Employee Benefits Archives

Which benefits do onsite workers like the most?-Learn what works for modern employees in the post-pandemic era

Which Benefits are Best for Onsite Employees?

May 5, 2023/Employee Benefits, Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Happiness, Employee Retention, Employee Well-Being /by Susan Baxter

Numerous jobs can be performed remotely or on a hybrid schedule. Still, more than 70% of full-time roles require people to work onsite. For instance, consider those involved in transportation, manufacturing, construction, and agriculture, as well as frontline workers in healthcare, education, retail, hospitality, and other service industries. How can companies in these sectors attract and retain talent more effectively? This article looks at how specialized benefits for onsite employees can help.

Demand for Onsite Employees Remains High

Employers have been reeling from a series of one-two punches in recent years. It all started with the pandemic quarantine in 2020. Then in 2021, more than 47 million people left their jobs during the so-called “Great Resignation.” Soon after that, the notion of “quiet quitting” caught fire, when many who remained in their jobs decided it was no longer worth the effort to go above-and-beyond.

By the start of this year, work trends hit a low ebb. On average, 4 million U.S. employees were resigning each month, and at least 50% of the workforce was doing no more than the bare minimum. Yet job openings remained at historic highs. No wonder companies continue scrambling to engage and retain talent — especially frontline workers.

How Targeted Benefits Help

With inflation already cutting into profits at many companies, higher wages aren’t in this year’s budget. So instead, they’re developing special benefits packages for onsite employees.

Of course, benefits have always been a factor in every candidates’ decision to accept a job offer. But now, attractive benefits are even more important — especially when remote or hybrid work arrangements aren’t an option.

Thoughtful benefits that address the interests of onsite employees can make a big difference in an environment where employers offer remote and hybrid workers 35-hour workweeks, unlimited PTO, gym memberships, and a host of other creative options.

Here’s how a solid benefits package can help tip the scale in your favor in today’s talent market…

Which Benefits Do Onsite Employees Value Most?

1. Flexible Schedules

When remote work isn’t an option, flexibility is a must. In fact, 95% of workers think flexible hours are more attractive than remote work, according to a recent Future Forum survey. An Adobe survey echoes this finding, with 84% of respondents saying they desire a more flexible work schedule.

2. Flexible Personal Time Off

Flexibility in PTO has also been gaining traction. In the wake of the pandemic, traditional ways of allocating time off no longer appeal to onsite employees. For example, imagine a parent sometimes volunteers at their child’s school for several hours during the work day. That employee should feel empowered to adjust their schedule accordingly.

The same concept should apply for people who need PTO when they need time off to focus on their mental wellbeing. In fact, a recent Harris Poll found that 23% of workers are receiving new mental health services from their employers.

3. Childcare Assistance

Childcare benefits have also become more popular. Whether it’s a stipend to help cover ongoing costs, discounts on daycare center services, or onsite childcare options, these benefits can make a significant difference. In fact, childcare costs increased more than 40% during the pandemic, and they continue to rise. This is why onsite employees consider childcare assistance a highly valuable benefit.

4. Career Development

For many workers, professional growth is a primary concern. That’s why learning and development opportunities can elevate your benefits package for onsite employees.

If your budget doesn’t support a full-blown educational initiative, even a simple lunch-and-learn event series can help. Topics can reach beyond work-related skills and knowledge. For example, workers might find it helpful to learn about personal financial planning, healthy eating, time management or other life skills. By gathering input about employee interests, you can co-create a curriculum.

Building a Better Benefits Packages

How to attract and retain employees with benefits is a question for the ages. Many types of incentives can enhance recruitment and improve engagement, productivity and performance. But whatever you choose to offer, the overall package must make sense for your company and your culture, as well as individual employees. These guidelines can help you make better decisions:

1. Conduct Focus Groups

Involving employees in planning discussions is always a good idea. It’s the most logical way to arrive at reliable answers about the benefits people value most.

You’ll want to schedule at least several different sessions, each with a representative sample of onsite employees. You’ll also need to prepare a series of carefully designed questions, along with discussion prompts to keep the conversation going. Additionally, be sure to choose moderators who are skilled at leading discussions, probing for details, and gathering feedback from all participants.

2. Send out Surveys

If you don’t have time or energy to conduct focus groups, you can rely on the tried-and-true method of distributing an anonymous survey to gather honest input. This process may uncover certain employee benefits and incentives you wouldn’t learn about in group discussions. That’s because some people aren’t comfortable sharing their ideas in a small group setting, so an anonymous survey can be an effective way to give more employees a voice.

3. Establish an Employee Resource Group

Employee resource groups (ERGs) are voluntary, employee-led groups that share a common interest and/or characteristic. They generally focus on accomplishing specific goals that tie-in with organizational culture and work life. Most groups exist to help cultivate inclusion and a healthy work environment, so this can be an ideal way to bring together voices that can speak and act on behalf of onsite employees.

4. Monitor the Competition

Even if you have strong internal input, you’ll find that studying industry competitors offers a wealth of information about how to build an attractive benefit plan for onsite employees. Look at standard practices and benchmarks — both inside and outside of your industry. With this kind of contextual insight, you may even find that you can expand and improve upon what others offer.

The Bottom Line on Benefits for Onsite Employees

Money may be one of the fastest ways to motivate employees, but even employers with deep pockets can’t compete on price alone. Another company will inevitably find a way to offer people more. This is why a thoughtfully designed benefits package can be your strength. People are motivated by more than compensation. It all comes down to finding the right mix of benefits to attract and retain onsite employees.

For the best solution, start with your organization’s culture, values, and business realities. Then craft a benefits package that fits that framework.

Can the Corporate Fitness Center Make a Strong Comeback?

April 11, 2023/Employee Benefits, Employee Burnout, Employee Experience, Employee Well-Being, Health and Wellness, Healthcare and Benefits /by Ann Wyatt

These days, many facets of work life are changing. But here’s one trend you may not have been expecting to see: The return of the corporate fitness center. Why is this happening?

Many employers are requiring staff to return to the office for at least several days a week. In fact, 77% of Fortune 100 companies have already adopted hybrid work schedules.

As a result of this shift, employees are expressing interest in reconnecting with colleagues they saw only on Zoom calls during the pandemic. With the days of forced remote work behind us, people naturally want to strengthen work relationships. And smart employers are responding in creative ways that build a sense of community.

This shift opens the door for a corporate fitness center comeback. However, the fitness facility of 2023 looks a bit different than you may recall from the past. Today’s corporate fitness center is becoming a community hub of sorts for employees who share an interest in health and wellbeing.

Inside the New Corporate Fitness Center

You’ll still see employees showing up at the corporate fitness center for individual workouts. But you’ll also see them participating in a variety of other activities such as:

Small group training sessions
“Buddy Sessions”
Wellness challenges of all sorts
Educational classes, seminars and series

Some are even involved in workshops with registered dieticians who are helping them embrace a lifestyle of holistic health and wellness.

In the broader health and wellness industry, boutique and specialized fitness gyms are already doing an excellent job of delivering programs like these. In fact, they’ve hit a new gear recently, primarily because they’re able to develop a “tribe” culture, where people work together and hold one another accountable for reaching their goals.

I think we’ll see corporate fitness centers fulfilling that same need in 2023. Here are 3 key ways they’re already rising to the challenge…

3 Fresh Corporate Fitness Center Moves

1. Growth in personal and small-group training

In the fitness centers we manage for clients, we’re seeing a huge surge in employees signing up for personal and small group training opportunities. As I mentioned above, this trend is largely driven by employees’ desire to reconnect and build deeper bonds with their colleagues. But another factor is involved here, too. People are looking for the special kind of accountability and support that comes with peer-to-peer programs.

As an employee at one of our client sites recently explained: “My workout motivation starts in the fitness center. I love my gym friends and the staff! We all need community, and the fitness center community is so important to me. I didn’t realize how much I missed being physically present here during these past few years.”

Requests for personal training are also exceeding pre-pandemic levels at many of the corporate fitness centers we manage. And we’re finding that employees are looking for more than just physical training during these sessions.

We know we’re serving savvier fitness consumers who have clear expectations about what they want to gain from membership in a corporate fitness club. And we’re expanding our scope to incorporate more facets of wellbeing into these programs. For example, we now include education and support for stress management, sleep education, and nutrition basics.

2. More collaboration with employee clubs

Partnering with existing on-campus interest groups is a great way to tap into audiences that are already connected and engaged. For example, we recently helped a technology industry corporate fitness center collaborate with multiple employee clubs for the company’s “Spirit Week” activities and annual 5K run.

Also, for one of our medical technology clients, we partnered with on-campus veterans clubs to engage members in customized fitness challenges. For Navy vets we arranged a rowing challenge, while Marines performed tire flips, and Army vets focused on push-ups. Then we pivoted the military fitness challenge to a 1k/5k run, so hybrid workers could easily participate from anywhere, anytime, depending on their schedules.

3. The rise of hybrid fitness memberships

I think we’ll also see corporate fitness centers get creative in how they deliver services to employees. They’re already doing this with so-called “hybrid memberships.” This relatively new kind of membership model gives employees a chance to tailor their wellness activities to their schedule.

Let’s say your employees work on a hybrid schedule where they’re at the office two to three days a week. On those days, it’s easy to workout at the on-site fitness center, where they get a great club experience as well as opportunities for social interaction. Then, on days when people work remotely, they can participate in virtual fitness activities from home.

This way, they can join live or live-streamed fitness classes, and also tap into on-demand content for convenient access to activities no matter where they’re located. Also, with these new hybrid memberships, they can now visit local yoga, boxing and pilates studios, so they can fit workouts into their schedule whenever and wherever it makes sense for them.

We’re seeing lots of enthusiasm for this model — combining on-site sessions, partner gym networking and at-home workouts — with the corporate fitness center as the hub of all these wellness activities.

Final Thoughts

The overarching theme here is convenience and simplicity. Whether employees are working on-site, remotely or in hybrid mode — we want to help them stay active and maintain healthy habits. Now, corporate fitness centers can support these goals in more ways than ever. Keeping things simple, accessible, and fun is the key to consistency.

I know from experience that with benefits, “more” isn’t always better. It’s really about benefits that are relevant, useful, and easy to apply. And with the advances we’re seeing in corporate fitness centers, I think wellness programs will soon become even more valuable and popular among employers and employees, alike.

Employee wellness has become a top priority for employers in the post-pandemic era. What can your organization do to encourage workforce wellbeing? Here are 12 ideas from business and HR leaders

12 Ways to Prioritize Employee Wellness

April 10, 2023/Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Happiness, Employee Well-Being, Health and Wellness, Mental Health Awareness /by Brett Farmiloe

Organizations have long considered employee wellness a priority. But in the wake of the pandemic, it’s more important than ever. Here’s why: 99% of organizations are facing talent challenges. And after years of disruption, workforce wellbeing is on especially shaky ground. Investing in wellness could go a long way to restore employee confidence and commitment.

Indeed, even before Covid, research found that when employers made workforce wellbeing a priority, they could significantly boost productivity and other key business metrics.

That’s why we asked HR and business leaders to answer the question: “What are some effective strategies to prioritize employee wellness?” From simple in-the-moment exercises to formal, ongoing programs, the answers are as diverse as the individuals who responded. Here are 12 of the best ideas we received:

Involve Employees in Wellness Program Design

Hire a Chief Wellbeing Officer

Promote Integrative Breathing Practices

Empower People to Embrace Healthy Eating Habits

Suggest Simple Mental Fitness Routines

Cultivate Better Communication Skills

Encourage 5-Minute Clarity Breaks

Check-in to Understand Wellness Needs

Schedule Regular Health Screenings

Train Managers in Soft Skills

Conduct Employee Wellness Challenges

Include Financial Wellness

To learn more about how your organization can make the most of these ideas, read the full responses below…

12 Ways to Make Employee Wellness a Priority

1. Involve Employees in Wellness Program Design

The most successful employee wellness programs address individual needs while supporting overall workforce health goals. Programs designed without employee input lead to low commitment and participation.

To avoid this, assess employee needs upfront to identify factors that influence their health. This helps you prioritize offerings that employees are likely to find worthwhile. It can also open the door to innovative ideas you might not otherwise consider.

As a baseline, conduct an anonymous organization-wide intake survey that asks employees to identify key wellness issues and objectives, as well as tools and resources they think can help them achieve their goals. If possible, also arrange face-to-face conversations or online public forums so people can discuss ideas with others if they choose.

Then use this input as a guide to define, develop, implement, promote and manage your initiatives. Continue to seek regular feedback. Also, be prepared to make modifications. This collaborative “continuous improvement” approach can lead to a more robust, effective program that both employees and management take pride in.

Monique Costello, Wellness Educator and Functional Medicine Coach, Happy Eats Healthy

2. Hire a Chief Wellbeing Officer

Many companies are building more robust, healthy corporate cultures where employees feel valued and respected. But true corporate resilience requires an intentional, integrated effort. It starts with leadership’s commitment to improving and sustaining employee performance and wellbeing. And increasingly, we’re seeing this agenda as the primary responsibility of an emerging role: Chief Wellbeing Officer (CWO).

CWOs are not only the go-to person for all employee wellness issues. They also work in concert with other executive officers across the organization to lead by example, supporting an environment of openness, advocacy, shared values, and collective purpose.

In the wake of the pandemic, many CWOs are focusing heavily on burnout and its effects on individual wellness and performance. To address this complex issue, initiatives often integrate multiple elements, such as adjusted work policies, targeted educational workshops, 1:1 health/resilience coaching, enhanced mental health resources, break rooms, workout facilities, and more.

Viktoria Levay, Corporate Wellness Coach and Resilience Trainer, LÉVAY

3. Promote Integrative Breathing Practices

Excessive stress has a negative impact on every functional system in the human body. So, for organizations to help employees achieve maximum health benefits, wellness efforts should be accessible to all and easy to integrate into daily habits. A thoughtful workforce breathing program can offer that kind of benefit.

Proper breathing techniques can improve physical health as well as productivity, creativity, and mental acuity. A holistic breathing program can improve employee health outcomes on an individual and team level while elevating overall workforce wellbeing. For lasting results, design, implement and maintain this program with a top-down, inside-out approach.

What does this look like? Make a lasting commitment to promoting effective breathing practices. And be sure to share progress so employees will want to continue this habit.

Lisa Charles, CEO, Embrace Your Fitness, LLC

4. Empower People to Embrace Healthy Eating Habits

Everyone needs to eat, but some of us make better food choices than others. Educating employees about how to nourish themselves with smart nutritional habits can help them prevent chronic health conditions. It also improves work productivity, performance, and wellbeing.

