for your benefit – Workforce

January 13, 2020January 6, 2020

Social Ills Affect Both Public and Workplace Health

Public health experts have been studying for decades the role that poverty, race, environment and other external factors play in citizens’ overall health, but an increasing number of employers are seeing how social ills impact their workforce.

The concept of social determinants of health, which the World Health Organization defines as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age,” is gaining momentum in the employer world.

In 2019, UnitedHealthcare and the American Medical Association teamed up to create medical insurance codes so that doctors can identify social factors that lead to poor health. If accepted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the new codes would become effective Oct. 1, 2020.

Also in 2019, bipartisan legislation called the Social Determinants Accelerator Act was introduced to provide grants and technical assistance to underserved communities. It’s considered to be the first federal proposal on social determinants.

Also read: Health Care Surveys Show Employers What to Expect in 2020

“It seems to have entered employer conversations in the past two to three years,” said Karen Moseley, president of the Health Enhancement Research Organization, a nonprofit think tank focused on workplace health. “Public health has been talking about this issue for years and years and now employers are adopting the same language. It started out as employee and employer collaboration to improve public health and has evolved into companies and communities working together.”

In a recent report on the relevance of social issues to employers, HERO outlines steps that companies can take to address community problems that affect their employees and highlight employers with innovative programs. For example, Cisco, LinkedIn and Pure Storage help fund a nonprofit in Silicon Valley that supports affordable housing initiatives, and Tom’s of Maine pays its lowest-paid workers more than 25 percent above a living wage.

The report recommends that employers create a corporate philosophy that values the needs of its employees and adopt policies and practices that support that.

Also read: The 4 Myths of Health Care Cost Reduction

“It often starts with one issue that is the greatest need in the community,” Moseley said. “Employers need to shift their focus from shareholder value to employee value. I really love this metaphor I heard at a conference about a fish tank. If we feed the fish but ignore cleaning the tank, ultimately the fish are going to die.”

January 9, 2020January 9, 2020

Employers Struggle to Reduce Wasteful Health Care Spending

Employers have found ways to manage health care costs, but need to step up their efforts to tackle a more vexing problem — eliminating wasteful medical care spending.

A recent Journal of the American Medical Association study found that 20 to 25 percent of medical spending is unnecessary.

“As long as we are in a fee-for-service world we will get services whether we need them or not,” said Mike Thompson, president and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. “We need to shift from paying for volume to paying for value, and employers need to put pressure on providers to get this right. They should be asking for spending reports from vendors, like Blue Cross Blue Shield, and they should be analyzing claims and identifying waste. The problem is not new and neither is value-based medicine, but there are new efforts to address wasteful spending.”

The estimated waste hovers between $760 billion and $935 billion, with administrative costs such as claims processing, billing and transferring medical records making up the largest share at $266 billion annually, according to the JAMA study.

Yet, more than half of employers aren’t actively doing anything about it, according to a 2018 report by the NAHPC. While the first step for employers should be identifying the problem, nearly two-thirds of businesses surveyed don’t collect or analyze data to track waste.

“Employers should be asking for reports from the vendors and analyzing claims data to identify waste,” he said. “Part of the reason why vendors don’t offer this information is because they’re responsible of getting rid of it.”

Employers need to take a more proactive role in tackling wasteful spending, according to Daniel Wolfson, executive vice president and chief operating officer for the American Board of Internal Medicine. He urges them to speak not only to health plans but also to health care providers about what they are doing to minimize the problem. Wolfson leads Choosing Wisely, an ABIM initiative designed to encourage patient-doctor dialogue around the overuse and misuse of medical services. The program, which was launched in 2012, publishes a list of more than 400 recommendations on treatments that patients and physicians should question.

The Washington Health Alliance looked at 48 common medical treatments, tests and procedures and found that an estimated $341 million was spent on unnecessary health care in the course of a year.

