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Pick the wrong technology provider, and you’ll be fighting fires and frustrating employees every day, no matter how Amazon-like the shopping experience is for the end user.

What tricks and treats do you have lined up for your employees to help them manage the frequently conflicting personal and professional priorities that arise during the holiday season?

With the ACA’s employer mandate on the horizon, many employers with part-time and variable hour employees are also re-evaluating their benefit offerings for part-time employees.

With more confusion swirling in the employer 401(k) market – not to mention an American workforce with staggeringly low retirement confidence – advisers and consultants recommend employers play a bigger role as a fiduciary when considering administration fees and investment education.

A panel of some of EBA’s Most Influential Women in Benefit Advising discuss how women are claiming a role in the benefits industry.

Commentary: Your new wellness vendor’s presentation showed impressive results from their work with other clients – risk factors reduced, cost curves bent, and ROI blossomed. It all sounds terrific.

With the advent of the Affordable Care Act, strategic planning for benefit plans has taken on a new level of importance. Yet very few employers have a strategic plan in place for benefits, said Bill Hembree, CEO, Health Research Institute during this week’s Benefits Forum & Expo in Boca Raton, Fla.

With consumers shopping online for nearly everything nowadays, benefit advisers should be rethinking their approach to selling insurance.

All comprehensive wellness platforms should consist of four core programs — wellness, disease management, EAP and work life components — says Yale Mallinger of wellness company HMC-HealthWorks, but it’s what makes up those components that counts.

As the obesity epidemic and overall sedentary lifestyle continue to cripple the American workforce – drastically increasing health care costs – consider the inspirational words of Diana Nyad. The record-holding swimmer, who accomplished a near-impossible swim from Cuba to Key West, Fla., centers on one key message to help jump start the population: "Never, ever give up."

Her breadth and depth of experience make Theresa White a good choice to be Aflac's first female and African-American president of Aflac U.S., say industry experts.

Gone are the days of hula chairs and ThighMasters at the desk, new technologies and wearable devices are playing into the benefits and wellness strategies of employers, Amy McDonough, Fitbit’s director of wellness, told conference goers at the 2014 Employee Benefits Forum & Expo, being held this week in Boca Raton, Fla.

Targeting employee needs and purchasing preferences can boost engagement and enrollment with voluntary benefits. The way to personalize that message, experts say, is through the use of data analytics.

Commentary: On Friday, September 26, Bill Gross, the portfolio manager of the PIMCO Total Return Bond Fund, left the company for another job. Many financial advisers, including me, believe that his departure is a positive for the Fund and PIMCO. Why is this important to you as a retirement plan sponsor?

Health care reform has presented employers plenty of new challenges to grapple with when it comes to offering health care coverage, and, many say, has expanded the critical role of benefit advisers who heed the call.

In a world where instant gratification and customization are a way of life, workplace wellness programs haven’t kept pace, says Scott Haverlock, senior manager, talent & total rewards with Niagara Bottling, Inc. and a keynote speaker at this year’s Benefits Forum & Expo.

Communication will be a critical component of benefits administration in the future, according to Aflac’s Teresa White, who outlines benefit and HR trends for the upcoming year.

Commentary: Health insurance companies, health care professionals, politicians, academics and public health advocates all have opinions about what health care reform in America should look like.

With the Affordable Care Act’s employer shared responsibility reporting requirements for 2015 quickly approaching, benefit advisers should already be working with employer clients to implement benefit administration systems to ensure compliance with the law, industry experts say.

A focus on retirement has been key recently, with a push for younger generations to begin investing into 401(k)s, along with recent calls to Congress to empower savings among employees. Employee Benefit News has remained on top of the coverage and has packaged it for you here.