Author: Lisa Beyer

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Brain Training Is Becoming the New Push in Employee Wellness

While many wellness programs zero in on healthy eating and exercise programs, employers are beginning to recognize the importance of brain health and how it relates to employee engagement.

Aetna Health launched MyBrainSolutions this spring, a program that provides online assessments and interactive games employees can access to improve upon four key areas of brain performance: emotion, thinking, feeling and self-regulation.

“We’re intrigued with the notion of looking at the brain as any other muscle or organ in the body,” says Louise Murphy, head of Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna Behavioral Health. “The idea is to exercise the brain and improve it by using compelling games and tasks, and it aligns with our goal of helping members enhance their well-being and become the best they can from a health perspective.”

Murphy says the program is specifically designed for employers looking to improve productivity and the health and well being of their workforce. Developed by Brain Resources Inc. in San Francisco, MyBrainSolutions provides a Web-based brain assessment tool that identifies an individual’s brain profile and recommends training games, exercises and videos to help optimize brain health, reduce stress and increase productivity.

“The word that comes to mind is ‘engagement’—that notion that you can put wellness options in front of your employees, but if they are not emotionally engaged, it will be relatively ineffective,” she says. “We believe this is the frontier of an exciting future about understanding how the brain works and how it impacts wellness.”

There is “good science” behind the concept of focusing on particular brain functions, such as short-term memory or emotional recognition to improve function, says Dr. Harry Kerasidis, director of the Center for Neuroscience in Prince Frederick, Maryland. One example is children with attention deficit disorder who are unable to pick up on visual cues. With practice, they can learn to quickly recognize anger, happiness or other emotions and react appropriately.

“We start with a brain assessment that shows the individual’s strengths and weaknesses,” Kerasidis says. “Then we can develop a program of brain exercises to precisely target their needs, such as problem-solving skills, emotional problems, and memory.”

In one study, conducted by Brain Resource with a large insurer, participants who spent 30 days on the interactive site showed better productivity and less absenteeism, plus improvement in positive thinking, stress management and social skills. Changes tend to be permanent if people stay with the program for at least 60 days, Brain Resource CEO Gregory Bayer says.

The Total Rewards and Employee Well-Being survey from October 2011 by WorldatWork found that 54 percent of employers who responded have a well-being program in addition to a wellness program. Top reasons cited for implementing the well-being component include improved employee health (85 percent), perceived value to employees (79 percent), decreased medical premiums (77 percent), increased productivity (73 percent) and increased employee engagement (72 percent).

Respondents said their well-being programs focus on physical fitness, stress reduction, work-life balance and financial education.

“Wellness programs are traditionally offered through a medical plan, but are just one piece of the puzzle,” says Rose Stanley, work/life practice leader for the Scottsdale, Arizona-based organization. “You need to get employees to the stage of action. However, to get them there, you need to take a holistic approach. If they are not emotionally fit, they won’t be able to make changes.”

“Encouraging people to focus on the mind-body connection to achieve overall peak performance is cutting-edge science,” says Bayer of Brain Resource. “A lot of the focus is on prevention and early intervention.”

Bayer says that what is missing in many employee assistance programs is a component that encourages employees to think about caring for their brain and understanding the mind-body connection.

“People who train with our tools are more ready to engage in other activities related to health,” he says. “We see a 20 to 35 percent rate of engagement in wellness programs when brain training is added.”

Stanley believes organizations with strategic well-being programs that enhance emotional health have a better chance of affecting the types of employee medical issues that result in higher costs.

“However, everyone has to start somewhere, so if you just have a wellness program to begin with, that’s a good start,” she says.

Lisa Beyer is a writer based in Florida. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.

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The Rise and Fall of Employer-Sponsored Pension Plans

During the Roaring ’20s, the United States went through a massive economic boom led by technology as a vehicle to bring conveniences to everyday life—from the emergence of radios that brought entertainment and news to peoples’ living rooms to the mass production of automobiles that allowed them to travel more efficiently or take a leisurely Sunday drive. Urbanization took hold and skyscrapers were built to show off the country’s strength and prosperity. And although Prohibition was in full effect, that didn’t stop many from drinking in the good times.

Some private companies and the public sector offered pension plans to help employees keep paying the bills after retirement, but who could be jazzed about retirement planning with The Charleston playing on the phonograph? With a prevailing carpe diem attitude and a soaring stock market, it must have felt like the soiree would never end.

But parties can’t last forever.

For the U.S. and much of the world, the stock market crash in October 1929 ended the good times and brought about a Great Depression that would plague the country throughout the 1930s and lead to an unemployment rate of 37 percent. But for those people lucky enough to be employed in the 1930s, private pension plans, while still rare, survived. From 1929 to 1932, only 3 percent of workers with company pensions saw their plans discontinued, and, somewhat surprisingly, the number of company pension plans increased by 15 percent.

One exception, according to the Congressional Budget Office, was the railroad industry. When employers failed to pay promised benefits, the federal government established the railroad retirement system in 1935 to enable the depleted pension funds to meet their obligations.

During this period, most elderly people had little means of support. Millions of Americans who saw their life savings swept away during the Depression were becoming more aware of a need to provide for their future economic security.

To calm those fears, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act in 1935, providing basic income protection to retired workers. As the economy improved, the creation of pension plans increased. But Congress became worried that pensions were being used as tax-avoidance schemes for the wealthy and passed the Revenue Act of 1938 to address that concern.