“I think employers are absent from the conversation,” he said. “They have not used their leverage to impact this problem. Employers have had a tremendous influence on quality issues but they are not using their leverage, their power, their influence and their thinking when it comes to wasteful health care spending. They should be saying ‘If we’re going to be purchasing health care services from you we want to hold you accountable.’”

Also read: The 4 Myths of Health Care Cost Reduction

Some employers are using the Choosing Wisely recommendations, which were created by 17 national medical specialty societies. Each list offers information on when tests and procedures, such as imaging for lower back pain or breast cancer treatments, are appropriate.

In Washington state, the Washington Health Alliance looked at 48 common medical treatments, tests and procedures and found that an estimated $341 million was spent on unnecessary health care in the course of a year. Of the 2.9 million services examined, nearly half were found to be unnecessary.

The prescription of opioids for lower back pain was the most wasteful treatment, followed by the use of antibiotics for upper respiratory and ear infections, annual EKGs for low-risk patients and imaging tests for eye disease.

In Missouri, the St. Louis Business Health Coalition partnered with the Midwest Health Initiative in 2016 to identify unnecessary care. It found $303 million in wasteful spending to vision screenings, imaging tests, EKG services and pre-op lab studies in 2016.

In 2017, the coalition examined emergency room use for upper respiratory infections and found that $2 million a year could be saved if patients went to an urgent care clinic instead of a hospital emergency department.

Louise Probst, executive director of the employer coalition, said that benefit plan design can help through increased copays for ED visits.

“We all have a problem with low-value care,” she said. “It’s important to ask employees to think about that as an individual and then as a company. Look at incentives in your plan design, look at contracts, look for partners. Get the best data that you can and keep track of it. Employers, hospitals, physician organizations, labor unions, and other community partners need to come to together with a single focus of improving value in health care.”

November 19, 2019June 29, 2023

Monitoring Emotions at Work

With emotional well-being in the workplace, “prevention is better than intervention,” said one author and entrepreneur.

Marc Brackett, founder and director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, argues in his new book “Permission to Feel” that the workplace tends to deny healing.

“You check your feelings at the door because you’re there to do business,” he said. “What people have to realize is emotions don’t get checked at the door. They are at the seat of every table. They’re on the phone with every client and are influencing all aspects of performance.”

Emerging technologies are helping employees assess the impact of their emotional state on work performance.

One platform in the development stage, Evolve Biologix, uses the heart’s electrical signals through an ECG measurement tool wrapped around the chest to correlate with a range of emotions to develop emotional awareness and learn techniques to manage it individually and in relationship to others.

People already are using devices connected to the body such as a watch, but having something connected closer to their heart is new, said Evolve Biologix CEO Steve Curtis.

Evolve Biologix differs from other platforms in that while others are self-reporting, its focus is on gathering real-time electrical signals from each heartbeat.

“An ECG wave has different peaks with electrical signals firing through our brain,” said Curtis, whose company is in a corporate environment beta stage as Curtis seeks partners to collaborate on the notion that it can serve as a health benefit. “We’re utilizing data science and machine algorithms to understand the specific signatures of these body systems to draw out emotions, build a group performance dashboard and optimize algorithms that drive content interventions and suggestions at an organizational level.”

An Evolve Power Index score, which is displayed on a phone, represents the user’s emotional level. The higher the score, the more the end user is believed to be in alignment with their emotional state, which can range from shame and guilt to peace and enlightenment.

Regarding privacy concerns, Curtis said results aren’t connected to individuals but provide a picture of group dynamics down to work groups of three.

“[HR] departments are continually challenged with how to keep innovation alive in their organization, increase the change readiness, manage empathy in environments where people are becoming progressively more technical in nature and how to get people to care about each other and function as a cohesive team,” he said. “It’s imperative to be able to view these kinds of metrics.”

Brackett foresees a time when employee benefits will include more emotional wellness technologies.

