Benefits Think

Survey results from OfficeTeam that show employees’ most coveted summer benefits — flexible schedules and leaving work early on Fridays — also are the ones that are most offered by employers.

As she departs EBN for a new job, outgoing Associate Editor Lisa Gillespie writes that she "quickly learned that benefits are fascinating and have real-world implications on the lives of people and how well a company functions."

Perhaps you get trees’ worth of reports from your insurer or wellness vendor, but the words they use are foreign and confusing. Although there isn’t enough time to deconstruct them all, here are three technical terms that often appear in these kinds of reports, and what they mean.

Benefits are typically structured to reward and motivate employees who stay at the company for the long haul. For example, retirement rewards and paid time off usually get sweeter as time goes on. Dangling a long-term benefits carrot makes sense for driving retention right? — Perhaps not when it comes to Gen Y workers. As companies focus on attracting and keeping a pipeline of Gen Y employees, I maintain that, when it comes to benefits,…

In a recent study, UK researchers concluded that there are two types of employee engagement — transactional and emotional — and that the type that’s most prevalent within your organization makes a difference.

Last week I had the good fortune of attending and speaking in New York at a two day conference of HR managers from the Engineering and Consulting industry. These firms convene annually to learn how other firms deal with their issues i.e. sharing best practices. The topics, for this meeting, included navigating the regulatory environment, M&A activity, integrating employees and cultures when completing an acquisition, managing benefit costs while maintaining a quality benefit portfolio, hiring the…

Under the requirements of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, the Employee Benefits Security Administration starting this year must present a biannual report to Congress outlining the agency’s progress in implementing and enforcing — along with HHS and the IRS — the law. In January, EBSA submitted the first of such reports.

Senior managers, CFOs, accountants and HR/benefits professionals all want to know that their company wellness programs are making a difference. I can share with you five mistakes to avoid.

By the time our third child arrives this summer, I’ll have more than met the family deductible under our HDHP. Thankfully, pregnancy is not a chronic condition. However, chronically ill Americans must navigate our nation’s health care system 365 days a year. And a new NPR poll finds that even for those not covered by HDHPs, they find the experience extremely tough.

A Fortune 500 employer has a 401(k) plan that features auto-enrollment, a front-loaded match that offers up to an 11% match, a one-at-a-time loan policy and a 98% participation rate for line managers and above. Can you guess which one?