by admin | Nov 2, 2023 | Employee Benefits
The connection between employee wellness and the benefits of the job might seem obvious. But the conversation should be more nuanced than merely a discussion about health insurance, access to mental healthcare like employee assistance programs (EAPs), and well-being apps to reach zen.
Indeed, Human Resources professionals must reconsider their definition of benefits. It must extend to all the pros of working at a company. This includes the compensation and benefits packages but also other benefits like the team vibe, how managers treat employees, the expectations of employees, the ability for work-life balance, etc.
The New Human Resources
Thinking about this link between wellness and benefits is a key differentiator between traditional approaches to HR and the transformational employee-centric approach of the here and now. In the wake of the pandemic and the arrival of Gen Z employees to the workforce, expectations of employment have changed. HR must put emphasis on empathetic leadership, collegiality, and support for the health and wellness of the team for both recruiting and retention purposes.
HR’s Desire to Support Employee Wellness
The will to support employee mental health and wellness is there. Dating back to the State of HR 2022, when HR leaders who responded to the HR Exchange Network survey made employee engagement the top priority, organizations have been clamoring to improve recruiting, engagement, and retention. The foundation for this crusade is focusing on employee wellness. After all, at the heart of these efforts is job satisfaction.
Many HR professionals have great intentions when considering a broader definition of benefits of a job. A whopping 98% of respondents to an HR Exchange Network LinkedIn poll say they consider the impact of schedules, compensation and benefits packages, and other work-life balance issues when supporting employee wellbeing.
Is HR Living Up to Its Ambition?
While most in HR say they want to help employees manage their mental health and wellness, they know employees might not have realized their efforts yet.
More than 75% – an overwhelming majority – of respondents to another HR Exchange Network LinkedIn poll said that the benefits most organizations offer do not truly address the mental health and wellness of employees. In addition, 78% in another poll on LinkedIn said employees were not satisfied with their salary and benefits packages.
Clearly, most in HR have more work to do when it comes to wellness and benefits. The first step would be to evaluate the company’s offerings. In 2022, respondents to the State of HR said the following were the top five benefits to offer or under consideration:
- Medical, dental, or vision insurance (55%)
- Wellness programs (53%)
- EAPs (45%)
- Mental health coaching (38%)
- Retirement savings (33%)
Worth noting, in the 2023 survey, 20% said they planned to invest in EAPs. In addition, the respondents of that survey shared their top priorities for addressing mental health and wellness:
- Creating a supportive environment for employees to talk about mental health concerns (40%)
- Implementing policies and procedures that address mental health in the workplace (37%)
- Providing accommodations for employees with mental health conditions (34%)
- Encouraging employees to take time off or seek medical attention (33%)
- Gyms/partnerships/fitness apps/fitness classes (27%)
Next Steps
Transformation requires effort and can be slow. Human Resources realizes that employees expect employers to support their mental health and wellness. Until now, that expectation – if ever met – was simply about offering the right kind of insurance and access to mental healthcare. Now, leaders and managers are meant to be empathetic and able to recognize those in need of help. Frankly, most have not had any sort of training, and it’s probably unfair to expect this of them. HR professionals are honest about the lack of support managers are receiving:
Presumably, the next step is to better train managers to provide mental health and wellness support and ensure the business builds itself around a people-centric culture. Certainly, the top priorities of HR professionals in 2023 suggest that employees are gaining leverage with HR:
- Developing and implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives (22%)
- Improving employee engagement and retention (21%)
- Recruiting and retaining top talent (15%)
In fact, DEI is directly related to wellness at work because those efforts contribute to people feeling as though they are treated fairly and included. Providing that sense of belonging is an essential part of wellness, as is improving engagement and retention. To recruit and keep top talent, employers must continue to care for employees and lead HR with heart.
By Francesca Di Meglio
Orignally Posted on HR Exchange Network
by admin | Oct 25, 2023 | Employee Benefits, Health Insurance
Not understanding benefits terminology is near the top of the list of ways that open enrollment and benefits selection can stress you out. Open enrollment is coming quickly and soon you will be talking about benefit options. The world of benefits and insurance can be confusing. In-network, out-of-network, deductibles, co-pays and co-insurance? What?
Let us help break it down:
Premium – a monthly payment you make to your health insurance provider- it is the cost of having health insurance coverage. It’s perhaps the easiest component of a health plan – it’s the equivalent of a sticker price.
Here’s how it works: Coverage itself varies considerably from one health plan to another but in general, the less you pay for your coverage, the more you’re likely to have to pay when you need health care – and vice versa.
