Benefit strategies

Whole Foods Market — which has 300 stores in the U.S. Canada and the U.K. — puts benefits to a vote. Every three years the company lets employees nominate benefits and if other employees agree, the benefit is added. It’s just one of the ways the company empowers its employees and encourages innovation, co-founder and CEO John Mackey told a packed crowd in Wednesday morning’s opening keynote address at the Great Place to Work conference in Atlanta.

The Mayo Clinic launched an ambitious social media campaign in 2008 and within a year, had a 49% market share among health care websites. It started a blog for employees, which has been likened to a weather report that enables higher-ups to assess how employees are feeling about the organization. The end goal is to break down barriers between management and employees.

Ironic as it may be, despite record-high unemployment and the perception of a surplus of talent, human resources professionals may be forced to choose from limited quantities of high-skilled workers, a new Deloitte study shows.

AMR Corp, the bankrupt parent of American Airlines, on Wednesday proposed a plan to freeze pensions covering many of its workers, retreating from an earlier proposal to terminate them and leave them to government insurers, which could result in lower payouts.

I recently overheard two job seekers speaking about their plans to ensure that their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles are "employer appropriate."

As senior vice president and chief HR and administrative officer for Harris Corporation, an international communications and information technology company, Jeff Shuman has first-hand experience with the skills gap - the gap that exists between the jobs an organization has to fill and the knowledge, skills and abilities of current and potential workers.

Six years ago, executives at professional services consulting firm Deloitte LLP began exploring ways to enhance the company's investment in training and development. After talking to the firm's recruiting officers on U.S. college campuses, leaders realized the high value new graduates and younger employees placed on training and development.

Statistics show 96% of Americans use Facebook, and 46 million check their social media profiles daily. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, more than one-half (56%) of organizations currently use social networking websites when recruiting potential job candidates, a significant increase from 2008, when 34% did so. However, when it comes to in-house communications, most companies still use face-to-face or email to convey key HR/benefits messages and information.

Benefits decision-making continues to gain importance in corporate America, with 40% of plan sponsors saying that the employee benefits decision-making process in their company has changed to some extent over the past five years, according to a recent study from Prudential.

As 2012 ushers in an improving, but still highly competitive job market, more workers may be looking beyond their own backyard for employment options. Forty-four percent of workers said they would be willing to relocate for a career opportunity, according to a nationwide study by CareerBuilder. Of workers who were laid off in the last year and found new jobs, 20% relocated to a new city or state.

An employer's first experience defending a harassment case can be a harsh introduction to the challenges and biases of the American legal system. Empowered with some basic knowledge about the process, HR/benefits professionals can survive the ordeal and shine in the eyes of senior management.

A tighter partnership between corporate finance and human resource executives may be on the horizon as U.S. companies begin to address the implications of health care reform for their reward programs and talent management strategy, according to a new survey by Towers Watson and Forbes Insights. The survey finds that both groups of executives share an expectation of further increases to their health care and other reward budgets in the next few years although, surprisingly, neither sees any change in the mix or cost allocation for their overall reward programs

Companies planning to spend thousands of dollars for staff Christmas parties, even with open bars, shouldn't bother because most U.S. employees would prefer money.

Many companies have restructured their executive pay-for-performance programs to prepare for the first “say on pay" vote in the 2011 proxy season. Experts from consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers detail concrete preparations and advice for companies to reform their executive compensation practices in anticipation of what promises to be an even tougher shareholder vote in 2012.

Despite many companies in North America anticipating a decline in shareholder value in 2011, pressures about executive pay by the Occupy movement and a slow-to-recover economy, a majority of companies expect to pay executive bonuses that are as large as or larger than last year’s awards. Additionally, the majority of companies plan to fund this year’s bonuses at or above target levels, reflecting strong operating results, according to the Towers Watson survey.

As HR/benefits outsourcing becomes a larger part of employers' overall business strategy, industry professionals' primary job no longer is putting out small fires. Rather, practitioners are blazing trails toward workforce and organizational development.

Employers that grant generous leaves for disability or maternity can run afoul of insurance contracts for medical, disability or life coverage. Here are two tips for employers to avoid leave-related lawsuits.

Tax deduction available for employee retirement-plan contributions to in Japan; Korea amends retirement legislation.

New recommendations outline ways employers can improve design, communication and delivery of employee benefits and wellness incentives.

A majority of companies worldwide say they are becoming more knowledgeable about the use of social media tools to connect with and keep their workforces informed. In fact, more than two-thirds of companies surveyed by global professional services company Towers Watson plan to increase their use of social media tools over the next 12 months, though many question their cost effectiveness. The biannual study also found that companies with the best communication programs enhance the communication skills of their leaders and managers, and continuously evaluate performance.