Here’s a strategy for motivating employees to incorporate a healthy diet into their daily lives: Offer live cooking sessions with a health coach. Participants can taste nutritious alternative foods and learn how easy it can be to cook healthy meals. They can also find out how some foods reverse chronic diseases such as type-2 diabetes and heart disease in as little as eight weeks.

And here are bonus benefits: Research says that employees who eat together feel better, have more sustained energy, and are more engaged and productive at work.

Claudia Grace, Health and Wellness Coach, Claudia Grace

5. Suggest Simple Mental Fitness Routines

Negative thought patterns can increase stress, which in turn, causes attention, engagement and productivity to decrease. But through education, you can help employees intercept these troubling thoughts, and shift to a positive mindset. People who consistently apply these techniques can strengthen their focus, improve their health and achieve peak performance.

When employees feel triggered by a conversation or stressed about a challenging workload, they can take a mental time-out and engage their senses for 10-15 seconds. Anyone can activate this mental “reset” process by focusing intently on a nearby object. Pay attention to its color, shape, texture and small defining details. Then shift focus away to a distant sound, such as a conversation, a ringing phone, or a passing car. Another helpful exercise is to slowly rub two fingers together for several seconds. Notice the temperature and texture of your skin as you move your fingertips.

These micro-meditations help shift your focus away from negative thought patterns and reduce unwanted stress.

Lisa Hammett, Success Coach, Author, and Motivational Speaker, Success Coaching

6. Cultivate Better Communication Skills

As kids, we all learn how to talk. But sadly, very few of us are taught to communicate well. So as adults, we bring bad habits and patterns from those early years into our work lives. Even when we’re aware of these issues, many of us aren’t sure what we can do to achieve better results.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is one of the best toolkits for improving communication. By investing time to understand NLP, people can begin to recognize why they respond to situations the way they do. It also helps them listen to teammates to improve understanding, rather than listening to reply.

Everyone wants to be heard and understood. That’s why building these skills can work miracles for organizations that want to encourage better relationships among employees. By strengthening communication, teams can work effectively to grow a happier, more profitable organization.

Christina Beauchemin, Founder, Let My Legacy Be Love, LLC

7. Encourage 5-Minute Clarity Breaks

Here’s a simple strategy. Recommend that employees replace a daily coffee break with 5 minutes of meditation. This can reduce stress and anxiety while increasing focus, clarity, and productivity.

The process is simple to teach. Ask participants to set a timer, close their eyes, sit up straight, and keep both feet on the ground. Inhale deeply through the nose, hold that breath, and count to 7. Then exhale slowly through the mouth, relaxing the shoulders, belly, and hips. Keep your attention focused on your breath and repeat this cycle at least 5 times.

Simple, but not easy. The mind may wander, but when it does, just return to focusing on the rhythm of your breath. People who rely on this routine will soon look forward to these relaxing brakes. There is always time to grab coffee later!

Dani Sheil, Wellness Coach, Dani Sheil

8. Check-in to Understand Wellness Needs

Do you have a finger on the pulse of wellness in your organization? Take time to survey employees, so you can get a realistic sense of challenges that affect their health and wellbeing, and the kind of support they would appreciate. Even if your organization doesn’t have a large budget, this process can provide information that will help you focus your efforts where you can make the biggest impact.

If you don’t have resources to conduct a formal survey, start by integrating questions into existing processes, such as team meetings or performance reviews. The more you engage people in conversations about this, the more effective you can be.

Aileen Axtmayer, Career Coach and Corporate Wellness Speaker, Aspire with Aileen

9. Schedule Regular Health Screenings

With access to periodic onsite health screenings, employees can easily monitor their health and catch potential issues early on. Screenings can cover a range of health metrics, such as blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels. Establishing this kind of baseline for each employee provides the information they need to define reasonable health goals.

Regular check-ins can also help motivate individuals to work toward positive change and remain accountable for managing their habits on an ongoing basis. Ultimately, prioritizing employee wellness through annual health screenings can lead to a healthier, happier, and more productive workforce.

Benan Yuceer, Founder and Head Coach, BeYu Wellness

10. Train Managers in Soft Skills

Managers play a key role in ensuring that teams have a healthy work environment and access to resources that help them stay healthy and thrive. Organizations can help by ensuring that managers develop the soft skills needed to help employees manage their wellbeing.

Training managers in areas such as empathy, emotional intelligence, communication, collaboration, and adaptability helps them better understand team members and help them in their individual wellness journeys. Managers with effective soft skills are able to proactively support employees and provide a sense of belonging — both of which are important components of overall wellbeing.

Sonia Hunt, Health and Wellness Futurist, Speaker, Coach, and CMO, Sonia Hunt

11. Conduct Employee Wellness Challenges

Time-based activity routines can help individuals develop their fitness capabilities and create opportunities for friendly competition. For example, you can set-up step tracking tools and challenge employees to walk at least 10,000 steps a day for at least 15 days a month.

Reward participants who achieve this goal with a small perk. For instance, let “winners” leave work an hour early on any day they choose. Create a Wall of Fame to celebrate all monthly achievers. Over time, you can also recognize those who consistently meet challenge objectives.

Because these challenges are time-based, they can help employees structure their schedule more efficiently. They can even lead to improved efficiency and discipline in other aspects of their lives.

Anjan Goswami, Founder, Mynd Your Fitness

12. Include Financial Wellness

Few people enter the workforce with a robust financial education. Currently, four out of five workers live paycheck to paycheck. In fact, 76% of workers told PwC that financial worries negatively impact their productivity. And 55% of these employees spend 3 or more hours a week focusing on finances while at work.

For a happier, healthier, more productive workforce, smart employers are adding personalized financial education tools and resources to their overall wellness agenda. An emergency savings program can help. This makes it possible for employees to contribute a portion of their monthly income to a separate account designated for emergency funds. This not only relieves some money management concerns, but also can be a creative recruitment incentive that attracts higher-quality talent to your organization.

Julie Weidenfeld, President and Chief Wellness Officer, Peak Wealth 360

8 Ways to Empower Employees Through Financial Education

March 14, 2023/DEI Diversity Equity Inclusion, Employee Benefits, Employee Well-Being, Learning, Retirement Planning, Skills Development /by Brett Farmiloe

These days, many people are dealing with stress from all kinds of personal financial concerns. This can harm workforce wellbeing — especially when people aren’t sure how to manage these issues or who they can trust for advice. That’s why organizations are increasingly offering workforce financial education.

But which strategies are most effective in helping employees develop financial literacy — especially considering that everyone has a different level of financial knowledge and experience?

We asked HR superstars to share one recommendation from their employee benefits and DEI programs. Here are 7 of the best suggestions we received:

Offer Resources to Help Employees Make Informed Choices

Host Budgeting Workshops and One-on-One Coaching

Think in Terms of Financial Wellness

Be Sensitive to an Employee’s Financial Literacy Level

Keep Equity in Mind When Offering Resources

Add More Benefits Instead of Outsourcing

Leverage Employee Questions and Anecdotes

To learn more about how you can make these ideas work for your organization, read the full responses below…

7 Proven Ways to Boost Employee Financial Education

1. Offer Resources to Help Employees Make Informed Choices

Financial literacy is an important life skill that can have a major impact on an individual’s overall wellbeing. Unfortunately, many employees lack the financial knowledge and resources necessary to make informed decisions about their money. As a result, they may end up making poor choices. And those choices can lead to serious financial problems down the road.

However, there are steps HR leaders can take to help employees improve their financial literacy. For example, you can offer resources to help employees make informed financial decisions. This can include access to basic financial education courses, budgeting tools, and debt management assistance.

By tapping into these resources, employees gain the knowledge and skills they need to make better money decisions, avoid future financial difficulties, and improve their overall wellbeing.

Teresha Aird, Chief Marketing Officer and HR Lead, Offices.net

2. Host Budgeting Workshops or One-on-One Coaching

At our company, we offer different levels of financial education and resources. We recognize that not everyone is comfortable discussing or learning about personal finance, so we want to ensure we provide various resources that cater to different needs and preferences.

For example, we provide budgeting workshops for employees who want to get a better handle on daily money management. And for those who prefer a more personal approach, we offer one-on-one financial coaching. We also provide resources on our intranet and website for employees who want to learn more about finance-related topics on their own time.

By offering a variety of resources that address different interests, we hope to make it easier for all of our employees to understand and take control of their finances.

Tracey Beveridge, HR Director, Personnel Checks

3. Think in Terms of Financial Wellness

Some organizations approach their benefits and DEI programs from a “financial wellness” perspective. Financial wellness is about much more than money management — it’s about creating a holistic, well-rounded view of one’s financial situation and health.

A financial wellness program can address people with different levels of financial literacy in several ways. One common approach is to provide employees with a variety of financial education options and resources, depending on their needs and interests. For example, employees who are just starting out may need more basic information on topics like budgeting and saving for retirement. Those who are further along in their financial journey are likely to benefit from more advanced topics like investing and estate planning.

No matter what an employee’s level of financial literacy may be, it’s important to provide them with accurate and up-to-date information. This means employers should plan to regularly review, refresh and adjust available content, courses, tools and resources.

Linda Shaffer, Chief People Operations Officer, Checkr

4. Be Sensitive to an Employee’s Financial Literacy Level

It is important to provide employees with the resources they need to make informed decisions about benefits and DEI programs, without forcing them to take part in activities they are not comfortable with.

One approach is to provide employees with resources that are tailored to their level of financial literacy. For example, you could offer an online course for employees who want to learn more about personal finance. Or, you could provide a list of recommended books or websites for employees who want to learn more on their own.

Another approach is to hold workshops or seminars on various financial topics. You can tailor these events to different levels of financial literacy so all employees can benefit from the information presented.

Alysha M. Campbell, Founder and CEO, CultureShift HR

5. Keep Equity in Mind When Offering Resources

It’s important to understand that we all start at different places in life. While this may seem like a given, many struggle with truly understanding how this applies to financial literacy.

Specifically, many individuals from different racial backgrounds were not privy to having a mother or father to teach them the ins and outs of financial literacy. This is why equity is so important in the workplace. Equity recognizes that giving everyone the same tools or resources isn’t effective, and instead ensures that each individual has what they need to be successful.

Keeping equity in mind when planning and managing your employee benefits offerings is one way to ensure that each employee has what they need. Resources every employer should offer include financial coaching, legal assistance, and workshops about credit, budgeting, and the importance of investing.

Tawanda Johnson, HR Leader, Sporting Smiles

6. Add More Benefits Instead of Outsourcing

Our employee benefits are managed through another company, so we aren’t able to decide what most of the options are. However, this past year, the benefit premiums increased. Still, the company could add more benefits to make the overall package more robust and attractive to current and new employees. Adding these incremental benefits could help offset the premium increase.

Lindsey Hight, HR Professional, Sporting Smiles

7. Leverage Participant Questions and Anecdotes

When addressing financial topics in DEI programs where attendees have different financial literacy levels, we want to help participants understand the benefits of concepts like retirement plans, debt management, and budgeting. Then we explain the fundamentals of these subjects.

An excellent way to explain these concepts is by welcoming questions from attendees. Then we use real-world examples to make the topics clear enough for individuals, no matter what their financial literacy level may be.

Grace He, People and Culture Director, teambuilding.com

Can Commuter Benefits Help People Return to the Office?

February 14, 2023/Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Well-Being, Healthcare and Benefits, HR, Hybrid Work, Pandemic and Post-Pandemic, Travel Management /by Becky Seefeldt

The pandemic changed how we live and work in so many ways — not the least of which was the daily commute. But now, after years of working remotely, many employees are returning to the office at least a few days each week. That’s why employer-sponsored commuter benefits are on the rise again.

No matter what an employee’s work schedule may be, this kind of support eases the transition to onsite and hybrid work. It gives employees the flexibility to choose the transportation options they prefer. And by demonstrating a commitment to employee wellbeing, this kind of program also contributes to workforce recruiting and retention.

What Are Commuter Benefits?

Daily travel to and from the office can be a significant source of stress. Commuting can be time-consuming and expensive, especially if you drive your own car. Gas prices are hovering at an all-time high, and the cost of maintaining a vehicle adds up over time.

Commuter benefits are designed to help ease this financial burden. Plans typically include funds to cover public transportation costs and parking fees. These are pre-tax dollars employees can set aside to pay commuting costs, up to $300 a month in 2023.

Employers assign this money to a specific account for employee mass transit or parking expenses. And employees can contribute additional funds to both accounts if they elect to do so. Any unused funds carry forward from one month to the next, and employees can adjust or stop their elections anytime.

Why Offer Commuter Benefits?

There are many reasons to offer this kind of program. Let’s take a closer look:

1. It’s a Great Way to Attract and Retain Top Talent

In today’s competitive job market, employees prefer working for companies with comprehensive benefits packages. Flexible commuting plans can help improve the employee experience by demonstrating that you care about workforce wellbeing, no matter where people need to work or when they need to travel.

2. It Helps the Environment

This kind of program is ideal if your organization is committed to sustainability or formal ESG goals. Here’s why:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that gas-powered transportation causes 28% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Encouraging less fuel-intensive commuting methods can help you reduce the number of cars on the road as well as the level of emissions they produce.

You can provide incentives for employees who choose public transportation, such as transit pass subsidies or reduced parking fees. In addition, you can promote ride-sharing options, such as carpooling or vanpooling programs. And with the rise of lightweight electric scooters, bicycles, and mopeds, you can offer post-tax reimbursement for these alternatives, as well.

Ultimately, these efforts can help your company reduce its carbon footprint.

3. It’s a Smart Business Move

Commuter benefits help reduce your payroll taxes because your employees are saving money tax-free to cover their commuting costs. On average, these programs can save employers about $40 per person, per month. For a business with 50 employees enrolled in the program, that translates into savings of $24,000 a year.

Why Employees Love Commuter Benefits

There are several reasons employees also love this kind of program. For instance:

They gain better access to transportation options they prefer.
They can improve their local community and the global environment. Choosing mass transit — including ridesharing and cycling options — helps reduce traffic congestion and pollution.
It helps them save money. This is especially true for pre-tax commuter benefits because employees can set aside money before taxes are applied.
Participation is easy. Commuter benefit plan funds accrue monthly. Any unused balance automatically rolls forward. And there’s no year-end “use-it-or-lose-it” penalty. In addition, enrollment choices automatically renew each year until an employee requests a change.
With custom plans, employees can enjoy additional travel perks that typically aren’t included in standard commuter programs.

Beyond Covid: Supporting a Better Work Commute

Over the course of the pandemic, many members of the workforce grew accustomed to working from home. And before the virus threat faded, most people feared returning to an office environment, let alone commuting on public transit.

But now, for employers who are ready to move forward with a successful mix of onsite and remote work, this is the ideal time to rethink the transportation benefits you offer. A creative mix of pre-tax and post-tax options can help get employees back on the road and back to work whenever they need to be onsite.