It’s no wonder that U.S. workers became increasingly interested in defined benefit retirement plans. “It’s hard for us to imagine the 1930s today, because what happened then would never happen now, because we have institutional safety nets,” says Randall Holcombe, DeVoe Moore professor of economics at Florida State University in Tallahassee. “If you lost your job, you had to rely on your family, and there was no guarantee of their financial security.”

Thanks to New Deal policies and companies’ initiatives in the ’30s to ensure that workers’ pensions were safe, at least two generations grew up under the assumption that if they had a job with an established company, a retirement plan would help pay future bills. Many of today’s workers’ parents and grandparents left the workforce with some type of employer-provided income—from the time they retired until their death.

Employer-sponsored pension plans, combined with Social Security benefits and, more recently, defined contribution plans, have truly turned retirement into the “golden years” for millions of workers. So until the past decade, workers didn’t put much thought into saving for retirement, much less worrying about it.

Today, “Defined benefit plans are dead,” says Bob Pearson, CEO of Pearson Partners International in Dallas. “No company I know offers them even as a means to attract senior executives.”

Pearson, who works with small employers on their retirement plan offerings, says that today’s mainstream retirement device, the 401(k) plan, is not the answer, especially for senior executives.

“For now, we can use stock options, grants, equity and cash, but once the war for talent heats up again … and it will … we will see improvements in long-term benefits from the current anemic state.

While pension plans are going the way of Kodachrome film, which was introduced in 1935, at least many of today’s workers have some sort of retirement plan—albeit many of which are defined contribution plans, i.e., 401(k)s, where the investment burden falls squarely on the employees’ shoulders and not the company’s. But at least today’s workers have that. Prior to the 1920s, few industrial workers had any kind of safety net for their retirement years.

Auto manufacturing giant Ford Motor Co., for example, didn’t start offering hourly employees a pension plan until 1950.

Eastman Kodak Co., on the other hand, was an exception. Under the direction of George Eastman, the company established various employee benefits, including a formal pension and accident fund dating back to 1911. In a January/February 1936 issue of Personnel Journal, Workforce Management‘s forebear, C.P. Cochrane in the industrial relations department of Kodak argued: “In the first place it is a mistaken industrial relations and public relations policy, especially under present conditions to dispense with the services of older employees without some reasonably adequate financial provision.” Times have changed. Kodak, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection, is now struggling to survive. But worker pensions for its 63,000 employees appear safe. According to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a federal agency that protects pension benefits in private-sector defined benefit plans, Kodak’s pension plans are “reasonably well-funded” at 86 percent with $4.9 billion in assets to cover $5.6 billion in benefits.

From 1940 to 1960, the number of people covered by private pensions increased from 3.7 million to 19 million, or to nearly 30 percent of the labor force, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, or EBRI, and by 1975, 103,346 plans covered 40 million people.

The key event in the push for pension reform occurred in 1963 when South Bend, Indiana-based car manufacturer Studebaker Corp. saw its pension plan collapse as a result of the company’s bankruptcy. That event resulted in a 10-year push for federal legislation to oversee pensions, culminating in passage of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, known as ERISA. Amended several times since, ERISA requires companies to adequately fund their pension plans and mandates that workers vest their pension benefits after a minimum number of years.

ERISA also established the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. In 2009, the agency guaranteed payment of basic pension benefits earned by 33.6 million workers and retirees participating in about 27,650 single-employer pension plans, according to the EBRI. And in 2010, the agency was paying benefits to 1.3 million workers from 4,140 terminated plans.

“ERISA had an effect on traditional pension plans and killed some of them, but overall it was good legislation,” says James van Iwaarden, consulting actuary with Minneapolis-based Van Iwaarden Associates. “When defined contribution plans were first introduced in the late ’70s, they were never intended to replace defined benefit plans, but to supplement them,” he says.

Van Iwaarden says that legislation passed since the 1980s, most recently the Pension Protection Act of 2006, has changed funding rules for defined benefit plans, forcing plan sponsors to focus on the short term as opposed to the long term—which is one reason those plans are considered more risky than in the past.

“These changes have caused significant problems for employers both with financial statements and funding responsibilities that would not have occurred with the old rules and the old ways of investing,” van Iwaarden says. “I believe this has caused employers to move away from defined benefit plans and the volatility involved with funding them and to shift both the cost and risk for retirement benefits to employees.”

Pension plans have been declining since 1984: In 1983 there were 175,143 plans, but in 2008 there were only 46,926 plans.

Van Iwaarden says factors contributing to pension plan decline and decreased funding include market volatility, declining interest rates and the burst of the technology bubble in 2000.

In a 2011 survey of 546 employers across a variety of plan types, sizes and industries, consulting firm Aon Hewitt reported that 57 percent of employers surveyed offered both a traditional pension plan and a defined contribution plan (down from 64 percent in 2009). Of those with traditional pension plans, only 44 percent remain open to new hires.

And according to benefit consultant Towers Watson & Co.’s analysis of Securities and Exchange Commission filings, 237 of the 584 employers on 2011’s Fortune 1000 list that sponsor defined benefits plans have frozen at least one plan.

Frederick Reish, a partner based in the Los Angeles office of Drinker Biddle & Reath, says that, in the foreseeable future, the emphasis will be on participant-directed, deferral-based defined contribution plans.

“However, because of the inherent weaknesses of those plans, we’ll see changes. For example, sponsors will no longer assume that employees know how to properly invest their money.”

Reish says that automatic enrollment may become the norm, though “Congress is disagreeing on that right now.” And increasing participation will be a priority, with the expectation that 80 to 90 percent of employees join the plan.

