ASHHRA Health and Wellness Pulse
July 2017
 
Bright Horizons Family Solutions
Benefits
Strategy
HR Daily Advisor
In just the past year, Millennials surpassed Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living generation and started inching their way to making up the majority of the workforce. For HR professionals, this shift in the workforce can create a challenge, as Millennials are known for job hopping more than previous generations. In fact, Deloitte reports that if given the choice, one in four Millennials would quit his or her current job to do something different.
 
Benefit Trends
BenefitsPro
As part of ongoing efforts to listen to customers, BenefitsPro partnered with an independent research firm and surveyed more than 200 employers to understand what drives purchasing behavior for voluntary benefits. I believe what we heard was insightful and would strongly consider it as you evaluate whether to sell voluntary benefits.  Here’s a look:
 
World at Work
How many times a year do you communicate with your employees about their benefits?  Is it once a year at open enrollment time?  Is it quarterly? monthly? weekly? daily?  Chances are it’s not enough. According to a recent Health Advocate survey, although companies may believe they are regularly interacting with their employees, employees report these communications are sporadic at best. 
 
Financial
Employee Benefit News
As workers continue to struggle with out-of-pocket medical bills, there’s a growing opportunity for benefits managers to hold more conversations with employees on voluntary benefits that can help offset costs.
 
Corporate Wellness Magazine
As employers struggle to offer a competitive benefits package in an environment of confusing healthcare, education has become the key to benefit appreciation. Employers and employees both agree that great benefits can convince quality professionals to take a job and stay in it. Dissatisfaction with employer-sponsored benefits can inspire people to leave a job, even if other key factors, such as salary and corporate culture, are satisfactory. 
 
UPMC  Health Plan
Workplace Programs & Perks
HR Dive
The workplace of the future promises to be much different from that of the present. We are moving toward a more diverse, mobile workforce brought about by international expansion, which will in turn demand a whole new set of skills. According to research published by the World Leaders’ Summit in London, half of the full-time global workforce will consist of those who work freelance or through some alternative remote arrangement by 2020. One of the challenges, however, is determining how employers will keep up with professional development when they may never actually interact with workers in person.
 
HR Dive
Change can be scary. People relate to what’s familiar and comfortable. But change is inevitable and in business, it’s essential. So how can organizations take the scariness out of change and gain employee buy in?
 
Culture of Health
Workplace Wellness
Employee Benefit News
In an oversaturated field filled with step challenges and employee recognition platforms, Kaleana Markley, health and wellbeing program manager at Sequoia Consulting, recently began exploring ways in which engagement in corporate wellbeing initiatives can be maximized through creative usage of technology.
 
Corporate Wellness Magazine
A wellness program is integrated to allow employees to thrive and increase just that, wellness. The organization invests copious amounts to better their employees’ health and to hopefully receive an impact the company’s bottom line. Unfortunately, the two previously mentioned reasons of wellness programs are implemented, rarely produce in corporate wellness programs.
 
Work-Life Integration
Business News Daily
Technology is both a luxury and a curse. While it's convenient to connect with others across the world on multiple platforms at any time, people often become so engrossed in work that it leads to burnout. However, that same technology also provides us with platforms that promote a healthy balance between our work and our personal lives. Here are a few great (and free!) apps for achieving work-life balance.
 
Mental Health
Business News Daily
If you've noticed that many of your employees are less than enthusiastic about work and have been underperforming lately, it's very likely that you've got an unhappy team on your hands.  Teem, a provider of cloud-based meeting tools and analytics, recently released its Employee Happiness report, which revealed that, despite technology's advantages in the workplace, it is also at the root of many modern workers' woes.
 
NPR
The aim of forest bathing is to slow down and become immersed in the natural environment. For advocates of the practice, the goal is to encourage health care providers to incorporate forest therapy as a stress-reduction strategy. There's no question that stress takes a terrible toll in the United States; a 2015 study found work-related stress accounts for up to $190 billion in health care costs each.
 
Wellness Trends
Workforce Magazine
New York Magazine recently published an interesting — and fairly critical — article called "How Wellness Became an Epidemic." I’ve been thinking about it for the past week. Now, I’ll note that this article focused on the wellness industry at large and not just corporate wellness, but I still think there were some solid takeaways for employers.
 
 

 

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