Not only does this help ease the financial burden of commuting for existing employees, but it also shows prospective employees that your company is committed to the “greater good” by making work-related travel as environmentally responsible as possible.

Final Note

Providing a thoughtful commuter benefits plan is a win-win for both employers and employees, alike. Your employees save on transportation expenses, while your organization reaps the rewards of improved productivity and morale.

No doubt, investment in offering stronger commuter benefits is a wise strategy for any employer that wants to address the near-term interests of employees who need to return to the office. But ultimately, it’s an investment that can pay off over the long term with improved workforce productivity and engagement.

Virtual travel benefits are taking off. Find out why and how this employee perk is boosting employee engagement

Virtual Travel Benefits Are Taking Off. Here’s Why

February 13, 2023/Digital Workspace, Employee Benefits, Employee Engagement, Employee Happiness, Employee Well-Being /by Brittany Palmer

Work Norms Are Changing

In 2019, about nine million U.S. civilians worked from home on a regular basis. Then the pandemic arrived. Nearly overnight, remote work became a necessity for a vast number of employees. In fact, by 2021 the U.S. remote workforce had tripled to nearly 28 million people.

Now, as Covid fades, the nature of work is taking another interesting turn. Many remote workers don’t want to rush back to the office. Instead, studies say anywhere from 50% to 72% of employees prefer working from home at least some of the time.

As a result, flexible work schedules are becoming a norm among employers that want to be competitive in talent recruitment and retention. As part of this strategy, organizations are embracing new benefits to attract and engage remote and hybrid employees. And among these innovative perks, one of the most creative and popular is virtual travel.

Why The Time is Right to Rethink Benefits

In general, working from home has been helpful for employers and employees, alike. Remote workers report lower stress levels, higher productivity, and higher overall engagement. It is even credited with reducing employee churn. Yet remote work still poses several key issues. For example:

Blurred Work Boundaries
Research indicates that many home-based workers fail to distinguish between personal and professional priorities. Without clear boundaries, people tend to work excessive hours, which in turn, can lead to burnout.

Social Isolation
Another challenge involves communication among distributed team members. Remote workers tend to experience more isolation and loneliness. This is especially important for employers to consider when determining how to build trust, camaraderie, and collaboration, especially in an environment where some people work remotely, while others work onsite or in a hybrid mode.

How Virtual Travel Benefits Help

Virtual travel adventures address some of the most problematic aspects of remote and hybrid work life. These experiences are an easy way to bring employees together and engage them in a shared immersive adventure, no matter where they work. That’s why many employers are adding virtual travel to their portfolio of benefits and perks.

Here’s how the concept works:

By simply logging into their computers at a convenient time, work teams can instantly jump into a captivating live tour of some of the world’s most amazing locations. From coffee farms in Costa Rica to UNESCO Heritage sites such as the Vietnamese town of Hoi An, companies can theme these team-building experiences around key destinations of interest, heritage months, or holidays.

Tours are led by live, qualified local guides who share helpful cultural context throughout the tour and answer questions in real time while interacting with participants. This helps everyone feel more connected with each other and with the location they’re exploring, as if they’re on the ground, walking through the destination together.

This kind of tour can transform getaways from costly once-a-year (or once-in-a-lifetime) vacations into fun group events that are available to all, anytime. And because these adventures are virtual, they’re a sustainable alternative to airline flights and road trips.

Why Virtual Travel Benefits Are So Appealing

By integrating virtual travel with employee benefits, companies can plan and produce formal team bonding exercises or offer employees virtual “time off” so they can casually connect. These programs offer multiple advantages. For example, they can:

Improve team morale by providing staff with time for relaxation.
Foster a more inclusive culture by extending a high-quality travel experience to all workers, regardless of their location.
Create new team connections and strengthen existing relationships through shared learning experiences.
Give employees opportunities to explore the world in memorable ways with co-workers, friends, and family — without depleting their bank accounts or PTO.
Open employees to new cultures and perspectives they might not otherwise be able to encounter.
Offer individuals and teams a unique and enjoyable reward they can look forward to as recognition for their work contributions.

Providing virtual travel to employees as a way of showing appreciation doesn’t have to be limited to periodic team meetings. Companies can also enroll individuals in recurring virtual travel events and add them to a diverse portfolio of ongoing benefits. This is an excellent way to make new-age perks accessible to all while diversifying benefit options.

Digital Perks Appeal to All Ages

Here’s another reason why virtual travel is gaining traction. Right now, the workforce is in a unique position, with five generations working together. To keep employees engaged, organizations must balance the various needs, interests, and expectations of today’s extraordinarily diverse workforce.

From the youngest Generation Z interns to retirement-age Boomers and beyond, each age group brings its own unique idea of work culture, compensation, and benefits that resonate.

Yet virtual travel is one benefit that crosses all generational boundaries. It’s an inclusive experience that everyone can enjoy. And it brings people together on common ground.

There’s Never Been a Better Time for Virtual Travel

In this era of economic and business uncertainty, companies that invest thoughtfully in benefits that help attract and retain engaged employees can build a competitive advantage. For example, according to Gallup, employers with higher levels of engagement enjoy a variety of advantages, compared with low-engagement organizations:

41% lower absenteeism
40% fewer quality defects
17% higher productivity
23% higher profitability

Virtual travel is just one way to elevate engagement. But its value is clear. All it takes is a relatively small investment. But this can open the door for employees who want to explore the world outside their cubicle or home office without depleting their savings or PTO.

What are the top corporate fitness trends for 2023? Learn from an industry insider in this article

Which Corporate Fitness Trends Will Shape 2023?

December 27, 2022/Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Well-Being, Health and Wellness, Healthcare and Benefits, Winner: Impact Award for Content Excellence /by Ann Wyatt

As a corporate fitness professional, one of my favorite activities at the end of each year is to set aside time to look back at what has unfolded over the past 12 months. It helps to review what has worked for our clients (as well as what didn’t work so well). An open-minded, reflective analysis is always a good way to put things into perspective before considering new possibilities and mapping a game plan for the New Year.

As part of this process, I’m constantly tracking what’s happening with corporate fitness trends. So much has changed over the past few years, thanks to the pandemic and the increase in remote work, it’s important to keep ahead of what no longer seems as relevant or useful and what is gaining traction. And in looking toward the year ahead, all the signals indicate that much more change is still to come!

So, fasten your seatbelts and let’s look at how employers can prepare for the future. Based on trends I’ve been following, along with my direct experience with our teams and our clients in recent months, here are 3 emerging priorities that are likely to define corporate fitness in 2023:

1. More Personalized Training

Get ready for a big surge in employee demand for more personalized services — things like personal training and small group training. Multiple factors are driving this corporate fitness trend. For example:

Early in 2022, as people slowly started to emerge from a more sedentary pandemic lifestyle, I started hearing that employees were looking for help to get back on track with their fitness and wellness goals. Not surprisingly, during the Covid years, many people developed some unhealthy habits — especially in terms of diet and fitness. The isolation of working and living at home full-time didn’t help, either.

Many people are now looking to break out of that cycle and are longing for a stronger sense of community. So, prepare to see an upswing in more intimate training environments that give employees broader support and guidance, along with opportunities to connect with others and share their journey through community experiences.

Also, my clients confirm that employees are interested in wellness goals that involve more than physical workouts, alone. People want to get back in shape, but they also realize the importance of focusing on things like sleep, nutrition and stress management. And this means they’re increasingly interested in a more holistic approach to health and wellbeing. These objectives are often easier to achieve with programs that include individualized coaching.

Digital tracking tools can also be helpful in supporting people in their wellness objectives. Already, more than 20% of Americans are using wearables that provide convenient access to personalized health and fitness data. Many people want to use this data more effectively to develop tailored workouts and lifestyle management programs that will help increase their training efficiency, improve their daily habits and elevate their health outcomes.

2. More “Hybrid” Fitness Program Memberships

Another thing I’m starting to hear often from our clients is that their employees are looking for a seamless, connected fitness experience that aligns with their busy lifestyles. They want to workout where they want, when they want.

This is where “hybrid memberships” come in. These relatively new programs provide employees with a combination of corporate fitness center access and virtual fitness classes, along with partnerships with local yoga, boxing and Pilates studios.

With these hybrid memberships, employees can workout at their corporate gym, at home or on the road when they’re traveling—all with the convenience of one membership rather than having to cobble it all together themselves. It’s the best of all worlds. And it’s bigger than just a brick-and-mortar fitness center—it’s a program.

Here’s one example: Kevin is a financial services professional in Indiana who comes into the office three days a week. During those visits, he goes to the on-site fitness center to lift weights. Typically, he talks with several fellow employees while he works out. It’s a great social experience. On the other two weekdays he works from home. On those days, he works out with a virtual fitness class through an app that’s connected to his fitness center and the same staff he knows and trusts. Over the weekend, he takes a spin class at a local studio that contracts with his company through the hybrid health program. Again, this hybrid program lets Kevin work out where he wants, when he wants. It’s all built into his schedule!

Inclusive hybrid memberships like these give employees the convenience, choice and variety they’re asking for. Plus, it provides access to the kind of connectedness and community people need with engagement that is hard to find elsewhere.

3. More Active Time Outdoors

We’re also hearing loud-and-clear from clients and employees that they want to get outside and move! A recent survey from the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry and McKinsey & Company, asked employees this key question:

“In which sports/physical activity categories do you expect to see a lasting increase in participation vs. pre-COVID-19?”

Of the 12 categories listed as potential responses, 84% of survey participants picked “outdoor activity” as their first choice.

Obviously, survey results like these underscore just how massive the pandemic’s impact was on corporate wellness programs. Over the past year, some companies started to experiment with fitness activities and events designed to get employees outdoors. Now it appears that this trend is catching on and may be here to stay.

For instance, one of our clients — a leading insurance company — has invested in a mobile open-air fitness trailer from BeaverFit. This makes it possible for employees to participate in healthy outdoor activities on a daily basis. Combined with programming delivered by on-site fitness professionals, this open air program is flourishing. And workforce wellbeing is improving as a result of employee participation in regular activities with physical and mental health benefits.

Final Notes on the Future of Corporate Fitness

These three corporate fitness trends are only a few of the emerging ideas we can look forward to seeing in 2023, as the space continues to evolve. With more personalized programming, more flexible options, access to innovative digital tools and a broader range of creative fitness locations, employee wellness is poised to make an even stronger comeback in the coming year. I look forward to seeing other innovative trends emerge that we aren’t even thinking about yet!

Is Quiet Quitting a Symptom of Poor Mental Health?

December 19, 2022/Company Culture, Employee Benefits, Employee Burnout, Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Happiness, Employee Performance, Employee Well-Being, Health and Wellness, Healthcare and Benefits, Mental Health Awareness /by Vittoria Lecomte

One workplace buzzword many people are eager to leave behind is “quiet quitting.” The phrase dominated headlines this year, especially when a Gallup poll revealed that at least half of U.S. workers are disengaged.

Although this term is quickly running its course, the underlying problem remains. In fact, work engagement continues to slide, indicating a growing disconnect between employees and employers. No doubt, the quiet quitting phenomenon is a symptom of ongoing workplace upheaval. But I suspect it also reflects the need for better mental health support at work.

What Research Says About Workforce Wellbeing

Even as post-pandemic work engagement is dropping, countless studies reveal that depression and anxiety are on the rise. And the uptick in layoffs and economic uncertainty creates even more stress. Let’s look closer.

Nearly three-quarters of employees (72% ) say they’re concerned about finances – up from 65% last year – according to a recent report from financial wellness solution provider, Brightplan. And PWC research indicates that declining financial health impacts employee mental health and work productivity. Specifically, PWC found that 69% of employees who are financially stressed are less likely to feel valued at work – and therefore, they are becoming less engaged.

Depression and anxiety are also leading reasons why people take time off from work. In fact, employers lose an estimated 12 billion workdays annually as a result of employee depression and anxiety. According to The World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization, this costs the global economy nearly $1 trillion a year. Both organizations acknowledge the need for concrete action to address workplace mental health.

How Can Employers Respond?

Some employers may ignore these disturbing trends. But others are taking action by creating an environment where workers feel more valued and supported.

For example, if you notice that “quiet quitting” is spreading among your ranks, it’s likely that these employees feel under-appreciated. By offering professionally managed support groups as a benefit, you can send a much-needed message that tells people, “We see you, we care about your wellbeing, and you are valued here.”

This kind of benefit extends assistance to people who might hesitate to pursue individual therapy — which has historically been costly and difficult to access. And the pandemic has only made it worse. For example, at the height of the Covid outbreak, the U.S. average wait time to see a therapist ranged from 29-66 days.

The Benefits of Group Support

Multiple studies underscore how support group participation leads to improved employee mental health and job performance. In fact, our own research found that when employees attended group sessions, 50% became more productive and 100% experienced improved attitude and outlook.

Why are these results so striking? When employees have access to a clinically-backed support group program, their social connectedness and mood tend to improve. This, in turn, alleviates depression and anxiety. And group support not only helps reduce anxiety and stress. It can also play a central role in preventive care strategies designed to avoid employee burnout.

Why Group Support Helps

Depression and anxiety can fuel feelings of isolation and loneliness – two key reasons why people seek group support in their personal lives. Providing a safe space where employees discuss meaningful issues and concerns can increase their positive feelings about work and improve overall job satisfaction.

Because group support encourages dialogue among people with different perspectives, it can help participants build trust, empathy and openness that carries over into the workplace. However, it’s important not to require colleagues to join the same group. Also, it’s important to respect participants’ privacy by preserving their anonymity.

While the benefits of peer counseling are well known, new studies demonstrate how digital group support can extend mental health services access to more diverse populations. For example, some people have limited mobility or are located in rural communities where trained mental health providers aren’t unavailable.

Video-based group support is an excellent alternative, because it is affordable and accessible online from nearly anywhere on any digital device. This encourages connections and therapeutic conversations without requiring participants to wait for weeks or travel long distances.

Tips to Improve Group Support

When offering this kind of mental health benefit to your employees, keep this advice in mind:

1. Emphasize Voluntary Participation

Everyone comes to the table with a unique background and point of view. This is why the group model can be a particularly powerful tool. So, although encouraging individuals to take advantage of this benefit can be helpful, avoid pressuring anyone or threatening them with repercussions. The goal is to destigmatize mental health and make pathways to wellbeing more accessible and affordable.

2. Prepare to Overcome Fears

Group support is a highly misunderstood term. Too often, people associate group settings only with treatment centers. In the workplace, many people who need support fear they’ll be perceived as “weak” and their careers will be damaged if they join a group. For anyone concerned about this, you can share positive use case data demonstrating how helpful and healing group support can be. Employers can leverage this information as a reference tool and assure concerned employees that their identity will be protected.

