Benefit management

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.

The National Labor Relations Board held recently that employers must allow use of company emails for union organizing purposes during non-work periods, a decision that many employment and labor advisers say will be a nuisance for workplace communication policies.

Smartphone-enabled transportation vendor Uber, in partnership with Vaccine Finder, has expanded its pilots of home-delivered flu prevention packets and free flu vaccinations, to Chicago after an "overwhelming" response to similar pilots in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

Depending on plan design, some employers may need to adopt year-end amendments to comply with recent federal changes that recognize same-sex marriages as a legal union for benefit purposes.

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.

Both the Third and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeal issued decisions last month reminding employers that providing proper notices to employees is key to administering the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Despite this past summer’s Supreme Court decision in Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer, which found that fiduciaries of employee stock ownership plans are subject to the same duty of prudence that applies to ERISA fiduciaries in general, companies with ESOPs and stock purchase plans are seeing an increase in plan assets and are using the plans as a retention tool.

They promised they would be coming and now they have. The Internal Revenue Service has issued draft instructions to help employers and plan sponsors comply with the Affordable Care Act’s 2015 reporting requirements.

Last week, the Department of Labor updated its prior guidance on locating missing participants. As before, the guidance technically only applies in the context of terminating defined contribution plans, though it can be instructive for retirement plan fiduciaries trying to locate missing or unresponsive participants.

Commentary: Benefit adequacy is a recently-coined catch phrase among the retirement industry, and with good reason. Many individuals have not saved enough to pay for the costs of health in retirement, let alone broader retirement income needs.

Voluntary benefits are creeping more and more into the everyday dialogue of benefit managers and advisers, but for those just getting involved, partnering with voluntary carriers and other vendors can sometimes be a difficult field to navigate.

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.

Commentary: Too often wellness programs are started as just another way to reduce heath care costs. Certainly, this is a terrific outcome that good wellness programs will help deliver. However, this focus not only sells the wellness program short, but it also misses the “soul” of the program.

For the first time, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act covers corporations. But, employers will still have to review the possible application of any state laws that might require contraception coverage despite the holding in Hobby Lobby.

Despite an improving economy, American employers continue to be cautious with pay increases for employees.

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.

Even as employers of all sizes report increased success in their participants’ savings rates, having sufficient savings and income in retirement remains a top concern for many employees.

A recent appellate court ruling may affect the ability of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to challenge "inflexible" employer leave policies, policies that result in the termination of employees who are unable to return to work after the fixed leave period.