommended the company send out a targeted email to employees focusing solely on the content. Previously, the information had been presented as just a link in a big email regarding all sorts of things. The text of the actual link should be engaging and interesting. We also suggested making sure to mention in the email that the content could be accessed from home by both employees and their spouses. Focused information that was engaging, with clear instructions on how to access the content, helped achieve the 200% increase in usage we saw with this customer.

This advice could be used when rolling out our content or sending any important communication to your employees. Thanks Shivani Desai from the Customer Success team for this helpful information!

GuideSpark Day of Service, Habitat for Humanity, Feb 7

blucas — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 16:59:23 +0000

GuideSpark will be joining Habitat for Humanity on Feb 7 to help fix homes in our area for people in need. We’re trying to raise awareness that all communities have people who need help, including food and shelter, even communities in the heart of Silicon Valley. Volunteers will be helping with touch ups, painting, flooring, and doing other finishing work. This is all part of our GuideSpark Day of Service lead by a group of amazing people here in the company.

We are also raising funds in conjunction with our service. Our company goal is $2,000. One way you can help is by buying songs from one of the leaders of this effort Brandon Lucas. He is an amazing artist who will donate all the money from these songs to our cause. Click here to hear some amazing original music and make a donation to help those in need.

Happy Fundraising!

Brandon, Shivani, Sophie, and Rachel

Day of Service Planning Committee

How To Improve Your Videos

bbenedict — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:36:09 +0000

We produce hundreds of videos each year for clients that are small bite-sized chunks of valuable information. Communicating changes in your benefits plan or how to make the most of your 401(k) in 5 to 10 minutes is no easy task. Our designers over time have developed a series of best practices on how to get the most out of the 5 minutes of attention we get from users. These techniques should be helpful for video creators whether you are explaining benefits, teaching basic Algebra or demonstrating how to make excellent ribs:

Get to the point. Let the viewer know what you are going to be talking about and don’t beat around the bush. After that, you can support your point with simple quick examples or tutorials.

Make it short. If you have to divide it up into several videos, that’s fine or start with an outline that includes the time when each point starts. Users generally won’t spend more than say 30 seconds looking for the part they need help with.

Make it conversational. If I want a textbook, I’ll go to the library (just kidding). Speak like you would to a friend. You’re not here to impress anyone.

Keep it simple. This is especially true for the visuals. Users are not going to walk away with a verbatim understanding of the content. But if you make a killer Venn diagram that ties the whole concept together, they’ll remember that.

Thanks to our top designers Rachel Henke and Jeff San Miguel for this excellent advice!