Benefits – Page 23

January 10, 2017June 29, 2023

Corporate Yoga: A Vehicle for Emotional Health

Lyndsey Morash was working at a long-hour, high-stress job in Boston in 2012. Meanwhile, she was also taking classes to become a certified yoga instructor. She soon started a business based on her experiences as an employee and a yoga enthusiast.

wf_0117_fyb_yogafoto1 — 83 percent of consumers said they needed the most support for emotional well-being, according to a 2016 Aon survey.

“I was working full-time and, after I finished my yoga training, I knew that I wanted to marry the two worlds: the corporate world and the wellness world,” said Morash.

She founded Chasing Nirvana, a mobile yoga studio that brings wellness to corporate offices, along with meditation and health coaching. She has a staff of instructors who have been properly trained, certified and insured so that an organization doesn’t have to do the background work.

Morash and her yoga business fit into the larger corporate wellness trend. Employers want to address emotional health and well-being, according to Stephanie Pronk, a senior vice president who leads Aon’s U.S. National Health Transformation Team. In the broad field of wellness, 83 percent of consumers said they needed the most support for emotional well-being, according to Aon’s 2016 Consumer Health Mindset Survey, which surveyed 2,320 consumers — including employees and dependents covered by employer health plans.

This broader interest in mental and emotional health initiatives can be partly explained by the generational aspect of the workplace, Pronk added.

“The millennial generation has much more depression than even the baby boomer generation,” said Pronk. “They’re going to need different ways of working through those issues, and the traditional ways that worked for baby boomers won’t work for millennials.”

Pronk said baby boomers are more likely to avoid acknowledging or discussing these problems than the younger generation, who have been around for certain medical advances and who are more open to tackling mental health issues. While some behavioral health systems and employee assistance programs were designed for older generations, they need to change to support new generations.

Bringing in things like yoga, mindfulness, meditation and resiliency training could help employees and organizations with emotional health, she added. It’s about organizational behavior, too, not just individual behavior.

“This is an area to watch. It’s on the cusp of starting to make some significant changes. It’s been a status quo industry for a while, but we’re seeing indications that it’s starting to change,” she said. “Some of that is demand. Some of it is recognition that the old tried-and-true approach to emotional health is not necessarily working. What can we do differently?”

It’s a great time to have ideas addressing emotional well-being, she added. “It’s not one thing, it’s a variety of things to meet individual needs.” Not everything will work for every person, but there’s a certain amount of trial and error to see what makes an impact.

Morash’s nook, yoga, is appealing to employers for several reasons. First, she and her team work with interested companies in the limited space they have to host classes. Second, participants don’t need much equipment. Third, they can get creative with pricing options. A company can pay for the whole class, interested employees can split the cost or the employer and employee can share the cost.

“Larger companies have the ability or the funds to put in a gym or use a management company to manage these things,” said Morash. “[But] Chasing Nirvana is there for the company that wants to give their employees wellness options but doesn’t have the funds to install a full-on gym.”

Yoga classes fit into the structure of an employee wellness program. One of Morash’s clients is the Pine Street Inn, an emergency shelter for homeless and displaced people. Last year the inn put together a formal wellness program, and yoga was one of the top options employees sought, said Jayne Hamilton, manager of benefits and employment at the Boston shelter.

Creatively enough, the inn provides incentives for yoga participants through “yoga bingo.” Everyone gets a bingo card and can cross off whatever the “yoga pose of the week” is if they’ve attended the class. The winner gets a prize.

About 10 employees overall are dedicated and go every week, making yoga one way to meet individuals’ needs. The participants “look forward to it because it’s a way for them to reduce stress and find balance in their day,” said Hamilton.

Meanwhile, in the vein of meeting others’ needs, Pine Street Inn also offer programs in stress reduction, mindfulness training and sleep workshops in its wellness program.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

January 9, 2017June 29, 2023

Despite Repeal Efforts, ACA Compliance Moves Forward

It didn’t take long after Donald Trump was elected president for Republican legislators to reignite efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but that’s not stopping employers from moving full steam ahead to comply with its provisions.

“Whatever changes to the ACA or other legislation affecting health benefits pass, they are likely to be done step-by-step with long lead times before major changes take effect,” said Steve Wojcik, vice president of public policy for the National Business Group on Health. “For now, the ACA is still the law of the land and nothing has changed.”

