The State of the Union

President Obama's State of the Union address served as a poignant reminder of the myriad of changes the country hopes to make as we move toward economic recovery. One of his more interesting themes was the spirit of innovation and reinvention amongst Americans and American businesses. Using the example of the Allen brothers' roofing company, a small business that, prior to being innovative, suffered when its factory went unused during the recession, the President showed just how well innovation and reinvention (change!) can help a business, (government) to survive and succeed a recession. "Fix what needs fixing" to move forward, because the country "can't win the future with a government of the past."

The same principles of innovation and reinvention should be applied to companies of all sizes in all industries throughout the U.S., not merely small, family-owned businesses. Many, many organizations laid off huge numbers of employees under severance programs and processes designed for a workforce of the past, knowing all the while these programs were costing billions of dollars. At the same time, other organizations choose to approach employee separations utilizing benefit programs with innovative, forward-looking principles, such as a Supplemental Unemployment Benefit Plan, a type of separation benefit plan aligned with a more modern workforce. These organizations saved real cost while still providing benefits to support those put out of work due to the recession. They took what wasn't working, changed it, and made it through the recession with a little less severance spend on their balance sheets.

Make changes to move forward into the future. In recent decades, this concept has affected most classes of benefits offered to most workers throughout the country. Why are the severance trends stuck in the past? Companies, like the government, cannot win with policies of the past. Companies should accept the trends of the recession - that money must be saved, benefits must meet actual needs of the employee, and innovative approaches must be taken while working toward the future - and reexamine old-fashioned and ineffective severance plans.