“More sophisticated products are coming, including Guaranteed Minimum Withdrawal Benefits, which protects investors against downside market risk,” Reish says. “Ultimately, I believe that most people don’t know where they are going, how much they need to get there or how to get there when it comes to retirement. I think the retirement age will have to change as well as the American way of thinking. Seventy is going to be the new 65.”

Chad Parks, CEO and founder of the Online 401(k), a flat-fee 401(k) provider based in San Francisco, says that auto enrolling employees in defined contribution plans, and implementing auto increases and even default investments might help prepare them for retirement, and future legislation may require all businesses to offer an Individual Retirement Account option for workers.

“Companies like Intuit are building in savings as part of their tax software, where the user might see a pop up that says, ‘You have extra money, why not consider investing in an IRA?’ ” Parks says. “We have a looming retirement crisis, and we need to make saving easy and automatic. The government isn’t helping, and I don’t see any new product, regulation or tax change that will help. I think it’s more of a generational thing where you are going to see younger people save more on their own. They will find a way, and new technology will help.”

Nicholas Olesen, a private wealth manager with the Philadelphia Group, believes that traditional pension plans will continue to decrease, with companies modifying them going forward or freezing them completely and turning to defined contribution plans.

“I’d be shocked to see defined benefit plans after 2020, though there may be some in unions and professional firms,” Olesen says. “Funding requirements are a big obstacle, benefit formulas are unrealistic with the market we’ve had recently, and the legal costs to terminate a plan is astronomical, so you’re going to see employers freeze their current plan and implement creative savings opportunities for new hires.”

Other experts agree that new products may include low-volatility funds that reduce market risk, cash-balance plans that define the promised benefit and guaranteed income plans.

“Most people are ill-suited to manage their money, so what we might see going forward is one of these hybrid plans, in a defined contribution environment, where the employee still holds the risk but has a more stable retirement fund,” van Iwaarden says. “And I would still not be surprised to see some resurgence of defined benefit plans for tax-motivated employers.”

Lisa Beyer is a Workforce Management contributing editor. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.

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Employers Adding Value to Good Employee Health

In 2006 Lafarge North America, a global supplier of construction materials with 12,000 employees in the United States and Canada (70,000 worldwide), took a close look at the data related to its health care program. The goal was to find ways to save money by restructuring medical plans without putting an undue burden on employees.

“One of the interesting pieces of information we found was that employees with certain chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension and asthma, were not being compliant with their health care,” says Philia Swan, director of health, benefits and employee insurance for Reston, Virginia-based Lafarge. “To encourage better self care, we lowered copays for those medications and went from a 35 percent compliance rate to 80 percent today.”

Additionally, Lafarge’s medical plans pay 100 percent for preventive care in-network, such as mammograms and prostate screenings, and even pay employees $75 for taking the tests.

“We send out postcards on an employee’s birthday to remind them that it’s time for their annual check-up or screening,” Swan says, noting that compliance reached 95 percent in 2011.

Lafarge is among a growing number of employers taking what is known as value-based health insurance—an employee-centered approach that often begins with reducing or even waiving copays for preventive and maintenance medications. According to researchers at the University of Michigan’s Center for Value-Based Insurance Design, “the basic premise of value-based insurance design is to remove barriers to essential, high-value health services.”

Center co-director and professor Dr. A. Mark Fendrick, says the failure of patients to take needed medications costs about $100 billion a year in the U.S., partly as a result of hospitalizations that could have been avoided.

“With a comprehensive value-based approach, employers are basically saying there are certain things you, as an employee need to do, and you can benefit financially by doing them, but if you are not willing to take a role in improving your health, our plan will be more expensive and perhaps a bit unattractive,” says Jim Winkler, large employer segment leader in the health & benefits practice with consultant Aon Hewitt in Norwalk, Connecticut.

According to Winkler, there are three phases to a value-based approach, and most early adaptors are in the first phase, which involves reducing or eliminating costs around specific medical conditions that have, or may in the future have, a negative effect on an employer’s health insurance costs. According to Aon Hewitt’s 2011 Health Care Survey, about 23 percent of employers use a value-based approach for their prescription drug plans and another 55 percent plan to adopt the approach within three to five years.

Winkler notes that in the second phase, low cost or free medications come with strings attached: the employee needs to take part in a disease management program. Aon Hewitt’s survey reports that about nine percent of employers using the value-based approach are at phase two, “but I think we’ll see more of this moving forward,” Winkler says.

Phase three adds a level of complexity to the plan, because surgery that might be covered at 80 percent after the deductible has been met may not be covered at all if the employee hasn’t taken steps to prevent it. For example, an employee with a back injury may need to take part in weight loss coaching and physical therapy prior to being approved for surgery as a last resort. Winkler acknowledges this phase is administratively complex, adds a new layer of information to already challenging employee communications and may be unpopular, at least initially.

“Employees with chronic diseases that fall under the value-based approach appreciate phase one, because it costs them less money, however, healthier employees may be less than thrilled because they are not receiving any monetary benefits,” Winkler notes. “That’s why moving to a broader approach where disease management is required is the next step, and a logical one, for employers to take.”

A survey released by the non-profit International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans in November shows that 37 percent of multi-employer and public employer plans use a value-based health insurance strategy: 15 percent have just begun, and 23 percent have various components of a value-based initiative. Just three percent believe they have achieved a culture of health by taking a value-based approach.

The survey reports that diabetes and heart disease are the conditions having the most impact on productivity and health care costs. Obesity is another top concern that employers plan to address.

“Ideally, the real emphasis of value-based health care is not on cost containment, but on a holistic system of keeping healthy people healthy,” says Sally Natchek, senior research director at the Brookfield, Wisconsin-based foundation, which provides education and information on employee benefits, compensation and financial literacy education.