The ACA’s employer mandate requiring businesses with 50 or more full-time employees to offer health care coverage went into effect in 2015, so last year was the first time employers were required to meet its various reporting and filing deadlines. To help ease the pain, the government extended employee notification and Internal Revenue Service filing deadlines in 2016, something it did again for 2017.

The majority of employers surveyed by Mercer took advantage of last year’s extension and viewed the process as a learning curve, according to Tracy Watts, a senior partner at consulting firm Mercer.

The first deadline in 2017 is March 2, the last day for distributing 1095 forms to employees, which includes information about their health insurance coverage. Employees may need it for their income tax filings. The deadline for electronically filing forms to the IRS showing that affordable health coverage is being offered to employees is March 31.

“The extension is welcome news to employers and other reporters concerned with meeting the Jan. 31 deadline to furnish individual statements,” said Cheryl Hughes, a regulatory expert with Mercer, in a written memo to clients. “While the recent election results cast doubt on the longer-term future of this reporting mandate, ALEs (applicable large employers) and MECs (minimum essential coverage) providers should continue to work towards meeting the 2016 reporting deadlines.”

With 5,000 U.S. employees, gathering the data needed to comply with the ACA has been a daunting process for vision care provider VSP Global, according to April Bettencourt, director of global employee benefits for the California-based company.

“When your data is housed in several systems — payroll, HR, benefits, or even worse, by carriers — it would be incredibly difficult to pull all of that information together, perform the analysis to ensure ACA compliance and do this on an ongoing basis,” she said. “You would need a full-time person just to do this.”

The ACA is putting a huge strain on HR departments, so VSP hired HR software and services firm ADP Inc. to handle the process.

Ellen Feeney, vice president and counsel, global compliance at ADP, said that in order for employers to keep up with compliance they must view the process “as an annual reporting of events and validate the ACA status of employees every month.”

“It’s important to focus on always gathering and improving your data,” she said. “ACA compliance will continue to evolve as laws and requirements continue to change. Employers will need to focus on ACA compliance as a part of their daily activities.”

But there is some uncertainty ahead as efforts to repeal the ACA pick up steam, according to Feeney.

“Given the Republican sweep in the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, the new makeup of our government represents a potentially significant change not just for ACA, but for tax policy, Fair Labor Standards Act, pay equity and more,” she said in an email. “First and foremost, it’s important to focus on facts vs. speculation. Change won’t happen overnight. The Affordable Care Act is the law, and will remain so until it’s not. Ten million people are getting subsidies through the marketplaces and 20 million total are insured through the public marketplaces. A wholesale replacement of the Affordable Care Act would require congressional action and would take time.”

Rita Pyrillis is a writer based in the Chicago area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

January 5, 2017June 29, 2023

Supplemental Health Coverage Makes Employees More Responsible

wf_1220_online_gapinsurance_article — “[Employees] are now moving down the path of being more engaged in the management of their health,” said Mercer’s Tim Weber.

Once considered a side dish, voluntary benefits are now making their way to the main course — especially supplemental health care coverages such as hospital indemnity insurance, gap insurance, accident insurance and critical illness insurance.

In the most recent Mercer National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, which surveyed large employers with more than 500 employees, 59 percent of respondents reported that they offer an accident plan. Almost half (45 percent) offer critical illness plans, and 21 percent offer hospital indemnity insurance. It did not measure gap insurance.

The rise of health care costs contributed to this growing interest, as these health plans are designed to ease the financial burden of events such as accidents, hospital visits and diagnoses. Fifty-five percent of the survey respondents cited improving the financial health of employees as motivation to offer these supplemental plans.

Gap insurance, recently covered in the Wall Street Journal, is the most rigid type of supplemental health coverage and specifically covers the increase in hospital out-of-pocket costs that comes with the rise of health care expenses. The money is paid directly to the provider rather than directly to the employee, and doesn’t allow for flexible spending.

The other three types of insurance measured in the Mercer survey cover a fixed amount based on the occurrence of an incident, and the employee receives a check from the insurance company that they can use for any related cost.

wf_1220_online_gapinsurance_palmieri0002_300-2016 — Ginny Palmieri, vice president of specialty services at Independence Blue Cross

Accident insurance pays a fixed amount based on an accident happening. If someone breaks their arm, they could use the check for a hospital co-pay or a sling, among other things. A critical illness plan comes into play when, for example, someone is diagnosed with cancer. They could use the money for hospital costs or for any transportation/lodging costs they picked up while traveling to a specialist in another city.

