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The Benefits and Wellness Bulletin (BWB) is dedicated to helping you explore new ideas around wellness and benefit offerings.

If you are not an ASHHRA member, please check out the benefits here and consider joining ASHHRA here.

Interactive Health
FROM ASHHRA
So you missed the registration period for the HR Metrics Tool?
We can help! The registration period for the HR Metrics Tool has officially passed. However, if you're interested in learning more about how to become a late participant or register to purchase the results from the survey, please contact Shebani Patel at shebani.patel@saratoga.pwc.com.
 
BENEFITS
World at Work
The increasing affordability of smartphones and tablets combined with the growing acceptance of corporate bring-your-own-device programs are driving growth in the mobile worker population.
 
Marlene Y. Satter, BenefitsPro
Employees are under a lot of financial stress. Employers want to help them, but they’re not always sure how.
 
Dan Schawbel, Forbes
One of the biggest economic trends to which I’ve been paying attention is expansion of the nine-to-five workday. Employees are getting paid the same salaries, but the amount of hours they have to work is increasing.
 
Elizabeth Galentine, Employee Benefit News
With eight in ten adults needing some type of vision correction, employees are much more likely to go for an annual vision exam than to schedule an annual physical with their primary care physician.
 
World at Work
What's more worrisome than personal relationship issues, possible job loss or physical injury? Saving for retirement. Yet, investors say short-term expenses – including emotional spending – hinder long-term savings.
 
Gil Lowerre and Bonnie Brazzell, BenefitsPro
The annual Benefits Selling/Eastbridge Voluntary survey was conducted during March and April of this year, and almost 300 producers responded representing a combination of employee benefit brokers, traditional voluntary brokers, enrollment companies and agents. The overarching conclusion from the survey is that voluntary is now front and center for many brokers regardless of the type.
 
Cindy Lapoff, Employee Benefit News
A generational shift is underway. This year, millennials will overtake baby boomers as the nation’s largest living generation. As the boomer generation moves further into traditional retirement years, evolving employee expectations are altering the benefits landscape more significantly than at any other time in recent history.
 
Dan Cook, BenefitsPro
Does it make sense to take the time and effort to revise the corporate health plan rather than just stand pat year to year? A study from PwC rather emphatically endorses making plan changes.
 
Marlene Y. Satter, BenefitsPro
Not only are they planning on retiring later, but Americans still in the workplace are expecting that their retirement will be filled with...work. Why? Most say they can’t afford to do otherwise.
 
Scott Wooldridge, BenefitsPro
Wellness benefits have become a mainstream offering for most large companies. Smoking cessation, nutrition, fitness and health screenings have all been embraced by employers as a way of addressing health care costs and improving employee loyalty.
 
Max Nisen, Quartz
In their efforts to retain talent, American companies are getting more and more creative in the perks they offer employees. A survey of more than 400 companies by the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) has found an increase in the variety of extra benefits on offer which range from nice but minor -- like fitness trackers -- to potentially very expensive -- like paying off employees’ student loans.
 
Suzanne Woolley, BenefitsPro
Michael Kitces could drive a hot new car, work out in a high-end gym and relax in a sprawling house. He can afford it. He just doesn’t want it. 
 
Benefit Express
CULTURE OF HEALTH
World at Work
A rising "always on" culture is leading to employees feeling overworked and burned out -- but they're still happy at work. Is it because they're truly inspired or simply conditioned?
 
Bianca Seidman, CBS News
What happens when the people who take care of the sick get sick themselves? A new survey finds that they often feel obligated to show up to work anyway.
 
World at Work
Workplace wellness programs are broadening to focus on the whole person. By taking care of employees' well-being, employers create great places to work filled with healthier, more productive employees.
 
Aaron Gregg, Washington Post
Wellness programs are nothing new, but some experts and human resources directors have noticed a concerted shift in companies’ approaches.
 
World at Work
With millennials expected to be 50 percent of the U.S. workforce by 2020 and millennial men approaching parenthood differently, employers should factor in fathers when building benefits plans and work-life policies.
 
Julie Appleby, MedCity News
Christine White pays $300 a year more for her health care because she refused to join her former employer’s wellness program which would have required that she fill out a health questionnaire and join activities like Weight Watchers.
 
Tanja Madsen, BenefitsPro
Many employers are now recognizing that there are a variety of factors that influence health and productivity in today's workplace – not just the physical component. Today's smart employers are taking a broader view of health: One that includes social, emotional, financial and environmental dimensions.
 
Matt Hamblen, ComputerWorld 
Welcome to the employee wellness program at Iron Mountain, dubbed LiveWell. About 1,600 of the company's 8,000 U.S. employees use different types of consumer-grade wearable devices, such as Fitbit or Apple Watch, to measure how many steps they take and to generate other fitness metrics.
 
Dan Cook, BenefitsPro
Wellness programs have come a long way since the old days of the employee assistance program. But engagement continues to be a problem.
 
Vicky Valet, Forbes
Wellness programs have become fundamental features in the benefits plans of many major organizations, most notably Google which offers employees on-site physicians and nurses, nutritious food options, nap pods and complementary fitness centers among other perks. 
 
Nick Otto, Employee Benefit News
It’s no surprise that health care costs are continuing to rise, and while employers remain committed to providing benefits, many are re-evaluating their benefit strategies using a mix of traditional cost-shifting approaches and new network and plan design strategies to combat those rising costs.
 
DeMaris Trapp, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, via The National Law Review
On June 19, 2015, public comments were submitted for the EEOC’s much anticipated proposed rule to amend the Title I of the ADA to clarify how the statute applies to certain employee health wellness programs. 
 

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