Benefit management

Coca-Cola builds centralized HR resource with call center structure.

Four employers receive iCOMM Awards for the best in internal communications.

Smartphones are a good tool to engage employees in wellness programs but access challenges remain.

Meeting the legal definition of the parent-child relationship doesn’t always mean that beneficiary plan standards have been met as well.

Defined contribution plan participants have proved woefully uninformed about their funds, and clearer jargon and presentations could help.

Lifetime solutions should be coming soon as more annuities find their way into defined contribution plans, often via target date funds.

Risk is rising and asset return dropping for corporate benefit pension plans, according to new research by Mercer.

Pursuit of higher efficiency pushes shift in human resources to shared services and outsourcing, according to Towers Watson.

State lawmakers in cash-strapped Illinois have run into fierce opposition from unions and concern about a voter backlash in the November elections over plans to fix the state’s woefully underfunded public retirement system.

While most benefits professionals responding to a recent poll have seen improvements in their benefits communication efforts in the past three years, a sizeable portion are either unsatisfied with or ambivalent about their current strategy.

Research suggests that a slow but steady decline in employee morale from 2008 levels presents an opportunity to improve employee engagement during the upcoming benefits enrollment season.

New York City stands accused of unlawfully excluding bonus payments involving overtime and night differentials from pension benefit calculations for police officers who served in the military since the September 11 attacks.

Are cost-containment strategies and employee satisfaction mutually exclusive when it comes to retention?

U.S. companies hired more workers than expected in July, but continued weakness in the manufacturing sector pointed to sluggish economic growth.

Ask a roomful of HR leaders to name their biggest stressors and some interesting answers float up – sometimes literally. A new social experiment by Impact Group suggests that, as the economy recovers, these practitioners are engaging in some big-picture thinking, and their worries may only be ballooning.

Even under the best employment conditions, hiring the wrong employee can drag down a company's bottom line and dampen workforce productivity and morale. However, the national skills gap and ongoing economic concerns make finding the right candidate crucial the first time around.

"The current generation has stumbled on an incredibly powerful and important model for changing the world and the workplace: the network."

United Continental Holdings Inc’s quarterly profit slid 37%, hit by higher fuel bills and labor costs from its messy and long merger of United and Continental airlines.

Detroit’s mayor recently imposed 10% pay cuts on city workers and found other savings from benefits in a bid to save the city’s cash-strapped coffers $102 million a year.

Public pension funds are expected to report poor annual returns in the coming weeks, results that are likely to increase calls for more realistic retirement promises for teachers, police officers and other public workers.