Finally, a hospital indemnity plan pays a fixed amount based on what a person’s hospital stay looks like. They might get, for example, $1,000 for the admission plus a per-day amount.

“Hospital indemnity insurance provides a multiple-dimensional approach to the medical insurance,” said Ginny Palmieri, vice president of specialty services at Independence Blue Cross. It provides an employee with financial stability and flexibility. Palmieri said that within the industry, hospital indemnity was the fifth best-selling insurance of 2014, and interest has grown since.
As HR managers continue to see the health care landscape changing and the larger shift to high deductible plans, Palmieri said HR managers should make sure that they’re providing different ways to make sure the employee has stability with their coverage.

These insurance types fit into the wider category of voluntary benefits. Five years ago, these weren’t widely considered part of a comprehensive benefits program, but today they are offered along with core benefits packages, said Tim Weber, who heads the voluntary benefits practice at Mercer.

wf_1220_online_gapinsurance_timothy-weber-large — Tim Weber, who heads the voluntary benefits practice at Mercer.

“Employers are looking toward them as a strategic part of total benefit offering,” he said.

When employers are asking benefits counselors about their options during open enrollment, Weber said, it accomplishes a couple things. It helps the employer offer employees coverage that addresses risks, and it also results in the employee being more engaged in the risks they face.

“[Employees] are now moving down the path of being more engaged in the management of their health,” said Weber.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

December 21, 2016June 29, 2023

Commuters Find an Alternative in Uber-WageWorks Pact

wf_1223_online_wageuber_article — WageWorks officially launched its partnership with Uber in New York City this fall.

Ride-sharing services aren’t only changing how 2 a.m. bar-hoppers travel. Commuters, too, are utilizing them to conveniently get to work.

WageWorks Inc., which provides consumer-directed benefits such as commuter benefits and flexible spending accounts, announced a partnership Dec. 13 with Uber Technologies Inc. to provide pre-tax benefits to commuters who use UberPool. WageWorks users who already save 40 percent on public transit via pre-tax funds can now do the same with the ride-hailing service.

wf_1223_online_wageuber_danneuberger_headshot — Dan Neuburger, president of commuter service at WageWorks.

“The mode of transportation used by commuters has changed dramatically in recent years,” said Dan Neuburger, president of commuter service at WageWorks. “As we continued to look for ways to make commuting less costly and more convenient for people, we thought it would make sense to explore whether ride-sharing would be compliant with the section of the IRS that covers commuter benefits.”

WageWorks and Uber could not partner using normal Uber services, just UberPool, according to IRS rules. Uber could only be included in the transit pass definition — and therefore could only partner with WageWorks to offer transit benefits — if the car can fit six adults plus the driver. There don’t necessarily have to be six passengers at a given time, but the capacity has to be there.

Once the companies figured out how to be compliant, they successfully launched the service in New York in August.

Whether the cost of commuting with the WageWorks-Uber partnership is comparable to public transportation will vary by user. Mostly, it depends on where the commuter is coming from, said Neuburger.

He added, “We believe car-sharing services complement the use of public transportation. They don’t necessarily compete directly with one another, even if at times they do.” For example, this partnership may be a way to solve the “first mile, last mile” problem. Even if a commuter uses public transportation to get part of the way home, they can use UberPool on the first or last stretch for convenience.

WageWorks has almost 60,000 companies of various sizes and industries that use its products across the country, and a good portion of these take advantage of the commuter benefits, including UberPool, said Neuburger, although he could not disclose the exact number.

To utilize this benefit, commuters access UberPool using the Uber app. First they must register their WageWorks Transit benefit card with the app, and then they can pay for the pre-tax-deducted ride.

The benefit will continue to expand to Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Denver, Atlanta, Miami and New Jersey, with other cities in the pipeline for the near future, said Neuburger.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

December 21, 2016June 29, 2023

The Opioid Addiction Epidemic Grows in the Workplace

wf_1219_workingwell_substanceabuse_article — Opioid addiction issues continue growing in the workplace.