“You provide incentives to change employee behaviors—use urgent care instead of the emergency room or take your annual cancer screening,” Natchek says. “But you also have healthy food choices in the employee cafeteria, you communicate more with employees so they understand the costs of prescription drugs and the options they have, or how to be better consumers of health care.”

Natchek emphasizes that the goal is not to reduce plan costs initially, but to prevent high future costs. And she believes a value-based approach provides a competitive advantage for companies. “If you can work for someone who provides your cholesterol medication for free, that builds loyalty,” she says.

Says Lafarge’s Swan: “We’ve invested more than $7 million in incentives, communication programs, and a disease management project with The Cleveland Clinic, and in return we’ve seen a reduction in health care costs, increased productivity, and an upward trend in retention.”

SeeChange Health Insurance Co., based in San Francisco, is the first commercial payor to focus exclusively on offering value-based benefit plans to the health care market. SeeChange Health selected HealthEdge’s HealthRules product suite for its ability to design, implement and update a variety of benefit plans. For information on HealthRules, go to:

http://www.healthedge.com/pages/news_events/press_releases/100816-HE-SeeChange.htm

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Heightened Awareness of Benefits Plays Pivotal Role in Employee Experience

Thousands of U.S. employers spend countless hours each fall developing benefits communications before open enrollment. Yet despite their best efforts, it appears most employees do not understand their benefits.

According to the Health Insurance IQ Survey of 1,004 nationally representative Americans ages 18 and over, conducted by Kelton Research on behalf of eHealthInsurance in September and October, fewer than 35 percent of those with employer-based health coverage know their medical plan’s annual deductible. Perhaps most troubling for employers is the fact that 45 percent of respondents don’t know when their company holds open enrollment, and 25 percent said they spend less than 30 minutes reviewing their benefits options.

Ironically, a June 2010 Harvard Business Review survey sponsored by employee benefits provider Unum Group revealed that 43 percent of human resources leaders say their employees are satisfied with their benefits, however 23 percent say their employees find their benefits communication lacking. And a June 2011 Aflac WorkForces Report indicated that 42 percent of employees strongly agree that a well-communicated benefits program would make them less likely to leave their jobs.

“Most employees don’t look at their benefits material until they have an issue, and employers need to overcome that inertia,” says Helen Darling, president and CEO of the National Business Group on Health, a Washington, D.C.-based not-for-profit organization of mostly large employers. “Employers need to make dramatic statements to get attention, and requiring an active enrollment can help as well.”

Darling believes statements such as, “costs are going up” or “you will lose coverage if you don’t enroll” are ways to gain attention, and making the communications as simple as possible is essential.

“Information always needs to be sent home to the spouse, and with online communications, never underestimate a person’s impatience with technology—you need to have as few clicks as possible or you lose them,” she says.

While employees may not spend adequate time learning about their benefits, they say those benefits are an essential part of their job. According to the 2011 Mercer Workplace Survey released in October, nearly 80 percent of employees say their benefits are one of the reasons they work where they do, and 76 percent say that benefits make them feel appreciated by their company.

“Health benefits are critical for employees as part their overall work experience,” says Suzanne Nolan, partner and director of marketing and communications for New York City-based Mercer, a global consulting firm. “Our survey showed that 91 percent of respondents said that getting health benefits through work is just as important as getting a salary.”

Noting that a basic truth of human behavior is the need to understand before taking action, Nolan recommends simple communications written in “plain” English, and breaking information down into easily digested bites.

“Clients are using email and text messaging to send out short, targeted messages, and even providing QR codes that allow employees to view enrollment guides or other information on their smartphones,” Nolan says.

Many experts agree that consistency in communications is also essential, and is an area where many companies fall short.

“Whether communications are specific to benefits or company strategy, employers make the mistake of communicating once around the time of the triggering event,” says Patrick Carragher, director of benefits for CheckPoint HR, an Edison, New Jersey, provider of Web-based human resource management systems for small to midsize companies. “You want to communicate the same message to employees often, survey them after open enrollment, and then circle back to increase education on the areas they still don’t understand.”

Carragher recommends using employee meetings, combined with regular emails and other technology-driven communications, to repeat the message to employees.

“Technology is accessible to most employers now. The more you can put your strategy on autopilot, the better off you are,” he says.

“The average employee skims their materials, fills out the form, and is done with enrollment in 15 minutes,” says Randy Hart, senior vice president at CBIZ Benefits & Insurance Services Inc. in Columbia, Maryland. “That’s crazy, because they can easily spend $2,000 or more on a benefits package, and a decision of that magnitude requires more than 15 minutes. We have to do a better job of educating employees.”

Hart recommends planning communications six months ahead of enrollment, or right after open enrollment ends. He says it’s a great time to assess what worked and what didn’t.

“If you really want your employees to understand their benefits, they need to be touched at least once a month, such as a deep dive into wellness or into pharmacy benefits,” he advises. “You have to give an employee a benefit fact 19 times before they understand and accept it, so it’s easy to fill up a calendar for the year.”

Hart advises against 36-page enrollment guides employees won’t read.

“Be brief and to the point, highlight key messages, and recognize that your employees find this information confusing,” he says. “Point them toward more information, if they want it, via an online portal, a printed summary plan description or through a call center.”