“There’s a benefit-cost analysis to taking seriously people’s development of skills, teaching emotional self-awareness and emotion regulation as opposed to treating it once you have a full-blown anxiety disorder or depression,” he said.

November 13, 2019June 29, 2023

New Concerns Form Smokescreen Over Vaping at Work

The surging popularity of e-cigarettes and the recent spate of illnesses associated with them have caught public health officials and health care providers by surprise and left many employers wondering whether to allow their use in the workplace and what kind of policies are needed to manage the practice.

An e-cigarette is an electronic device that heats up small amounts of liquid nicotine and other substances into an aerosol that can be inhaled, also known as vaping. E-cigarette use among teenagers has skyrocketed in recent years, but others see vaping as a safe alternative to smoking and a tool to quit, an issue that is up for debate.

“Given the recent stories, employers are catching up with how to think about vaping,” said Dr. Mary Kay O’Neill, senior clinical adviser in Mercer’s Total Health Management practice. “E-cigarettes kind of exploded. An early sales pitch was that it’s a safer way to use tobacco than smoking but I think that was more marketing than science. We’re finding a lot problems with that theory.”

While the Food and Drug Administration has not found e-cigarettes to be a safe or effective smoking cessation method, a 2019 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that smokers who vaped were more likely to quit smoking than people who used nicotine patches, gum or similar products. On the downside, those who quit often became hooked on e-cigarettes.

The largest group of e-cigarette users, however, is teenagers — a trend that has alarmed school and public health officials. In 2018, 37 percent of high school seniors reported vaping, compared to 28 percent in 2017, according to a University of Michigan study.

In response to health concerns, a number of states have banned e-cigarettes and vaping in workplaces and public areas. So far, 17 states have passed general workplace bans — most recently Minnesota, South Dakota, Florida and New Mexico. In June, San Francisco officials voted to ban the sale of e-cigarettes in the city. San Francisco is the headquarters of Juul Labs, the nation’s largest producer of vaping devices.

While most employers ban smoking, few have policies around e-cigarettes, according to Amanda Graham, head of the Innovations Center at Truth Initiative, a national public health organization that also offers a smoking cessation program, called the EX Program, to employers.

“There’s a lot of interest and questions from employers around what to do with vaping,” Graham said. “Do we add it to our smoking policy? What if we have a senior leader who believes in vaping? How do we handle that? It’s important to have consistency in the handling of all tobacco products.”

Mark Johnson, an employment law attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Milwaukee, advises employers to review their current smoking policy and make sure that it complies with state and local laws and that it clearly addresses vaping. Some employers add the use of electronic smoking devices to the definition of “smoking” in an existing no-smoking policy, according to Johnson. A separate policy is not always necessary, he said.

“The number of states and municipalities that have banned vaping in the workplace continues to grow and even if applicable law does not expressly ban vaping in the workplace, laws prohibiting smoking in the workplace may be interpreted to include vaping, Johnson said in an email. “For other locations, it may not be clear whether vaping is regulated. There does not appear to be any location that requires employers to permit vaping at work.”

For employers weighing whether to allow vaping at work, the effects of second-hand exposure to e-cigarettes also need to be addressed, according to Graham.

Much about the health effects of vaping remains unknown and for that reason employers must educate themselves on the risks, O’Neill said.

“We’ve studied tobacco for a long time but not what’s in the liquids found in vaping,” she said. Employers should consider offering smoking-cessation programs to help employees quit through methods that are safer and more effective, according to O’Neill.

November 7, 2019June 29, 2023

Eggnog With a Splash of Paid Time Off

Providing employees extended time off at the end of the year is one way to add a bit of holiday cheer.

