One pet peeve of employers, brokers and carriers is that employees don’t spend enough time reviewing their benefit plans during open enrollment.

The boundary between voluntary and employer-paid benefit sales is disappearing in an increasingly competitive climate where more brokers are abandoning territorial patterns, suggests new research from Eastbridge Consulting Group.

Communication beats out critical thinking (73%), collaboration/team building (72%), and creativity and innovation (66%) as competencies that are the top priorities for employee development, talent management, and succession planning in the next one to three years, according to a new survey from the American Management Association.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always believed the primary consideration for employees in whether to accept, keep or leave a job is money. It’s not the only consideration, of course, but it’s the top one. Right?

After some pretty dour retirement news last Friday, I’m afraid I have more Gloomy Gus news today — this time related to health care.

While the U.S. economy is showing signs of recovery, nearly three-quarters of Americans are worried about their jobs and are trying to make ends meet, according to a recent national survey by The Hartford.

I came across a blog post yesterday by Michael Maslanka, who, while during some pro bono work, tried to assist an employer in crafting a fair and legally sound corporate bereavement policy.

Of course, everyone is fighting tooth and nail to retain grandfathered status for their health plans under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and rightly so.

In real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. In benefits, it’s all about communication, communication, communication.

Like Santa, I imagine you’ll be making a list and checking it twice (20 times?) to make sure you have all your talking points in order so you can communicate effectively to employees how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will affect their benefits enrollment options.

I don’t know about you, but all of these studies that show how disengaged people are in their jobs is making me a little depressed.

Clearly, employees love Twitter and Facebook — stats from both social media sites show the number of registered users is growing by the thousands every month. And, employees say they want more benefits communication.

For any employers leaning toward letting workers shop for health coverage in state-run exchanges come 2014, there’s encouraging news from a recent survey from Extend Health.

It’s gotta be tough to lead a major health insurance carrier (except for the high salary, of course). Insurance companies generally are vilified by the mainstream press, disliked by consumers and now there’s news that employers don’t like them much either.

I’d say that in general, most people can agree in clear, black and white terms on which types of dishonesty are okay and not okay. Lying to protect a loved one’s feelings — okay.

Chances are, you have concrete criteria (and perhaps some softer considerations) you’re looking for when you’re selecting a broker. Ever wonder what criteria your broker looks for when they shop for a vendor for you?

You know the feeling you get when you’re caught in the rain with no umbrella? Likely, you think, “Why, oh why, didn’t I bring my umbrella?”

I know you don’t need anyone to tell you – least of all, me – that your employees still are feeling the stresses and strains of the sluggish economy, at work and likely at home as well.

Of all the things employers have to worry about since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—and there are quite a few — it’s understandably the Cadillac tax on high-cost health benefit plans that has them the most concerned, according to new survey results from Mercer.

I have a horrible commute. Truly, truly horrible. It’s expensive, long, often unpredictable and exhausting — about 90 minutes each way.