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More About Nonqualified Plans

The four major types of nonqualified plans, according to Investopedia.com, are:

  • Deferred compensation plans
  • Executive bonus plans
  • Group carve-out plans
  • Split-dollar life-insurance plans

Nonqualified deferred compensation plans are not funded by the employer and therefore, participants are considered general creditors of the company. This lack of a guarantee that the deferred compensation plan will be paid is one of the biggest drawbacks of these plans, according to Fidelity’s LifeDesign Financial Answer Center.

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Nontraditional Perks Paying Off for Forward-Thinking Employers

Employees of Domino’s Pizza Inc. enjoy some unusual benefits, in addition to discounts for a large cheese and pepperoni pizza.

Among the innovative benefits offered by the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based pizza chain are Pie Perks, which provide discounts on everything from oil changes to high-definition TVs at various retailers nationwide. There’s also an extensive wellness program designed to increase employee engagement.

 

Additionally, Domino’s 12,000 corporate employees receive holiday gift boxes, can access adoption assistance programs, are treated to extended time off during holidays and participate in a bonus program.

“Every team member participates in some type of bonus plan,” says Joe Abraham, Domino’s vice president of Total Rewards & Shared Services. “This links with our high-performance culture, and we see a very high return on investment in these programs.”

Nontraditional benefits are playing a bigger role as employers look to add staff and retain key talent, says Carol Sladek, a principal with Aon Hewitt, who helps clients implement work-life solutions. The perks often are inexpensive and help boost spirits in the workplace.

“When an employee wants to add a benefit, or benefits, they are usually addressing a particular problem or opportunity, such as productivity, absenteeism or talent management,” says Sladek, who is based in Lincolnshire, Illinois. “Many of the solutions for these issues come in the form of nontraditional benefits programs that are low-cost and high-value.”

Sladek says her group often works with employers to enrich traditional benefits programs, such as paid time off. That includes pooled time off, which employees can gift to each other, or sabbatical programs.

“The key is to marry the business needs of the organization with the needs of the workforce,” she says. “Traditional benefits may not be suited for a diverse workforce, and that’s where you can expand upon what you have to meet the needs of the group.”

Sladek believes flexible working arrangements and telecommuting programs that give employees more control over their time are highly valued and yet are inexpensive while providing a benefit for the organization, such as more coverage in the morning or at night.

“We see a wide range of programs that help employees manage their time, such as flex time to on-site cafeterias and day care, fitness classes, dry cleaning and car washing services,” she says. “Some of these programs cost little or nothing, while some require a significant investment, however, helping employees save time during their workday can be a win-win for everyone.”

One employer, Oklahoma City, Okla.-based American Fidelity Assurance Co., has benefited from an extensive flex time and telecommuting program.

“We have a family-oriented environment and wanted to find a way to help colleagues balance work and life,” says Heather Henshall, human resources specialist and project coordinator. Henshall says the majority of the insurance firm’s 1,490 employees are women who are balancing work with family.

Henshall says 48 percent of the workforce takes advantage of flex-work arrangements, starting work earlier or later, which allows the insurer to staff its call center longer without incurring overtime.

About 40 percent of its employees telecommute, working from home one to five days a week, Henshall says. Employees who want to telecommute receive extensive training on everything from expectations and guidelines to information technology so they can troubleshoot computer issues on their own.

Chris Morris, a marketing consultant for Benefit Communications Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, says many of the nontraditional benefits he sees being used by his clients focus on wellness, on-site gyms and cafeterias.

“In this case, the employer is usually trying to drive a behavior change geared toward a healthier lifestyle,” Morris says.

One client has an on-site cafeteria that offers low-cost, healthy meals. Another client runs a call center in Nashville that rewards employees with a break room that has games, including a Wii. And yet another has an on-site health clinic designed to increase employees’ use of health assessments while decreasing time away from the office for doctor’s appointments.

Morris says the increase in nontraditional, often low-cost employee benefits can have a tremendous impact on employee morale, well-being and loyalty.

“However, there needs to be an incentive to use a program, or you won’t see participation … or change,” he says.

Several years ago, Minneapolis-based accounting firm Lurie Besikoff Lapidus & Co. decided to make life more bearable during the tax season for its 120 employees.

“We started bringing in catered meals for lunch and dinner so employees can have time to eat and relax instead of running out,” says Tom Morin, human resources manager. “We now have ‘chocolate Fridays,’ Wii tournaments, on-site massages, drawings for housecleaning services, and have even created survival kits with healthy snacks and wellness products. Anything to lighten the mood and give everyone a break, because we are working six or seven days a week during our busy season.”

Morin says that in addition to traditional benefits, his firm has a flexible schedule program, pays $100 for each year of service toward a dependent child’s college education and offers bonuses to employees who bring in new business.

Another employer trying to “lighten the load” for its employees is San Diego-based ACI Specialty Benefits, which offers work life, wellness and concierge services to employers. Employees, many of whom tackle challenging issues in the call center, can take advantage of a Zen room, complete with a massage chair, lavender-filled eye compresses, and calming music and yoga classes.

“Our goal is to increase retention, because call centers have a high turnover,” says chief administrative officer and head of human resources Gilbert Manzano. “We try to keep our environment fun, with wellness warrior team challenges, and teams that compete on fitness and weight-loss goals. We believe happy and healthy employees are good for business.”

Workforce Management Online, July 2011 — Register Now!

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Workplace Regulations Provide Relief to Pregnant Women and Breastfeeding Moms

New regulations under health care reform, combined with the American with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008, or ADAAA, should have a positive impact upon pregnant women and new moms in the workplace—and their employers.


According to the U.S. Labor Department, 80 percent of the more than 26 million working women will become pregnant at some point in their careers. And, according to the website Happy Worker, 55 percent of women with a child under the age of 1 will choose to return to work after giving birth.


