Wellness programs impossible to grasp
Benefits decision-makers continue to struggle with the notion of financially justifying their wellness dollars, as wellness ROI is still exceptionally elusive.
Andy Stonehouse
401(k) success hinges on employer guidance, flexibility
Three plan sponsors share their inventive and sometimes controversial strategies for getting employees more deeply involved in retirement savings.
Employees lack knowledge to optimize Social Security benefits
As American workers are increasingly looking to a new range of employer-sponsored retirement products to help guarantee some securely funded golden years, they may be missing out on the advantages of a system theyve paid into their entire working lives.
Growth in state-run retirement plans could help employers
In recent years, a number of states have begun toying with the idea of creating their own retirement systems to help smaller employers provide workers rudimentary retirement savings opportunities.
NAPA adopts proactive stance against fiduciary standard
The still-under-development federal fiduciary standard for retirement advisers has many in the industry genuinely concerned about their ability to continue to serve both employers and individual American savers.
Benefit experts to discuss outlook for 2015
What health, retirement, technology, voluntary, and wellness issues will benefit professionals be wrestling with next year? The editors of Employee Benefit Adviser and Employee Benefit News have put together a web seminar series with top benefit experts to offer insights on the biggest 2015 trends.
Tech survey, part 2: What do benefit managers want?
On the whole, benefits professionals do feel a high level of satisfaction with the majority of technology they use, but shortcomings in end-user experience remain a frustration.
Employers hungry for improved enrollment, communications tools
EBNs inaugural technology survey indicates that 41% of respondents plan to increase their spending on technology next year, with 45% having already increased their spending from 2013 to 2014. Much of that spending is directed toward new employee portals and front-end systems to better integrate and utilize various benefits functionalities (health, retirement, voluntary benefits and more).
Plan sponsors need strategies to prevent fiduciary lawsuits, investigations
A slew of recent class-action lawsuits on the part of retirement plan participants have made plan sponsors and benefits managers fearful of some serious financial implications for fiduciary breaches.
Experts debate 40 years of ERISA successes and pitfalls
Four decades after its introduction, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act has done much to help American workers create a small sense of financial security as they ponder their post-working years.
Taking an unconventional approach to wellness planning
Can a benefits manager pushing a wellness program simply tell his or her management team, 'trust me on this?' For Elkay Manufacturing, that positive attitude – and a great combination of personalized incentives – produced great results.
Benefits professional of the year: Heather Vertrees
Heather Vertrees tunes up benefits at Fender Musical Instruments Corp. Her active role in a specialized wellness program for the companys factory workers has earned her the Benefits Professional of the Year honor.
Cost, security concerns may slow Apple Watchs role in workplace wellness
Apples new and very high-profile entry into the wearable wellness game might make it the must-have status symbol of 2015, but cost and data security issues may create challenges for Apple Watch in benefits programs.
Top benefit manager of the year named
The results of the 2014 Benny Awards see Fender Musical Instruments' Heather Vertrees named as our Benefits Professional of the Year, along with three other major winners.
Upbeat economy prompts corporations to re-examine benefit spending
Better investment returns have given more support to America's once-faltering DB plans, but benefits executives still stay they need to cut costs to deal with health care expenditures.
Using brand identity to help build more engaged employees
Millions of dollars have been spent to make sure consumers have an immediate, even emotional response to the logos of global brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola and Apple. So can individual employers use the same strategies to build strong identity loyalty among their own employees?
Merits, potential pitfalls of new HR credentials considered
Attendees at this years Society for Human Resource Management conference have been voicing their opinions on the organizations new competency-based certification system, and its somewhat jarring introduction to the industry it serves.
Benefits managers challenged by increasingly automated future
SHRMs CEO illustrates that the robotic tools once thought science fiction are now making their way into many workplaces, though the displacement of human talent will certainly require some new ways of thinking about optimizing the role people play in the workforce.
Reform to federal workforce training may provide positives to employers
Changes to the federal Workforce Investment Act will increase accountability for national job-training programs and shift the emphasis to employer-led education in growth industries.
Maximizing the dollars being spent on benefits technology
A major increase in the amount spent on HR tech is leading many employers to reexamine the ways they handle their entire HR workflow, and allowing many benefits managers a greatly expanded range of tools for personnel management.