Employee benefits

Harassment training? If you read the title of this blog out loud and heard groans from other people in your office, I understand. In fact, when I have done harassment training for clients, I have heard every complaint and bad joke about harassment training there is. Harassment training is one of those dreaded exercises by employees and management alike. Indeed, harassment training has become comedy fodder for many a tv sitcom. My personal favorite is still…

A new survey of small and mid-sized employers finds that two out of three plan sponsors believe the current 401(k) system is effective in helping employees achieve adequate retirement savings, despite recent reports that show employees are often ill-prepared for retirement and not saving enough.

How do we continue to satisfy the benefits needs of employees and meet our business objectives? The answer is actually right in front of us explains Tinker Kelly in today’s BeAdvised.

States and territories seeking to establish a health insurance exchange, funded under the Affordable Care Act, will be required to submit an application for approval during the fall of 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services has announced.

More than 30% of respondents say overweight or obese individuals should have to fork out more for health insurance, according to the most recent Thomas Reuters-NPR Health Poll.

Although many companies continue to tighten their financial belts, when it comes to voluntary benefits, employers are much more employee focused, as opposed to cost driven. Seventy-five percent of employers say their top reason for offering voluntary benefits is to expand the benefits options available to their employees, with 42% offering voluntary benefits to fulfill an employee need, and 30% offering them at their employees’ request, according to a study released yesterday by Prudential.

President Barack Obama's signature health care law got a boost on Tuesday when a U.S. appeals court agreed with a lower court that dismissed a challenge and found the law's minimum coverage requirement was constitutional.

When Javier Muchado joined Gentle Giant Moving Company in 2004, he thought he would be there for a few months and then move on. But Larry O'Toole and John "J.P." Pacocha, the Somerville, Mass.-based company's owners, had other ideas. They observed Muchado on a few jobs and recognized that he was physically strong and smart--a winning combo for a business that requires equal measures of muscle, troubleshooting ability and people skills.

Why do these plans offer tremendous value to both employers and employees? In today’s BeAdvised Samuel Fleet explains why these plans can also act as a strong recruitment tool for top executives.

Advisers take note: It’s not a company’s size but rather the demographic makeup of its workforce that influences whether or not it sponsors a retirement plan.

Some of the federal health care law's requirements related to insurance exchanges threaten the autonomy of U.S. states, which need more support in establishing the marketplaces, state governors said in a letter released last week.

Like many middle-class American baby boomers, Linda Carmona-Sanchez is anxious about slipping into poverty and says whatever dreams she once had about retirement in her "golden years" have turned into nightmares.

It's no surprise that having a well-rounded compensation plan in place is key for employers looking to amp up their workforce. As such, offering medical insurance benefits and paid time-off is often simply not enough. The Benefits USA 2011/2012 survey results found employers are offering a myriad of benefits to keep their employees happy. Dental insurance, for example, is offered by 98.2% of employers, while vision insurance is offered by 84.5%. Information was collected from nearly 4,500 benefit plans covering over six million employees across the country.

Seventy-five percent of Americans have never had a conversation about long-term care with loved ones. In the shadow of the possible demise of the CLASS program, this is even more pertinent to employees who may have retirement accounts, but not a backup for immediate long-term care assistance.

It doesn't matter what size company you work for; flexibility matters. Workplace flexibility programs benefit employers of all sizes and industries, resulting in increased employee job satisfaction, lower turnover and lower insurance costs, according to the new report from The Society for Human Resource Management and the Families and Work Institute.

New York insurance companies that were not covering the screening, diagnosis and treatment for autism spectrum disorders will now be mandated to do so effective Nov. 1, 2012.

I love how quickly technology propels us all forward. Ten years ago, talk of the cloud was confined to weather reports, or when you played that game where you point at clouds and name what objects they look like. Now, cloud technology is helping us with everything from increased data security to managing and delivering benefits. …

When your company goes through perilous times it is natural for individuals to feel powerless, but there are ways to stay engaged and improve how you feel about the daily grind, says Harvard Business Review.

The good news: Most employers are reinstating 401(k) matches, after suspending or reducing them following the economic collapse in late 2008. The bad news: Not all employers have reinstated yet, and some that have are doing so at a lower percentage, Towers Watson announced yesterday.

The Internal Revenue Service has released a detailed list of pension plan and other retirement-related contribution limitations for the Tax Year 2012 that were triggered by an increase in the cost-of-living index.