Lisa V. Gillespie

The growing trend among employers to enforce company-wide social media policies has sparked the birth of the Password Protection Act of 2012. The new legislation prevents companies from requiring employees to provide access to their personal social networking accounts. While many companies may create a social media policy to protect their corporate reputation, a new Workplace Options and Public Policy Polling survey of American workers shows that companies who scrutinize their employees' personal accounts and social media activity may be doing more harm than good.

Behavioral health, including depression and stress, is an increasing area of concern to employers, according to the Disability Management Employer Coalition 2012 Behavioral Risk Survey of small, mid-sized and large companies. The concerns and costs — including direct medical expenses, lost productivity, workers' compensation and disability payments — are made more challenging due to the uncertain future of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

After years of declining employee engagement levels around the world, a new analysis released this week by Aon Hewitt showed a positive global shift in employee engagement-or emotional and intellectual involvement in the workplace.

Leading U.S. organizations are turning to prevention-based employee health benefits to improve workforce health and reduce health care costs. Yet, according to a survey released this week by Virgin HealthMiles, there's a critical awareness gap threatening that strategy's success

Paralyzed both by fears about the economy and long-known saving malaise, workers still aren't saving adequately for retirement. They're aware that their fear and inertia are harming their retirement futures, but feel powerless to stop the damage.

What better way to take lessons of branding a wellness program than from one of the top-branded companies in the world, Procter and Gamble? The producers of timeless product lines like Old Spice and Tide recently introduced Vibrant Living, P&G's in-house line of benefits specially designed to help employees live healthier.

This article is the second in a two-part series examining the challenges in achieving true parity for mental health benefits. This article addresses barriers to care due to lack of access and provider shortages. The previous installment, "Separate, but not yet equal," featured in EBN April 15, explores the history of mental health parity legislation, and is available online at ebn.benefitnews.com.

China may be on the forefront of economic development, but it has a long way to go in providing health care for its hundreds of millions of workers, according to Hocking Cheng, managing director for health management solutions in China for Aetna. Such health care woes may haunt U.S. multinationals that have to contend with employee wellness issues at home and abroad.

When it rains, it pours. For employees, financial strain can lead to legal trouble, the stresses of which can bring on health problems. A new white paper suggests an integrated wellness program can bring brighter days for workers and the bottom line.

More than half of Americans with individual market health insurance coverage in 2010 were enrolled in so-called "tin" plans, which provide less coverage than the lowest "bronze"-level plans in the Affordable Care Act, and therefore would not be able to be offered in the health insurance exchanges that are being created under the law, according to a Commonwealth Fund. The analysis suggests that once the state-based exchanges — set up to make it easier for individuals and small businesses to shop for health insurance — go into effect in 2014, many of these Americans will be able to purchase plans that offer better coverage. In addition, many will be eligible for premium subsidies that will help offset the cost of the plans.

Employers consistently have done more with less in the past few years, and though the economy may be picking back up, company leaders don’t expect that the difficulty in finding skilled workers will have an impact on business. This is according to results from ManpowerGroup in its seventh annual Talent Shortage Survey, which explains the world's ongoing talent shortage crisis — in which one in three employers (34%) globally are reporting difficulty in filling jobs due to lack of available talent. This year's data reveal the crisis' deeper impact, as 56% of employers now indicate that unfilled positions are expected to have little or no impact on constituents, such as customers and investors, a considerable increase from 36% in 2011.

It may be a no-brainer, but savings behavior continues to be a critical factor in ensuring retirement preparedness. This is according to new research by the Putnam Lifetime Income Score, a survey of 4,000 working Americans. With U.S. households presently on track to replace 65% of their current income in retirement, a slight uptick from the June 2011 report, those best positioned for success have access to workplace savings plans, and proceed to defer 10% or more of their income.

The average cost of care for a typical family receiving health care through an employer-sponsored PPO plan in 2012 will cost $20,728, a 6.9% increase over 2011. Though this is the lowest rate of increase in 12 years, the $1,335 increase surpasses last year’s record of $1,319. This is according to the Milliman Medical Index.

With the movement from traditional paid leave plans to paid time off banks, many employers may wonder if the switch is effective in managing employee absences. Nearly one in five employees in the United States receive leave in the form of a PTO bank, but the contours of such policies are often little understood — especially outside of the human resources community, according to a new study out by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and CLASP, a nonprofit that works to improve the economic security of low-income families.

Workers, shaken by the realities of the Great Recession, have adjusted their visions of retirement according to the 13th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey released this week 3,600 American workers. It found that the majority of workers plan to work past age 65 (56%) and the majority (54%) plan to continue working after they retire. Despite workers' demonstrated commitment to saving, just 39% believe they are building a sufficient nest egg, thereby underscoring the need to redefine "retirement readiness" in a way that is better suited to these new realities.

While most retirement plan participants find guaranteed income appealing, the farther the horizon to retirement, the greater the attraction, a new study from The Hartford shows.

During the Great Recession, many companies not only halted hiring, but relocating employees.

Employers and their employees hold different perspectives on how to best achieve retirement preparedness through 401(k) plans, according to the results of two newly released studies from Schwab Retirement Plan Services. Taken together, the studies indicate that, despite efforts by employers to educate workers on the 401(k) offering, most workers are unengaged and financially unprepared for retirement.

A 65-year-old couple retiring in 2012 is estimated to need $240,000 to cover medical expenses throughout retirement, according to the latest retiree health care costs estimate calculated by Fidelity Investments. This represents a 4% increase from last year, when the estimate was $230,000.

Have a problem with federal employee benefit regulations? Write to the agencies that issue them. That was the message from the Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service and Employee Benefits Security Administration at an International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans conference on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.