With the start of open enrollment season each fall, Jennifer Benz takes to social media with some trepidation to gauge the mood of employees. The results often confirm her worst fears. “We look at the open enrollment tweets every fall,” says the communications leader at Segal Benz, a benefits communication firm. “You see people are […]
There was a time when sexual harassment training was a “just check the box, let’s just get this over with” annual event, says Andrew Rawson, chief learning officer for Traliant, a company that provides sexual harassment training. It was “like renewing your driver’s license or renewing your car registration,” he says. “As long as you […]
As an employer or manager, have you ever collected a resigning employee’s employer-owned laptop or cellphone and discovered that the employee left a personal email account automatically logged in? Did you have the urge to look at what the employee was doing and who the employee was talking to right before resigning? Perhaps to see […]
In this age of the multigenerational workforce and a tight labor market, a one-size-fits-all group benefits model with medical, prescription, dental, vision and a retirement plan just doesn’t cut it. A workforce with Baby Boomers, Gen X’ers, Millennials and Generation Z means that employees are going to find the run-of-the-mill benefits plan inadequate. Ditto for […]
The cost of family health coverage in the U.S. now tops $20,000, an annual survey of employers found, a record high that has pushed an increasing number of American workers into plans that cover less or cost more, or force them out of the insurance market entirely. “It’s as much as buying a basic economy […]
Reporting that 1.3 million workers will now become eligible for overtime pay, the DOL has released its final rule to update the exemption requirements of the Executive, Administrative and Professional employee (EAP) as well as highly compensation executive (HCE) classifications. After overcoming many hurdles, injunction enjoined and invalidation, the DOL released its final rule Tuesday with an […]
As a parent, I encourage my kids to resist the melodic siren call of procrastination. I share historical examples of how procrastination led to undesirable and often catastrophic events. It’s an easy argument to make. It’s especially easy because my kids haven’t been exposed to the shifting sands of employee benefit regulations. Given the growing […]
Be more active. Eat better. Rest more. Individually, we know that these and other positive habits lead to better health and all the benefits that derive from it. In theory, it’s something we can all get behind but in practice even the best of us often default to short-sighted decisions that are not in our […]
Employers have begun making greater investments in their employees’ overall well-being and placing a bigger emphasis on student loan debt as a source of financial stress. Managing student loan debt is an issue that impacts more than 44 million Americans and has exploded to a national total of more than $1.5 trillion. Employers are in […]
The DOL on Tuesday released its highly anticipated finalized overtime rule, raising the minimum salary level to $35,568 per year for a full-year worker to earn overtime wages. “Today’s rule is a thoughtful product informed by public comment, listening sessions and long-standing calculations,” Wage and Hour Division Administrator Cheryl Stanton says in a statement. “The […]
