Benefit communication

With open enrollment season upon us, there’s a lot of talk about benefits communications. Here are three tips to ease the communications burden.

Benefits and HR professionals are generally optimistic about the job prospects in their field, yet express lingering concerns about job security.

Commentary: Communicating your benefits programs during OE is one of the most important things you’ll do all year, and it can be challenging even in the best of times. So how do you gracefully communicate bad news?

Culture is the single most important factor in your organization’s success or failure.

Consumer engagement in health care is the magic interaction that employers are striving for, yet for most it remains elusive.

Employers are falling short on adequate systems and training to provide employees with in-the-moment critical feedback. But all is not lost as some experts have a few steps employers can take to get back on track.

Commentary: Numbers can tell you if your internal communications are effectively engaging employees, and resulting in a stronger culture and higher benefit participation rates.

If you talk to a benefits administrator or human resources professional, odds are they’re going to tell you they’re overwhelmed with trying to keep up with the pace of change and the demands of today’s benefits landscape. It seems like just about everybody is, at best, treading water.

The correlation between benefits policies and enterprise financial performance has been thoroughly studied, and the correlation is positive. The problem is that many investors have yet to grasp the significance of that correlation, and lack basic tools to assess the quality of the company from an HR and benefits perspective.

Enrollment goals fall short when key points get lost or the message itself fails to connect with the employee.

Commentary: Self-policing, self-reporting and self-correcting before there is an investigation gives plan sponsors and administrators a better opportunity to control the costs and mechanisms of the corrective process.

Recent guidance from the National Labor Relations Board includes details about the types of employer policies and rules likely to be considered to unlawfully interfere with employees’ rights.

Much has been written about how millennials learn differently, suggesting companies should change the way they manage and train this digital generation. While it’s true millennials have grown up without ever having used a pay phone or typewriter, read a newspaper or waited for a scheduled TV program, does this mean they learn differently?

In the last quarter of 2014, the hiring picture changed very little, a calm that belies an important story.

It’s hard enough for working parents to balance the ever-increasing demands of home and work life, but for parents of children living with autism, it’s an entirely different struggle.

Engaging your Gen Y audience — also known as the millennials — can be difficult, but it’s key to implementing strategies on wellness and retirement programs that they might not be thinking about now, but will wish they had in the future.

The light is shining on 3M, Cisco, Kimberly-Clark and the National Geographical Society as the companies take steps to provide employees a first-of-its kind employee benefit: discounts on home solar power installation.

It appears that slackers, not hackers, are mostly responsible for the invasion of health care records - and the overly curious (or bored) employees who are the culprits can cost employers millions in HIPPA fines.

Data analytics offers companies a better way to recruit employees and identify those who are most likely to stay. But are employers embracing it?

At SHRM's annual conference, leaders from Disney and Western Union address creating a better company culture through better recruiting, and how to boost employee learning and development through technology.