3. Insist on Anonymity

Video-based group support should provide access to online sessions on any day and time that works best for each member, while also protecting their identity. Solutions like Sesh, which is 100% HIPAA-compliant, let every user select a pseudonym. Individual data is never shared, and employees are notified when anyone within the same organization registers for their group.

My Perspective

I discovered the value of group sessions while in treatment for an eating disorder. Being part of a group was the catalyst that catapulted my recovery to the next level. This experience led me to launch Sesh.

Typically, therapist-led support is difficult to access, difficult to pay for and designed for monolithic audiences. That’s why I’m committed to extending therapist-led group support to people from all communities, circumstances and identities.

With an affordable, accessible group support experience through their employer, people can finally receive the high-quality mental health support they need and deserve. This helps individuals cope with challenging personal issues, while helping businesses create a more harmonious, productive workplace. And in the process, it may also silence quiet quitting. That is my hope.

Video in Employee Benefits Education 12-5-22

How to Level Up Employee Benefits Education With Video

December 5, 2022/Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Well-Being, Healthcare and Benefits, HR Communications, Open Enrollment, Retirement Planning /by Frank Mengert

As employee engagement continues to drift downward, organizations everywhere are looking for more efficient, effective ways to connect and communicate with their workforce. This is especially true for employee benefits education, where access to clear, complete and timely information is critical.

What better way to help employees understand their benefits than with video? In this article, we’ll explore why video is such an effective form of outreach, along with five ways you can use it to improve benefits education.

Why is Video Ideal for This Purpose?

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. But what about video? In the business world, its popularity as a communication tool has skyrocketed over the past decade. And the pandemic only added fuel to the fire by forcing employers to shift toward video for internal communications.

Now, many organizations recognize just how powerful video can be in employee education. Why?

When people see and hear information within the context of a video, they’re more likely to understand and remember the message.
Video tutorials and walkthroughs are a great way to break down complex topics into manageable, memorable “bites.”
Video content is also highly shareable, so employees can easily pass information along and discuss it with others.

5 Ways to Enhance Benefits Education With Video

1. Offer Benefits Portal Tutorials and Walkthroughs

To ensure employees know how to navigate your benefits portal, it’s important to provide proper instruction. But with video, it’s no longer necessary to bombard people with lengthy written documentation.

Instead, brief tutorials are a great way to give employees a guided tour of your benefits site. Even a few quick, easy-to-follow videos can make all the difference in introducing employees to the portal so they become more comfortable conducting research and serving themselves.

2. Create Enrollment Screencasts

Enrolling in benefits can be daunting, especially when people are unfamiliar with the process. Rather than sending out lengthy written instructions or expecting employees to figure it out independently, you can use screencasting to walk them through the entire process, step-by-step. This helps people understand the open enrollment process, so they don’t become confused or frustrated by complexity.

Offering useful screencasts requires thoughtful upfront planning and production. But in the long run, it can save your benefits administrators significant time, by reducing the volume of routine questions and issues they must resolve.

3. Focus on Key Topics of Interest

Instructional videos are a terrific option if you want to provide more in-depth information about particular benefits topics. These videos can cover anything from an overview of your company’s health insurance plans, to guidance on how to use key portal features.

This is also a smart way to address common concerns or misconceptions employees may have about selecting or managing their benefits. By providing clear, concise information in a compelling visual format, you can help employees better understand every aspect of their benefits and how to use them.

4. Conduct Virtual Benefits Fairs

If your company offers a variety of benefits, staging a virtual benefits fair can be a useful way to consolidate information into a highly accessible “all-in-one” live online experience. Plus, you can record the sessions and make them available on-demand so employees can attend at their convenience.

Your programming could involve a series of short videos covering each benefit category. These sessions could be followed by an interactive Q&A session, where employees can ask questions of an expert at your company or from a related benefits vendor. This gives participants access to the information they need to make better-informed decisions.

5. Produce Video Testimonials

One of the most compelling ways to engage employees in benefits education is to illustrate how others are using these benefits. And what better way to do this than with video testimonials that let members of your workforce tell their story in their own words?

Featured employees can talk about why and how they selected specific benefits to improve their health, save for financial goals, or improve their quality of life. This not only helps others feel comfortable about their benefits decisions, even as it reinforces your organization’s commitment to workforce wellbeing.

Video Engagement Best Practices

Now that we’ve explored ways to use video to engage your employees in benefits education, let’s look at some best practices to keep in mind when creating any video content:

Be sure to put the audience’s interests first. What are their needs? What information do they want to see? How much time are they likely to invest in consuming this content? What should their next move be?
Strive to keep your videos short and to the point. Employees are busy and often can’t devote time or attention to long-form content.
Always test videos before you launch and promote them. Make sure they work correctly from end-to-end, and that employees can understand the concepts you’re trying to communicate. This will ensure a positive, productive enrollment experience for employees and support your broader organizational goals.
Don’t forget the marketing outreach needed to make employees aware of any education resources. Unseen video has little value, so be sure you invest in communication that will lead people to your educational content.

Closing Notes

Helping employees understand their benefits is crucial for employers and human resources departments. If you haven’t considered using video to communicate this information, you’re missing an opportunity to present complex benefits information in a way that is meaningful, quick and easy for employees to access. And in the long run, this self-service content can save your HR team significant time and money.

What caregiving benefits do modern employers provide? 6 business leaders share their answers

Which Caregiving Benefits Do Modern Employers Provide?

November 14, 2022/Company Culture, Elder Caregiving, Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Retention, Employee Well-Being, Healthcare and Benefits, Talent Retention /by Brett Farmiloe

What benefits are top-of-mind for organizations that want to attract and retain great talent in today’s challenging talent market? Many are finding it pays to step outside the standard benefits box with creative options that meet diverse employee needs. For example, caregiving benefits are gaining strong momentum.

To learn more about this, we asked business and HR leaders to describe one caregiving option they believe is essential in supporting employees as they move through various life stages — from family planning and fertility to childcare and eldercare. Their recommendations cover a spectrum of solutions:

Childcare Benefits
Tuition Assistance
Sabbatical Leave
Unlimited PTO
Nutritional Support
Family Medical Leave

To learn more about why these options are so helpful, read the responses below…

6 Caregiving Benefits for the Modern Workforce

1. Childcare Support

One “do-everything” benefit can’t cover all the complexities involved with each stage in life. To ensure higher utilization and satisfaction, focus on stages with the most impact on employees and find the best option for each stage.

Certainly, fertility and family planning are good benefits to consider. However, childcare has the biggest impact on employee retention and productivity.

Childcare costs are soaring. In fact, in most states, the average annual cost of childcare is more expensive than college. This expense means many working couples are considering whether they can even afford to have kids, or if one parent must resign from work to care for their children at home.

Childcare also has a direct impact on employee attendance. On average, parents who must respond to childcare needs miss 9-14 days of work each year. And more than 65% leave work early or arrive late because they lack access to care. This is nearly 3x more productivity lost than from employees who are managing healthcare issues.

Kevin Ehlinger, VP Product Marketing, TOOTRiS

2. Tuition Assistance

Higher education and vocational training open up a wide range of opportunities for employees. They equip workers with the skills and knowledge to pursue additional career options and improve job mobility.

Tuition assistance makes education more accessible, empowering workers and their families to plan for their future. Offering tuition assistance as a benefit helps attract high-quality candidates and helps them hone their skills while helping employers retain top talent. In addition, government education assistance programs in the U.S. let employers deduct sizable reimbursements for employee tuition contributions.

Ben Travis, Founder, HR Chief

3. Sabbatical Leave

Although sabbatical leave was traditionally offered only in academic settings, it has started to gain strong traction over the past few years in the private sector, in response to a rise in employee burnout and the Great Resignation.

Private employers are looking for generous perks to attract new employees, keep them engaged, and help them maintain a healthy work-life balance. Sabbatical leave is the perfect benefit to check those boxes.

In short, sabbatical leave is the option to step away from work for an extended period (usually 6 to 12 months) for any purpose whatsoever. This is a perfect way to accommodate employees at every stage in the employee lifecycle, from cradle to grave.

Individuals can take a sabbatical to de-stress and get pregnant, care for a new child, fight an illness, spend time with a dying loved one, or just travel the world. It is a flexible, practical benefit that allows for a range of uses. Whether paid, partially paid, or totally unpaid, any employee will appreciate the flexibility that sabbatical leave offers.

John Ross, CEO, Test Prep Insight

4. Unlimited PTO

As a business, we are committed to helping our employees maintain a work-life balance. We’re also committed to creating an environment that supports our employees’ personal goals and lets them prioritize their families. One way we do this is through a generous personal time off (PTO) policy.

We offer unlimited vacation time as well as unlimited sick time. We encourage employees to take time off for both personal and family goals, as well as when they need to care for ailing family members.

In addition, we provide resources for employees so they can continue working from home and/or work on a flexible schedule while they are taking time away.

Luciano Colos, CEO, PitchGrade

5. Nutritional Support

One aspect of healthcare that spans the entire lifecycle is nutrition. So one benefit worth considering is coverage for prescribed nutritional supplements — not just prescription drugs. Other ways to support nutritional needs during different life stages is by providing access to educational information and expert talks about nutrition.

Optimum nutrition at each phase in the lifecycle promotes more robust immune systems and higher energy levels. That means it helps keep your workforce and their families healthier. So ultimately, these benefits ensure better performance at work and fewer illness-related absences.

Ruth Novales, Marketing Director, Fortis Medical Billing Professionals

6. Family Medical Leave

Family medical leave is one benefit every employer should consider to help employees address the full lifecycle, from fertility to family planning to elder care.

Family medical leave helps protect an employee’s job for up to 12 weeks if they become ill or they need to care for a family member. A supervisor cannot fire an employee when they rely on this benefit for a legitimate reason, so it can provide a helpful safety net if the need arises.

Lindsey Hight, HR Professional, Sporting Smiles

EDITOR’S NOTE: These caregiving benefits ideas were submitted via Terkel. Terkel is a knowledge platform that shares community-driven content based on expert insights. To see questions and get published, sign up at terkel.io.

Childcare Benefits: A Reckoning for Working Families

October 25, 2022/Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Retention, Employee Well-Being, Healthcare and Benefits, Remote Work, Talent Retention /by Jessica Chang

It’s not a stretch to say COVID changed everything—including the way working families think about childcare benefits. Before the pandemic, parents struggled with childcare challenges, of course. But the day-to-day realities grew much worse when the pandemic struck.

After the initial shock of schools and childcare centers shutting down, families were left to figure out how to work from home while parenting. Instead of being at school or daycare, children spent the day side-by-side with their parents. In fact, from February 2020-February 2021, the lack of childcare pushed 2.3 million women out of the labor force. And a very long time passed before these women could return to work (if they have returned at all).

While people in some jobs continued to work on-site throughout the pandemic, many workers had to adapt to the new remote work world. This is where many employees still find themselves today, either working remotely or in some form of hybrid schedule—splitting time between home and office.

Today, childcare conditions have improved slightly, but still are far from ideal. Fortunately for some working families, employers are sponsoring more childcare benefits for those who need this kind of support.

Remote and Hybrid Employees Still Need Childcare Assistance

The benefits of remote work are well documented. However, one drawback is often overlooked. I’m talking about the misconception that people don’t need childcare assistance when they’re working remotely. This notion became prevalent early in the pandemic, and unfortunately, employers still haven’t moved on from this line of thinking.

Picture a typical working mother in a remote or hybrid management role.

Compared to her in-office peers, she doesn’t have fewer deadlines, less ambitious KPIs, or a smaller staff to manage. Nor does she have extra hands to hold her baby while attending Zoom meetings or responding to email messages. There are no extra hours in the day when she can feed or play with a toddler.

The workday is still the workday—even when people perform those tasks at home, surrounded by family distractions and obligations, rather than in an office cubicle.

Families With School-Aged Kids Face Unique Challenges

Contrary to what some believe, childcare needs do not stop once kids start kindergarten. I’m a mother, myself, so take it from me! Parents of 5-year-olds are still in the thick of their childcare journey.

Historically, preschool programs (as well as before-school and after-school care) served as a safety net to support a large, productive workforce. But COVID, chronic underfunding, and budget cuts have left these programs with limited capacity, fewer teachers, and reduced hours. The safety net is frayed, at best.

And now, working parents have the added burden of anxiety about COVID risks.

Previously, when children were mildly ill, they still attended school. These days, we know better. Emergency and backup care are must-haves for working parents who are unable to stay home with a sick child.

Even when parents take precautions, they still face the risk of a COVID outbreak at school that can suddenly change the course of a day, a week, or a month—depending on mandated quarantine periods. This is a lot for working families to handle, which is why employee childcare benefits matter so much.

Throughout the pandemic, working parents have been balancing the risks of depriving their children of social interaction or exposing them to a potentially deadly disease. Some families decide to choose individual or small-group professional care, such as a nanny or nanny-sharing arrangement. But this increases overall childcare costs and isn’t affordable enough for some.

The Trouble With Workplace Childcare Centers

Some employers have tried to help working families fill this gap by investing in on-site childcare centers. While an admirable idea and a substantial financial commitment, these large centers fall short for many employees.

These facilities no longer meet many childcare needs, and simply do not work for remote and hybrid workers. For example, how many working parents would want to commute to headquarters for their kids when they may otherwise be working from home? Working families prefer caregivers who are located close to home—which should be good news for employers who don’t want to dedicate massive budgets to build and maintain large childcare centers.

Childcare Benefits Are Key to Employee Retention

No matter which childcare option families choose, it comes at a price. And it’s hard for people to keep in perspective just how unaffordable it has become.

The national average childcare cost has risen to more than $10,000 per year, per child. That’s incredibly steep. How many working families do you know with two or three kids who also have an extra $20,000-$30,000 lying around?

The increasing cost of childcare forces parents (and mothers, in particular) to make a very difficult choice: Stay employed or quit to care full-time for their children. This has pushed record numbers of women out of the workforce.

The reality facing families is stark and alarming:

Childcare costs increased more than 40% during the pandemic — and continue to rise.
The Inflation Reduction Act became law without draft provisions to expand childcare access.
66% of parents made job sacrifices last summer that compromised their household income or job security due to a lack of childcare.
48% of U.S. workers who left a job in 2021 cited childcare issues.

Current and prospective employees value family care benefits more than ever. This means employer-sponsored childcare benefits should play a key role in retention and recruitment strategies.

Final Thoughts

COVID drastically changed employment and childcare. The status quo is no longer sufficient, for both employees and employers. Forward-thinking business and HR leaders are rising to the challenge and supporting working families with employee childcare benefits that make a significant difference in people’s lives. This is a step in the right direction.

Employee Caregivers Are Quitting How Employers Can Help?