Co-insurance – A percentage of a health care cost—such as 20 percent—that the covered employee pays after meeting the deductible.
How it works: Let’s say you’ve paid $1,500 in health care costs and met your deductible. When you go to the doctor, instead of paying all costs, you and your plan share the cost. For example, your plan may pay 80% so then your share would be the remaining 20%.
Co-payment – The fixed dollar amount—such as $25 for each doctor visit—that the covered employee pays for medical services or prescriptions.
How it works: After your co-pay, your insurance picks up the rest of the bill for that visit. Co-pays typically count toward your annual out-of-pocket maximum (but there can be exceptions depending on your plan). The amount can vary depending on where you go for care, the type of doctor you see, and the type of prescription you are taking.
Deductible – How much you pay before your health insurance coverage kicks in. Your deductible resets every year.
How it works: If your plan’s deductible is $1,500, you’ll pay 100% of health care expenses until the bills total $1,500. After that, you share the cost with your plan by paying co-insurance.
Network – “In-network” refers to doctors and other health providers that are part of the insurer’s preferred network. Insurers sign contracts and negotiate prices with these in-network providers. This isn’t the case for “out-of-network” providers.
Here’s why that matters: Expenses you incur for services provided by out-of-network professionals may not be covered or may only be partially covered by your insurance; you will generally have a higher deductible and out-of-pocket limit when you see an out-of-network provider.
Out-of-pocket Maximum (OOPM) – the absolute most you pay in one year for your health care expenses before your insurance covers 100% of the bill.
Here’s how it works: What you pay toward your plan’s deductible, co-insurance and co-pays are all applied to your out-of-pocket max. If your plan covers more than one person, you will likely have a family out-of-pocket max and an individual out-of-pocket max. That means:
- When the deductible, co-insurance and co-pays for one person reach the individual maximum, your plan then pays 100% of the expenses for that person.
- When what you’ve paid toward individual maximums adds up to your family’s out-of-pocket max, your plan will pay 100% of the expenses for everyone on the plan.
Picking health insurance can be a dizzying adventure and making a mistake can be costly since you are generally locked into your health insurance for one year, with very limited exceptions. But when you understand how open enrollment works and how it impacts your family’s household budget, you can make wise, informed choices.
by admin | Oct 17, 2023 | Workplace
As the flu and RSV season gets underway, companies are asking themselves how they can support employees who need to stay home to care for their children. In fact, last October, 104,000 Americans missed work because of “childcare problems” – the highest total since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking the figure in 2003. Although that number has since lowered, it has remained above historic levels. Experts have noted that one possible cause is the “Tripledemic” which includes flu, COVID, and RSV.
This isn’t just a problem for parents. Workplace absences are a problem for employers. When parents have to take time off work to care for their children due to illnesses, school closures, or other unforeseen circumstances, it can create challenges for employers in terms of maintaining productivity, meeting deadlines, and ensuring a stable work environment. This is especially true in situations where there is a lack of adequate family leave policies or flexible work arrangements.
How Can Employers Support Working Parents?
Remote Work Options: With the return to office in full swing, employers need to simply recognize that kids get sick. Allowing employees to work from home offers a distinct advantage. It makes all the difference to be able to take a mid-day appointment with your child’s pediatrician. In fact, a FlexJobs survey reported that two-thirds of working parents called remote options a top workplace priority. Additionally, 62% said they would quit their current job if they couldn’t work remotely at times.
Flexibility: Another key tool employers can offer is flexible hours. Kids’ schedules often don’t match up with their parent work schedule. Flexible hours allow parents to make appointments during the day to care for a sick child, allowing them to work in the evening or in the early morning while children are still sleeping is helpful to manage responsibilities both at work and at home.
Empathy and Understanding: Show compassion and understanding when employees need to take time off due to sick children. Avoid making them feel guilty for needing to prioritize their children’s health.
Cross-Training: Cross-train employees or have a backup plan in place so that work can continue smoothly even when someone needs to take unexpected time off.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs): Working parents can often feel isolated as employees, struggling with responsibilities they aren’t typically encouraged to share with others. Offer access to EAPs that provide counseling, resources, and support for managing work-life balance and stressors related to caring for sick children.
Remember that supporting working parents with sick children not only improves employee morale and retention but also contributes to a positive company reputation and a more productive work environment. Offering support to employees helps them thrive in their job as well as at home.
by admin | Oct 9, 2023 | Cybersecurity
Artificial intelligence, including so-called “large language models” like ChatGPT, has rapidly become a major talking point in the press, amongst governments, and maybe even in your office!