The good news for working mothers is that ADAAA guidelines established in March by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission broaden the range of people considered by law to have a disability. For example, a woman who develops a pregnancy-related condition that prevents her from performing her job might be considered temporarily disabled and should be provided with reasonable accommodations, such as telecommuting or shorter hours.


Additionally, the workplace breastfeeding support provision within the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, states that employers shall provide reasonable, unpaid break time and a private, nonbathroom location for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for one year after the child’s birth. Employers with less than 50 employees are not subject to the requirement if it would cause “undue hardship,” according to the health care reform legislation signed into law in March 2010.


How are employers responding to the new regulations? For some, like Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles, Oregon, it’s business as usual.


Celeste Morgan, a recruitment consultant at Mid-Columbia, says the medical center has had private lactation rooms at all of its locations for several years now and was in compliance with health care reform provisions before the regulations were enacted.


“Our focus with ADAAA has always been to make it work,” says Morgan, who is also a board member for the Schaumburg, Illinois-based Certification of Disability Management Specialists Commission. Morgan says that the medical center, which employs 900 people, recently revamped its job descriptions, paying close attention to the physical requirements of each position and documented its process for dealing with disability issues, including those related to pregnancy. Managers receive disability training at least twice a year, and are encouraged to lean on human resources for assistance, she says.


While applauding implementation of the new laws, Dana Marlowe, principal partner with Silver Spring, Maryland-based Accessibility Partners, thinks they are long overdue.


“These regulations are important but are years too late in my opinion,” says Marlowe, whose company helps organizations nationwide implement accessible information technology solutions for disabled people in the workplace. She cites lactation rooms as one example of reasonable accommodations employers should make for pregnant women and new mothers.


“Not every mother has her own office, and using a breast pump in a bathroom stall is not sterile, clean or comfortable,” Marlowe says. “Thousands of new moms are experiencing this every year, and accommodating their needs is inexpensive and should be commonplace wherever there is a workplace with an abundance of new moms. They should be considered as people who may need additional accommodations, because balancing work and life takes its toll.”


The ADAAA regulations should help eliminate some of the stigmas associated with pregnancy, says Stephanie Davis, president of Employment Practices Solutions, a human resources consulting company based in Dallas. She says many women are subjected to discrimination related to pregnancy and motherhood and are treated differently.


“I experienced this first-hand during my own pregnancy,” she says. “We make assumptions about moms and what they are able to do and not able to do; we have to steer people away from this stereotype and give them a chance to do their job without judgment. No one should be treated differently or denied career opportunities because they are pregnant or are a new mom.”


Mothers who are pumping breast milk in the workplace are magnets for unfair treatment, “because it freaks some people out,” Davis says.


Accessibility Partners’ Marlowe agrees. “Lactation rooms are not a perk. Pumping milk is not a pleasant experience, but it shouldn’t be unpleasant either. Minor accommodations and common sense provide the best work environment and leads to more productivity.”


She may be right. The report The Business Case for Breastfeeding, published in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, shows a significant return on investment for employers that provide workplace lactation support, including lower health care costs, absenteeism and turnover rates. Employees whose companies provide breastfeeding support consistently report improved morale, better satisfaction with their jobs and higher productivity, according to the report.


Davis says the ADAAA is helping employers avoid the technicalities associated with qualifying disabilities and put the focus on how they can treat people fairly.


“The more clarity employers have about pregnant workers as a result of ADAAA and health care reform provisions, the better it will be for new moms who want to do their jobs to the best of their abilities,” Davis says. “If you have a pregnant employee, ask yourself: ‘Am I being fair?’ ”


Workforce Management Online, July 2011 — Register Now!

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Benefits Managers Turning to HR Blogs for Advice and Insight

Keeping up with complex benefits issues, health care reform and wage litigation has human resources managers turning to a virtual water cooler in the form of blogs and related social media sites for advice or to initiate feedback about their own ideas.


Jonathan Corke, a field marketing manager with Livonia, Michigan-based WorkForce Software Inc., says he follows several blogs as a source of information because they often articulate new and emerging ideas on HR and benefits.


In addition to his company’s blog written by labor lawyers, Corke says he follows “FMLA Insights,” “BlogERP” and “Steve Boese’s HR Technology.”


“I read Steve’s blog because he’s an educator and writes in a way that makes ideas easy to understand. I’m a student of human resources because the more I know, the more valuable I am to my employer,” Corke says.


Besides HR and benefits-related forums on LinkedIn and HR-focused websites, the more reliable blogs are typically written by industry insiders.


Boese, an HR technology instructor at the Rochester, New York, Institute of Technology, hosts “HR Happy Hour,” which dispenses HR and benefits talk via an array of online media including his blog, Twitter account and through the online Blog Talk Radio.


Benefits companies also are finding a growing audience online seeking tips and insight. Portland, Oregon-based Standard Insurance Co., a provider of financial services including disability insurance, launched its Workplace Possibilities blog in February. Written by consultants, nurse case managers, vocational counselors and experts specializing in disability issues, the blog offers tips and ideas on managing disability-related issues.


“This blog is an extension of Standard’s Workplace Possibilities program where we work in a partnership with clients on their disability cases so their employees can return to work as soon as possible,” says Alison Daily, director of Workplace Possibilities.


Solutions for getting employees back to work after an illness or surgery, as well as tips and resources for ergonomic solutions that will accommodate a back or other injury are among the regular topics.


“Our readers are learning what’s possible and feeling empowered to take actions they might not have taken before,” she says. “Sometimes the solution to a disability issue is simple, but people don’t think about it.”


