Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

They say everything is bigger in Texas, and EBN’’s 24th annual Benefits Forum & Expo is no exception! Here are some of the steer-sized sights from Day 2 of BFE, Monday, Sept. 26

Twitter is brimming with inspiring tweets to inform and entertain the HR professional. EBN found four tweeters who consistently deliver benefits and HR advice to their followers. Whether their focus is on social media or health care, their style insightful or witty, we recommend you follow these thought leaders on twitter. Of course, follow @EBNmagazine and our list of editors for more breaking news and hot topic tweets.

Every year for the past five years, WorldatWork's Alliance for Work-Life Progress honors work-life thought leadership, best practices and innovation through its Work-Life Rising Star Recognition Award. Meet this year's winners and find out how to nominate someone for next year's awards.

In July, EBN issued the PPACA Challenge, a 30-question quiz designed to test benefits professionals’ knowledge of the landmark health care reform law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Of the hundreds of practitioners who took the quiz, there were six questions that stumped you most often. View our slideshow to see what they were and find the right answers. For a PPACA crash course, view EBN’s award-winning PPACA interactive timeline.

The editors at EBN have compiled a list of summer reads for the benefits and HR professional. While lounging by the pool, learn more about pressing HR topics of the day. Keep abreast of health care, retirement, and management issues with the following books.

In a fast-moving technological world, it’s often hard to keep up. For this reason, EBN has compiled some of the top mobile apps and optimized websites for smart phones currently on the market to help you sift through the most promising programs. These mobile applications encourage healthy behaviors and good savings techniques among your employees and enhance engagement with their benefits. Read more about the future of benefits mobile app technology and benefits technology’s potential in general in the April 15 article of the same name.

NEW PHOTOS ADDED! To help empower and encourage EBN readers toward better health, we started 2011 by launching a year-long BeneFIT Success series, which chronicles employers and employees in their individual and organizational wellness triumphs. All articles in the series are available at ebn.benefitnews.com, keywords “benefit success series.” Just as inspiring as the stories, however, are the photos that go with them. This slideshow features shots of our profile subjects along various points in their wellness journeys. Add your employees’ photos to the group by submitting your company’s wellness success story to EBN Editor-in-Chief Kelley M. Butler at kelley.butler@sourcemedia.com.

It's difficult to overestimate the cost of hiring wrong. According to Top Grading by Dr. Bradford Smart, the average cost for a bad hire, earning between $50,000 and $100,000, is $80,000. While, there is no foolproof method that guarantees consistently good hires, here are some tips to maximize the chances of success.

Medical benefit sponsors remain caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place: rising costs are hitting the bottom line hard, yet uncertainty over regulatory implementation of federal reform legislation – and the prospect it might be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court – has put long-term strategic decision-making into near limbo. To help, EBN reached out to some of the most influential thought leaders for their best thinking on what employers can and should be doing to cope in the current environment.

As New Years resolutions merge with employee weight-loss and wellness programs, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dramatically show how much these benefits are needed. This slideshow progression illustrates the stunning increase and geographic spread of adult obesity in the United States over the past 24 years. CDC defines obesity as an adult with a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher (about 30 lbs. overweight for a 5'4" person).Related EBN articles addressing the issue of obesity and wellness initiatives follow: Research confirms obesity link to costly workplace injuries The price is (not) right Fighting the X factor Putting obesity in the crosshairs