Here’s another tidbit from our new video course: Transform Benefits Education with On-demand Video.
If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that we’ve touched on which benefits videos to start with to get the most interest and involvement from your viewers. Will it be your Consumer Directed Health Plan or your 401(k)? You will also have learned what to include in an Open Enrollment video, which is a powerful place to start engaging employees.
Connecting retirement benefits to the health benefit open enrollment period can dramatically increase 401(k) participation, found Bank of America Merrill Lynch. By providing easy “one-click” access to enroll in or make
Drive 401(k) participation by tying to Open Enrollment
contribution changes to 401(k) plans during open enrollment, employers have seen an increase in participation. The study showed an 11% year-over-year increase in the number of employees making a change to their retirement plan election as a result of the association with the health care open enrollment period. And nearly all of these election changes were positive (93%), meaning employees started or increased contributions to a plan.
The on-boarding process is critical to the productivity and retention of new employees. And while on-boarding is defined as the first 90 days of employment, most experts agree that a new hire’s assessment of a new employer
Meaningful New Hire Connections
is formed much, much sooner. In fact, like so many other things in life, your greatest opportunity to build trust and excitement about your organization is likely with the very first impression you make.
A recent study by Fidelity and the NBGH revealed that employer spending on wellness programs grew 43% to $154/employee in 2010. This level of growth and investment provides evidence that wellness
Start with a Financial Health Assessment
initiatives are: (1) becoming much more comprehensive and (2) demonstrating tangible business value.
In our own experiences with HR professionals, we see the expansion every day. Wellness strategies are evolving and many employers are looking to better understand how employee money issues are impacting the productivity of their organization.
Employees seek retirement advice from their employers
A majority of people have agreed they would like more guidance from their employer about how to achieve retirement goals according to the 11th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey.
Perhaps not surprisingly, employees with a higher overall education level are more likely to be financially well in retirement. Only 63% of employees with only a high school diploma participated in a retirement plan, as opposed to 84% of those with a college degree.
Once upon a time, the number one priority for benefits programs was to attract, motivate and retain talented employees. That time was 2007. As the economy melted down and layoffs began, retention quickly took a backseat to benefits cost cutting priorities.
Benefits Communications Turn Risk Into Opportunity
As the economy improves, the tide may be turning once again according to several new studies. Here are some key findings:
Despite the optimism regarding the economy in 2011, employees are still feeling cautious about their money,
Employees Remain Cautious
according to the Q4:2010 Principal Financial Well-Being Index survey. Here are some of the key takeaways:
In a new study conducted by the Personal Financial Employee Education Foundation (PFEEF) and Employee Benefits News (EBN), 70% of respondents thought that workplace financial education is important or extremely important to the overall level of productivity in their organization.
Other notable findings included:
Over half (53%) of large U.S. employers are making changes to their 2011 health plans in order to accommodate the new Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a survey by the National Business Group on Health.
Providers face rising health care costs but still must supply the legally required amount of care. To do so, 63% of employers who are changing plan details have decided to raise the percentage that employees contribute to the premium, while 46% aim to raise out-of-pocket maximums. Another 61% will be offering consumer-directed health plans, or CDHPs, which are a proven method of increasing consumer flexibility while cutting costs.
An amazing 60% of companies used candidates’ credit reports to help make hiring decisions in 2009, according to a recent Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) poll.
So, the natural question is why a credit score of all things would be used to evaluate a prospective employee?
One likely reason might be that employers worry that a poor credit score indicates a lack of responsibility that could ultimately translate into poor performance.
Credit score indicative of a poor performer?