A 2010 study by consultants the CARA Group Inc. polled 125 professionals from diverse industries and found that 98 percent of survey respondents agree that social media are changing how they learn and access information. More than 80 percent said they use social media and networking tools to advance their professional skills.


Miami-based human resources professional and speaker Sharlyn Lauby’s “HR Bartender” blog has fielded questions from readers about developing compensation plans, managing the Family and Medical Leave Act and providing sick pay benefits, among others issues. The blog is a valuable reference to HR managers, especially those in smaller organizations.


One reader commented: “We’re a startup company looking for advice on how to competitively pay new hires … obviously we can’t use the content we find on the Internet because that usually applies to larger companies.”


Bloggers like Lauby have the experience and expertise to effectively blog about diverse human resources issues. Yet Gerry Crispin, co-founder and principal of consulting firm CareerXroads, offers up the age-old caution: Don’t believe everything you read—especially in a blog.


“There’s been a shift in the way we get information, and we can no longer trust traditional sources for a number of reasons,” says Crispin, who estimates there are roughly 200 HR-related blogs. “People are getting information from blogs which may not be any more reliable from a news point of view. When I grew up, you learned to examine information and assess it; I don’t think that’s being taught anymore, and it’s a critical skill.”


Though small firms can glean valuable perspective from benefits-related blogs, HR managers at large companies also say they turn to social media for insight. R.J. Morris, corporate staffing director for McCarthy Building Cos. in St. Louis, a commercial builder that employs 1,500 people nationwide, says he checks about 30 HR-related blogs a week. Morris says he benefits from seeing examples of what his peers are doing.


“It’s helpful to see how health care reform is impacting all of us, and I’ve also been interested in the strategies companies are using around wellness programs,” he says.


Morris says he also tracks blogs on employee engagement and retention issues.


Mike Ryan, senior vice president of marketing and client strategy for New York-based Madison Performance Group, is also a regular reader of several blogs including “Generations at Work,” part of the “Delaware Employment Law” blog; “PositiveSharing”; Six Degrees From Dave”; and the “HBR Blog Network” of the Harvard Business Review.


“These are all well-researched and even when the entries are not specific to HR, you will find something of value that ties into the workplace conversation,” Ryan says. He offers a tip for finding blogs of value: keep an open mind about what the HR conversation should be about. “If you see HR as a strategic function, you’ll find a lot of blogs that add to the conversation.”


The good blogs will take complex legal information and make it understandable to HR managers, says Mike Haberman, vice president and director of HR services for Omega HR Solutions Inc. in Marietta, Georgia.


“Readers of our blog say they are looking for clear explanations about compliance issues,” he says. “Topics such as ADA are critical to human resource managers, and they depend on bloggers to provide ‘nonlawyer’ talk about those issues.”


Jennifer Benz, chief strategist of Benz Communications in San Francisco and a blogger, believes social media only work as a resource when they provide meaningful information. She tweets one or two daily benefits tips and invites benefits and HR managers to re-tweet the tips directly to their employees, with or without attribution.


“Benefits managers are really busy, so my goal is to provide them with tips that are immediately actionable,” Benz says.


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Trendy Topics Grab Ink, but HR Hot Line Reveals Basic Workplace Worries

In a time when legislative and economic issues are evolving as rapidly as interpersonal and social dynamics, perhaps no business discipline has been transformed as much in recent years as human resources. Or has it?


Cincinnati-based Employers Resource Association’s 2011 list of the top 10 questions received on its human resources hot line reveals that while bedbugs, social media and background checks are among the hot topics in the mainstream and business media, demand is still high for expertise with HR staples such as the Family and Medical Leave Act, discipline and termination, and performance management. According to Dan Chaney, the association’s director HR Advisory Services who handles the majority of inquiries, more than 15 percent of the calls relate to FMLA.


The not-for-profit organization, which specializes in human resources consulting, training, development and legal updates, receives more than 8,000 calls each year to its phone and email HR Hotline from human resources professionals in the Midwest who work for businesses and not-for-profits of all sizes.


The association has compiled the list for several years but has only published it since 2010. The new list released in March reflects the concerns of years past, Chaney says. Termination or discipline issues ranks second among the queries after FMLA, followed by questions regarding performance management, Fair Labor Standards Act and immigration.


“This list highlights several topics on the minds of both employees and supervisors,” says John Robak, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Greeley and Hansen, a global environmental and engineering consulting firm in Chicago. “In my experience, employees are often looking for clarification of company rules, regulations and policies. One of the first places they turn to is the human resources department.”


Ed Lawler, a professor of business and founder and director of the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, believes that’s a dilemma for HR professionals.


Lawler, who is the author of Management Reset: Organizing for Sustainable Effectiveness, says, “Our data shows that the HR function has stayed the same. HR folks get caught up with these day-to-day transactional issues and don’t see the bigger, more strategic issues of the business and therefore are not included in strategy discussions.”


Robak says he would like to see more emphasis from HR on ways to increase employee engagement and reduce staff turnover.


“My hope is that over time more employees and supervisors will transition toward asking questions on ways to create a stronger work environment and culture and on how to manage work flow more effectively,” he says.


“In general, I believe this list is an accurate reflection of what’s happening in the human resources world today, but I would move No. 3 [performance management strategies] to the No,. 1 spot [FMLA]. The issues I deal with most for clients revolve around performance,” says Michael Newman, labor and employment partner at Cincinnati-based Dinsmore & Shohl, a client of the Employers Resource Association.


Newman also handles numerous Americans with Disabilities Act claims, noting that almost every lawsuit he sees involves retaliation.


