Benefit strategies

While the vast majority of companies involved in mergers and acquisitions use retention agreements to retain key talent, a new survey by global professional services company Towers Watson shows companies that are more successful at retention begin the process early — identifying people and tactics — and don’t rely solely on money.

The lines of demarcation between work and life beyond office walls may have largely disappeared in many organizations, but that’s not to say employees are always accessible when they’re out of the office. With summer officially kicking off on Wednesday, there could be mounting anxiety about reaching vacationing coworkers.

Dr. Sean Truman grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, where his father worked for the United Nations. He attended the International School of Kenya in Nairobi, where his mother was a teacher. He knows what it means to be an expatriate.

Watching health care costs over the last several years feels like that old episode of "The Twilight Zone" where the guy keeps trying to leave town and ends up in the same place over and over again. Year after year - for the past five years now - health care costs have risen between 7% and 8%. The cost to employers to offer health insurance to their employees has risen as much or more: They paid an annual average premium of $15,073 for family coverage in 2011, an increase of 9% over the previous year and double the amount of a decade ago.

Although companies with employee rewards and recognition programs are effective at improving employee engagement and reducing voluntary turnover, employers implementing or maintaining such programs must contend with a large perception gap on how often employees are recognized — and even overcome employee skepticism that the programs exist at all.

The majority of employees would be willing to give up 5% or more of their salary if it meant having reliable income to help them live comfortably during retirement, according to data released today by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Despite national economic and employment uncertainty, many American workers who identify themselves as top performers are thinking about changing jobs. In line with research showing the recent uptick of voluntary turnover in the workplace, the 2012 Aflac WorkForces Report revealed nearly half of U.S. workers (49%) are at least somewhat likely to look for a job this year. More troubling for employers, a majority of those who say they are extremely or very likely to leave their jobs describe themselves as the kind of workers companies need to retain to remain competitive in a tight economy.

Small business owners want to choose a retirement plan that will be fair to their employees and give the right amount of tax benefits, but at the same time won’t drain company liquidity. Here are some financially sound retirement plan options for small employers.

The furor over new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson's inaccurate resume is shining a spotlight on inadequate employee vetting. Thompson, Yahoo’s third CEO in the past year, claimed to have a computer science degree — which he doesn't — along with his actual degree in accounting. If Yahoo, one of the world's largest technology companies, with $1.22 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2012, can be misled, what's to stop your potential hires from lying on their resumes?

With the movement from traditional paid leave plans to paid time off banks, many employers may wonder if the switch is effective in managing employee absences. Nearly one in five employees in the United States receive leave in the form of a PTO bank, but the contours of such policies are often little understood — especially outside of the human resources community, according to a new study out by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research and CLASP, a nonprofit that works to improve the economic security of low-income families.

The business woes of Chesapeake Energy Corp are hitting shareholders hard, including its employees.

Roth workplace accounts, which have grown more popular in recent years, are about to get a shot in the arm from Uncle Sam. This week the federal government started rolling out a Roth option to 3.3 million employees who participate in its main retirement program.

As John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market, traveled throughout the United States visiting his stores, he often would be approached by employees who would ask him if the company could implement this benefit, or that benefit, which caused him to re-think how benefits are offered.

There were 48.4 million Hispanic people in the U.S. as of 2009, making it the largest ethnicity in the nation. On top of it, Hispanics make up 14.8% of the civilian labor force. Projections suggest that "language minority students" (those who speak a language other than English at home and who have varying levels of proficiency in English) will comprise over 40% of elementary and secondary students by 2030.

Can a board member of a tax-exempt nonprofit also be a salaried officer of the organization?

Face it: Your employees are distracted. According to IDC Research, 30% to 40% of employee Internet activity is non-work-related, and SexTracker reports that 70% of all Internet porn traffic occurs during the 9-to-5 workday. Such workplace Internet misuse costs U.S. companies $63 billion in lost productivity annually, according to Websense Inc.

Ironic as it may be, despite high unemployment and the perception of a surplus of talent, HR/benefits professionals and hiring managers may be forced to choose from limited quantities of high-skilled workers, a new Deloitte study shows.

Despite being more benefits rarity than reality, a new Towers Watson analysis finds that the traditional defined benefit retirement plans of yesteryear still hold favor among job-seekers, particularly younger workers who have shown waning hope in their retirement futures.

As more U.S. employers hire international workers or extend their organization into foreign locations, benefits and tax issues have grown increasingly complicated when managing international assignees. Further complexity arises depending on the type of employee or independent contractor. U.S. multinationals have begun to fill more key positions with talent in other nations or third-country nationals, who work a position in a foreign country from the U.S., but are not from the U.S. or that foreign country, rather than implanting American expats to international positions.

Diversity training, doing good in the communities in which it operates and encouraging employees to dream big dreams are the three pillars of Darden Restaurants’ human resources’ strategy, Clarence Otis, company chairman and CEO, told attendees at the Great Place to Work conference in Atlanta.