Employer Strategies

New York insurance companies that were not covering the screening, diagnosis and treatment for autism spectrum disorders will now be mandated to do so effective Nov. 1, 2012.

I love how quickly technology propels us all forward. Ten years ago, talk of the cloud was confined to weather reports, or when you played that game where you point at clouds and name what objects they look like. Now, cloud technology is helping us with everything from increased data security to managing and delivering benefits. …

When your company goes through perilous times it is natural for individuals to feel powerless, but there are ways to stay engaged and improve how you feel about the daily grind, says Harvard Business Review.

The good news: Most employers are reinstating 401(k) matches, after suspending or reducing them following the economic collapse in late 2008. The bad news: Not all employers have reinstated yet, and some that have are doing so at a lower percentage, Towers Watson announced yesterday.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a detailed list of pension plan and other retirement-related contribution limitations for the Tax Year 2012 that were triggered by an increase in the cost-of-living index.

Graduate students at the country’s leading business schools prefer opportunity for advancement within an organization over financial incentives when evaluating career destinations, according to a Deloitte survey conducted at the fifth annual National MBA Human Capital Case Competition.

As employee benefit budgets remain tight, employers are adopting plan design changes that reduce drug benefit coverage and improve pricing, according to the Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute.

Open enrollment for benefits ends today at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Jason Rothstein, 40, has just finished all the needed paperwork. Once again, his health insurance premiums will go up - about 5 to 6% in 2012. And, as an employee with earnings in the $61,000 to $76,000 range, he'll pay more for his insurance than colleagues at a lower salary level.

Gen Y wants to get personal — at least when it comes to their benefits. Although employees rely on the workplace as their number one source of benefits information, new research shows Gen Y is much more likely than other workers to rely on family members and friends for this information.

Just as HR/benefits professionals have evolved over the last 20 years from personnel to HR to strategic partner, diversity and inclusion also has experienced an evolution over the last two decades.