Benefit management

For the year ending in September 2010, 26.3% of Americans (or 62.8 million people) volunteered through or for an organization at least once, according to the Current Population Survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Among working Americans, 29.2% volunteered, compared to 23.8% of unemployed persons and 22% of those not in the labor force.

U.S. employees are not strongly invested in their benefits, and 63% of companies agree that workers need to be more engaged, finds a new Aflac survey. In addition, only half feel their employees take full advantage of the benefits offered. Regardless of whether it’s a failing in communication or actual offerings, 54% of employees would transition jobs for better benefits, despite lower pay.

This is the second article in our Open Enrollment Boot Camp series, in which we are featuring readers' advice for improving this perennial event. The first article focused on OE communications, and is available on our website at ebn.benefitnews.com. Here, we present some of the advice we received from brokers and providers on increasing enrollment in and satisfaction with voluntary benefits.

Last October, President Obama signed into law the Plain Writing Act, which calls for communications from the federal government that are clear, concise and well-organized. An associate professor of English recently talked to EBN about how employers can incorporate plain language principles into their benefits communications.

Recently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials audited the popular burrito chain, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., which fired hundreds of illegal workers as a result. Using Chipotle as a cautionary tale, employers cannot turn a blind eye to illegal workers, as Chipotle allegedly did - one woman claims she gave the company two false social security numbers when applying for positions within the company.

The adoption of guaranteed living benefits fell in the first quarter of 2011 to their lowest rate since the third quarter of 2008—and improved confidence in the stock market may be the reason.

Several group benefits providers, including Sun Life Financial, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Cigna, have won plain language awards from the Center for Plain Language.

We’ve developed online benefit portals and with only a few keystrokes, a complete file is sent on an electronic data interface (EDI). My simple view is it’s like happy hour for a bunch of computers — one system talks to another, then another, and hopefully they’ll all have cheerful dispositions. When happy hour prices go sour, so do the error messages I receive.

Looking for a way to promote his latest venture, a website where consumers can select an agent at the same time they buy their policy online, Alan Katz decided to start his own blog both as a hobby and in hopes that linking to it would increase the search engine optimization of the insurance website.

For this year's Preparing for Open Enrollment series, EBN asked you, our readers, to give us your advice for improving this perennial event. Here is the first of three articles featuring your responses, which deals with enrollment communications.

The recession has been a double-edged sword to employers, forcing them to contend with the productivity and morale issues brought on by staff layoffs but also the financial squeeze of rising unemployment insurance taxes, COBRA costs and severance packages.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the establishment of health care exchanges to enable individuals to purchase health insurance on the open market is proceeding as scheduled.

As a CPA with 20+ years of experience, I'm a big supporter of accountability and company audits. (See a related story on page 10 on benefit plan audits.) Early in my career as an auditor, I made a living by ensuring companies said what they did and did what they said. The Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70: Service Organizations, commonly known as the SAS 70, has been an industry staple since its issuance in 1992 and a requisite for service providers to test internal controls.

Not complying with current law can be expensive in today's legal climate. Thus, employers should review their employee handbooks and employment-related policies to make sure they are up to date. More importantly, though, employers should draft their handbooks so their employees actually read them and follow their policies.

How one company used a virtual benefits fair to tame employees' inertia and boost engagement during open enrollment.

The most persuasive health information won't always serve your best interests, U.S. doctors report.

With less guaranteed income when they retire, a larger number of older workers remained in the workforce in 2010, according to research by the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The National Business Group on Health reports a growing number of workers seek health and medical information from their employers.

If you issue employee communications only through e-mail or company bulletin board postings, I have news for you: Most employees are not listening.

U.S. workers can expect median base salary increases of 2.8% in 2011, compared to 2.4% in 2010, while executives and skilled trades workers can anticipate a 2.7% increase, according to the Salary Budgets Survey by the Hay Group.