Office closures during the holidays — typically the days between or immediately around Christmas and New Year’s Day — can enhance employee productivity, according to a November 2018 survey of 2,000 full-time employees conducted by Chicago-based consulting firm West Monroe Partners. The study explored employee productivity during the holiday season and gauged how additional days off during the holidays affected that productivity. It found the “employees at offices that close additional days during the holidays are significantly more likely to report higher productivity during the time that they’re actually in the office” — 42 percent compared to 17 percent in offices that don’t shut down outside of federal holidays.

The study suggested that employers close the office on days beyond federal holidays, when feasible.

Some employers look at this potential benefit and can’t see past the missed productivity of those three or four days between Christmas and New Year’s, said Michael Hughes, a managing director with West Monroe and lead of the firm’s Operations Excellence practice. But they’re not considering the return on investment.

Also read: Experts Advise Revising Ailing Time-Off Policies

“In a tight job market, the ROI from deciding to close the office becomes very real,” he said. “We’ve tried this at our own company and [we] see the benefits of it year after year in terms of retention and productivity.”

According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans’ 2018 “Employee Benefits Survey,” 12 percent of organizations offer the full week between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve as a paid holiday, compared to 9 percent of organizations in 2016.

If a company can withstand the hiatus from the client delivery and service perspective, it should strongly consider doing so.

Michael Hughes

Especially at a time with a tight labor market, employers are looking for new, innovative ways to attract talent and increase morale, said Julie Stich, vice president of content at the foundation. An extended vacation during the holiday season is one way to vie for candidates’ attention.

This makes sense in some industries more than others. The top three industries that offer holiday time off perks include education, technology and manufacturing. Conversely there are many industries in which virtually no companies offered such perks, including banking, finance, food service and health care, Stich said.

The top three industries provide examples for the type of environment that can more naturally offer this perk, Stich said. People in education may already have that downtime over winter break. Tech companies tend to be innovative in the benefits they offer. And manufacturers sometimes need to shutter their shops and turn off the machines for a week for maintenance. Offering that week between or around Christmas and New Year’s Day could fit in with a business need as well as give many employees the perk of a longer break, she added.

Hughes said that if a company can withstand the hiatus from the client delivery and service perspective, it should strongly consider this time off.

At West Monroe Partners, the finance and accounting teams are often working at the office or at home during this time of the year to meet end-of-year deadlines. The same goes for IT, as clients’ expectations of getting the necessary tech guidance does not stop just because it’s the holiday season.

One year a client experienced a ransomware attack the week between Christmas and New Year’s, Hughes said, and employees on the cybersecurity team stepped up, working on Christmas Eve and the days following Christmas. Instead of time off, these employees were recognized and rewarded in other ways for going above and beyond in their jobs.

“Folks in these positions understand this is a busy time based on their role in the company,” Hughes said. “As long as you provide them with a similar benefit — paid time off during another non-busy time in the year — or rotate who’s ‘on call’ from year to year, they are less affected by the decision.”

“If it’s not possible for your business to close for additional days during the season, then it’s even more important to offer workers alternative ways of disconnecting and recharging, such as greater scheduling flexibility,” he added.

Customer relations are something else to keep in mind. Organizations need to let their clients or customers know in advance that they will not be providing services over a certain period of time. They can’t just rely on an update on their website to get the message across, Stich said.

November 4, 2019June 29, 2023

Personalization Versus Ease of Use

I recently had coffee with a benefits leader who is implementing a new technology platform for her organization’s employees and spouses. Her scenario is much like that of many of our clients: She works for a big organization with employees all over the United States and in many locations around the world. The company’s benefits and HR programs are complex — and getting more so as it seeks to meet the needs of different employee segments and an increasingly diverse population. Data is used for everything in the organization, and HR is catching up to the rest of the enterprise.

Their goal is to provide a better experience for employees, driven by data. Her team is looking at consolidating all benefits information from existing channels (including the intranet, external sites, vendor sites, email newsletters and more) into a personalized portal.

But she has a lingering concern: As we look to offer employees a highly personalized experience, do we unintentionally make it harder to access benefits information?

