If your company is like most, your employee benefit plan has become a bit flaccid over the past couple of years. Where’s the first place most execs cut costs when the going gets a bit rough? Yep. Benefits. What’s the big deal? Every other human resources employee benefits shop has had to do the same thing, right? It’s not like you’re alone in this “Great Recession.” But the times are changing, again. While you might not be feeling it quite yet, the recovery has begun. Small businesses – ... Read More

We’ve been writing for a while about RIGHT NOW being the time to get back on board with best practices for employee retention. Today’s edition of Talent Management, the flagship HR resource, picks up the torch in their lead story: The economic upturn is driving new job opportunities, but low levels of employee trust and engagement, even lower levels of entry-level recruitment, and increasing demand for executive talent have created a crossroads. Companies must rethink their talent management strategies if they hope to retain ... Read More

If you’re in the market for employee health wellness programs – and who isn’t, after the passage of the recent healthcare bill – it’s important to maximize return on your investment while the economic recovery picks up steam. It’s difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Many employee wellness benefit programs sound appealing, touting physiological screening for likelihood of disability, behavior modification, and diet and exercise as cornerstones, but there are two key questions to ask: How ... Read More

Human resources employee benefits folks have a difficult problem at the moment: how to optimize employee benefit packages to take advantage of best practices for employee retention, maximize employee wellness benefit programs investment returns, and lower employment costs at the same time. The CFO isn’t asking for much, right? Happily, the problem isn’t as daunting as it might seem at first. But like all other things in life, you can rarely reap value without spending something in return. You’re going to have to ... Read More

When it comes to contrivances like securities derivatives and health insurance, “price is where supply meets demand” is an old Econ 101 truism that’s unfortunately untrue. Our healthcare system has systematically obfuscated what would otherwise be a relatively straightforward enterprise: caring for the health of our employees. Get sick. See a doctor. Get treatment. Get well. Easy. Except for the part between “Get sick” and “Get well.” We’ve created a complicated web of price variance ... Read More

Congratulations – you’re going on vacation! Maybe you’re getting ready to take advantage of your Vacation Wellness benefit from work, or you saved long enough to afford a full-price vacation. Maybe you spent the time to plan the details yourself, or had your Vacation Wellness program do the planning work for you. Regardless of how you planned your vacation or how much you paid for it, you want to get the maximum benefit out of your time and money. That means you want to have as much fun as possible, but also ... Read More

Wellness. Why do eyes glaze over and people suddenly have to be somewhere else when you bring up the topic? Because it isn’t fun! Nobody wants to hear exhortations to get more exercise and eat healthier. Folks know it already. And there’s only one reason they’re not living a healthier lifestyle right now: they’re not ready to commit. As someone who has made difficult, even painful lifestyle adjustments for the sake of health and wellness, I’m here to testify that positive lifestyle change only occurs when people decide ... Read More

More than in any other employment program arena, perceived value plays an important role in the degree of positive impact your employee benefits program has on employee productivity and retention. It’s a phenomenon you can leverage to generate goodwill and improve motivation among your staff, with just a little effort. There’s no shortage of benefit offerings. Pet insurance, supplemental insurance, flexible work hours, telecommute options, and Vacation Wellness™ programs are just a sampling of the wide array of available employee ... Read More

The Corporate Wellness Advisor reports that only 45% of US workers feel satisfied with their jobs, down from 52% in 2005 and 61% in 1987. With the highest unemployment rates in a half-century, you’d think the numbers would be going in the opposite direction – people should just be happy they have a job, right? But it’s not quite that simple. Feeling thankful for employment is not the same thing as feeling satisfied with your work environment and feeling engaged in your work. It’s worthwhile for employers and business owners to ... Read More

If you’ve spent any time trying to decipher the new healthcare legislation provisions, you’ve probably noticed that it’s difficult to distill meaningful information from the sea of verbiage. The Huffington Post has done a good job of boiling it down (see their article), but the information takes a few too many clicks to uncover (patience is a virtue, just not one of ours), so we’ve boiled it down even further here. And added our own two cents, of course. Everybody’s a critic. Without further ado: No more ... Read More