“This is huge,” he says, “and HR professionals need legal advice on how to document and fire a nonperforming employee to avoid lengthy litigation.”


Some of the calls are from people who are in a bind, Chaney says.


“They either ignored the basics of consistency, fairness and documentation or simply were over their heads in HR practice or law that they didn’t understand,” he says.


According to Lawler, part of the answer is to create separate pieces of the HR function with different areas of expertise, such as a division that is dedicated to issues other than administration or outsourcing.


“So much knowledge is needed, and we’re seeing growth in outsourcing, especially in the areas of compensation and employee assistance programs, done more for cost than for strategic reasons,” he says.


Robak believes the questions HR professionals ask will evolve over time as companies place even more emphasis on communicating their mission and values and improving their methods to effectively onboard new employees.


“This transformation is necessary if organizations are to truly create an environment where staff is highly engaged and upwardly mobile,” he says.


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Straight Talk and Patience Are Key When Discussing HSAs With Workers

When CommunityAmerica Credit Union introduced a high-deductible health plan with a health savings account for the 2008 plan year, 50 percent of its employees signed on.


“We never expected that level of participation the first year,” says Jean Claytor, vice president of human resources for the Lenexa, Kansas-based company. She believes that a strong communications plan focused on alleviating the fears employees might have about using an HSA while touting benefits played a large role in the plan’s success.


“It’s important to get employees beyond the perception that they are going to pay more for their health care costs out of their own pockets,” Claytor says. “We made sure that the high-deductible/HSA plan premium was significantly less than our other health option, and we emphasized the tax- and long-term savings benefits of using an HSA.”


Communicating with employees early and often during the upcoming fall benefits season is essential when introducing a high-deductible health plan with an HSA, says Bonnie Hauck Evelyn, national practice leader, employee benefits, for Cleveland-based CBIZ Inc.


“We spend a lot of time talking to our clients about the communications tools we offer or that they need to develop internally,” Evelyn says. “Some clients are producing DVDs to send home to the spouse, and, of course, they are doing a lot of employee meetings so the message is consistent.”


Evelyn says that some employees are fearful about prescription drug costs.


“These kinds of plans also tend to have separate deductibles for prescription drugs, which is an obstacle employers can address by contributing to the account for the first year or by providing diabetic supplies or zero copays on generics to ease the pain,” she says. “Employees need to understand what their out-of-pocket costs might be during the year, so financial modeling is an important part of any communications plan, as is education on what expenses are reimbursable and which are not.”


Last summer, Kansas City, Missouri-based Lockton Cos. began communicating to employees that they would have one option—a high-deductible plan with an HSA in the 2011 plan year.


Theresa Schnelle, vice president and manager of compensation and benefits at Lockton, says her team distributed educational communications bit by bit: “Here’s what it is, here’s how it works as well as the short- and long-term benefits.


“We wanted our 2,200 eligible employees to ask informed questions by the time we had open-enrollment meetings and not be so focused on the money aspect of the plan,” Schnelle says. “Our meetings went smoothly and so far we haven’t hit any rough patches.”


She believes that the key is to provide more information than less and be honest about why you are making a change. For Lockton, it was a result of health care reform and the costs related to it. Lockton contributed to its employees HSAs for plan year 2011 but has not made a decision yet about its contributions in 2012.


“We don’t anticipate short-term savings but in the long term we think that this plan will reduce our trend from double to single digits,” Schnelle says.


For CommunityAmerica Credit Union, the reason for implementing the high deductible/HSA plan in 2008 was simple: a heavy claims year in 2007 with a 100 percent loss ratio, which resulted in a potential increase in premiums of 30 percent. Claytor says the company was looking for a plan that would offset the high cost of health care for all participants. After enrollment in the plan remained at 50 percent in 2009, her team launched an aggressive education plan for 2010.


She says the company spent a lot of time demonstrating the high-deductible/HSA plan’s value through case histories and life-stage examples. They conducted group and one-on-one meetings to everyone enrolled in the preferred provider organization (132 employees) to ensure individual employees understood how the plan would affect them personally.


“Our participation increased to 70 percent for the 2010 plan year, and at that point I felt confident that we could migrate to a single high-deductible/HSA plan,” Claytor says.


To sweeten the offer, they enhanced plan benefits and offered to contribute to the HSAs in 2011.


“This year, the company contributed $400 individual/$800 family into employee HSAs or into their flexible spending accounts, if they are more comfortable with the ability to be reimbursed for expenses as of Jan. 1 using the FSA instead of waiting to accumulate dollars in their HSA accounts,” Claytor says. “I don’t want to portray that everyone in our organization loves using an HSA, but I know all of us were glad not to see increases in our medical premiums for 2011.”


More employers are embracing high-deductible plans with HSAs, with some tying them to wellness plans, says Todd Berkley, HSA business leader for OptumHealth Financial Services, the largest custodian of HSAs by asset size in the United States.


“Ten million people contribute to health savings accounts right now, and that number could easily increase to 12 million this year,” he says, adding that he’s seeing a lot of requests for proposal activity around high-deductible/HSA plans.


“I also see a deepening in account balance growth, which is a sign that people are beginning to understand how these accounts work and the value of using them for present tax savings and for future financial needs,” he says.


Employers considering a high-deductible/HSA plan need to gauge their employee population to determine if it’s a realistic option, but for small employers, it may be the only way they can continue to offer health insurance, Evelyn says.


“This is not a short-term strategy, but something employers need to think through and work toward,” Claytor says.


Workforce Management Online, April 2011 — Register Now!