This is a critical question. Ease of access and ease of use need to be the highest priority if we are going to get the right people to use their benefits at the right time. It’s also an often-overlooked question when pursuing personalization. And it becomes even more important to consider when you’re using personalization and engagement to drive health strategy. Personalization is among large employers’ top health care initiatives for 2020, according to the National Business Group on Health’s latest survey. Some 26 percent of respondents said they plan to “implement an engagement platform that aggregates point solutions and pushes personalized communications to employees.”

That initiative follows employers’ top three strategies, which are largely focused on changing the health care experience: implementing virtual care solutions, a more focused strategy on high-cost claims, and expanding centers of excellence to include additional conditions.

So, why are personalized tools getting so much attention? Personalized portals and apps are good at doing several important things. They can serve up data-driven content, send just-in-time notifications, and help identify missed opportunities in a very relevant way. They can also deliver recommendations, which helps create the “Amazon” experience so many plan sponsors are looking for.

Amid all this incredible promise, it’s important to remember that these tools can deliver customized content only if and when people use them. By their nature, personalized tools have more access barriers, because all that personal information needs to be protected. It is easy to underestimate the amount of effort it takes to get people to engage frequently with even the most cutting-edge and appealing platforms. You must have a compelling reason to check anything out. You must have an even better reason to go back.

If you’re asking someone to download an app, authenticate with personal information, keep that app up to date, allow notifications, and go back to it frequently, is that actually easy? Each one of those action steps is a specific user behavior that has to be promoted and encouraged.

Think about when you log in to a website and have forgotten your password. Are you always motivated to track it down? Or do you file that for “do later” and move on to something else? We all have a lot of to-do’s and a lot of distractions — especially on our phones.

When you’re considering a personalized app or platform, you need to take into account the ease of access and the amount of resources you’ll need to drive ongoing use.

Of course, we have clever ways to encourage engagement. And this is where we can really use HR’s unique advantages.

First, we can make something so enticing that you can’t resist going there often. The best example of this that I’ve seen recently is a large retailer that puts their employee discount in their benefits engagement app. The only way they can use their discount is to have the app on their phones. You can bet all their employees are using that app.

You can also make the app so critical to an individual’s day-to-day job that using the platform becomes a de facto job requirement. Some large companies have built their HR apps to include core functions like scheduling and time tracking. If you have to use the app every day you work, it’s an ideal channel for serving up key benefits and HR reminders.

There is tremendous promise with personalization. But that promise can only be fulfilled if people have a good experience with personalized tools and use them frequently. It is our job to use all the tools we have to make that desirable — and most importantly, easy.

September 26, 2019June 29, 2023

Experts: 70 Is the Golden Age to Max Out SS Benefits

Becky Beach admits she doesn’t know much about Social Security, but she definitely thinks it won’t be around when she needs it. That’s why the 40-year-old lifestyle blogger plans to start taking the benefit when she turns 62.

“I plan to take it out as early as I can,” Beach said from her home in Arlington, Texas. “I don’t really know that much about Social Security, but I hear it’s going to go away.”

Lots of people like Beach think similarly. In fact, only 4 percent of retirees wait until the optimal age of 70 to take their Social Security benefit, a new study by robo-adviser United Income said. Retirees lose out on $3.4 trillion in possible income, which on average is $111,000 per household, because they don’t take Social Security at the best point in their lifetime.

Also read: Health and Retirement Benefits Under One Umbrella

“Most people don’t claim Social Security at the optimal age from a financial perspective because they may not be having the necessary retirement planning discussions,” said Jason Fichtner, former chief economist at the Social Security Administration, and co-author of the study. “Financial advisers, employer HR departments and policymakers could do a better job with educational materials and encouraging people to spend more time sorting through this important decision.”

Social Security provides more than $1 trillion in benefits to 64 million Americans.