Employee Caregivers Are Quitting. Here’s How to Keep Them

October 24, 2022/Elder Caregiving, Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Well-Being, Health and Wellness, Healthcare and Benefits, Talent Retention, Workplace Empathy /by Dan Kraft

These days, we’re flooded with headlines about The Great Resignation, The Big Quit, and The Great Reshuffle. It’s not surprising. The desire for career advancement and better work/life balance are powerful reasons why people are resigning in record numbers. But these aren’t the only motives. Actually, a growing number of people are quitting so they can take care of loved ones. If your organization can’t afford to lose these employee caregivers, this advice can help you keep them on board.

Factors Driving This Trend

We’re seeing more employee caregivers, partially because the pandemic put older people at risk and disrupted existing family care arrangements. But also, it is the result of broader population shifts and the rising cost of long-term care. Let’s look at how this could play out over the next 15-20 years…

1) Our Population is Changing

Historically, if you mapped our population by age, the chart would look like a pyramid. In the past, many more young people were at the base. As they became adults, they helped support a smaller number of older people at the top. Today, that pyramid is inverted, with a larger elderly population and an increasingly smaller base of young people at the bottom who struggle to support the elderly. This is happening because:

Boomers are aging
Younger generations are producing fewer children
Medical advances are extending life expectancies

This inverted pyramid means that by 2040, the elderly will depend more heavily on the working population than those under 18. Put differently, in less than 20 years, more of your employee caregivers will be supporting elderly loved ones, rather than their own children. Or potentially, they could be caring for both at the same time.

That’s already the case for many employee caregivers. In fact, more than half of middle-aged Americans are currently “sandwiched” between generations.

2) Caregiving Costs Are Rising

Because care is expensive to provide, not everyone will be able to hire professionals to look after aging family members. Instead, they’ll need to provide care themselves at home. According to a recent AARP survey, there are 48 million unpaid caregivers in the U.S. and 80% of these caregivers are providing care to an adult family member or friend.

This means organizations will increasingly have employees who are juggling job performance with the burden of being a caregiver—along with all the time, energy, and emotional commitment that caregiving requires. While they may manage caregiving by missing time at work, it could also be as serious as leaving the workforce altogether.

For example, consider these statistics:

51% of employee caregivers say their family duties “negatively affect” their ability to satisfy work requirements
32% of employee caregivers have left their job to perform these family duties
53% of caregivers who resign say the cost of paid help is a key factor
40% leave because they can’t meet the demands of both caregiving and work

How to Support Employee Caregivers

What are forward-thinking HR leaders doing to help employee caregivers? Our recent conversations focus on three key action areas:

1) Provide Financial Solutions

One of the most important ways to support employees is by helping them plan for their own long-term care. While younger employees may not see the need, education and planning now will offer them more care options in the future if they’re injured or become ill.

When you create financial programming, be sure it includes discussions about the role of:

Medicare and Medicaid – Some people see government programs such as care options. However, they typically don’t cover long-term care (Medicare) and access involves significant drawbacks and limitations (Medicaid).
Retirement savings/401k – Similarly, using 401(k) and retirement savings to pay for care is possible, but this also comes with drawbacks. These investments are best reserved for funding life expenses during retirement and are not recommended for use during working years.
Standalone long-term care insurance – This coverage may be offered at work or purchased through an independent insurance provider. It can be a viable solution that can help cover some costs of long-term care.
Hybrid life insurance with long-term care benefits – This lets people purchase life insurance coverage that includes the ability to advance part of a death benefit for care needs. Many products on the market focus care benefits on professional care such as a nursing home or home health aide, but new products in this category cover family caregiving, as well.

2) Promote Your Employee Assistance Programs

Another way to support your workforce is through an employee assistance program (EAP). The right program can help employees navigate the challenges they face as caregivers. Whether it’s offering care planning tools and strategies or access to tools to help people manage complex aspects of care, be sure to consider a wide range of resources. For instance, you could include:

Care planning services
Care needs assessments
Help in finding and evaluating care
Life insurance claims support
Long-term care claims support
Home care placement assistance
Legal support for wills, trusts, and power of attorney documents
In-home loneliness solutions
Home modification services
Relocation support

Finally, it’s important to share details about your EAP program, and re-communicate the program’s features and benefits on a regular basis. Pairing this with enrollment or re-enrollment of your financial support solutions is a great way to protect your employees.

3) Pay Attention to Caregiving Legislation

Many state governments are taking notice of the need for care—the growing number of people who need a solution, the lack of affordable care, and the expected future drain on state Medicaid funds. A growing number of states are enacting legislation to address these care issues.

For example, in 2021, Washington became the first state to pass this kind of legislation. The Washington Cares Act provides long-term care financial support for state residents. The program is funded by a payroll tax. Employees with qualifying long-term care coverage could opt out of the program (and the associated tax).

Although this legislation may provide a rough blueprint, each state’s approach is likely to be different. To prepare their organizations and their employees for the future, employers should begin tracking legislative activity.

Start Planning

It’s hard to know precisely what’s in store for employers as more Boomers leave the workplace and younger employees step in to care for aging loved ones. But thus far, it’s clear that employee caregivers will need support and solutions as they navigate an increasingly challenging eldercare crisis.

HR leaders can be an essential part of the solution, but it’s important to start planning now. Workplace programs and policies need to evolve, with active involvement from employers and their employees. Start by educating your workforce about the need to plan for long-term care–whether caring for an elderly parent or planning ahead to manage their own care should they need it. Working together with employees to address their needs will help them understand your commitment to them, and encourage them to stay.

Keys to a Successful Open Enrollment Season

October 10, 2022/Employee Benefits, Employee Well-Being, Healthcare and Benefits, Open Enrollment /by Cassandra Pratt

Open enrollment season is upon us again, and the world of work continues to shift at a head-spinning pace. This fluid environment poses benefits-related challenges that HR leaders can’t afford to ignore. For example, decision-makers are wondering:

How to address employees’ evolving needs. It’s essential now to meet individuals where they are and provide clear pathways to benefits that resonate.

How to communicate effectively in a “work anywhere” environment. Everyone deserves easy access to clear, relevant benefits information, regardless of whether they’ve returned to the office, they’re working remotely, or their schedule blends both work modes.

Why Benefits Education Counts

To illustrate how important education is for a successful open enrollment season, consider these U.S. health benefits research findings:

72% of employees wish someone would tell them the best health insurance for their particular situation. (Justworks/Harris Poll)

Nearly 90% of employers think their benefits are clear and easy to understand. Yet only 65% of employees agree. (via MetLife)

54% of employees don’t know the full scope of their health benefits. Yet nearly 65% say these offerings significantly influence their willingness to stay with an organization. (Justworks/Harris Poll)

This means education is vital—not just to help people choose relevant benefits. The truth is that, without effective benefits education, you’re putting employee retention at risk. But improving open enrollment communication doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Below are a few simple ways to help employees through the decision-making process and ensure better overall results:

5 Ways to Improve Open Enrollment Education

1) Host Multiple Information Sessions

Conducting a single all-hands open enrollment season meeting no longer covers all the bases. Even if 100% of your employees work on-site, you can’t expect full participation. Some people will be out ill or on vacation. Unavoidable business priorities will keep others from attending. It’s smart to plan ahead and assume conflicts will make it impossible for everyone to join a live session.

You can rise to this challenge by producing content in various formats (for example, an in-person meeting, a live webinar, a digital recording, and a series of podcast episodes). You’ll also want to share this content through multiple delivery channels (for example, sending email messages, sharing in Slack groups, and posting on your organization’s intranet platform).

The goal is to make information easily accessible and available whenever people can fit it into their schedules.

2) Plan Open Enrollment “Office Hours”

To augment your core benefits “broadcast” content, consider offering prescheduled office hours with an HR staff member. You can structure and promote this as an opportunity for individuals to drop by in person or online and discuss their specific circumstances with a benefits expert.

Often in public information sessions, employees hesitate to ask questions about what they don’t know. But office hours provide a private safe space for discussion. This frees employees to speak more openly about their specific concerns. At the same time, it helps the HR team provide more relevant information to ensure individuals understand the impact of their open enrollment choices.

You may also find it helpful to extend the value of these sessions by repurposing the content for broader use. In other words, you can select some of the most common questions from “office hours” visits and repost them anonymously as “frequently asked questions” on a wiki or web page.

3) Get Your Vendors Involved

Sometimes, information is best received directly from the source. Hosting virtual live and recorded benefits fairs gives vendors a platform for sharing details about their solutions and services. It also provides more time for providers to discuss specific questions in-depth with employees.

So, instead of conducting a standard 1-hour session where your HR team summarizes available health benefits, you could schedule a series of 30-45-minute sessions showcasing key vendors. (For example, you could feature each of your health insurance companies, along with sessions devoted to specialized vendors, such as onsite dental services, wellness consultants, or fertility benefits providers).

These sessions can focus on basic facts about each solution, as well as ancillary benefits that are underutilized. Then you could close each session by answering individual questions from the audience.

Also, if you’re scheduling topic-focused HR office hours, you may want to ask vendor consultants to join relevant sessions. Or you could invite key vendors to conduct their own 1:1 sessions. Sometimes, employees feel more comfortable talking to external benefits specialists. For these people, dedicated vendor sessions or 1:1 office hours are an ideal solution.

4) Integrate Micro-Learnings into the Process

Micro-learnings are brief educational events and materials targeting topics that tie in with key benefits, such as health and finance. This kind of knowledge sharing encourages more employee interaction and tends to generate deeper interest in relevant benefits.

To illustrate, here are a few micro-learning themes:

“Urgent Care vs ER: What’s the Difference?”
“The Link Between Mental Health and Overall Health”
“How to Balance Work Life with Family Caregiving“

Top online learning providers (such as LinkedIn Learning and YouTube channels) already provide excellent educational content about these topics. This means you don’t have to create content from scratch. Instead, you can curate strong programming from several online sources and then easily deliver the content to interested employees.

Packaging and promoting this kind of useful information upfront is invaluable for employees. It saves them time because they don’t have to research these topics on their own. Plus, the convenience of “anytime” access to high-quality educational content about health and benefits enhances workforce well-being.

5) Customize Educational Materials for Various Interests

Every employee is unique. And the beauty of today’s workforce is in its diversity. So everything about open enrollment season should support this reality. In other words, it’s important to appeal to various interests within your workforce.

For instance, recent grads may not appreciate benefits that appeal to new parents and vice versa. Instead of offering a generic “one-size-fits-all” menu, think about how you can categorize benefits so they align with groups that will value them most. Then present these benefits collections on your open enrollment site as packages. (For example, you could specify “Benefits that support LGBTQIA+ employees.”)

Clearly, you’ll find overlap among groups, so you don’t need to recreate an entirely new package for each community. But structuring benefits options in this way helps people more quickly identify the benefits information they’re likely to want.

If you’ve already established dedicated employee resource groups, consider creating packages for each of those ERGs and sending a customized message to each group with a direct link to their accompanying package. This extra measure ensures that individuals can quickly and easily find materials that matter most to them.

Conclusion

As we continue to navigate today’s dynamic business and benefits landscape, this year’s open enrollment season is sure to present challenges. But continually reflecting on your communication process, seeking employee feedback, and making informed adjustments can help you move forward more smoothly.

Remember to distribute information in more than one format. Also, make it as easy to find as possible, in as many places as your budget and resources will allow. And above all, focus on personalizing communication when you can. Although this is a “broadcast” communication challenge, benefits decisions are highly personal for each employee. The more willing you are to meet people where they are, the more successful you’ll be.

Why Benefits for Employee Caregivers Are Good Business

September 13, 2022/Elder Caregiving, Employee Benefits, Healthcare and Benefits, Mental Health Awareness /by Dave Jacobs

We’ve all seen alarming headlines about “The Great Resignation.” Some observers say it shows no signs of letting up. McKinsey recently called it the “quitting trend that just won’t quit.” And data confirms that the “big quit” is real.

In May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. voluntary quit rate was 25% higher than pre-pandemic levels. It’s hard to ignore numbers like that. And chances are you’ve experienced this recently in your own organization, as more top performers leave for various reasons.

What’s behind this surge in turnover? The pandemic forced us all to reevaluate what’s most important in life. Now, many are choosing to be more present for family while also juggling a demanding career. But the choice is especially challenging for those with family members who need special care.

This segment of the workforce is larger than you may think. In fact, according to the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, 1 in 5 American workers also double as an unpaid family caregiver for an aging, ill or disabled loved one. The amount of time they spend on caregiving, in addition to their full-time careers, isn’t trivial. The AARP estimates that these caregivers devote an average of 23.7 hours a week to these tasks.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that employee caregivers are struggling mentally, physically, and financially. Nearly 60% are dealing with clinical depression and anxiety. Experts say they are stretched so thin that the snowball effect of caregiving will cause 1 in 3 to leave the workforce entirely.

New Insights About Employees as Caregivers

A new study entitled “Following The Journey of Family Caregivers” commissioned by Homethrive, Home Instead, and Certification in Long-Term Care (CLTC) sheds more light on how employee caregivers are responding to the pressure.

Nearly 70% of survey respondents who identify as employed said it has been important to rely on paid in-home care because it helps them avoid leaving their job, or because it helps them concentrate better at work.

“I wasn’t surprised to hear (working caregivers) turning more to paid care,” says Eileen J. Tell, a Boston-area researcher who administered the survey. “They cited the importance of doing well at their job and the desire to maintain their job.”

It’s no wonder why working caregivers said they need paid assistance. For example:

35% often provide companionship
33% often provide transportation help
26% often help with daily living activities
23% often help arrange care
26% often help make care decisions
31% always help make home safety changes

Respondents also said if they received help coordinating care, it would take a major load off their already piled-high plates. Specifically:

42% want coordination with doctors or care teams
38% want assistance in finding service providers
34% want help finding benefits eligibility
34% want meal delivery coordination
32% want recommendations for devices and equipment
31% want help assessing home safety

Interestingly, the study found that only 6% of working caregivers receive support from an employer-provided benefit program to help find reliable paid in-home care for loved ones.

What about the other 94% without access to employee caregiving benefits? There is good news. An increasing number of forward-thinking employers are offering these unsung heroes benefits packages that include family caregiving options.

Why is this a wise choice? Employers gain in multiple ways. For example…

Business Benefits of Supporting Employee Caregivers

1. Restore Retention

When employees have an option to access the right kind of assistance, when they need it, they’re less likely to leave. They’re also more focused and productive at work. Offering this benefit can position you as an employer who cares about worker wellbeing on all levels—which in turn fosters a sense of company loyalty.

2. Rev-Up Recruitment

You want to attract the best employees possible. Offering a family caregiving benefit is one way to excel at recruiting because your company will appeal to candidates who value an employer with compassion, a concern for families, and a sense of community.

