Charlton Consulting Group Builds Benefits Big Picture For Southwest Securities' Employees
- The Challenge:
Find a Better Way to Communicate Total Compensation to Employees
During the last several years, the constantly shifting benefits landscape has created a communications nightmare for HR departments across the country as they struggle to keep their employees informed of all the changes, updates and new costs.
For companies conducting business in the financial sector, the whirlwind of change has been two-fold: Navigating the economic and regulatory turmoil in the industry while trying to ease employees' concerns in the process. However, Dallas-based Southwest Securities, a national full-service stock brokerage firm, is glad it took the matter of communicating total compensation to heart three years ago.
"Several years ago when health care costs were exploding, we decided the company needed communications that could be very visible so they would better understand these benefits as well as the associated costs," said Laura Brooks, benefits/HRIS manager at Southwest Securities. "Employees knew what they were getting in terms of their paychecks-and what was coming out-but they didn't have enough information to see the overall total compensation picture."
Brooks said Southwest Securities, at the time, did offer its 1,200 employees an online benefits resource. However, she did not feel the tool adequately reflected the true cost of the total benefits package-not to mention that employees really had to go out of their way to search for the information online.
Knowing employees saw value in this type of information, Brooks set out to develop a more accessible and comprehensive tool to communicate total compensation.
- The Answer:
Turnkey Total Compensation Statements from Charlton Consulting Group.
Brooks evaluated some of the biggest HR information system vendors and found that they offered total compensation communications features, available in both print and online formats. However, she found the cost to be prohibitive.
"These vendors offered a lot of functionality we would never use, so it was just overkill," she said. "Although the online format was in some ways more convenient, this, again, was information that employees still had to look for themselves, and we wanted to make sure they saw it."
After receiving a direct mailing from Charlton Consulting Group, Brooks decided to evaluate the services of this Maryland-based team of benefits communications experts.
Charlton Consulting Group was evaluated on price and scope of services as well as the customized design and layout for the total compensation statements.
"We immediately liked the look and feel of the sample documents Charlton Consulting Group presented in the review process," said Brooks. "The team offered very professional and comprehensive total compensation statements. The information was organized in a very readable, easy-to-understand manner."
Based on meeting the evaluation criteria, Charlton Consulting Group was selected to handle the entire total compensation communication process, from data integration to mailing the statements directly to employees' homes.
In particular, the challenge of integrating data from the Southwest Securities HRIS system with other vendors' programs had been an issue for Brooks. She had become accustomed to vendors dictating the format they needed for the data to run in their programs.
"I was totally surprised when the Charlton team was able to take our data in a very simple format and run with it," she said.
According to Brooks, from the time the Charlton team received the data from Southwest Securities, it took less than a week for sample statements to land on her desk for review.
- The Result:
Employees Develop Greater Understanding and Appreciation of Their Benefits.
Mailed during the first quarter of every year, the comprehensive total compensation statements were, and continue to be, welcomed and very well received among Southwest Securities' employees as well as executive leadership. So much so, the company has continued to include additional information on the statements since the initial mailing, such as benefits related to the deferred compensation program.
The ease of data integration coupled with a seamless delivery process year in and year out has kept Southwest Securities a satisfied Charlton Consulting Group customer.
Brooks cannot say enough about the team of Charlton Consulting Group professionals who work on her account.
"Without sounding cliché, they are just the nicest, most accommodating group of individuals," she said. "They continue to be available when I need them. This is an experienced team of people who are incredibly good at what they do and incredibly flexible-even when I have to make last-minute changes to our timelines."
Brooks feels as though Charlton Consulting Group is one the few vendors that is genuinely concerned about easing the hassle for her and the Southwest Securities' HR department.
She explained, "The Charlton team always makes me feel like I'm their only customer-although with this type of service and solution, I know I'm not."
About Southwest Securities
SWS Group, Inc. (SWS-NYSE) is a financial services company operating in four business segments – Retail Brokerage, Institutional Brokerage, Clearing Services and Banking. Founded in Dallas in 1972, the SWS organization has grown to include multiple corporations, more than 1,200 employees, and $5.1 billion in total assets. The company is ranked among the 70 largest companies headquartered in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, according to The Dallas Morning News.
For more information on Charlton Consulting Group's total compensation communications solutions, contact us at 877-203-5625 or via email at