Whenever I do research for an article about rising pharmacy costs, I get sidetracked to a related issue: the opioid addiction crisis in America. Of course, not everyone on prescription medication or specialty drugs gets addicted, but it can happen and have a disastrous impact.

There is A LOT of research out there that reinforces the scope of the country’s opioid problem. A recent Washington Post article cited that “one-third of long-term users say they’re hooked on prescription opioids.” An NPR story from November cites that 20.8 million Americans have a substance abuse disorder. The recently passed 21^st Century Cures Act — approved by a 94-5 vote — includes $1 billion for opioid prevention, which has been praised by members of both political parties.

Substance abuse spans from alcohol to prescription meds to non-prescription meds. So, I spoke with Julie Stich, associate vice president of content at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, about how companies can address substance abuse in their workforce. The foundation recently conducted a survey of 344 organizations in the U.S. and Canada on the topic of mental health and substance abuse benefits.

Of the respondents, 62 percent reported that depression is somewhat-to-very prevalent in their workforce. Some 50 percent reported the prevalence of alcohol addiction, 32 percent prescription drug addiction and 29 percent nonprescription drug addiction. Two out of three (67 percent) believed that substance abuse or mental health problems have an impact of work performance in areas like absenteeism/tardiness, overall job performance and physical health. Also, nearly a third (31 percent) of U.S. respondents reported that they did not have method in place to combat opioid abuse.

This is a snapshot of a limited number of companies, but based on these results and the growing statistics of opioid abuse outside this study, Stich and I discussed some implications of and solutions for opioid abuse in the workplace.

Substance abuse, although following under the umbrella of wellness, is best dealt with in an employee assistance program than a wellness program, said Stich. EAPs can handle a number of vital things, like resources, referrals, counseling and education.

Education, she added, could include lunch and learns or speakers who can tell workers about these issues: what to look for, signs of addiction, etc.

Many survey respondents did report that their organizations offer some sort of benefit of prevention initiative, according to the foundation’s study. Ninety-one percent said they offered EAP services, and 38 percent said they offered a wellness program with some component related to mental health or substance abuse.

wf_1219_workingwell_substanceabuse_juliestich — Julie Stich

One key aspect and problem to deal with in the workplace are certain barriers that may stop a struggling employee from utilizing these benefits. For example, noted Stich, employees may not want to acknowledge their problem or they may fear admitting it will threaten their job security.

“But I think if the employer is taking the time and the resources to offer [EAPs], they should communicate it quite frequently to their employees, remind them that it’s here,” said Stich. “They should really highlight it and reassure the employees over and over again that, ‘This is confidential. We will not find out that you called. Use it. That’s why it’s there.’”

Another key aspect: If a worker has admitted the problem and has been out on leave to deal with a mental health or substance abuse issue (for example, rehab), what does their return to work look like? Planning for the return is something employers tend not to do a whole lot about, said Stich.

Please also read: Pain Points: Prescription painkiller abuse has long been a growing problem in the U.S.

She referenced someone who compared how different it is to be out on a mental health disability than a physical disability. “You break your leg, you’re out for a while, and people send you cards and cheesecake. And when you come back they bring flowers and ask how you are and give you balloons,” she said. “But when it’s a mental health or substance abuse issue, nobody talks about it.”

Anything an employer can do to ease this transition is welcome, she added. Some suggestions?

Offering a flexible, gradual return to work
Prepping co-workers before the employee returns
Educating the manager or supervisor before the employee returns
Having a follow up conversation with the employee when they return

Also, Stich said, “some organizations will talk to the worker before they come back and give them actual talking points, some things that they can say to address questions that come up from their co-workers.”

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

November 30, 2016June 29, 2023

Genetic Testing Gets Toothy as a Workplace Benefit

Amway Corp. is joining a growing list of large employers adopting genetic testing as a workplace benefit.

Starting in January, the multilevel marketing giant will offer genetic testing by Interleukin Genetics Inc., a Waltham, Massachusetts, developer of genetic tests for chronic inflammatory diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and arthritis. Using a cheek swab, Interleukin’s ILUSTRA genetic risk test, previously called PerioPredict, can detect a person’s tolerance of inflammation levels, said Interleukin CEO Mark Carbeau. Proper dental care can lower inflammation levels, which affect other areas of health, like risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, he said.

“Inflammatory burden systemically is created by bacteria in your gums, so the notion is if we clean up your mouth, we can cool down a large source of chronic inflammation and that allows the body to control and manage those other sources more effectively,” Carbeau said.