3. Improve Employee Wellbeing

According to Mercer’s 2022 Global Talent Trends study, employee wellbeing programs are among the top five reasons why people remain at a company. Caregiving can be a time-consuming and emotionally draining responsibility. A family caregiving benefit helps take some of this burden off your employees and improves their wellbeing.

4. Increase Productivity

Time is money. And caregiving can take up a lot of time.

One employee might spend hours on the phone setting up doctor appointments for an aging parent, while another might leave work frequently to take a special needs child to therapy.

It all takes time away from the workday, decreases productivity, and increases employee stress. But with a family caregiving benefit, employees and their loved ones will receive higher quality support when it matters most, so your business productivity will flourish.

5. Revolutionize Work-Life Balance

A family caregiving benefit can drastically improve work-life balance. When employees continually put others’ care ahead of self-care, it can translate into mental and physical health issues such as exhaustion, depression, and anxiety. Those issues inflate your company’s healthcare costs.

When a caregiver’s mindset has shifted to a “life-work tilt,” career advancement, salary increases, and professional praise are important. But quality time with loved ones, the opportunity to explore passions outside of work, and overall mental wellbeing are also critical.

Leaning into this “life-work tilt” can have multiple advantages. By proactively acknowledging the needs and responsibilities of family caregivers and offering tangible support, you can set your organization apart. And when your employees find a better balance between work and life, they can focus better, be more productive, and stay loyal to your company.

6. Protect Your Bottom Line

High turnover is expensive. The cost often extends beyond investing in recruitment to replace lost workers. For example, institutional knowledge and team morale also suffer. In addition, productivity can take a hit, which in turn, can reduce innovation and growth. Ultimately, this negative spiral can prevent your company from reaching its full potential.

A Solution That Helps Employees and Employers

Family caregiving benefits are a win-win.

They’re a win for employers because they help improve workforce wellbeing, retention, and productivity—all while protecting your bottom line.

They’re also a win for employees because they help support work-life balance, mental health, and job satisfaction.

As Eileen Tell explains, “I think it’s key that employers understand how important it is to family caregivers to feel like they don’t have to choose between their jobs and their role as a family caregiver. Employees may look like they’re not paying attention to work, but they really don’t want to compromise their job and they don’t want to skimp on their family responsibilities.”

The Benefits of Earned Wage Access for Employees

September 9, 2022/Employee Benefits, Employee Engagement, Employee Experience, Employee Happiness, Employee Well-Being, Podcast Recap, Podcast Recaps /by Meghan M. Biro

Sponsored by: ADP

Financial stress is a real employee concern these days. Prices are higher across the board – gas, food, and housing. There is also a looming recession on the horizon. So how can employers help alleviate some of this stress?

As the modern workplace continues to evolve, so should the ways employees get paid. Many employers are now offering employees the option to access their wages at much-needed times through Earned Wage Access (EWA) vs. having access to their pay only at the designated pay cycle. This benefit offers employees much-needed financial flexibility and peace of mind. For employers, it can improve employee retention, satisfaction, and productivity by helping employees redirect their mental focus on work rather than financial stresses.

So, it’s really a win-win for both employees and employers.

Our Guest: Michelle Young

On this latest episode of #WorkTrends, I spoke with Michelle Young, Vice President of Operations for ADP’s Employee Financial Solutions Group. Michelle is an innovation expert and a trusted advisor to corporate executives in orchestrating business and fiscal strategies with B2B and B2C models.

Let’s talk about financial wellness. A very hot topic right now. Looking at this through the lens of ADP, how do you define financial wellness in the workplace? Michelle:

That’s a great question and very on point right now. When we at ADP think about financial wellness, we immediately go to the source of pay. That’s where we can promote confidence. We can help our employers offer their employees flexible pay methods that are beyond standard pay cycles. Like earned wage access, which, if you haven’t heard, is a very hot topic right now. It really helps to align unexpected expenses with income.

Reducing Employee Financial Stress

Employees can avoid spending money on overdraft fees, late fees, or even payday loans with earned wage access. And that further increases their ability to save and reduce financial stress.

Sometimes, when unforeseen expenses don’t align with income, such as a medical bill or a home repair, it can make any employee, even financially responsible ones, feel helpless. And that often directly impacts their performance in the workplace.

What is Earned Wage Access?

What can employers offer employees around earned waged access? Or, EWA for short. Let’s talk more about what EWA actually is and how it works.

Promoting financial wellness ties to our EWA story. So EWA earned wage access is a valuable financial wellness benefit that allows employees to access a portion of their income that they’ve already earned. As opposed to waiting until the next pay cycle.

How Are Employees Using Earned Wage Access?

Employees use their earned wages in various ways, varying by demographic and age segment.

Employees ages 18 to 24 tend to use it to reduce the stress of not having enough cash until payday. Maybe to buy groceries, pay off a loan, or even rent. As we move up, the 25 to 44-year-olds typically use it for family-related expenses or to pay bills. The 45 to 64-year-olds are also using EWA for emergency-related expenses or paying bills and use it for an emergency medical expense, which typically impacts the Gen Xers and the Boomers with more frequency.

ADP Research Key Takeaways

There were a lot of really juicy findings in the ADP Earned Wage Access Research Study done in December 2021 to January 2021 timeframe, What are some key takeaways?

There is broad interest in EWA from workers in every age group, every education level. Seventy-six percent of workers across all age groups say it’s important for their employer to offer it. And 82% of employers that don’t offer it are interested in actually offering it. Additionally, 59% of millennials would give priority to a job with an employer that offers earned wage access. And 75% say that the availability of VWA would, in fact, influence their acceptance of a job offer.

I hope you found this episode of #WorkTrends helpful, I know I did. To learn more about the EWA metrics, download ADP’s latest white paper: “Earned Wage Access: Tapping into the Potential of Flexible Pay for Today’s World of Work”

Subscribe to the #WorkTrends podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. Be sure to follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on LinkedIn and Facebook, too, for more great conversations!

Attract and Retain Employees with Earned Wage Access (EWA)

August 30, 2022/Editor's Picks, Employee Benefits, Employee Retention, Talent Acquisition /by Meghan M. Biro

Sponsored by: ADP

Employers are looking for new ways to stand out in terms of employee perks and benefits. One solution: earned wage access (EWA). This is a powerful tool when it comes to meeting today’s employee needs. It’s also got proven advantages when it comes to attracting talent and landing great hires right now.

As a problem solver, EWA covers a lot of ground at a time when anything less than a true game-changer won’t work. Combine a 3.5% unemployment rate, more than half a million jobs added in July 2022, the continuing Great Realignment, and troubling inflation, and you’ve got a perfect storm facing employers. Talent strategy right now is a double-edged sword. You can’t just recruit, and you can’t just retain. You need to do both to stay competitive as an organization. That means successfully addressing employee as well as recruitment pain points.

Employees Coming Up Short

From a workforce perspective, financial anxieties are weighing heavier than ever for countless employees. A recent PwC financial wellness survey of more than 3,000 employees across several industries found that just 42% felt their compensation was keeping up with the rising cost of living expenses in 2022 — down from 52% in 2021. Further, 56% of all employees are stressed about their finances.

What that means in practical terms is that for most, access to pay can make a key difference. Research by ADP on earned wage access benefits in today’s world of work found that 69% of employees are likely to request their wages early at least once within the next year. Requesting wages early is prevalent for a clear majority of Gen Z and Millennial employees. But, this is also true for nearly half of older employees as well:

Gen Z (18-24) 74%
Millennials (25-44) 86%
Baby Boomers (45-64) 48%

Here’s the question: What happens if an organization doesn’t have a system in place to grant such a request? In terms of well-being, it will add to the financial stress already affecting employees — and that can have all sorts of consequences. The PwC study’s respondents said financial stress took a severe to major toll on their mental health (34%), sleep (33%), self-esteem (30%), physical health (23%), and relationships at home (21%). Additionally, 18% said financial stress interfered with their ability to be productive at work. 15% said it directly affected their ability to go to work at all.

Employee Stress = Organizational Stress

It’s not hard to connect the dots between financial stress and organizational stress. An organization that lacks a policy and/or system for early wage access could be conducting a not-so-subtle form of self-sabotage even in terms of operational success. In terms of employer reputation, it’s even clearer. Employees want to work for an organization that clearly cares about their well-being — including their financial well-being.

The PwC survey found that 76% of financially stressed employees are likely to look elsewhere for an employer who cares, versus 38% who aren’t financially stressed. To put it bluntly, financially stressed employees are twice as likely to search for a better employer. By inference, then, if you’ve got a skittish, stressed-out workforce and no means to ease their financial stress, you’re twice as likely to lose talent to someone who has the means in place. And what about landing new hires in the first place? ADP research found that over 90% of employers (all with more than 1,000 employees) who offer EWA find that it improves their employees’ sense of financial security and helps with both talent attraction and retention.

EWA as a Solution: Best Practices

Earned wage access is both a digital innovation and a well-being booster — and its time has come. It fits into the framework of modern employee expectations in a range of ways. It pragmatically demonstrates that the employer values employee needs, and it solves a very human conundrum with a practical digital tool. Additionally, it breaks the mold of traditional talent management for a more innovative, flexible approach. But like any innovation, there are strategies that will leverage its full potential and strategies that won’t.

Here are four important best practices when it comes to incorporating EWA into your organization:

Consider EWA from a business standpoint: A well-designed, modern EWA program offers an inarguable business advantage. Recent ADP research on earned wage access benefits surveyed 500 companies with more than 150 employees and found that 95% believe that employee financial wellness impacts their company. Suppose EWA is provided as a system that offers a simple, self-driven, well-documented means to access pay early. In that case, it can offset a myriad of problems, from employee-manager friction to accounting snafus to attrition.

Integrate EWA into existing compensation and payroll processes: Rather than a bolt-on solution that’s isolated in terms of data, record-keeping, and information systems, EWA should be interconnected with the processes already in place. Ad-hoc doesn’t have to mean anarchy. EWA is best when it keeps pay administration both simple and cost-effective. Offering employees flexibility and choice that doesn’t complicate the process. Employees should be able to access their wages without disrupting the integrity of the payroll cycle.

Provide employees and managers with the features that count: For employees, that could mean easy enrollment, a straightforward, anytime, mobile-friendly platform, fast access to pay, clear visibility into pay balances, and electronic pay.

Don’t be shy about informing your workforce: Companies that offer EWA are staying on the leading edge of digital transformation. They’re also demonstrating an evolved approach to compensation. But competitive pay doesn’t just mean the highest salary in a given role in a given industry. It means a flexible, responsive compensation program that eases minds. As far as retention, that’s going to have a big impact: 93% of employers believe that offering EWA helps boost employee retention. But unless you broadcast the policy, employees and new hires won’t know it. Given all the pressures we’re under, it’s not a time to be quiet about modernizing your employee perks.

Empathy as an Organizational Benefit

With more employees than ever living paycheck to paycheck, earned wage access enables your employees to avoid the friction (and stress) around having to ask a manager for an advance on pay or take out a high-interest loan to tackle an unexpected financial burden. It also takes managers out of the hot seat by providing a built-in, integrated process.

No question: digital innovations are pushing the envelope on how we work, evolving traditional structures like workspace and compensation into more people-centric approaches and offering new solutions to a range of challenges. But rising to the occasion and leveraging these new tools is up to the organization. A digital EWA platform offers a means to address a very human need. It’s a clear example of empathetic people management — and it could be the competitive edge in terms of talent.

To learn more about EWA, ADP is hosting a webinar on “Offering Earned Wage Access: Strategic & Compliance Considerations”, Thursday, September 8, 2022, 2p Eastern. Register Here!

Planning for Caregiving – How Employers Can Help

August 8, 2022/Elder Caregiving, Employee Benefits, Employee Happiness, Future of Work /by Julie Norstrand

We must plan for caregiving instead of waiting for the medical crisis. Lack of planning is sadly the typical scenario for the vast majority of working families with aging relatives. Too many barriers exist when it comes to planning for caregiving. Such barriers include lack of knowledge, time, and procrastination. Ultimately, lack of preparation inevitably results in premature exit from the workforce. This is a costly scenario for the employee as well as the employer.

As part of a comprehensive benefits plan, employers can help educate future caregiver employees as to how to initiate the conversation and set up planning. Such a setup may vastly change the landscape around employees’ ability to remain in the workplace as they take on a caregiving role. The point of this article, therefore, is a wake-up call to the employer as well as the future caregiver employee.

Preparation for Caregiving

It is wonderful to think that people today have a good chance of living well beyond their 70s. However, with rising age comes increasing disabilities (1), and thus, the need for supportive care. In my profession as an eldercare consultant, I have come to realize that the vast majority of people take on caregiving responsibilities with little or no preparation; this is indeed the typical scenario for caregivers (2).

Unfortunately, it is human nature to wait till the last moment before we take action, especially with issues that are difficult to solve. In the caregiving world, people often do not learn about the many resources and services available until after the medical crisis occurs. Why do we procrastinate when it comes to planning for caregiving? There are many reasons: lack of time in our busy working lives, lack of knowledge, lack of confidence, and stressful family dynamics. However, lack of preparation around caregiving can lead to wide-ranging negative outcomes for the caregiver (3\4).

Planning for the Future of Caregiving

We plan our financial future; so why don’t we plan for caregiving? This should be a no-brainer, as lack of preparation can have a negative impact on so many aspects of our lives including deteriorating mental and physical health, loss of social connections, and reduced or lost income. For example, caregivers are more likely to experience stress, anxiety, irritability, hopelessness, and depression, as well as have coexisting substance abuse or dependence, and chronic disease (5/6). Furthermore, studies have shown that caregivers (age 50+) who leave the workforce to care for a parent lose, on average, nearly $304,000 in wages and benefits over their lifetime, and are at increased risk of living in poverty in their own old age (7).

Programmatic Solutions in the Workplace

The rationale for why we should plan for caregiving is clear. Yet, we don’t. I would argue that much of the fault lies in that structurally our society is not set up to support proactive caregiving. A key area where programmatic solutions could be developed exists within the workplace. The workplace employs many people who fall into the sandwich generation; that is, those sandwiched between children and aging parents. Even though many mid-size to larger companies provide eldercare services as part of their Employment Assistance Programs (EAPs), these do not promote proactive planning for caregiving.

EAPs cater to the employee who is in crisis mode. Instead, workplaces should do more to promote proactive planning for caregiving when the employee is not under duress. This could be done through educational ‘lunch and learns’ provided to employees where they may gain knowledge about warning signs of when it is time to step in, learn ways to initiate the conversation, and how to find resources in their community. Educating the sandwich generation workforce is a win-win scenario for the employee as well as the employer by diminishing disruption in the workplace because employees will be much more prepared for caregiving.

