Healthcare

One pet peeve of employers, brokers and carriers is that employees don’t spend enough time reviewing their benefit plans during open enrollment.

The boundary between voluntary and employer-paid benefit sales is disappearing in an increasingly competitive climate where more brokers are abandoning territorial patterns, suggests new research from Eastbridge Consulting Group.

Communication beats out critical thinking (73%), collaboration/team building (72%), and creativity and innovation (66%) as competencies that are the top priorities for employee development, talent management, and succession planning in the next one to three years, according to a new survey from the American Management Association.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always believed the primary consideration for employees in whether to accept, keep or leave a job is money. It’s not the only consideration, of course, but it’s the top one. Right?

After some pretty dour retirement news last Friday, I’m afraid I have more Gloomy Gus news today — this time related to health care.

While the U.S. economy is showing signs of recovery, nearly three-quarters of Americans are worried about their jobs and are trying to make ends meet, according to a recent national survey by The Hartford.

I came across a blog post yesterday by Michael Maslanka, who, while during some pro bono work, tried to assist an employer in crafting a fair and legally sound corporate bereavement policy.

Of course, everyone is fighting tooth and nail to retain grandfathered status for their health plans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and rightly so.

In real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. In benefits, it’s all about communication, communication, communication.

Like Santa, I imagine you’ll be making a list and checking it twice (20 times?) to make sure you have all your talking points in order so you can communicate effectively to employees how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will affect their benefits enrollment options.