Nearly all (92 percent) of retirees that took Social Security at the wrong time would have seen their income increase had they pinpointed the right time. In fact, more than half of these retirees could have increased their income by more than 25 percent in their 70s and 80s, the report said. That’s usually when people see spikes in health care costs.

Today, Social Security provides more than $1 trillion in benefits to 64 million Americans. It represents a third of retirement income for seniors, which averages $1,461 each month.

There is no doubt the system is being stressed with increased life expectancies, but the doomsday scenario of the system going broke isn’t exactly right, Fichtner said. The latest Social Security Administration report shows that the trust fund reserves are expected to be used up (if nothing is done) by 2035. If Congress chooses to do nothing to fund Social Security, it will still be able to pay out 80 percent of what working Americans are owed after 2035.

“The trust fund may become depleted, but once depleted, it will pay out what it collects,” Fichtner said. “By law, Social Security will pay out 80 percent of what is promised.”

The study showed that most people should wait until 70 to claim their Social Security benefit. While workers can start claiming their benefit at 62, the amount increases on average about 8 percent each year they delay the claim. The Social Security Administration reported a 62-year-old would receive a $725 monthly benefit if they claimed today. Choosing to delay the benefit until age 70 would increase the amount to $1,280, a 177 percent increase.

Also read: Live to 100? Implications for Work, Employers and Retirement

While waiting to get a bigger paycheck sounds great, it may not always be feasible, said Colleen Jaconetti, senior investment analyst at The Vanguard Group. It’s not wise to completely deplete an investment portfolio to accomplish this, she said. In addition, some people may not be able to work or earn enough money in their later years to get them to 70.

“A lot of people don’t realize that they need to figure out how they fill that gap” between 62 and 70, Jaconetti said. “It’s a complicated problem.”

Jaconetti pointed out that those who are able to bridge the gap and delay claiming Social Security can also see other benefits from their decision. Some may see a lower tax bill while in retirement because Social Security taxes may only come from 85 percent to 50 percent of that income. In addition, relying more on Social Security in later years may allow heirs to inherit unused assets from retirement accounts. The important thing, she said, is that people make informed decisions on their health, financial status and other factors to determine the right time to claim the benefit.

Fichtner and Jaconetti agreed that most people are like Beach, they really don’t think about Social Security and may only have time to hear or see the headlines. It would be helpful for human resources leaders and policymakers to help people understand the options well before it becomes their time to make this often permanent decision to claim Social Security benefits. The study looked at Social Security messaging and suggested that the Social Security Administration revisit how it describes claiming age. Currently, age 62 is labeled “early eligibility age.” Fichtner suggested age 62 could simply be labeled “minimum benefit age” while age 70 could be labeled the “maximum benefit age.”

“How we talk about this can change behavior,” Fichtner said. “The little things can make a difference.”

July 22, 2019July 22, 2019

Student-Loan Matching Hits Snags

Plan sponsors have shown a lot of interest in a recent ruling that allowed one company to make 401(k) matching contributions while employees repay their student loans, but two attorneys following the progress of the idea are doubtful that federal guidance allowing others to implement the idea will be issued any time soon.

In August 2018, the Internal Revenue Service issued a private letter ruling allowing an unnamed company to amend its plan so workers who voluntarily agree to put at least 2 percent of pay toward a student loan would be eligible to receive an employer contribution equal to 5 percent of pay to their 401(k) plan.

That letter addressed the issue facing 44 million graduates today: the $1.5 trillion they carry in student loan debt. Organizations also are seeing a rapid rise in popularity for plans that ease the loan burdens of recent grads.

Since that time, the IRS has met with trade groups to talk about possible federal guidance, said David Levine, a principal at Groom Law Group who was speaking at the Plan Sponsor Council of America’s national conference in April.

“The outcome of the meeting was not as optimistic as one might hope for,” Levine said.

