ASHHRA Health and Wellness Pulse

Undercover Recruiter
With millennials making up a significant chunk of the workforce today, it’s important that employers take into consideration what attracts them to a company, what motivates them and what encourages them to stay in a job. If the company culture does not suit the needs of millennial employees, it is likely that they will seek out new opportunities that are a better fit, and a high turnover rate can be incredibly costly for a business as well as disruptive.

Visit http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/culture-attract-millenials/ to view the full article online.

AHA Solutions
Changes to care and payment models are requiring changes to how hospitals are organized, staffed and managed. For hospital human resources professionals, that requires taking a leading role in reinventing the organization while simultaneously keeping it staffed. Meeting that fundamental challenge means making dozens of difficult decisions on what current and emerging roles are needed, what sources of talent should be tapped and how clinical and administrative responsibilities should be split.

Visit http://www.aha-solutions.org/newsletter/v3-i1/feature-collaborative-culture.shtml to view the full article online.

Employee Benefit Research Institute
While health insurance is by far the most important employee benefit regardless of age cohort, Millennials are less likely than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers to say it is the most important benefit. Two-thirds (67%) of Baby Boomers report that health insurance is the most important benefit, compared with 63% among Gen Xers, and 60% among Millennials, according to the 2015 EBRI Workplace Benefits Survey.

Visit https://www.ebri.org/pdf/notespdf/EBRI_Notes_12_Dec15_CPS-WBS.pdf to view the full article online.

Lena J. Weiner, HealthLeaders Media
The provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act known as the Cadillac tax (and also known as the as high-cost plan tax, or HCPT) threatens to jolt employers and employees alike. While no administrator of an employee health plan will have to pay the so-called Cadillac tax earlier than 2020, arguments against the "frightfully complicated" and unpopular provision of the health care reform law will continue.

Visit http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/hr/cadillac-tax-delayed-not-dead to view the full article online.

Jena McGregor, Washington Post
Forget foosball tables or free snacks. The latest employee benefit for recruiting and retaining young employees is more practical. Last month, Boston-based Fidelity announced that it had begun offering a perk that would help employees repay their student loans. All full-time employees at the manager level and below can get up to $2,000 a year paid toward their student loan up to a total of $10,000.

Visit https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2016/03/15/the-popular-new-perk-companies-are-using-to-attract-millennials/ to view the full article online.

Chad Brooks, Business News Daily
Your employee-recognition program may be doing more harm than good, new research shows. Although many employers believe handing out awards like "Employee of the Month" is an inexpensive and easy way to motivate workers to give it their all, these programs can actually hurt an organization's overall performance, according to a recent study.

Visit http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/8909-employee-recognition-programs.html to view the full article online.

Debra Auerbach, The Hiring Site
According to a new CareerBuilder survey, 55 percent of U.S. workers believe they are overweight, and more than two in five say they have gained weight at their present job. Workers say the top contributors of their workplace weight gain include sitting at a desk most of the day, being too tired from work to exercise and eating because of stress.

Visit http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2016/04/11/44-workers-gained-weight-current-job/ to view the full article online.

Scott Behson, Harvard Business Review
The best thing managers can do for all their employees — and especially those facing work-family conflicts — is to do the hard work of actually evaluating performance, not chair time or face time. When managers do so, they free employees to arrange their work lives so that they can be the most effective. And when you actually focus on performance, you get superior performance.

Visit https://hbr.org/2016/04/work-life-balance-is-easier-when-your-manager-knows-how-to-assess-performance to view the full article online.

Nathan Solheim, BenefitsPro
Paid parental leave has been a topic of interest in the benefits world. While it’s still a relatively scarce offering in American benefits packages, public and private employers are slowly adding it. And the benefit’s visibility has risen considerably, thanks in large part to the presidential election where it’s been pushed by both Democratic candidates.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2016/04/12/parental-guidance to view the full article online.

Bob Herman, Modern Healthcare
More hospitals and health systems have started or expanded their own health insurance plans since the Affordable Care Act was enacted, according to a new report. Although reasons vary from market to market, it's clear hospitals view owning a health plan as a way to build their population health programs by combining medical claims and clinical data.

Visit http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20160414/NEWS/160419947 to view the full article online.

Sheryl Smolkin, Employee Benefits News
A study published in the March 2016 issue of Health Affairs reports that workers without paid sick leave are less likely to take time off for illness and more likely to delay or put off health care visits entirely compared to those with paid sick leave.

Visit http://www.benefitnews.com/news/paid-sick-leave-optimizes-employee-health-productivity to view the full article online.