The Call for Proposals for the ASHHRA 51st Annual Conference & Exposition is now open. Join ASHHRA for the premier educational event and networking experience for the health care human resources (HR) profession! Consider becoming ASHHRA faculty to share your best practices, innovative solutions and expertise with health care HR professionals and enable them to lead the way to achieve excellence in their organizations.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.ashhra.org/conference/2015/index.shtml

Preparing Americans for retirement is at the forefront of priorities for lawmakers and industry, as putting off saving for retirement for even a few years will shortchange employees in their golden years.

EBN’s inaugural technology survey indicates that 41 percent of respondents plan to increase their spending on technology next year, with 45 percent having already increased their spending from 2013 to 2014. Much of that spending is directed toward new employee portals and front-end systems to better integrate and utilize various benefits functionalities (health, retirement, voluntary benefits and more).

Priorities within the benefits management community may be shifting. A survey of a small group of HR and benefits professionals found that, within this group, benefits communications with employees outranked lowering overall health plan costs as the top priority.

Engaging with employees can be difficult, and the routine, repetitive manner of barraging workers with nagging emails doesn’t quite seem to do the trick. But some employers are taking different tactics, such as text messaging, to enhance employee-employer engagement.

As plan sponsors increasingly incorporate features to coax them in, millennials – who have indicated in numerous surveys that they don’t see much point in saving for retirement and are too raddled with student loan debt to contribute much – are apparently beginning to change their tune.

The vast majority of workers say their benefits package is important to their decision to take a job, as supported by the high take-up rates when benefits are offered, according to a new report by EBRI. 

By Laurie Winslow, Tulsa World
Diane Knights’ motivational moment occurred in 2011 when Danny Cahill, a former winner of "The Biggest Loser," was invited to speak to employees at Williams Cos. Inc., where she works.

By Tom Murphy, Times Record News
Many workers will soon find that their health insurance costs more and covers less next year and that employers have taken a sharper interest in their well-being. Experts say the effect of a health care overhaul tax that doesn’t start until 2018 is already being felt.

By Nick Otto, Employee Benefit News
If employers only look at wellness from a 9-to-5 point of view, they are missing valuable opportunities to engage employees. Wellness doesn’t end at 5:00 p.m., said one expert at the National Business Coalition on Health’s annual conference.

While the unemployment rate may have dropped in the past year, that doesn't mean the workloads of those already employed are easing up. Sixty-eight percent of U.S. full-time employees are suffering from work overload, a 14 percent increase from 2013.

By Dan Cook, BenefitsPro
Financial wellness programs are starting to get more attention from insurers and benefits designers as studies continue to support their inclusion in a strong benefits package.

Prudential Financial has implemented wellness programs, with a strong emphasis on holistic care, that have significantly lowered employees' health risks and decreased stress and depression among its workers.

By Dina Overland, FierceHealthPayer
I did a lot of shaking my head as I wrote about Honeywell's wellness program last week. The New Jersey-based company is planning on penalizing employees who don't participate in health screenings; and a federal judge just sanctioned those penalties, which include fining employees $500 for not undergoing biometric screenings and withholding $1,500 annually in company contributions to employees' health savings accounts for not undergoing wellness screenings like blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol tests.

While retail locations and wellness centers may not be big moneymakers in their own right, the return on investment can be considerable if measured through increased market share and reduced government penalties for readmissions.

Food-service managers and chefs from seven medical facilities along the 11-mile stretch between the downtown areas of Minneapolis and St. Paul, called the Central Corridor, met recently to eat community garden carrots and local handmade tamales. They gathered, along with nine area colleges, not just to nosh, but to figure out how to keep more of what is collectively a $25 million annual food budget within the Twin Cities. Not only are handmade tortillas, crisp watercress and chocolate sorbet infinitely more appealing than jiggly cubes of green Jell-O, buying local products is a boon to the communities these hospitals and clinics serve.

By Dolly A. Butz, Sioux City Journal
Drivers for a Le Mars, Iowa, over-the-road trucking company are constantly on the move; but in spite of their hectic schedules, they are able to participate in a company-sponsored wellness program. Erica Wenzel, director of human resources for Schuster Co., said the program was developed a year ago out of concern for the health of the company's drivers.

HealthDay
Health workers in hospitals wash their hands less often as they near the end of their shift, a new study has found; and this lapse – likely due to mental fatigue – could contribute to hundreds of thousands of patient infections a year in the United States, the researchers noted.