Jeffrey Holdvogt, a partner with law firm McDermott Will & Emery, said that there are other ways to help employees with their student debt, but this private letter ruling was a strategic way to shoehorn the benefit into a tax-friendly vehicle. He suspected that other plan sponsors have been asking for similar private letter rulings, but the IRS has turned them down.

Also read: Indebted to You? Student Loan Benefit Could Be Key Retention Tool

He and Levine agreed that there may be unintended consequences in broadening the scope of the initial private letter ruling or offering separate rulings to other plans sponsors.

First, the two agreed that the idea may get trumped by pending legislation. The Retirement Security & Savings Act, sponsored by Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Ben Cardin, D-Maryland, would allow employers to make matching contributions with respect to student loan repayments. In addition, the Retirement Parity for Student Loans Act, sponsored by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, would allow 401(k) and 403(b) plan sponsors to make matching contributions on qualified student loan repayments. Employees must submit to the employer proof of the student loan and the loan repayment.

Next, Levine posed several questions about how this ruling, if expanded, could set a precedent for other repayment programs. It could get as crazy as someone buying a yacht and asking for compensation. The general issue of needing to pay off a large liability while saving for retirement fits the same scenario as the student debt question.

“Where do you draw the line?” Levine asked.

Levine cautioned that plan sponsors interested in adopting similar strategies in their 401(k) plans need to rely on the guidance exactly as it was outlined in the original private letter. Companies that simply follow the “spirit” of the private letter may wind up having issues with the IRS.

May 27, 2019June 29, 2023

Paid Leave for Caregivers Being Used to Attract Millennials

As the demand for family friendly benefits grows, employers are responding by offering paid leave to new parents.

While that’s good news for families, a rapidly growing segment of the workforce is often overlooked — employees who are caring for an aging parent, an ailing spouse or other loved one.

About 40 million people in the U.S. are caring for an adult family member and 60 percent of them are employed, according to a 2015 report by AARP. And an increasing number are stepping into that role at a younger age. About a quarter of all caregivers are millennials ages 18-34, according to AARP’s research.

That is why a small but growing number of employers are expanding their family leave policies and offering paid leave to employees caring for a loved one, whether it’s a child, a parent, a spouse, or an in-law or grandparent.

“Caregiving comes in all different forms,” said Jen Fisher, managing director of wellbeing at consulting firm Deloitte. “It’s not just about bringing a child into the world. The dynamics of caregiving and the definition of family have changed.”

In 2016, Deloitte began offering 16 weeks of paid leave to full-time employees caring for a family member. Leave can be taken all at once or at a minimum, in three-day increments, according to Fisher. Previously, only new parents were eligible for paid leave.

“Caregiving for someone who is sick ebbs and flows,” she said. “If you’re caring for an elderly parent at home, one week there’s a lot going and on other days you’re not needed 100 percent. You can build your caregiving needs around that. It’s a really flexible program.”

Under the 1993 Family Medical Leave Act, private employers with more than 50 employees must provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave, but some employers are going beyond what’s required in order to attract younger workers.

“Caregivers are getting younger,” said Kathleen Kelly, executive director of the Family Caregiver Alliance, a nonprofit research and policy organization that supports caregivers. “There are many more millennials and Gen Xers caring for a parent or grandparent. It’s a byproduct of baby boomers having kids later. Caregiving has changed generationally. Employers need to wake up to this.”

More than half of millennial caregivers are the sole provider for an elderly family member, providing an average of 26 hours of care each week — the equivalent of a part-time job, according to a 2018 study by the AARP Public Policy Institute.

Yet, most do not feel supported at work. They are less likely to tell a supervisor they are caring for a family member or to discuss it with co-workers, the study showed.

In addition to providing paid leave, employers need to better understand the challenges that caregivers face, said Kelly.

“Issues around children have become more or less accepted, but not with eldercare,” she said. “If you say, ‘I have to take my mom to a doctor’s appointment,’ people think, ‘Can’t she do it alone?’ It doesn’t have the same urgency or importance.”

