HR and benefit leaders' top 10 lessons to take into 2024

December 28, 2023 5:30 AM

Throughout 2023, EBN was lucky (and grateful) to publish hundreds of opinion pieces from industry leaders and experts, detailing their insights on some of the biggest challenges facing the benefits space today.

These columns and contributions are packed with invaluable information — all of which can help shape business thinking in 2024. We compiled the 10 most-read commentaries of 2023, which are all worth a revisit.

From minimizing medical costs and rethinking mental health care, to management tricks that make the return-to-office work, and why PTO should be thought of as an employee benefit, dive in, catch up, and take note.

If you're interested in contributing your opinions on HR, benefits and adviser topics, see our guidelines here, and email EBNviews@arizent.com with your submission.

How advisers can help minimize medical costs

Read:

A medical procedure should have cost $100 — it was billed for $8K. Why this is a call to action for advisers

How tough can it be to get an ingrown hair treated in the U.S. healthcare system?

Far from easy — or affordable, as adviser and Tropical Benefits founder Kim Eckelbarger found out firsthand. In our most-read column of the year, Eckelbarger details the rough road to care for what seemed like a simple ailment, and the monstrous bill that followed.

"Can you imagine if I wasn't well-versed in health insurance," she writes. "We were charged 10 times the average cost for this procedure in a hospital that uses scare tactics on patients while they are in pain."

Leave these employee benefits in 2023

Read:

3 employee benefits to ditch

"Most opinions expressed in this and other publications these days are about adding benefits," Al Lewis, CEO of Quizzify, wrote in 2023. (He's not wrong.) "As a result, many large corporations have accumulated a plethora of plans and point solutions. But more isn't necessarily better, especially in the absence of value. Many programs are actually a waste of time."

Check out his suggestions for benefits to trim.

What SECURE 2.0 means for the workforce

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SECURE 2.0 creates new retirement saving incentives for employers and employees

Can SECURE 2.0 actually get folks on a more stable path to retirement? Ron Ulrich of ADP Retirement Services believes so: "One of the biggest obstacles to participation in employer-sponsored retirement plans is inertia, the tendency to stay on a certain path. Employees understand the benefits of saving but for multiple reasons never sign up," he writes.

"SECURE 2.0 aims to change this dynamic by requiring automatic enrollment. Beginning in 2025, employers who start new retirement plans will be required to automatically enroll employees in their retirement plan at a rate of at least 3%, but not more than 10% of eligible wages. New companies (in business for less than three years) and employers with 10 or fewer workers are excluded from this requirement. Employees may opt out, but automatic enrollment tends to be effective because a small amount is being subtracted pre-tax from their pay without any action on their part."

Where FSAs and service animals meet

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Use your FSA on your emotional support animal or service dog

Emotional support or service animals can bring a wealth of benefits to owners — but they're not cheap. But as Mia Barnes, editor of Body+Mind magazine points out, employees' FSA dollars can support these pets within certain parameters.

"FSA pays for medical expenses if health insurance doesn't. Since service and emotional support animals count as medical care, it covers them," Barnes writes. "However, some animals are ineligible. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), they're only service animals if they are dogs trained to perform disability-related tasks."

Remote work is a savvy financial move for businesses

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The financial savings of a remote work model

"Research shows that companies shifting to remote work save $10,600 per employee annually," writes Robert Graham, CEO of Poll Everywhere. "Companies are already making this switch and seeing immediate cost-saving benefits. In fact, a company with 50 employees could save up to $500,000. In addition to saving money, remote work also allows employees to have a better work-life balance, which can help increase productivity and loyalty."

As employers continue to push the return-to-office, it's worth asking: At what cost?

Embrace time-blocking to support your own mental health

Read:

How time blocking can improve your career and mental well-being

"Have you ever felt like a hamster on a wheel, churning away but not going anywhere?"

It's an all-too-relatable question posed by Shiela Mie Legaspi, CEO of Cyberbacker, in an op-ed for EBN. But to take back control of your time and well-being, she advocates for embracing the practice of time-blocking.

"The truth is, people can quickly get distracted by minutiae and lose focus of their goals," she writes. "Minor, five-minute to-dos threaten to take most of our time, energy, and effort, leaving us feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and depleted. Meanwhile, nothing gets accomplished on our top priorities. It's important to not confuse activity with productivity. Rather, make the conscious decision to block time off for activities that will yield the highest return on the time and energy you invest."

The future of PTO

Read:

New PTO policies signal the future of employee benefits

"For years now, AI-based tech systems have been training people to expect hyper-personal experiences wherever they go. Shopping online, watching TV and even grocery shopping have been transformed by personalization. But the workplace has lagged behind the personalization curve," writes Ulises I. Orozco of PTO Genius. "Now, in a tight economy, employers are reexamining benefits with the help of their advisers and discovering two exciting things: Employees want benefits that adapt to their needs and priorities; and the tools now exist to easily make this a reality in a way that actually cuts costs."

PTO, he argues, is a critical piece of the puzzle. Find out how.

How data can help employers minimize benefit costs

Read:

As healthcare costs rise, employers can arm themselves with data to target benefits

"Healthcare is one of the largest expenses for U.S. households, averaging $12,900 per person a year. But with inflation having affected healthcare costs, many working Americans have experienced a growing gap in healthcare affordability, placing their quality of life at risk. By analyzing employee circumstances, however, employers — with the help of their benefit advisers — can offer more targeted benefits catering to employees' specific affordability needs."

Janet Faircloth and Todor Penev of AON outline the ways employers can embrace data around social determinants of health to improve both benefits offerings and utilization.

Tips for managing a distributed workforce

Read:

The workplace has changed. Management hasn't. How to work better with your dispersed workforce

Employees know work is different than it was in a pre-pandemic world. Do employers?

Dr. Laura Hambley Lovett, an organizational psychologist, breaks down the managerial blindspots that have unfortunately defined the return-to-office thus far.

"Start with the all-important issue of trust," she writes. "During COVID, we trusted people to work at home when we needed them to. Many companies registered record profits. To suddenly imply that trust was misplaced, despite evidence to the contrary, is an invitation to dust off one's resume."

Don’t overlook EAPs on the path to mental health

Read:

EAPs: Removing the margin of error in mental health

The stigma around mental health care was broken during the pandemic, and the apps, organizations and businesses working to serve employee needs has become a majorly crowded space. But don't overlook the proven and long-term wins of EAPs, writes Kathleen Greer of KGA and consultant Stephen Romano.

"Top-tier EAPs are thriving, with many growing rapidly. Another growth factor is the introduction of innovative EAP platforms that offer state-of-the-art features such as self-scheduling, self-directed support, and benefits integration. Equally key, EAPs are helping address today's provider shortage by enhancing their clinical networks with coaches, chaplains, peer support, and other specialists. This has led to a richer, fuller set of mental health services that combine the best of digital technology with the warmth of human intervention."