Practice management

Even with a four-year high in the hiring, manufacturing and service sectors, benefits managers are utilizing higher pay and improved benefits to deal with their ongoing recruitment challenges.

While the logistics of health care growing increasingly complex, benefit advisers could and should play a crucial role in helping employers and employees understand the new health care delivery system.

Benefit advisers hoping to stay ahead of the trend of employers transferring some of the burden of increased health care costs to their employees, should be prepared to discuss a variety of new and old cost-sharing strategies, as well as additional cost-saving tools.

Private exchanges are a complex tool in a complex market, but they continue to evolve as employers switch to them, and brokers learn to work with them. Panelists discussed where they will go next during at opening keynote Tuesday at EBA’s Workplace Benefits Mania.

Minimum-wage activists seized on a decision against McDonald’s by the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel Tuesday, saying the move may make it easier to unionize workers and ultimately raise wages.

Hiring and fast turnover are on the rise in offices around the world, including in the U.S., and experts say employers need to look at what it is their employees value most if they want to retain their current talent.

A new national bipartisan legislative effort is using an incentivized approach to push more employers to offer paid family and medical leave to their employees.

Globally, defined-benefit retirement plans are becoming a thing of the past and defined-contribution plans more widely accepted as the preferred alternative, a trend that could spur inquiries from international employer clients.

United Benefit Advisors has named insurance veteran Les McPhearson its new chief executive officer. In a Q&A with EBA he talks about trends in the benefits industry and the future role of the trusted adviser.

Road to Workplace Benefits Mania: Ahead of next week’s conference, speaker Reid Rasmussen talks about new employee needs that are likely to erupt in the coming years and how brokers might be able to create an opportunity out of them.

For some employer groups, setting high standards starts with hiring the right people, and from Manchester United Foundation’s mindset, as one of the most popular and successful sports teams on Earth, strong leadership and culture is “imperative” to high performance among employees.

In another blow to the health law’s federal subsidies this week, the GAO says fake application information successfully yielded subsidy payouts in an undercover investigation. One broker says if consumers are able to obtain subsidies in circumstances where they shouldn’t, they’re not going to trust brokers who tell them the truth.

Employees are increasingly dissatisfied with their benefits, and therefore dissatisfied with their employers, but new research shows better benefits education can help.

Commentary: Blogger Sam Fleet says that in addition to offering new services to current clients to expand your business, brokers can prospect through new mediums and social networking platforms.

As some brokers continue to wait for their payments, it seems no one carrier is better or worse at this issue across the U.S. What is clear is that advisers who previously worked in group need to learn a new system to track and monitor commissions.

While there’s a great deal of industry hype about the rise in voluntary sales, some experts say that benefit brokers and advisers are still hesitant to sell it. Here’s a way in that one expert views as “a way to free up money” for voluntary.

Please nominate an outstanding female colleague — or yourself — for EBA’s Influential Women in Benefit Advising honor roll, new this year!

Benefit advisers and their employer clients are in a unique position to help the newest members of the workforce overcome investment fears and prepare for retirement.

Employees across the country can expect to see an average increase of 3% in base salaries in the coming year, and some experts are advising employers to remember that if budgets are tight, there are other means to keep employees happy.

Commentary: Columnist Jerry Kalish discusses the ins and outs of cafeteria plans, which may be seeing a rise in interest due to the ACA.