ASHHRA Health and Wellness Pulse
June 2017
 
Bright Horizons Family Solutions
Benefits
Strategy
HR Dive
Many employers said they'd likely keep Affordable Care Act provisions that are popular with workers, even if they're not required to do so by law, according to a Willis Towers Watson survey, as reported by Payscale. According to the "2017 Emerging Trends in Health" survey, close to one-third of employers don't know what their future plans will be if the health care laws are changed, but more plan to keep popular provisions than implement changes.
 
Benefit Trends
Workforce
To truly excel in HR and benefits is to have an immeasurable impact on your organization and your people in the very best ways — one that extends far beyond annual enrollment numbers and upticks in wellness screenings. 
 
Employee Benefit News
Nearly one-third of employers expanded their benefit packages in the last 12 months in an effort to attract and retain top talent, according to the Society of Human Resource Management’s 2017 Employee Benefits Survey. Increases in health (22%) and wellness (24%) offerings, as well as providing health care benefits to employees’ spouses and domestic partners, were major strategies from organizations in helping to remain competitive.
 
Financial
HR Daily Advisor
Nearly 75 percent of minimum-wage paying firms in the United States say they would reduce current or future employment if the minimum wage is raised to $15 per hour, according to a recent survey of senior finance executives. The Duke University/CFO Global Business Outlook survey has been conducted each quarter for two decades. The latest survey results reflect what would happen as a minimum wage was increased incrementally.
 
UPMC  Health Plan
Workplace Programs & Perks
HR Dive
A new study by CEB (now known as Gartner) found that 40 percent of employers will offer "Summer Fridays" this year. According to the CEB Global Talent Monitor, the 2017 study showed a 20 percent increase over the percentage of employers that offered Summer Fridays in 2015.  
 
Retirement
Employee Benefit News
Each year employers should spend some time evaluating the providers they work with on their 401(k) plan. Assessing the performance of your 401(k) investment adviser is often the most difficult since he/she may be the captain of your 401(k) provider team. But the good news is there are some ways for plan sponsors to tell if the adviser is doing a good job. Here are things that top advisers do.
 
Culture of Health
Workplace Wellness
Corporate Wellness Magazine
Workplace Wellness "Challenges" — activities that engage people in becoming happier, healthier and more energetic at work  — are gaining popularity and changing lives at work. The purpose of Challenges is to encourage healthier lifestyle behaviors. Challenges are successful when a supportive, positive climate of fun and camaraderie helps people to adopt or maintain a healthy way of living. With little or no investment in creating a company challenge, the net result is an engaged and productive workforce that performs at a higher level — everybody wins!
 
Work-Life Integration
WorldatWork
One wouldn’t normally associate organizations' well-being programs to a caregiver, but this is a perfect example of how organizations look at their employees holistically and provides for them the programming that makes the employees personal lives easier to deal with and better equipped to complete their work.  
 
Mental Health
The Hiring Site
CareerBuilder recently released a study on the state of nurses in the workforce, particularly as it pertains to job satisfaction. According to the study, 70 percent of nurses say they feel burned out, and 54 percent report high stress levels. When asked what was causing the burnout, 50 percent of nurses reported feeling tired all the time, 35 percent cited sleepless nights and 33 percent reported weight gain. High anxiety and depression were also contributing factors.
 
Switch and Shift
Many people feel uncomfortable admitting they struggle with managing emotions or living with mental health issues. Therefore, a lack of understanding of these common disorders causes them to feel unsure of how to talk about their feelings in a sensitive, productive way. Mental Health America’s 2017 survey found one in five adults has a mental health condition. So chances are at least one of your employees is struggling silently.
 
Population Health
Health Affairs Blog
Collaboration among a litany of health care and community-based organizations (CBOs) has become a popular approach to pursuing health improvements in cities and towns across the United States. Examples of cross-sector coalitions can be found in the work of Way to Wellville, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 100 Million Healthier Lives initiative and, in many cases, the winners of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF’s) Culture of Health Prize.
 
HealthLeaders Media
As a health system CEO, Randy Oostra knows that "job one," as he calls it, is clinical excellence. But as the leadership and board at Toledo, Ohio-based ProMedica have educated themselves in on the impact of the social determinants of health, the health system's focus has evolved to be more deeply involved in areas some would consider far afield of the mission of treating and preventing illness.
 
 

 

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