Employee benefits

McKinsey & Co. caused quite a stir not only around the insurance world, but all the way to Washington, when it recently revealed that 30% of employers will "definitely or probably" drop their coverage when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act takes effect in 2014.

September marks the observance of Life Insurance Awareness Month, coordinated by the nonprofit LIFE Foundation and supported by more than 100 of the nation's leading insurance companies and industry groups, to shine a spotlight on the growing crisis of too many Americans not having adequate life insurance protection. According to the industry research group LIMRA, 30% of U.S. households have no life insurance whatsoever. Today, there are 11 million fewer American households covered by life insurance compared with six years ago. The bottom line: A majority of families either have no life insurance or not enough, leaving them one accident or terminal illness away from a financial catastrophe for their loved ones. Help educate your employees this month on the value of this important benefit. Learn more at lifehappens.org/life-insurance-awareness-month.

An online cartoon is changing the way employees think about voluntary benefits.

Employees who work from home or other remote location are doing so more often than they have in the past but the overall number of teleworkers has declined, finds a recent survey. The teleworking population in 2010 was 26.2 million, down from 33.7 million in 2008. Teleworkers represented nearly 20% of the U.S. adult working population, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Imagine that your company was hiring for one of its most crucial positions.

For all the discussion about lowering the cost of health care and providing health benefits, is there a more important arbiter of employer satisfaction with a health plan than holding down cost trends? Maybe so, according to the results of the latest survey from J.D. Power and Associates.

Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, released a report recently showing access to child-only health insurance plans has declined significantly since passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Not since TV's "Dallas" asked, "Who killed JR?" has our nation faced such an important mystery: Who killed consumer-directed health care? After all, a few years ago, many of us thought that the long struggle to control health care cost inflation was about to end happily.

With 81% of its population either Millenials or Generation Xers, the American Institute of Toxicology had to overcome the challenge of promoting promising talent that had practically no leadership experience.

It's more than a little-known Ashton Kutcher movie. TharpeRobbins executive Anthony Luciano explains the butterfly effect and how awareness of it can refocus and reshape your company's employee rewards programs.

Before joining Zappos, chief executive officer Tony Hsieh dreaded coming to work at his own company. It wasn't fun to work there anymore because the company culture went completely down the drain, he told the audience in his keynote address the annual Society for Human Resource Management conference in Las Vegas.

Longer life expectancies and the individual responsibility for retirement savings are combining to challenge conventional thinking and to re-shape the relationships between employers and their older employees. Check out five significant practical benefits for plan sponsors.

With investors falling in and out of love with Wall Street at a rapid pace, some financial advisers are finding themselves playing a new role — that of marriage counselor. As financial markets remain in turmoil, couples are getting more anxious as they watch their nest eggs wither.

Employees who work at companies that offer incentive programs have two recommendations for improving the programs: Increase the frequency of rewards and offer more reward options, says a new survey. According to a recent survey by Staples Advantage, 85% of those who participate in company-driven incentive programs feel more valued at work, while 70% say they are happier and more motivated at work, thanks to their incentive program. Sixty-five percent, meanwhile, say they are more loyal…

Hiring by small businesses slowed in August and employers reduced hours, an independent survey showed on Sunday, suggesting the recent stock market turmoil may have dampened job creation. Intuit, a payrolls processing company, said small businesses added 35,000 jobs after increasing employment by 40,000 in July. …

For East Coast business owners shaken by this week's earthquake and bracing for Hurricane Irene's onslaught, the stats are gloomy. Twenty-five percent of small businesses hit with a disaster like a flood or an earthquake never re-open. That's according to data from the Tampa, Florida-based Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, a nonprofit group that collects information on the impact of catastrophes and provides it…

LIMRA released its “U.S. Individual Life Insurance Sales” report, which indicates total individual life insurance new annualized premium increased 4% in the first half of 2011.

(Reuters) Wed., Aug. 24, 2011 WASHINGTON — Almost three-quarters of medium to big companies will keep offering health care benefits to employees once state-based insurance exchanges kick off in 2014, according to a survey by Towers Watson.

[IMGCAP(1)] HONG KONG | Fri Aug 26, 2011 11:56am EDT (Reuters) - Obesity is most widespread in Britain and the United States among the world's leading economies and if present trends continue, about half of both men and women in the United States will be obese by 2030, health experts warned on Friday. …

With the prevalence of childhood obesity in the United States nearly tripling over the past 30 years, now is the time for employers to take the lead in the battle against the growing problem of overweight and obese children, according to the National Business Group on Health. Obesity is a growing epidemic affecting children, their families and the nation. The United States currently has the highest percentage of overweight youth in its history. More than one-third…