Alcott in the News…

-Newsday tapped the expertise of Alcott’s Director of Employee Relations and Internal Counsel Dawn Davidson Drantch for an article on lawful hiring practices. The article, “Avoid questionable interview questions,” quoted Ms. Drantch as saying, “There are ways of getting to the point you want to get to most of the time, but you have to do it the right way.” Among the advice she gave was how “you can’t ask applicants whether they are U.S. Citizens, but you can ask whether they are legally eligible to work in the United States,” and how you “also can’t ask whether they have any disabilities, but you can describe the essential job functions and then ask applicants whether they can perform those job functions with or without a reasonable accommodation.”

-An article in recent issue of the national publication, Employee Benefit News, titled “Pain At The Pump Gets More Acute,” highlighted how Alcott was helping its employees cope with rising gasoline prices. In the article, Alcott President Louis Basso noted he regretted he can’t take away “the whole pain” of rising prices for his employees, but he’s trying to do all he can.  The article reported on Alcott responded when gas prices hit $3 a gallon in the second half of 2006. The company gave each employee $100.

-Alcott’s Operations Manager Jeanne Anderson shared her expertise on 40l(K)s in a recent article titled, “Interest grows in retirement savings,” published by the Long Island Business News. Ms. Anderson was quoted on the benefits of automatic enrollment saying, “Automatic enrollment is a great help to those people who want to participate but don’t get around to it.” She also conveyed how Alcott promotes participation, by offering more options. “We now offer a self-directed brokerage account options for the savvy investor.” This is “in addition to the five to 20 standard investment options that the plan offers….”