Quality of life benefits

Engaging employees in wellness programs is challenging at the best of times, but for employers in industries where the majority of workers are not in an office setting – construction or retail, for example – it can be even more difficult.

With an increasingly stabilized economy and the recent succession of promising jobs reports, many employers are hiring at quantities not seen since pre-recession days.

Commentary: More than 90% of today's professional workforce are finding trouble balancing home and work, resulting in the need to complete personal tasks on the employers’ dime. ACI Specialty Benefits' Erin Krehbiel shares her firsthand tips on how to get it all done without impacting company time.

As the holidays move into full gear, what should be the most wonderful time of the year is often not that way for many employees. During this potentially overwhelming season, it is important that employees have access to help.

With mental illness and substance abuse costing employers an estimated $100 billion annually in indirect costs alone, benefit decision-makers are seeing value in promoting employee assistance programs as a means to improve their workforce’s mental well-being.

This Thanksgiving, before you enjoy a few days off with family, friends, and a mountain of turkey, make sure you show one group of people just how thankful you are for them: your employees.

Prenatal and postpartum care programs are not only a benefit for employees who are expecting, they can also help employers avoid unnecessary costs related to preterm births.

This week, EBN dove into the current trends and future of what benefit managers need to do their jobs. Many are budgeting a boost in spending to get the latest and greatest tools to increase engagement and streamline functionality. Here you can find a detailed recap, highlighting key findings from our tech week coverage.

The HIX marketplace may offer Americans more choice when it comes to health insurance, particularly as public exchange options expand, but it continues to complicate life for HR professionals.

The Supreme Court did not appear overly supportive of the so-called Yard-Man presumption during arguments this week in M&G Polymers USA, LLC v. Tackett.

Depression in the workplace can affect anyone and it takes an emotional toll on those affected, and can also have a significant financial toll on employers. A new program developed by the American Psychiatric Foundation and Employers Health Coalition aims to provide both employers and employees with the tools needed to help combat depression in the workplace.

If employers only look at wellness from a 9-to-5 point of view, they are missing valuable opportunities to engage employees. Wellness doesn’t end at 5 p.m., said one expert at the National Business Coalition on Health’s annual conference.

Targeting the exploding health and wellness market, Microsoft in one fell swoop has launched a new cloud-based platform, mobile app, and wearable fitness tracking wrist band.

The number of employees participating in employer-based retirement plans increased in 2013 for the first time in several years, pointing to a national economy slowly mending itself and an increasing employment rate in the aftermath of the recession, the Employee Benefit Research Institute says.

For employers, the phenomenon of boomerang employees – those employees who leave only to return sometime later – has been reinvigorated thanks to an attitude shift in the American workplace. Here are five considerations when deciding whether to rehire a boomerang employee.

Employers that are considering incorporating wearable fitness devices into their wellness programs are facing important decisions about the cost of those devices, and must also be prepared to allay employees’ concerns about data security.

With mental health and substance abuse disorder services deemed an essential health benefit under the Affordable Care Act, employee assistance program providers are taking on a new role – helping employers and health plans sniff out fraudulent health care activity among substance abuse and mental health treatment facilities.

Companies are waking up to the fact that supporting the emotional, physical and cognitive health of their employees makes sense — and affects their bottom line.

Wearable wellness is here to stay, yet precisely how the devices will affect employer programs remains to be seen.

Commentary: October is National Depression Awareness Month. Jeff Guardalabene, a mental health case manager with Standard Insurance Company, offers these tips on how to help your employer clients navigate this important but often uncharted territory.