Activity #1

Recommendation Report for Revision of Insurance Policy

Executive Summary
It has come to our attention that recently our company will need to make some major changes to
our insurance plans offered. Human resources believe that our company, Smart Start Software
should allow same sex marriage couples to also be granted the option of placing their partners on
their insurance plans. Although same sex marriage is not legal in North Carolina, we believe that
qualified same sex couples should not be discriminated against when it comes to healthcare.
Problem
An employee of our company, Smart Start Software has brought to our attention that he would
like to add his same sex partner to his insurance plan. This question has never before been
brought to our attention before, therefore never been asked of corporate before. This employee is
face with either leaving our company or be granted the same rights as those in opposite sex
marriages. Health care is a serious issue nowadays, its expensive and extremely necessary
therefore that is why this issue is being taken to corporate because we do not believe that LGBT
discrimination is right in the eyes of this company.
Methods
To first begin the allowance of this employees same sex partner to be added onto their insurance
plan we must take several steps forward to set this in motion.
1) Research and find out what employees are in same sex relationships and how many of
them will participate in this updated insurance policy.
2) Discuss what changes this will bring to the companys budget and work load.
Calculate the extra work load to revise and send out new insurance polices
Determine if these changes will affect other employees who arent in a same sex
marriage
3) Send out a formal proposal to Health Insurance of North Carolina informing them of our
non-discrimination insurance changes and when they will be set in place.
This proposal will include:

Reasons for the update

Employees included (informing them of possible changes in the number due to

new employees being offered same policies as everyone else)
Types of policies
When the plan will be formally recognized and set in place
How these changes will affect the company financially

4) Send out a formal memo informing all employees of Smart Start Software of the
upcoming changes, and how they will not affect any employees previous insurance
plans.
5) Revise and send out new insurance policies to each employee along with contracts stating
why these policies have changed due to non-discrimination policy.

Conclusion
Smart Start Software is a relatively small company composed of only 108 employees full time.
The change and revision of the insurance policies to fit our non-discrimination policy against
anyone who is LGBT will not affect our company drastically in anyway. The only factor that
needs to be looked at closely is time. It will take overtime to work towards revising these
insurance policies to fit all employees needs, sending them out, and informing each employee of
these changes.

Activity #2
To: All Employees
From: Mary Bernal, HR Manager
CC: Mr. Manager, CEO Smart Start Software
Date: June 9, 2016
Subject: Insurance Policy Issues
Dear all,
It has recently come to our attention that some of our employees identify themselves as LGBT
(lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) and have formally asked to have their significant other
placed on their insurance policies. Since the start of our company, Smart Start Software we have
always practiced a non-discrimination policy, this includes those identified as LGBT.
After much research into this issue at hand we have come to an executive understanding that at
this time its not economically possible to add same sex partner benefits at this time. This does
not mean that they will never be offered at this company, this situation is only temporary. We
have a team continually working on this issue so that in the future it will be worked out and all
will be able to add their significant others onto their insurance plans.
We do apologize for this inconvenience and are working towards figuring out financial issues so
that we can eventually offer insurance policies to the partners of same sex relationships. For the
time being all insurance policies will remain the same. If you have any further questions about
this issue feel free to contact Human Resources either via email or call.
Sincerely,
Mary Bernal
HR Manager

Activity #3
Research Report of Health Benefits for Same Sex Partners

Executive Summary
The goal of this report is to better understand how the changing of insurance policies to better fit
non-discrimination laws of same sex marriages affects similar sized companies to Smart Start
Software. Since same sex marriage has become legal in every state, many companies small and
large have had to adapt to this drastically. Changing insurance policies to allow partners in same
sex marriages to allow their partners on their plans has become one of the main topics many
companies have had to deal with.
Introduction
Due to our company complying with the non-discrimination law we now have no choice whether
its financially smart or not to allow same sex partners to add their significant others onto their
insurance plans. Before beginning drafting our new insurance policies to better fit this new law
were going to take a look at two companies, LG Software and INT Technologies, and how
theyve adjusted to these new changes.
LG Software began allowing same sex partner insurance policies almost two years ago; well
before same sex marriage was legal. LG Software consists of 188 employees, and of those 188
employees eight of them were categorized as LGBT. When this company began their transition
to revising their insurance company they plotted out the time and money it would take to run
things smoothly. LG Software was faced with no major economic issues, just the time it took the
revise and send out new insurance policies to each individual employee.
INT Technologies is a relatively newer company, only being five years old employing only 76
individuals. When INT Technologies was founded they strictly followed the non-discrimination
policy and from the start allowed same sex partners all the same insurance benefits that those in
an opposite sex marriage have. They believed that it should be a crime to not allow same sex
partners the same rights that others had, and that saved them time and money when every
company now is required to give the same benefits to all regardless of their sexual orientation.
Methods
To obtain most of the information regarding the same sex insurance policy issue was quite
simple. I sent out emails to our competing companies who share the same issues we deal with at
hand and got back results from company managers almost the same day.

Results
The results clearly show that only a small percentage of majority of companies identify
themselves as LGBT, therefore the issue at hand only cause minor issues, mostly just time to
revise and redistribute each insurance policy then update them.
Conclusion
Based on the results we will set a team up to work on revising and redistributing out all updated
insurance plans so that all employees are allowed to add their significant others onto their
insurance plans. The overall insurance plans we stay the exact same and no additional benefits
will be added.