ASHHRA Health and Wellness Pulse

World at Work
Employers are focusing on improving efficiency and compliance, as one-third of employers now outsource all of their benefits administration, up 20 percent since 2013. Additionally, the "Guardian Workplace Benefits Study" shows employers also are using more vendors for support: nearly two-thirds that outsource at least some benefits administration are using multiple vendors, up from 48 percent in 2013.

Visit https://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79770 to view the full article online.

Stephanie R. Thomas, Ph.D., HR.BLR
Pay transparency is a commonly used phrase with a somewhat fluid definition. What does it really mean? As it is typically used, there are two meanings for pay transparency: salary disclosure and pay process transparency.

Visit http://hr.blr.com/HR-news/Compensation/Compensation-Administration/Pay-transparency-info-HR-communicates/ to view the full article online.

Bruce Shutan, Employee Benefit News
Two common denominators are reshaping the dental and vision benefits equation: Increasing awareness of their respective correlation to overall health and a growing desire for greater freedom of choice. Together these key themes are expected to help elevate flat plan participation in a post-health care reform environment as employees and their families continue to shoulder more financial responsibility for these benefits.

Visit http://www.benefitnews.com/news/demand-for-dental-vision-benefits-remains-strong to view the full article online.

Employee Benefit News
Company perks are becoming a key tool for employers to attract and retain top talent. Job site Glassdoor has released this list of some of the best employer-sponsored benefits currently on the market that can give other companies a better idea of what workers want most. (slideshow)

Visit http://www.benefitnews.com/slideshow/top-employer-provided-benefits-of-2016 to view the full article online.

World at Work
While health care and 401(k) programs remain the most important benefits to job seekers, student loan reimbursement has emerged as a highly desired offering. A recent survey found that an overwhelming majority of job seekers (89 percent) believe companies should offer student loan repayment as part of the benefits package and 10 percent ranked student loan repayment higher than paid vacation as the "most important" benefit.

Visit https://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79848 to view the full article online.

Nick Thornton, BenefitsPro
Sponsors of safe harbor workplace retirement plans now have greater latitude in making mid-year plan amendments, thanks to recent guidance from the Internal Revenue Service.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2016/02/16/irs-gives-safe-harbor-sponsors-more-latitude to view the full article online.

World at Work
Three-quarters of companies worldwide have introduced flexible work policies. More than half of those companies in the United States have seen increased profits since introducing flexible work. The "Flexible: Friend or Foe?" survey of 8,000 business professionals conducted by Vodafone drew on responses from small- and medium-sized businesses, public-sector organizations and multinational corporations in 10 countries.

Visit https://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79864 to view the full article online.

Rose Stanley, World at Work
Organizations with a more flexible culture are able to achieve it in a variety of ways across all sectors of the organization. It’s not always easy, and every company must consider its own culture, demographics, senior leadership and goals when considering such a model.

Visit http://blog.worldatwork.org/2016/01/when-it-comes-to-flexibility-culture-is.html to view the full article online.

CBS News
Not all employers are created equal, and that also applies to benefits and perks. Companies are always tweaking their benefits and perks, but in some competitive industries, employers are providing creative perks to help lure and maintain workers.

Visit http://www.cbsnews.com/news/yay-days-and-baby-cash-the-top-20-employee-perks/ to view the full article online.

Marlene Y. Satter, BenefitsPro
With changes afoot in the demographics of retirees, as well as in the numbers and social changes behind retirement, the Urban Institute took a scalpel to the statistics to try to explain America’s aging phenomenon and the very process of retirement. (slideshow)

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2016/02/11/10-ways-retirement-is-changing-in-the-us to view the full article online.

Lenny Sanicola, World at Work
Historically, plan sponsors of 401(k) plans preferred their employees, upon separation from the company, to take their funds with them, hopefully rolling their funds over to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA).

Visit http://blog.worldatwork.org/2016/02/promoting-stay-over-instead-of-rollover.html to view the full article online.

Jim Purcell, Chief Executive
CEOs are committed to workplace wellness. At the same time, an industry debate about the ROI of workplace wellness programs has called into question the hard returns companies can expect from their wellness investments, which critics claim are a waste of money and do little to lower claims and thus insurance premiums.