Amway joins the likes of Visa Inc. and insurer Aetna Inc. to introduce genetic testing for employees. Visa is offering genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer, while Aetna implemented a pilot program testing employees at risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Companies including venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and online survey company SurveyMonkey also are using genetic testing among their employee population.

Genetic testing in the workplace presents legal hurdles that could limit wider use, said Seth Perretta, partner with Groom Law in Washington, D.C.

Companies can’t require employees to take a medical exam under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Under the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, or GINA, a federal law protecting people from genetic discrimination in health care and employment, employers can’t tie a financial incentive to the completion of a genetic testing program.

“Offering genetic testing outside a major medical plan would be rife with legal risk for the employer,” said Perretta. “It would almost certainly have to be structured as part of the major med plan or limited to folks enrolled in an employer-sponsored med plan. And it would have to be fully voluntary.”

Still, there’s value to it, Perretta added. “But for some reason Congress has clearly spoken that from a policy perspective, they’d rather have the ailment manifest itself prior to an employer getting involved.”

There are also privacy concerns. It can feel like a step down the path of the employer getting too involved in the personal lives of its employees, said Jim Winkler, Aon Hewitt’s global health innovation leader. Employees need to know that their employers won’t have access to the data, and employers have to communicate that effectively, he said.

Interleukin’s program is a voluntary benefit that is covered by GINA. Interleukin explains to the employer the test’s purpose and how it would be used, but only provides the genetic information to the employee’s individual dentist.

Amway chose to offer this in their group health plan to encourage employees to expand their awareness of their personal health risks and the various resources available to them, said Tom Boehr, manager of corporate wellness and employee engagement at Amway, in an email.

wf_1116_fyb_genetictesting_winkler-jim-2016_300px — Like “many things in our lives that are technology enabled, there is probably an element of inevitability to this. It’s just a question of, ‘Is it in the next year? The next five years? The next 20 years?’” said Winkler.

“The offering is another form of education that Amway is introducing to its employees in order to further empower them to make health care choices that are in their best interest,” Boehr said.

Genetic testing is still new in the benefits space, but Winkler believes that, like “many things in our lives that are technology enabled, there is probably an element of inevitability to this. It’s just a question of, ‘Is it in the next year? The next five years? The next 20 years?’ ” he said.
The technology involved and the equipment used are becoming more efficient and less expensive. Ten years ago, the costs to isolate specific attributes of DNA was in the tens of thousands of dollars, and today it’s in the hundreds of dollars, Winkler said. Possibly, as genetic testing solutions become less expensive, consumers may become more interested, at which point employers wouldn’t even necessarily have to offer the benefit.

He compared it to Fitbits and other wearable devices. Five years ago, the only people who used them were the ones who got them from their employer. Now, they have a huge commercial market.

“You could start to see this in the genetic testing space as well — over what period of time, I don’t know,” he said.

November 29, 2016June 29, 2023

Parental Leave Predictions Under the Trump Administration

The United States is the only developed country not to offer paid leave to mothers and fathers of newborn children.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, the issue of paid leave was very prominent in Hillary Clinton’s platform, and President-elect Donald Trump eventually proposed a paid-leave plan as well. Based on his rhetoric on the topic, his paid leave plan originally included six weeks of leave, offered to married women giving birth. This eventually was expanded to single women giving birth as well after criticism but still excludes parties like fathers, adoptive parents, and certain same-sex couples.

Based on the limited information we have now, I spoke with Tom Spiggle, an employment attorney and founder of the Spiggle Law Firm, who made some predictions on the way in which the paid-leave landscape could shift in upcoming years. What could shape it, and what questions should we consider?

First, the Family and Medical Leave Act is the one federal program we have now, and it’s unpaid. “One possibility is it [the future paid leave rule] would be administered through or somehow joined with the FMLA,” said Spiggle, whose specialty is workplace discrimination and wrongful termination due to pregnancy or other family care issues. Once that box is open, could Congress tinker with the FMLA in a way that is less leave-friendly? It’s worth noting that no one has indicated wanting to weaken the FMLA.

Second, what happens if the paid leave law is violated? The worker’s right to go to court could be mitigated in favor of something like a slap on the wrist to the employer or an administrative fine, Spiggle speculated.