According to AARP Public Policy Institute, about 100 major U.S. firms have adopted or expanded paid family leave over the past three years, but only 20 percent made it available to family caregivers.

That is likely to change, according to Candice Sherman, CEO of the Northeast Business Group on Health.

More than half of millennial caregivers are the sole provider for an elderly family member, providing an average of 26 hours of care each week.

“People are living longer, there are gaps in the health care system, employees are more dispersed geographically, so they are caregiving from afar. Large employers are aware,” she said

The vast majority of employers surveyed by the Northeast Business Group on Health in 2017 agree that caregiving will become an increasingly important issue over the next five years, and nearly half cite caregiving as one of their top 10 priorities.

“You’re seeing companies expand paid leave but they are also looking for ways to support caregivers and that creates an opportunity for companies like ours,” said Michael Walsh, CEO of Cariloop, a platform that enables employees to access caregiving resources. “With our services, you’re not just giving people time off but giving them the tools they need to figure out things they don’t understand. We didn’t feel that a company’s health plan or EAP had the coverage needed for the long-term or took into account all the barriers involved with caregiving.”

Walsh, who launched the Texas-based company in 2013, said that younger workers are driving the interest in support for caregivers in the workplace.

“A major factor is a wave of millennialism, which is about feeling supported and making sure that your company empathizes with what’s important to you,” he said. “We can’t just check the boxes. We have to go further and send a message that we care about you and your family.”

May 15, 2019April 25, 2019

Business Travelers May Need Help Managing Their Health

Long-distance trips may be something to boast about, with wanderlust-driven influencers posting perfectly filtered photos on their social media accounts. Work-sponsored road trips also may sound glamorous but workers should recognize the potential negative impacts of business travel on their health.

Frequent business travel is associated with poorer health outcomes, according to “Business Travel and Behavioral and Mental Health,” a 2018 article from the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. The analysis found that people who traveled more often for work were more likely to smoke, have trouble sleeping and show higher levels of anxiety and depression symptoms. The study concluded that “employers should provide programs to help employees manage stress and maintain health while traveling for work.”

Hal F. Rosenbluth, chairman and CEO of New Ocean Health Solutions, at one point hit the road every other week for work. Rosenbluth knows the challenges of regular business travel within the U.S. and abroad. For people who travel overseas, there’s “always the possibility of sickness or geopolitical events that require immediate attention and sometimes evacuation,” he said.

Also read: Helping HR Care for the Business Traveler

Medical and travel security services firm International SOS and medical insurance provider Geo Blue are among the options for these travelers. “I typically use it if I’m traveling to countries where medical care isn’t terrific or I’m out of the city somewhere where there isn’t a lot of care. If something goes wrong, I know I can have a plane or a helicopter get me to where I need to go,” Rosenbluth said.

Lengthy international trips may “cause a person to lack focus after arrival” and Rosenbluth recommends travelers delay meetings for 24 hours to recover from the flight and adapt to time changes.

Whether someone is traveling domestically or abroad, work-life balance may take a hit. Especially for people with young families, the partner who remains at home with the children may feel overwhelmed, Rosenbluth said, and that communication is important.

Business professionals informally polled on LinkedIn by Workforce had several suggestions to stay healthy while traveling for work and how employers can help.

Find quick, healthy grab-and-go options near the hotel to resist the urge to eat fast food.
Join a gym with multiple locations to use the membership while traveling.
Employers can maintain a company culture that stresses positive health behaviors like getting enough sleep and allowing people time to eat.
Reimburse reasonable wellness expenses for fitness classes in travel destinations.

Rosenbluth suggests that travelers exercise, which may be difficult if there’s no fitness center or if the destination poses a safety hazard for walks offsite. Business travelers also should be careful about what they eat and should carefully consider food safety.

Also read: Got Breast Milk? These Female Business Travelers Do