Lisa V. Gillespie

Michael D. Klansek knew something was up with his company when he read Towers Watson statistics earlier this year that showed total health care costs per employee per year are at $11,176. His PEPY costs in 2011? $7,707. And they've been that way since 2006.

As each new generation of young people enters the workforce, they are almost always different from the generations before because of advents in technology and culture.

New recommendations were released last week on how to better control returning employees to work following disability leaves and absence management. The Disability Management Employers Coalition and Liberty Mutual's best practices result from a series of live and virtual conferences featuring human resource and benefits professionals, representing employers of all sizes and from a range of industries.

Against the backdrop of public policy debates on the gap between rich and poor, a new survey of affluent Americans from Wells Fargo & Company shows that many of the affluent are feeling some of the same deep insecurity felt by middle-income Americans about their ability to retire in comfort.

Many corporate pension plan sponsors face a significant increase in pension contributions and expense in 2012, adversely affecting competitiveness, investment and job growth and possibly creating a further drag on corporate earnings and cash flow. That troubling outlook is the backdrop for the major concerns of 192 senior-level financial executives surveyed by Mercer and CFO Research Services.

Social media tools now are present on most corporate intranets, with 61% of companies reporting at least one social media tool available to some or all employees. Read what the most popular Intranet 2.0 tools are according to a new social intranet study.

A new ADP survey shows a wide gap between the goals and reality of how employees understand their benefit plans. Eighty percent of human resources decision-makers believe it's important for employees to fully understand their benefit options, yet they estimate only about 60% of their own employees do – a finding with serious implications for how companies communicate one of the most important parts of their employees' total compensation.

Americans' trademark optimism is intact, at least in regard to retirement, despite the economic turbulence that is reportedly forcing many people to work longer and make do with less. In fact, many retirees found only one downside.

Self-insured companies across America have implemented employee wellness programs to control rising health care costs and address major health issues like obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

Not only are older American workers (age 50 and over) expecting to work longer, but many now say they expect to never retire, according to the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute. Data suggest the trend may be tied to the recent economic recession.

Mayo Clinic researchers have amassed additional evidence that secondhand smoke kills and smoke-free workplace laws save lives.

Despite many companies in North America anticipating a decline in shareholder value in 2011, pressures about executive pay by the Occupy movement and a slow-to-recover economy, a majority of companies expect to pay executive bonuses that are as large as or larger than last year’s awards. Additionally, the majority of companies plan to fund this year’s bonuses at or above target levels, reflecting strong operating results, according to the Towers Watson survey.

As the effects of the recent financial crisis continue to spread across the globe, financial stress is an issue for both women and men.

As HR/benefits outsourcing becomes a larger part of employers' overall business strategy, industry professionals' primary job no longer is putting out small fires. Rather, practitioners are blazing trails toward workforce and organizational development.

Two recent proposals to change the existing tax treatment of 401(k) retirement plans, if enacted, are likely to result in lower account balances for many 401(k) participants, according to a new analysis by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Just one generation ago, HIV/AIDS was regarded as a relentless and indiscriminate killer. In the early 1980s, when the federal government first started tracking the disease, a newly diagnosed patient had a maximum two-year life expectancy, and HIV/AIDS related illness was the second-leading cause of death in American men. Today, it's not even in the top 10.

Diane Carruba hasn't been in the same car with her husband in a very long time. She doesn't want them to die together. She doesn't know what would happen to her son. A member of the sandwich generation, Carruba is the primary caregiver to her son - who suffers from ADHD, as well as a seizure disorder that has led to a developmental disability - and also cares for her mother, who is newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease

New recommendations outline ways employers can improve design, communication and delivery of employee benefits and wellness incentives.

Across the board, employees may have access to retirement plans, but that’s not the case for small businesses. A new small business survey by Nationwide Financial finds that 75% of small businesses agree that so many Americans are financially unprepared for retirement that it has reached crisis levels. However, only one in five of these businesses offer their employees a 401(k) or other employee self-funded retirement plan.

Amidst high U.S. unemployment and against the backdrop of a volatile economy, workers 18-34 years old are increasingly concerned about job loss and having to delay retirement, according to the 2011 Mercer Workplace Survey, a nationally representative survey of employees enrolled in their employer’s 401(k) and health plans.