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I hope that in my old age, I am as happy, active and engaged as Jack Borden, a 101-year-old attorney who still works 40 hours a week at his office in Weatherford, Texas. After working for more than 70 years, Borden recently was named America's Outstanding Oldest Worker — a title annually presented to a worker over age 100 by Experience Works, a nonprofit that helps older workers gain new job skills.
No, I am not kidding. And neither are the folks at change:healthcare, a Nashville-based company that is leveraging the Internet to increase consumer awareness about health care, its costs and ways to save money. The company recently launched its Twitter feed/consumer information line at twitter.com/askch, where consumer in the twitterverse can simply tweet health care questions like, “What is diabetes?” or “Cost of Celebrex near [ZIP code] 37209” to @askch and receive a reply with a
Ladies, ladies, ladies. What would Rosie the Riveter say? News from The Hartford shows that while women have made gains in the job market — now holding half of the nation’s 132 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — a gap remains in their understanding and use of benefits that protect their income.
I’m not an HR/benefits professional; I just play one in print. And I’m certainly no attorney. All the same, I’m going to take a leap and say that “It’s Just My Nature” — a new-hire profiling system — is a bad, if not illegal product. (Full disclosure: I've never used this thing, nor have I asked an attorney about its legal veracity.)
Pros, I know Gen Yers can seem a little foreign maybe even alien-like with their texting techiness, and their flip-flops in the workplace, and their want-it-all-yesterday attitudes. But I promise you I have first-hand knowledge, I swear! that your Gen Y employees are indeed of this world. I know that connecting with them professionally can be a challenge, but its not impossible. And since at 73 million strong, Gen Y
I got a message today from Richard Citrin, a health and productivity management consultant, who was fresh from this week’s DMAA Care Continuum Alliance Conference. He called the event “excellent,” but did share that “there are some major issues around disease management, not the least is being whether or not DM actually works to improve health and reduce costs, despite common sense and significant research to the contrary.”
Looking for some new strategies and helpful hints on making your benefit plans more effective? Check out the new book from EBN’s parent company SourceMedia, “The Three Rs of Employee Benefits: Recruiting, Retention and Rewards.” You may recognize the byline — I mean author name — of former EBN Managing Editor Leah Shepherd, who penned the book with co-author Robert Arnoff. The book analyzes benefit plans’ impact on recruiting and retention in today’s economy. It advises
In addition to there being an association for everything, the “there’s an app for that” movement that Apple has started for the iPhone may be reaching a tipping point. Want proof? You got it. I heard today from LifeInsuranceAgency.com, an insurance comparison site. The company is pleased to introduce its (you guessed it!) new iPhone application LifeValue. LifeValue, execs say (somewhat morbidly), helps users “calculate the value of their life,” thus educating them how much life
Well, this industry never ceases to surprise me. I would have thought that, given the recession, employers would be cutting back on costly overseas assignments (and the also expensive training and communication for workers and families that go along with them). However, new numbers from KPMG show that although companies are making cost-saving adjustments to their international assignment programs during the economic downturn, but continued to send assignees overseas.
The results from recession-survival surveys are in, and the bottom line is this: Cuts in benefits = cuts in morale, engagement and commitment. I wish I had better news for you, pros, but there you have it. The “just lucky to have a job” feeling is wearing off, and you may not have much longer to get employees excited about working for you again before you lose them for good.
Good afternoon, DD readers. Apologies for the lack of post today, but today is moving day for the EBN office and there is nothing but boxes as far as my eye can see. Will post tomorrow, once I make a dent in the unpacking. Interestingly enough, a story we have cooking for EBN October reports that EBN isn't the only office that's on the move.
As a follow-up to EBN’s rewards and recognition coverage this month, I recently had an interesting and highly amusing conversation with Steve Humphreys, CEO of global rewards and recognition firm Grass Roots. According to Humphreys, crafting rewards programs for global employers creates some challenges. For one, employee gifts like iPods and Amazon.com gift cards apparently aren’t the big crowd pleasers they are here in the States. So, what is a hit?
Released this week, Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus’ (D-Mont.) health care reform proposal seems to have spared employers from an outright mandate to provide health benefits. However, the bill does include a pay-or-play provision – as in, provide coverage or pay up to subsidize coverage in the mysterious “exchange.”
All summer, I’ve felt like Vladimir and Estragon, waiting for my version of Godot – a working health care reform proposal from the Senate. Finally, as summer turns to fall, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) released yesterday his plan to makeover the nation’s health care system. The bill is just as long and bloated as the now famous (infamous?) H.R. 3200, so I admit I haven’t read the whole thing. But a few pertinent notes for you,
Further proving my belief that there’s an association for everything, the American Happiness Association, a 501(c)3 charitable nonprofit, recently informed me of its very laudable, somewhat laughable and extremely bold mission: to significantly increase the level of enduring happiness worldwide. But it’s not all sunshine, rainbows and clowns for AHA; on the contrary, the organization provides science-based education and resources to help people learn and practice sustainable happiness.
At a Monday session at Benefits Forum & Expo, Lesley Leiserson, director of benefits at The Home Depot, offered this advice to attendees as a way to get employers and all their vendor partners on the same page before implementing any sort of large-scale benefits change. The home improvement retailer, which has more than 300,000 associates across 2,200 stores, took on the awesome task of changing its health, dental and vision carrier all in the same
That’s the scenario Don Powell, president of the American Institute of Preventive Medicine, explained would be the case if food costs had risen as quickly and sharply as health care costs over the last several decades. At a Benefits Forum & Expo session on Monday, Powell made the case to attendees on the importance of wellness programs – although to be honest, I think he was preaching to the choir – by detailing the hellishly expensive
We're having a peachy time here in Atlanta at EBN's 22nd Benefits Forum & Expo! To give you a sense of the atmosphere of the conference, here's a list of some of the best quotes I've heard so far: * 'I think when the House passes its bill and the Senate passes its bill, the White House will attack the House bill as going too far and being too over the top.' Michael Leavitt, former Health
Being a millionaire is so nice that Dave Ramsey did it twice. The renowned personal finance guru, author and TV personality famously lost $4 million in personal wealth in his 20s, only to pick himself up, dust himself off and apply the hard lessons he learned to making money and keeping it this time.
At a Monday morning general session at EBN’s Benefit Forum & Expo, former Health Secretary Michael Leavitt warned benefits pros of the dangers to their plans that lie underneath the legalese in H.R. 3200 (the working health care reform legislation in the House). Among the potential worrisome elements in the bill is the proposed health care advisory board, which Leavitt said, “would have one job, and that is to set the minimum federal standards for what