Final Thoughts

The workplace captures a huge audience of future caregivers. This is a vital consideration as we are facing a looming shortage of caregivers as the large baby boomer cohort ages (8). We must start to implement structural changes within our society that can support caregiving in the same way that daycare was implemented to support working mothers! The programmatic solutions described in this article are relatively inexpensive and empower the family to make decisions that may better meet the wishes and needs of the care recipient. Ultimately, by planning for caregiving we may better promote the autonomy and the dignity of our loved ones.

1 Aubrecht, K., Kelly, C. & Rice, C. (2020). The aging-disability nexus. University of British Columbia Press.

2 Alvariza, A., Häger-Tibell, L., Holm, M. et al. Increasing preparedness for caregiving and death in family caregivers of patients with severe illness who are cared for at home – study protocol for a web-based intervention. BMC Palliat Care 19, 33 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-020-0530-6

3 Sung S Park, PhD, Caregivers’ Mental Health and Somatic Symptoms During COVID-19, The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, Volume 76, Issue 4, April 2021, Pages e235 – e240, https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa121

4 Broxson J, Feliciano L. Understanding the Impacts of Caregiver Stress. Prof Case Manag. 2020 Jul/Aug;25(4):213-219. doi: 10.1097/NCM.0000000000000414. PMID: 32453176.

5 Chang, H. Y., Chiou, C. J., & Chen, N. S. (2010). Impact of mental health and caregiver burden on family caregivers’ physical health. Archives of gerontology and geriatrics, 50(3), 267–271. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.archger.2009.04.006

6 Lena Sandin Wranker, Sölve Elmståhl & Fagerström Cecilia (2021) The Health of Older Family Caregivers – A 6-Year Follow-up, Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 64:2, 190-207, DOI: 10.1080/01634372.2020.1843098

7 Feinberg, L & Choula, R. (2012): Understanding the impact of caregiving on work. (AARP Fact Sheet).

8.Feinberg, L.F. & Spillman, B.C. (2019). Shifts in family caregiving – and a growing care gap: Implications for long term services and supports financial reform. Generations: J Am Society on Aging, 43, 1, 73-77.

4 Steps to Hit the Mark for Open Enrollment

August 1, 2022/Employee Benefits, Healthcare and Benefits, HR, HR Communications, Open Enrollment /by Jennifer Weatherly

Is the benefits information you have to tell employees important before and during Open Enrollment? You bet! Easily understood? Not always.

According to the latest MetLife employee benefits trends, close to 90% of employers believe their benefits are clear and easy to understand. Yet only 65% of employees (only 56% Gen Z) agree.

Uncomplicating the complicated is not an easy task, but it’s well worth the effort. Employees who better understand their benefits are ones who better appreciate the benefits they have.

Let’s look at 4 steps to help supercharge your Open Enrollment communications strategy.

Step 1: Know Your Audience

For HR, this means not just thinking about employees. Think like employees. Heck, you are an employee.

When Open Enrollment season hits, chances are you’ll be making some decisions about your benefits. Just like all the other employees. What (and who) are you thinking about when you’re comparing options? Your family? Your health? The costs? The coverage? Yep…just like all the other employees.

If you can hold on to that “employee to employee” connection when you’re communicating to them about benefits, you’re more likely to create understandable, compelling communications. Make your messages relatable and relevant, with a hint of emotion.

Relatable – We’re all people. We can empathize with each other. Remember this when you communicate to employees. Make an emotional connection. That’s how you get employees to engage.

What does that mean? For example, many employees have families they love, and so do you. And you all want the best benefits you can get for them. Relay that feeling.

Relevant – Present information from the employees’ points of view, not the company’s. Avoid touting your company’s awesomeness (“We’ve added a great new dental plan”). Talk more about why it matters to them (“You have more dentists to choose from in the new plan”). Instead of saying, “We have a new enrollment system,” say, “You can enroll faster and easier with our new enrollment system.”

Keep the message conversational, too. If you were talking to a colleague, how would you get your message across? Probably not in a verbose, run-on sentence with oodles of detail.

Step 2: Plan Bite-Size Information

If you’re sending a firehose flow of information two weeks prior to Open Enrollment, employees will not absorb everything you’re telling them. Try starting communications about six to eight weeks prior to your OE start date, especially if you’re making major changes.

Strive for a slow drip campaign that feeds bite-size bits of information. A sample campaign for a late October enrollment may look like this…

Late August

Teaser/kick-off announcements
Watch for what’s to come messaging
Training webinar for leaders and HR partners

September

Weekly or bi-weekly communications with chunks of information
Home mailer with highlights and a few important details
Portal/website or interactive guide with a deeper dive into info, tools, and resources

Mid-October

Meetings, webinars, and benefits sessions
Displays for enrollment to-do’s and timing
Weekly reminders to enroll (first day, one week left, last day)

To get the word out, a wide variety of channels is best. But when it comes to education, a Colonial Life Employee Enrollment Survey (via Unum) shows how employees rank their three top choices: benefits portal or website, in-person counseling session, or printed materials.

Step 3: Stay on Point!

When you start crafting your Open Enrollment communications this year, remember that employees:

Check their phones 150 times a day
Check email 30 times an hour
And are still trying to do their jobs

Competition for their attention is fierce. How do you break through the distractions, buzzing and beeping all around them?

Diligently.

You must spend time considering the message you’re putting out there. Is it going to drive the results you’re hoping for? The key is to build messaging super-focused on achieving that objective. Avoid filling headspace or airwaves with any other content — stick to information employees need to know to make the decision at hand.

Also, our brains don’t want to work hard at processing information. Keep content easy-to-read and scannable.

Short sentences (14 words or less)
Short paragraphs (3 sentences or less)
Eighth-grade reading level
“Chunked-out” content with subheads (bite-size)
Lots of “you” and “your” and less “we”
Human language — no acronyms and other benefit geek speak

Don’t be afraid to use phrases and incomplete sentences. No, really. (See what we did there?) It goes against everything you learned in grammar class but write like you talk. Employees will trust it more, as they read it like a conversation.

One last trick — after you’ve created your first draft, cut the amount of text in half. Get rid of any sentences that are repetitive or words that don’t help employees understand your message.

It may be interesting, amusing, or truly relevant, but if it’s not essential, it’s just brain clutter.

Step 4: Don’t Bury the Bad News

They may not like bad news — but they’ll like it even less when they find it hidden among other news. Employees are adults. They can adapt to change if you’re upfront, honest, and help them through it.

Rip off the band-aid. Give them the “why” of the situation through consistent and continuous communications.

Tell the same story, the same way, and tell it often
Provide a specific date when they’ll know more
Be honest and open (or transparent if you speak HR)

Are rates increasing? Probably because the company’s costs keep increasing. Explain that to employees. “U.S. health care costs are expected to rise 10-15 percent this year, but we’re keeping your increase lower, at only 6 percent.”

It’s Time to Change Things Up

HR professionals tend to be criticized for overexplaining and using confusing terms that make benefits hard to understand. We know why that happens, and we get it.

Put in the work now so you can achieve effective, results-generating communications. Communications that have higher employee engagement. But put yourself in employee shoes when you communicate. Wait…you’re wearing employee shoes.

Minimize Worry and Maximize Employee Financial Health

July 28, 2022/Employee Benefits, Employee Well-Being, Podcast Recap, Podcast Recaps, Retirement Planning /by Meghan M. Biro

Sponsored by: Nationwide

With 2022 shaping up to be much more economically challenging for many people, more so than in 2021, folks are doing what they can to get by. A recent study performed by Nationwide said that a whopping 90% of consumers are concerned about inflation and their financial health. Do you blame them?

Some employees are even starting to reduce their 401(k) plan contributions. The economic downturn has employees feeling worried and insecure – rightfully so.

Another study I just read shows that 70% of employees believe they need help from employers to achieve long-term financial security. Employers and employees may not realize all the tools available to help promote financial wellness and help to alleviate worry and insecurity.

Let’s look at some ways organizations and individuals can ease their worries about retirement plans and lifelong financial health.

Are you ready to help your employees thrive?

Our Guest: Amelia Dunlap

On our latest #WorkTrends Podcast, I spoke to Amelia Dunlap, Vice President of Retirement Solutions Marketing at Nationwide. Her focus is on solving the complex challenges of the financial services industry. She leads retirement solutions and marketing and is responsible for connecting with participants to plan for and live in retirement. She says:

Many people may not realize the full scope of what Nationwide does and that they offer much more than just home and auto insurance.

The Big Picture

We need to focus beyond the here and now. While many people know they have to save as much as possible for retirement, they are often unsure of what retirement will look like when it comes. About one in five people are delaying their retirement date because they feel insecure about how much income they will need to live on comfortably.

Amelia shares some solutions from Nationwide, such as in-plan guarantees, a way to put money into an investment that guarantees retirement income. A recent macrotrend related to pensions should be of some concern:

Rewind decades ago, a lot of companies had pensions for those of us in the corporate or private sector. That provided you, as an employee, with a paycheck in retirement. Well, throughout the past number of years, pensions have started to reduce. That ownership of preparing for your retirement and living in retirement has transitioned from a company providing it to an individual’s responsibility. That’s what a 401(k) is.

The Future of Retirement

Economic security is of great concern for everybody, whether nearing retirement or just entering the workforce. There may be legislation from Capitol Hill that could help here, but in the nearer term, there are options and ways to educate younger generations.

We in the industry often say, “If only everyone knew that your retirement plan is the best option for saving that you’re going to have.” It gives you the most access to investments. It’s the lowest cost. If you have a retirement plan, you should absolutely be taking advantage of it. We in the industry know that. Unfortunately, I don’t know if that is always effectively communicated to employers and ultimately to employees.

Educating younger workers on the benefits of investing earlier in their careers can make a huge difference.

Lessons Learned

The turbulence in the last year has been a wake-up call for many people who had previously been in a stretch where things had been just ticking along well for a number of years. So what have we learned?

This really underscores the need for employees to understand that adversity is going to happen and that you need to be thinking about your financial wellness plans long term. Putting your money in your retirement plan, continuing to save, and diversifying your investments are all good keywords you hear. Right now is a really unique time for employers because they’ve got the attention of their employees.

I hope you found this episode of #WorkTrends helpful and inspirational. To learn more about employer-sponsored retirement programs and the changes needed to help secure employee financial wellness, visit Nationwide.

Subscribe to the #WorkTrends podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. Be sure to follow our #WorkTrends hashtag on LinkedIn and Facebook, too, for more great conversations!

How to Decentralize Corporate Charity and Boost Your Benefits Package

June 20, 2022/Corporate Giving, Employee Benefits, Hiring and Retention, HR Strategy /by Sofia Hernandez

Benefits are one of the key pillars of good employee retention. According to data compiled by LinkedIn in 2020, “better compensation and benefits” was one of the top three reasons that both Millennials and Gen Xers left their jobs.

This means you can’t just put together a run-of-the-mill benefits package and expect it to be a talent retention tool. On the contrary, sub-par or even adequate benefits are going to be a turn-off in a market where quality talent is at a premium.

This focus on good benefits has made reviewing and expanding your benefits package beyond the basics an essential strategy moving forward.

The Need to Review Your Benefits Package

If you’ve left your benefits package on autopilot in recent years, it’s time to give it a once-over. What’s more, employers can’t just select basic items anymore.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as recently as March of 2021, the majority of workers with access to employer-sponsored benefits had many of the basics already available. BLS reported that staples such as paid sick leave, unpaid family leave, and paid vacations were par for the course for most benefits packages.

For employers, this means offering competitive health care benefits, matching 401(k) contributions, and providing generous PTO isn’t enough anymore.

While these are good starting points, it has become essential for employers to put additional effort into crafting their benefits packages. They need to go beyond the generic and tailor the combination to the needs of their workers.

For instance, HBR reports that the most desirable employee benefits go well beyond retirement accounts and health insurance. Two decades into the 21st century, employees are also looking for things like work-life balance, flexible work hours, and work-from-home options. Often these perks will give a job the edge over higher-paying jobs with less attractive benefits packages.

Of course, post-pandemic, many work-from-home benefits have also become normalized. This means employers need to look even farther if they’re going to find benefits that truly help them stand apart.

One way to do that which can resonate with the politically active, socially aware younger generation of workers is to include a way to give targeted donations.

Business institutions often include philanthropy as part of their operations. In most cases, though, they do this through clunky corporate foundations that are rife with inefficiencies. Focussing on philanthropy can improve employee experience and retention.

Should You Consider Philanthropy-as-a-Service?

Giving platform Groundswell defines the PhaaS or “philanthropy-as-a-service” model as charitable giving that “experiences near-constant innovation as a purpose-built, third-party software company researches, designs, builds, and launches new tools to corporate, individual, and nonprofit customers.”

In other words, PhaaS does for philanthropy what SaaS does for technology.

To use the latter as an example, SaaS companies have streamlined the complexities of creating tech solutions in-house. While IT departments are still needed, nowadays, they typically manage a growing tech stack of third-party SaaS tools that make their jobs much easier.

Off-site entities manage, update, and perfect these tools. They are then offered to end-users at a transparent cost that eliminates the need for excessive hands-on tampering.

In the same way, PhaaS can take the extremely complex business of corporate philanthropy and streamline it off-site. This takes the legal, technological, and logistical responsibilities off of the shoulders of corporate foundations.

PhaaS platforms also have the power of allowing businesses to distribute the responsibility of choosing where charitable funds should go. Businesses using a PhaaS tool can let individual employees donate to the targeted charities that they choose.

Often all that’s required from an employee is to download an app, log in, and make a few selections. Before they know it, their charitable preferences are official. This offers many different benefits, including:

Removing the overhead cost of running a foundation
Funneling more funds toward charities in an efficient, data-driven manner
Decentralizing the donation process and empowering employees to have a hand in choosing what organizations their company supports
Enabling individuals to support charities in perpetuity

This spreading out of the wealth and decision-making power, in effect, turns corporate philanthropy into an employee-driven benefit.

Spicing Up Your Benefits Package With Targeted Giving

Benefits packages are a key element of any retention strategy. Along with compensation, a good set of benefits can send a message that you care about the well-being of your employees.

At the same time, a careless, sub-par, or outdated package can become a liability. It can make it much easier for competitors to lure employees away with the promise of a more compassionate set of benefits that will meet their needs.

If you haven’t reviewed your benefits package in a while, it’s time to do so. Don’t wait. Start by making sure that basic building blocks like PTO and a 401(k) are available and up to date. Also, address more modern considerations, such as work-from-home and flexible work options.

From there, consider adding something like targeted giving as a CSR-inspired perk. Invite your employees in on your brand’s philanthropic efforts. This can have the effect of cultivating happier workers who feel invested in their employer and proud of the charitable work that their workplace supports.

