Archive for the 'for Employers' Category

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GuideSpark Financial Wellness Webinar

On December 8, GuideSpark presented a webinar called “The Need for Financial Wellness”.  In this webinar we discussed how poor financial health is affecting companies and their employees.  The webinar was well attended and definitely shows that financial wellness is becoming an important  issue at corporations across America.  In fact, the following poll shows that most attendees believed that 26-50% of employees are being negatively affected by financial issues.

Financial Wellness Poll Results

These results are not surprising based on our experience.  Financial issues are a productivity drain for corporations and is something we believe companies will begin to address in the coming years.  If you missed the webinar, please let us know and we’ll let you know when we have our next one.

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Published by Joe Larocque on December 10, 2009

Financial Wellness in 2010 – Open Enrollment Tips

As November fast approaches, you are likely beginning to receive important communications about Open Enrollment. If you’re like many employees, you may have already decided to just stick with your current elections – after all, they seem to have worked out well enough. This year, more than others in the past, taking a passive approach to Open Enrollment may be an expensive decision.

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Published by Joe Larocque on October 25, 2009

The Health Wellness – Financial Wellness Connection

It’s been well documented that effective corporate health wellness programs have produced positive results for employees and employers over the past twenty years. Probably the most studied, extensive and longest running program is Johnson and Johnson’s “Live for Life”(now called the “J&J Health Wellness Program”) which was rolled out in 1979. Incredibly, due to both financial incentives and a corporate culture that actively promotes healthy behavior, 90% of J&J’s US employees have participated. And considering this includes a pool of 45,000+ employees, the statistics derived from the study are significant.

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Published by JS Wolff on September 1, 2009

GuideSpark announces Open Enrollment and New Hire Training modules

GuideSpark, Inc. announced two new modules for its online Benefits Learning Center solution, streamlining Open Enrollment communications and New Hire Training.
GuideSpark automates these key yet resource-intensive business processes to free up HR staff, reduce costs and allow employers to realize the full value of their benefits investments.
Each module provides a central online destination to access multimedia benefits education. The Open Enrollment module details benefits changes for the upcoming plan year, offers customized checklists of items to be completed and links to enrollment resources. The New Hire Training module educates new employees about their total compensation package, benefits enrollment procedures and orientation-related topics. Both provide a cost-effective option for using rich, engaging multimedia to educate and communicate with employees on HR topics.
Watch our new demo videos: New Hire Training and Open Enrollment

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Published by Barbara Navarro on August 31, 2009

GuideSpark Announces New Hire Training and Open Enrollment Modules

Today, GuideSpark announced two new modules for its Benefits Learning Center solution.  These modules automate and streamline New Hire Training and benefits communications for Open Enrollment.  As companies continue to prioritize doing more with less, many employers are looking for more efficient and effective ways to deal with these resource-intensive processes.

Consider for a moment the staff time and dollars go into facilitating New Hire Training and Open Enrollment each year.  Many companies we’ve met with offer half-day New Hire orientations on a near weekly basis.  Not to mention the time and effort that goes into the creation of the stacks of paper that employees receive on their first day.  Open enrollment presents a similar situation.  Each year, HR staff offer a collection of live seminars to explain benefits changes, often preceded by brochures, mailers and the like.  Despite all of this effort, nearly 80% of employers believe that their employees do not have a good understanding of their benefits.

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Published by Joe Larocque on August 31, 2009

The $4.5 Billion Productivity Drain – Employee Financial Distress

A recent BusinessWeek article “Helping an Employee in a Personal Financial Crisis” had a number of eye-opening estimates about the effect of financial distress on employees and employers.  The article sites the Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation estimating the cost of personal financial woes to corporations at $4.5 Billion annually and a Chicago consultant estimating a financially unstable worker can cost a company as much as $480 per month.

As a company focused on improving the financial health of employees, it’s good to see BusinessWeek covering small business examples, as it shows the depth of the problem.  While larger companies like IBM, Pepsi and Home Depot have received good press coverage over the past few years for their financial education and literacy programs, smaller companies are also taking notice and implementing programs.  I think this section from the BusinessWeek article sums it up the problem well:

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Published by Keith Kitani on August 10, 2009

GuideSpark unveils benefits and financial education web software

GuideSpark, Inc. unveiled its Web-hosted workplace financial education service, a comprehensive approach that helps employees make better use of their organization’s benefits and achieve financial security.
The GuideSpark Benefits and Open Enrollment Learning Center is designed to help employers grappling with how to effectively educate employees on workplace benefits. Engaging multimedia lessons provide in-depth and self-paced information about increasingly complex benefits offerings. GuideSpark provides anytime access to benefits education, and can be customized to support key HR events like open enrollment, new hire training and benefit program changes.
The company’s Financial Wellness Center helps employees avoid pervasive financial distractions that add stress, lower productivity and adversely affect health. GuideSpark experts point out that major employers are beginning to get the message: IBM, Pepsi Bottling Group, and Home Depot have already implemented financial education and planning programs for their employees.

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Published by Barbara Navarro on July 19, 2009

White Paper: Five Ways to Leverage Web 2.0 to Transform Benefits Communications

Today, GuideSpark announced availability of a new white paper on the ways to leverage Web 2.0 to transform benefits communications.

It may surprise you to learn that over 50% of employed Americans received a majority of their financial and health products from their employer, making employer-sponsored benefits a critical aspect of an employee’s overall financial wellness.

If there is one statistic that encapsulates the problem that GuideSpark is attempting to solve with our Benefits Learning Center solution, it is this one: “4 out of 5 employers believe that their employees don’t have a good understanding of their benefits.”

Amazing, isn’t it?

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Published by Joe Larocque on July 14, 2009

New Solution for Benefits Communications and Financial Wellness

employee-benefits-open-enrollment-forms_smallToday, GuideSpark announced two core products focused on the issues of corporate benefits education and employee financial wellness.  Over the last 18 months, we’ve had a chance to meet with many employers – from small businesses to large enterprises, from Silicon Valley technology companies to retail chains to government organizations.  Not surprisingly, each of these employers carries a similar burden – how to reduce the cost of benefits while continuing to offer a competitive compensation package.

While many HR professionals concede that their employees have a poor understanding of their benefits package, most underestimate the impact of this situation on their bottom line.  Employees who don’t understand their benefits are more likely to:

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Published by Joe Larocque on June 17, 2009