Visit http://chiefexecutive.net/rebooting-workplace-wellness-moving-beyond-lifestyle-management-to-achieve-real-returns/ to view the full article online.

Jack Craver, BenefitsPro
A recent survey by the Healthcare Trends Institute sheds light on employer attitudes toward the health insurance landscape, particularly wellness initiatives. The survey, which polled more than 100 HR managers across the country, showed that wellness initiatives are growing in popularity but are far from universally embraced as a key part of employer-sponsored health plans.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2016/02/16/wellness-initiatives-surge-but-many-still-not-inte to view the full article online.

Reed Abelson, New York Times
Workers increasingly are being told by their companies to undergo health screenings and enroll in wellness programs as a way to curb insurance costs. Many employees now face stiff financial penalties — often in the form of higher premiums — if they do not have their cholesterol checked or join programs to lose weight or better manage diabetes.

Visit http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/25/business/employee-wellness-programs-use-carrots-and-increasingly-sticks.html to view the full article online.

World at Work
The growth in digital media has had a positive effect on employees' ability to improve their professional lives, particularly how they balance their work and personal lives. However, opinions about digital media vary depending on where you live: Two-thirds of workers in Brazil and China believe it has positively affected their lives while only one-third in Germany and the United States believe so.

Visit https://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79771 to view the full article online.

Meghan M. Biro, Forbes
Work or life? Nope. There’s no such thing as either/or. The work-life duality is a fallacy. One way or another, we all know, deep down, that it’s simply not a functional construct, particularly in 2016. Here are five reasons why.

Visit http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2016/02/12/5-reasons-to-kill-the-work-life-balance-myth to view the full article online.

Brady Wilson, HR.BLR
Are your employees showing signs of the midwinter blues? In many ways, it makes sense: The excitement of the holiday season is long gone and the warmer months still seem very far away. If you are seeing some of your most engaged, committed and promising employees simply going through the motions, don’t fret; there are ways to help reinvigorate them back to their high-performing selves.

Visit http://hr.blr.com/HR-news/HR-Administration/HR-Strategy/Combating-midwinter-blues-reenergize-employees/ to view the full article online.

World at Work
Unpredictability is the biggest source of work stress, according to workers, while business travel is the least likely source of stress on the job. According to a CareerCast poll of 834 employees, most respondents (62 percent) rated their jobs as highly stressful while just 11 percent felt the amount of stress on the job was low.

Visit https://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79874 to view the full article online.

HR.BLR
For every dollar an American man makes, his equally qualified female counterpart makes just 82 cents. And according to a new study by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the consequences of this wage gap extend beyond the checking account — women who earn less than their male peers are at greater risk for anxiety and depression than those who are fairly compensated.

Visit http://hr.blr.com/HR-news/Discrimination/Equal-Pay-Comparable-Worth/Gender-pay-gap-results-anxiety-depression/ to view the full article online.

LeRoy Jones, Health Data Management
The health care industry is transitioning from insular care of patients within the four walls of a single provider organization to a model of collaborative care across a community of independent providers. That represents a sea change within health care, and as the care delivery paradigm changes, the old information paragons are giving way to a more dynamic construct.

Visit http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/opinion/care-plans-still-a-good-starting-point-for-population-health to view the full article online.

Rebecca Greenfield, Bloomberg
Employers have poured money into wellness programs, hoping to reduce health insurance costs, but employees have been less enthusiastic. Many wellness programs use financial incentives to motivate employees to participate. That can work, but participants in a new type of program cited its genetic testing component as a big motivator.

Visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-01/testing-workers-genes-could-be-the-secret-to-making-wellness-programs-work to view the full article online.

Employee Benefits News
What does a big, fancy word like "gamification" mean anyway? Simply put, it’s the idea that game-like rules and rewards make the hard stuff fun. And smart leaders now use it to engage and motivate their employees.

Visit http://www.benefitnews.com/partnerinsights/Limeade/article/3-ways-gamification-can-improve-your-teams-well-being to view the full article online.