10 Ideas To Make Mental Health Support More Accessible For Employees

May 3, 2022/Employee Benefits, Employee Well-Being, Healthcare and Benefits, HR Strategy, Leadership /by Brett Farmiloe

What are some ideas to make mental health support more accessible to employees? This question was posed to a group of talented professionals for their insights. From offering mental health holidays to flex work schedules, here’s what they had to say.

Offer Mental Health Days

Mental health Days are meant to be used when you have too much on your mind or when are feeling high levels of stress and anxiety. We can’t pre-plan how we will feel, so it’s important to allow employees to take unplanned days off. Moreover, it is a great way to track the mental health of your employees. If someone is taking too many “mental health days” then you can reach out and support them! It’s easy to apply and simple, yet so few companies do it!

Annie Chopra, She TheQueen

Take Time to Communicate Benefits

In our brand new research on mental health, we found that employers rated themselves a “C” while the workforce rated employer support for mental health as an “F.” When you get into the data, you see that while companies are trying to make changes, these changes aren’t always felt by the workforce. We have to spend as much time communicating the changes and benefits we offer as we do actually selecting those benefits if we want to see real impact.

Ben Eubanks, Lighthouse Research & Advisory

Provide Health Coaching Sessions

Working with a qualified health & wellness coach has the potential to make a big difference in employees’ work and personal lives. A health coach is NOT a licensed mental health practitioner. A good health coach IS a trained empathetic listener and motivator who works with people in groups or one-on-one. They help to create and work toward solutions to increase the enjoyment of life and work.

Employers can offer coaching services onsite or remotely, in groups or individually. The National Board of Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) certifies coaches who have completed specialized coaching training, demonstrated coaching skills, have experience working with clients, and passed a rigorous exam.

Ronel Kelmen, Attainable Transformation

Include Inspiring and Regenerating PTO Perks

We all understand that employees need sufficient high-quality PTO experiences in order to stay sharp, satisfied, and healthy at work. But what really makes PTO beneficial for our mental health is when that time is also inspiring.

For example, we offer our employees three fully paid 24-hour days per year to participate in volunteer activities. Not only do these experiences give our team the chance to step outside their work and breathe, but while doing so they’re also engaging in work that can reignite and reshape their worldviews.

Tina Hawk, GoodHire

Promote a Work-Life Balance

Make sure your employees are taking time away from work on a regular basis. This means encouraging regularly scheduled vacations and not rewarding a burning the midnight oil mentality. You may get short-term results, but this type of schedule will often lead to burnout and far less productivity and motivation.

A great leader challenges their employees to regularly rest, recharge, and connect with their loved ones. When employees feel valued, they will be much more motivated.

Mark Daoust, Quiet Light

Host Mental Health Fairs

One out-of-the-box way to make mental health more accessible to workers is to hold a mental health fair. These events function like traditional health fairs yet focus on psychological health. Booths can give out information on practices like stress management and avoiding burnout. Additionally, you can do activities like meditation and mindfulness worksheets. Beyond providing at-risk employees with resources, you can also use these fairs as a way to educate the workforce at large about mental health and help professionals to be better allies to psychologically vulnerable peers.

Carly Hill, Virtual Holiday Party

Encourage the Use of Wellness Apps

Employers can provide free resources and access to mental health apps. It can be a way for everyone in your company to get the mental health help they need, especially to prevent burnout amongst your employees. Using an app might feel less intimidating when seeking professional help from a therapist or psychiatrist.

You might not be there to visually recognize when an employee is overworking themselves. But with certain apps, they can get reminders to take breaks and maintain healthy habits during their working hours.

Scott Lieberman, Touchdown Money

Foster a “Life Happens” Culture

A healthy company culture understands that even the highest performing employees will face unideal circumstances that may take them away from work. A culture of ‘life happens’ understands that company needs shouldn’t supersede employee needs but ebb and flow. As we navigate turbulent times as a nation, we’ve all faced the universal truth that life happens, and sometimes things are out of our control.

Amrita Saigal, Kudos

Allow Flexible Work Schedules

A remote or hybrid work schedule creates more flexibility for employees to take care of their physical and mental health how they see fit. Workers want freedom – time to spend with loved ones, take care of themselves, and travel – promoting one’s mental health on their terms. Allow the space and flexibility for your employees to take care of their mental health at their discretion.

Breanne Millette, BISOULOVELY

Train Leaders to Create Inclusive Environments

Smaller businesses can make mental health more accessible to employees by equipping leaders with the tools and resources to have open, honest conversations and by creating a safe space for employees to speak openly without fear of judgment.

Creating inclusive environments for conditions like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia can go a long way in making sure everyone feels supported at work. By educating people about and accepting neurodiversity, you can create an inclusive and supportive workplace where everyone can thrive.

Dan Gissane, Huxo Creative

Digital Health Coaching as a Modern Employee Benefit

March 29, 2022/Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, HR Strategy /by Clark Lagemann

Whether working onsite in the healthcare, construction, service, and hospitality industries throughout the pandemic, the stresses of the past two years have taken their toll. Employees are tired. Employee Burnout is being experienced at an extremely high rate.

More than four in 10 workers surveyed by global staffing firm Robert Half said they are more burned out on the job today compared to one year ago. That’s a 10% jump from a similar poll in 2020. In addition, nearly half of workers surveyed, some 49%, who are experiencing increased fatigue, blame this on heavier workloads.

As the pandemic lingers, digital health coaching is on the rise. This modern employee benefit is proving to be a critical lifeline for employees now and in the future.

New Work Models Increase Employee Burnout and Health Issues

Open-ended remote and hybrid work has exacerbated employee burnout — a syndrome outlined by the World Health Organization resulting from chronic workplace stress characterized by decreased work efficiency, exhaustion, energy depletion, and negative and cynical feelings related to a job.

These feelings are further compounded by increased substance use, sleep issues, and chronic health issues due to the current climate. All of which have a negative impact on safety, absenteeism, and productivity. To make matters worse, remote and hybrid workers aren’t always getting the support they need to cope.

Employers Turn to Digital Health Coaching to Support Workers

Employees need to feel supported while maintaining a sense of privacy. Unfortunately, people struggling with substance abuse disorder and mental health issues are often conditioned to remain silent — to suffer alone. Especially now, workers may even view their struggles as a temporary result of the pandemic rather than an undiagnosed problem. The issues are real, however.

Between August 2020 and February 2021, the percentage of adults with recent symptoms of anxiety or depression increased from 36.4% to 41.5%, and the rate of those reporting unmet mental health care needs increased from 9.2% to 11.7%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With the pervasiveness of unfulfilled mental health care in America, companies can fill the void to provide employees with guided intervention — supporting employees and helping them make lasting change. Companies can accomplish these goals by adopting robust substance use health insurance and policies, improving workplace culture, educating employees to promote drug-free workplaces, and providing employees with supportive and confidential services in a digital health coaching program.

Digital Health Coaching Meets Employees Where They Are

The root of a healthy company is a healthy workforce. Yet, many employer-backed health and wellness programs struggle to attract, engage, and produce tangible outcomes for employees. In addition, traditional programs are plagued with a one-size-fits-all approach to personal struggles. Personalizing care is critical for employers who want to build a pathway that helps individual employees build a strong foundation and momentum to overcome their struggles.

With the help of a digital health coaching program, blending cognitive-behavioral training with video-based educational modules and a vast library of impactful content, every employee can obtain support and help when they need it. In addition, by creating personalized experiences and providing targeted content that appeals to different learning styles, such programs can effectively engage employees — raising the likelihood employees complete the program and achieve positive outcomes with staying power.

Engaging Health Coaching Programs Benefit Workers and Employers

For employers questioning whether adding a digital health coaching program to their employee benefits is worth the cost, the answer is a resounding yes — yes, it is worth it.

Some 80% of the total costs for treating chronic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, cancer, asthma, and more stem from risks and unhealthy behaviors worsened by the pandemic. These include poor stress management and standard of care, insufficient sleep, excessive alcohol, drug use and smoking, poor diet, and a lack of physical activity and health screenings. As a result, costs to both workers and employers come in the form of additional healthcare spend and productivity loss.

Data suggest the benefits of adopting a digital health coaching program, which helps reduce lifestyle risks and unhealthy behaviors, can result in significant savings for employers and employees alike.

Depression, for example, the second-leading cause of “years lived with disability” worldwide, is steadily linked with greater economic burden and reduced work productivity, and this was pre-pandemic. It’s also estimated to cost employers nearly $20,000 per 100 employees each year in lost productivity and additional healthcare costs. Then there’s obesity. A chronic condition gradually rising, obesity increased from 30.5% to 42.4% from 1999–2000 through 2017–2018. Obesity alone can cost employers $100,000 – $550,000 each year per 100 employees in disability, workers’ compensation, absenteeism, and presenteeism.

Enhanced Digital Health Coaching

Enhanced digital health coaching serves to lower these costs. Employees who improve their general health and complete their treatment protocols to address risky behaviors, mental and chronic health issues are less likely to require expensive interventions later, saving them and their employers in the long run.

Employers must act as employees continue to deal with pandemic burnout, increased stresses, substance use, and other risky behaviors. In doing so, they’ll help employees address the issues they may be silently struggling with, allowing them to make lasting change and improve the health of their workplaces.

Wellbeing Programs Create Better Connection for Employees

February 23, 2022/Employee Benefits, Employee Experience, Employee Happiness, Employee Well-Being, Health and Wellness, Healthcare and Benefits, Winner: Impact Award for Content Excellence /by Ann Wyatt

While there’s still no clear sense for when the COVID-19 pandemic will end, one thing has come into sharp focus—the implementation of wellbeing programs. The future of work will include both in-person and remote arrangements to accomplish this.

This new reality has various benefits for employees, including more flexibility, better work-life balance, less time spent commuting, and the freedom to work from anywhere. And a study by Stanford found that working from home increases productivity by 13%. So, there are benefits for employers as well.

But employees who don’t see their colleagues every day face a challenge: creating a sense of community and connection. And while it may not seem like a business performance issue at first glance, it actually is.

Harvard Business Review says: “Employee disconnection is one of the main drivers of voluntary turnover, with lonely employees costing U.S. companies up to $406 billion a year.”

The opportunity in front of us for wellbeing programs

At HealthFitness, we think there’s a massive opportunity for the corporate fitness industry to rethink how we help employees feel they belong and are cared for.

In fact, through our work with hundreds of companies across many different industries, we’ve seen how wellbeing programs can provide the community and human connection many employees are craving right now.

This means creating experiences where employees will find friendly and familiar faces — both in-person and virtually. This can include group fitness, personal and small group training, health and fitness challenges, health coaching, seminars and classes across a wide variety of fitness and health topics.

The classic in-person approach

We’re all familiar with the onsite fitness center. While pandemic-era guidelines changed aspects of the experience (e.g., wearing masks, social distancing), they’re still a meaningful way to create connection.

One of our client’s employees, Eddie, said he had a hard time staying active at his job until he joined a new company with an on-site fitness center. There, he began taking fitness classes (which is something he never imagined himself doing). Plus, he also started using the center’s exercise equipment.

But he discovered an unexpected benefit as well.

Eddie noticed how the fitness challenges his company hosted allowed him to connect with coworkers throughout the company. “I’ve made tons of friends at work through the fitness center,” he says.

And the benefits he received went beyond the physical and social.

Eddie said that many of the colleagues he met through fitness challenges provided him with career advice. “The amount of networking I was able to do at the fitness center was remarkable. It’s amazing how many people you can meet while sharing the goal of creating a healthier lifestyle.”

The new virtual approach

Like Eddie, many employees looked to their local gym or corporate fitness center for a sense of community before COVID-19. Now we know employees will seek this same sense of connection in a virtual format.

That’s certainly been our experience over the last two years.

Like many companies worldwide, we had to pivot fast in the spring of 2020. Our initial goal was to fill clients’ immediate needs and continue offering health and fitness programming in whatever way we could. To make the best of the unprecedented situation.

But then something unexpected happened.

The fitness classes delivered in a virtual format were a big hit with employees. They also allowed us to extend our reach to more employees that may not be located in a building where their employer provided a fitness center. Beyond fitness classes, wellbeing-related offerings like energy and stretch breaks, educational seminars, and even classes for kids opened up more ways to demonstrate that the company cares about their employees. Employees also enjoyed seeing the friendly faces they knew and trusted.

Given this, we think virtual corporate wellbeing experiences are an important way to create connection and community in a hybrid world. There are two primary options.

Live-streamed content

Live-streamed content can be used for live events like fitness classes, stretch breaks, educational seminars, and kid and family classes. They’re broadcast through professional-grade equipment to provide the highest quality streaming, regardless of device, bandwidth, or location.

The shift to working from home has served as the game changer for Sharon, one of our client’s employees, and her health and fitness routine. Sharon takes up to three virtual classes each day. She transfers between group fitness classes, to virtual personal training to mindfulness, nutrition and wellness classes. She regularly meets with her health coach.

As a result, Sharon is more resilient and stronger. “HealthFitness has been one of the most important aspects of my mental and physical wellbeing while working from home.”

Sharon’s weekly virtual personal training sessions with her HealthFitness trainer, Jim, keeps her connected and moving after knee surgery. This allows her to keep getting stronger in her health journey.

Not only does this benefit Sharon physically, there’s also the same sense of connection that Eddie described. When you know other colleagues are also participating in these experiences, you have a point of much-needed connection.

Video conferencing

Video conferencing offers real-time connections with wellness professionals for personal and small group training. It is also useful for nutrition coaching, ergonomic consultations, and movement efficiency assessments.

This approach will broaden based on employers I’ve talked with over the last 18 months. Employers want data-driven integration, segmenting, and targeting capabilities with programs that address subjects. Subjects like stress, resiliency, mindfulness, sleep, safety, and financial wellbeing.

Eventually, because of this data and technology integration, employers will offer this kind of programming wherever it works best for employees. That may be in person, at home, on the production line, on the go—whatever employees need.

This level of targeting has a side benefit. Employees can connect around common wellness priorities or goals, which again creates the sense of community many of us are longing for.

Regardless of format, wellbeing programs must be front and center

In their report Future of Work Trends in 2022, Korn Ferry says that “organizations that are leading the way in wellbeing embed it in all aspects of their people strategy. Research shows that this has a positive impact on retention, absenteeism levels, productivity, and overall satisfaction.”

With all of these potential impacts, it’s time for corporate wellness programs to adapt to the permanently altered business landscape by:

Recognizing how classic wellness offerings like fitness centers and programs can solve new workplace challenges, like the lack of connection
Introducing virtual wellbeing offerings that employees can access when and where it’s convenient
Offering a broader range of wellbeing programs that help employees connect with like-minded colleagues and create a sense of community

When companies take these steps, they show employees they belong to an organization that genuinely cares.