Finally, no matter what happens on a federal level, on a state level changes will probably continue to happen. New York and Washington state begin offering paid medical and family leave Jan. 1, 2018, joining the states already doing so — California, New Jersey and Rhode Island. Washington D.C.’s proposed paid leave law, which is very progressive, is up for a vote in December.

Spiggle mentioned a couple other considerations. “Trump’s policy is different from the Republican orthodoxy on the subject, which is not to have a government mandate or any kind of paid leave,” he said. Given, the Republican majority in the House and Senate, what kind of “horse-trading” could this spur?

Trump brought paid leave into his campaign, but is it high priority? He has a lot on his plate, such as sticky international situations and other employment law issues, said Spiggle. “We might not know until well into the administration what a proposal would look like,” he said.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

November 21, 2016June 29, 2023

Working Unwell: Mental Health by Profession

If my main source of mental health information is the truly excellent 1990s sitcom Frasier, my second main source is a podcast called Psychology in Seattle, hosted by Dr. Kirk Honda.

There are many parallels with Frasier, including A) the practice of psychology in, you guessed it, Seattle; B) the use of some modern audible medium to get the message across (talk radio in the 1990s vs. podcasts in 2016) and C) the celebrity cameos from people like Halle Berry, Macaulay Culkin and Kevin Bacon. NO! That last one’s a joke … .

A recent podcast I listened to was titled “Depression.” Dr. Honda had an expert on depression (not Kevin Bacon) talk about the clinical illness. Some takeaways were:

Even if somebody with depression isn’t showing the symptoms, it doesn’t mean they’re not going through it.
Depression can have serious social implications. For example, if somebody tries opening up to somebody else who has not experienced depression, they may get advice like, “Just try not to think about it,” or something that really doesn’t help. A person might remedy this by finding other people experiencing the same thing. On one hand, this is positive, because it doesn’t allow one to “marinate” in their own depression alone. One the other hand, surrounding yourself with equally sad people may cause a double whammy of depression.

So, how does this translate to the workplace?

The other day I received a new study, “Depression Among Demographics,” which looked at professions and lifestyles that have the highest levels of depression.

“Our study helped us look at the prevalence of depression across industries and lifestyles,” wrote a spokesperson at MentalHealth.net in an email interview. “The signs of depression can be hidden, and the stigma that often comes along with mental illness can make it tough for those suffering from depression to speak up about their struggles.”

Certain findings were of special interest to me: First, the professions with the highest rates of depression are public and private transportation, real estate, social services and manufacturing. One commonality that connects these very different industries is that these are “often thankless jobs in which workers experience the best (and worst) of society on a daily basis,” according to the study.

Second, and not surprisingly, people with private health insurance see a depression rate of 5.3 percent, compared to 7.8 percent with no coverage and 12 percent with Medicaid or CHIP. So, based on these findings, the type of health care an employer can offer may play a big role in depression among employees.

Based on these findings, what are suggestions of improving mental health from both the organizational and the individual perspective?

My point of view, as someone who occasionally researches mental health for this blog, is that organizations should treat mental health issues the same as they would physical health issues. That is, they should acknowledge that mental health has the potential to affect a person’s life and performance just as much as physical health and then offer appropriate resources — even though the symptoms may not necessarily be visible. Offering nothing seems like the institutional equivalent of, “Try not to think about it.”

On the flipside, employees going through this need to acknowledge the mental health problem, even if it doesn’t manifest in visible symptoms, and take advantage of any resources which their employer may offer.

This is all very basic and obvious. However, American Express’ Healthy Minds program is one concrete example of a corporate program which deals with the mental health of its employees. It’s worth revisiting for more specific workplace initiatives.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

November 11, 2016June 29, 2023

Retiring Well: How to Convince Employees to Save Enough

wf_1111_workingwell_benefitsmgrscomm_articleimage — Experts say there are three motivators for retirement savings: company match, tax benefits and time.

People are worried about their financial future, but are they saving enough for retirement?

I spoke to Ed Farrington, executive vice president at Natixis Global Asset Management about how benefits managers should communicate with employees about their retirement. He referenced the Natixis 2015 Retirement Plan Participant Study, which surveyed 1,000 employees with access to a workplace defined-contribution plan.