While AI has been a subject in the background for decades, everyday web users can now engage with AI like never before.
But whenever there is a sea change in technology, it is always smart to think about the security issues. This is how you can stay safe online over the years. And no AI wrote this article – we promise!
Should I use ChatGPT or other AI platforms?
With any shiny new technology, you should consider security and privacy risks before diving in. When it comes to AI-powered language models and other services, there are a few major factors to consider when loading up AI for help at work, school, or for fun:
Don’t Hand Over Your Crown Jewels?
AI models partly “learn” from what users input into the system. Therefore, you shouldn’t put any information into an AI model you want to keep private, from your company’s proprietary computer code to sensitive information about your family.
Prompting Isn’t the Same As Creating
When it comes to your child’s homework or perhaps your own work endeavors, know that putting a query to AI and then copy/pasting the results isn’t the same as doing the work yourself. Also, if you are asking a fact-based question to an AI model (like “what atoms are in a water molecule?”) you need to fact check everything, because these models have become infamous for giving very confident but very wrong information in many situations. Other times, people have noted that AI models produced bizarre – and sometimes creepy – responses suggesting that the model had a mind of its own, which have been deemed “hallucinations.” We say it’s best to look at AI models as tools: they can help you get the work done, but we think you’re more talented than a machine!
Privacy Concerns
There are many concerns over how AI models scrape the web, from how these programs utilize the creations of artists and writers to what sort of personal information they know about us. Many experts are worried that it is collecting data on children, for example, and how these services can alert people about sharing their data remains an open question. In many cases, your chats with an AI are not private – the company can see what you input, even if it is anonymized. Carefully read the privacy notices of any AI service you use and ensure that you are okay with sharing the data it collects.
Bad Guys Also Use AI
Another trend is the rise of cybercriminals using AI to get better at their crimes. There is evidence that bad actors are using AI to craft more deceptive phishing emails and help develop malware. When there is any big disruption in tech, take it as a good time to review your cybersecurity basics: use strong passwords, take advantage of password managers, and enable MFA for all accounts that allow it.
Originally posted on National Cybersecurity Alliance
by admin | Oct 4, 2023 | Hot Topics, Human Resources
Pushback on Remote Work
Nowadays, many employers are insisting that workers return to the office in full force. Last week, HR Exchange Network reported on Goldman Sachs enforcing a five-day RTO rule. The Street recently reported on how Dimon longs for the same at JPMorgan Chase. This is not new news. Some have suggested the big banks are concerned about compliance with However, The Street speculates that Dimon is most interested in strict RTO as a result of the organization’s real estate investments.
Walmart Lowers the Minimum Wage
Apparently, Walmart is paying some new hires less than it was paying others three months ago, according to the Wall Street Journal. The writer suggests that this is a sign that companies are trying to cut labor costs after significant wage increases during the Great Resignation. Most new hires will now earn the lowest possible hourly wage for their store.
“The wage-structure change comes after Walmart and other large employers have for years steadily raised wages and added benefits to attract workers in a tight labor market. The retailer’s latest move suggests that the stresses companies are facing in trying to find employees are easing and that they need to find ways to offset those wage increases,” according to WSJ.
UAW May Strike
The summer of strikes might just turn into the fall of strikes. The United Auto Workers (UAW) told General Motors that their proposal was insulting, according to CNBC. The contract for GM’s 46,000 UAW-represented workers included a 10% increase in wages. But the union rejected it and within days the UAW may go on strike.
“Despite the proposed wage increase being the largest under a UAW contract since 1999, it still falls far short of the union’s demands of a 40% hourly pay increase, a reduced 32-hour workweek, a shift back to traditional pensions, elimination of compensation tiers, and restoration of cost-of-living adjustments, among other items on the table,” according to CNBC.
Millennials Are the Hybrid Workers
LinkedIn is sharing data points from its latest Workforce Confidence survey, and it showed a difference in the way generations are experiencing work at the moment. About 20% of Millennials, compared to 17% of Gen X and 15% of Baby Boomers, are hybrid workers.
Cybersecurity Sees Layoffs
Cybersecurity was once considered a safe role to have because of the great necessity to protect data and technology from breaches. However, in the last month, nine cybersecurity companies have laid off employees, according to Axios. IronNet, Malwarebytes, Fortinet, NCC Group, Rapid7, Dragos, HackerOne, and Bishop Fox are among those that cut jobs. The publication reported that the companies have cut between 10% and 20% of their workforce, which amounts to hundreds of layoffs.
By Francesca Di Meglio
Originally posted on HR Exchange Network