A quarter of those surveyed chose not to participate in the plan. Four out of 10 contributed less than 5 percent. And many had borrowed (37 percent) or withdrawn (30 percent) money from their retirement account before actually retiring. None line up with recommended practices, such as not accessing money in your retirement account until you retire and contributing 10 percent, as experts suggest.

Benefits managers, Farrington said, need to focus on employee motivation: What keeps them from participating in a plan? What provides an incentive to start saving for a comfortable retirement?

There are three major motivations: company match, tax benefits and time. If you can prove to people that by not participating in a plan they’re leaving money on the table, then most people will at least consider contributing to a plan. And, of course, the sooner people start saving for retirement, the less they actually have to contribute to reach their goal, thanks to the power of time.

wf_1111_workingwell_benefitsmgrscomm_edfarringtonphoto — Ed Farrington, EVP, Natixis Global Asset Management

“Showing people the power of money in an account is a compelling proposition to make [employees] realize they have a lot of control over their destiny when it comes to what will their life look like at retirement,” said Farrington. “They have control, and the sooner they can takecontrol the better.”

Interestingly enough, the millennial generation was the one that did the best at saving for retirement, according to this survey. Some start saving right out of college. People in this age group were more on track to reach their retirement goals than baby boomers or Generation X.

As a millennial, I wonder what the deeper reasoning is behind this. While many people in my generation deal with high rents, student loan debt and perhaps other type of debt, we also don’t own homes or support family members as much as people in older generations. We’re relatively young and healthy. I wonder if factors like these, or others, contribute to the generation’s level of preparedness for retirement? I don’t have the answer for this, but it seems like something worth looking into.

Finally, the third takeaway from this conversation was the importance of not only understanding what motivates people to participate, but also what motivates people to not participate. In every generation, the main thing that keeps people from contributing to a plan is debt, ranging from student loan debt to credit card debt. A third (34 percent) of those surveyed overall and 40 percent in Gen X, specifically, cited personal debt as a reason for not saving for retirement.

The concern here, Farrington said, is that while people are looking out for their short-term financial needs, meanwhile they’re sacrificing their long-term financial wellness. It’s important for benefits and HR managers to know that debt is keeping people from participating in plans, he added, and for them to educate employees, whether that’s through technology or face-to-face interactions.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.

November 9, 2016June 29, 2023

Corporate Travel Benefits Extend to Non-Business Travelers

wf_1102_workingwell_hotelengine_image_articleimage — Crater Lake National Park is one travel option for leisure travel.

I recently came across a pretty unique benefit. Although certain perks are attractive to business travelers — things like deals, loyalty points, the ability to tack on vacation days at the end of a work trip — I haven’t seen many geared toward leisure travelers.

Kind of a bummer for me as someone who obsessively researches Crater Lake National Park every so often, counting down the days when I can finally vacation there (hopefully next summer?).

Which is why some recent news in the benefits world recently struck me. Hotel Engine, a company that provides hotel booking solutions for business, officially launched in the employee benefits space Oct. 20. That is, people can use Hotel Engine for their own personal leisure travel now as a benefit, at no cost to the employee or the employer. They can get discounted hotel prices (between a 25 and 60 percent), the corporate rate for leisure travel.

“It’s one of the benefits that more and more employees are looking for, and so being able to offer them these deeply discounted rates to use when they have vacation is huge,” said Sonia Reid, vice president of marketing and communications at Hotel Engine. “We’ve see a lot of positive feedback.”

Hotel Engine also helps on the implementation side and the marketing side, to make sure the rollout goes smoothly. Also, Hotel Engine extends its customer service and anything it would do for any business travel client to the leisure realm as well. It works because it’s not strictly leisure travel. You have to be part of a business which offers it as a benefit.

“We saw an opening in the market. There was a need for this type of service, and we could offer it,” said Reid.

I know I’ll be interested to see if these types of leisure travel benefits continue to make their way into the benefits space. Of course, there are those business traveler perks already, and sabbaticals for employees who have been at a company for a designated time (example: Epic Systems), but what about something for a different type of employee, they kind who hasn’t necessarily been at a company long enough to earn a sabbatical and who doesn’t travel for work? Discounts and deals could be an attractive perk for people in that group.

Andie Burjek is a Workforce associate editor. Comment below, or email at aburjek@humancapitalmedia.com. Follow Workforce on Twitter at @workforcenews.