How to motivate millennials to participate in retirement savings
Why aren't millennials participating in retirement plans? In this article, Zito explains why and how you can motivate your millennial employees to participate.
Millennials comprise one-third of the U.S. labor force, making them the single-largest generation at work today, according to Pew Research Center. But they don’t appear to be functioning as full-fledged members of the workforce just yet — at least when it comes to participating in benefit plans.
The National Institute on Retirement Security found that two-thirds of millennials work for employers that offer retirement plans, but only about half of that group participates. That means just one-third of working millennials are saving for retirement through employer-sponsored plans.
The culprit for such low participation originates primarily with eligibility requirements. Millennials are more prone to disqualifying factors like minimum hours worked or time with the company — products of being relative newcomers to the workplace and spending the early parts of the careers in a deeply challenging labor market. The passage of time will hopefully help relax these eligibility limitations.
But there are other headwinds bearing down on millennials that could be holding them back from plan participation, and which present an opportunity for plan sponsors to demonstrate value to the largest working generation. For one thing, millennials have earned the most college degrees as a share of their generation, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, all while tuition costs have continued to outpace inflation. The resulting financial burden is compounded by the fact that millennials are earning less so far in their careers, despite their education gains, than older generations were earning at their age.
It’s important for sponsors to figure out how to enroll more millennials, and not just because it will generate goodwill. Boomers will continue to roll assets out of their plan accounts as they retire. The flight of their outsized share of plan assets will leave a smaller pool to share plan costs. Increased millennial engagement can offset this drawdown.
Plan design that gives due consideration to the rise of millennials should consider how to help with their financial needs and play to their strengths.
Harness millennial tech savvy
Growing up immersed in an electronic and interconnected environment reduces the learning curve that millennials might face in using planning tools. Simple offerings like a loan payment calculator or retirement savings projection interface can make a profound difference on the path to financial preparation.
The flipside to millennials’ willingness to tinker is that they tend to over-scrutinize their investment mix. TIAA found that millennials are three times as likely as boomers to change their investment allocation amid a market downturn — typically a decision that ends in regret. The compulsion to de-risk tends to strike after the worst of the damage is done, leaving investors ill-prepared for the ensuing recovery.
Solutions like target-date funds can remove the need to think about allocations altogether, so millennials can focus on more effective factors like retirement savings or loan repayment rates and stretching for their full matching contributions.
Provide an education benefit umbrella
Compound interest — the accelerant that makes saving and investing for retirement over several decades so effective — works in a similar way against borrowers that are slow to repay their loans. This is an acute problem for millennials, but it doesn’t stop with them. Almost three-fifths of 22 to 44-year-olds have student debt, and they’re joined by more than one-fifth of those over 45-years-old.
Employer-sponsored student loan repayment assistance can take a variety of forms. It can be as simple as directing participants to enroll for dedicated loan payments, and can extend all the way to helping them refinance at a better rate or consolidate multiple loans.
The education benefit umbrella can also cover tuition reimbursement programs for employees that want to continue their education but are hesitant to spend the money. These programs can also serve employee retention goals as they’re typically offered with a payback period if workers leave shortly after being reimbursed.
Any program that lowers employee financial stress will likely help improve productivity. From a practical standpoint, workers have more disposable income — and feel wealthier — once they’ve vanquished their loans.
Being an advocate in helping employees accomplish that goal has obvious benefits for organizations that are seeking to retain members of the country’s largest working generation.
SOURCE: Zito, A (9 August 2018) "How to motivate millennials to participate in retirement savings" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitnews.com/opinion/motivating-millennials-to-participate-in-retirement-savings
5 things to know about getting life insurance for your child
Have you considered getting your child a life insurance policy? Continue reading to learn more about juvenile life insurance policies.
We spend so much time talking about the reasons adults need life insurance (income protection, covering funeral costs and so on) that it’s easy to forget why it may be a good idea for you to insure your children as well.
When we think about it, we reason that our kids aren’t contributing to the household budget—in fact, anyone with kids knows that raising them takes a lot out of that budget! Getting a permanent life insurance policy for a child can offer financial advantages for them later in life (in addition to the death benefit).
Before you find yourself caught up in internet debates over how to get your baby to sleep or what kind of diapers to use (or if you’ve already been through that and are dreading the next round of parenting arguments), here are five things to know about buying life insurance for your child:
1. Life insurance policies “grow up” too. A great reason to invest in juvenile life insurance is to ensure that your children are covered from the get-go, and as they get older, may be able to take advantage of riders that allow them to expand their coverage at a guaranteed rate without any question about their respective health. People’s health changes, including children’s, and having a policy in place can ensure they’ll have the coverage they need, despite health changes.
2. It creates a sensible foundation: While there are tax-advantaged vehicles for saving for retirement and college, that’s not necessarily the case for other major expenses that young adults face such as automobile down payments, weddings and first home purchases. The cash value of a policy can be borrowed from—understanding, of course, that it reduces or eliminates the death benefit if not repaid—for these expenses.
3. Not sold on getting them their own policy? Add them to yours. Check to see whether easily affordable riders on your own life insurance policy are available to cover the kids.
4. Don’t buy the first policy that crosses your mailbox, either: The same marketing clearinghouses that make sure you get every single updates on your pregnancy week by week are also making your contact information available to firms that market life insurance. Be sure to compare prices, and it’s always helpful to talk to an insurance professional or advisor who can help you navigate through choices before committing to a policy.
5. The safety net is there. We all want to see our kids grow up happy, healthy and strong. But if the worst happens, as was the case for the Koonsman family, (you can watch their story here) then juvenile life insurance can help provide a buffer—covering funeral expenses, sure, but also allowing parents to take time off, care for their other children, and allow everyone to grieve as needed. And as the Koonsman’s story shows, they were also able to keep their daughter Hope’s memory alive by establishing a scholarship in her name.
Have a chat with a specialist at Saxon Financial today by visiting this link.
Learn about the different types of life insurance here.
SOURCE: Mosher, H. (31 July 2018) "5 things to know about getting life insurance for your child" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.lifehappens.org/blog/5-things-to-know-about-getting-life-insurance-for-your-child/
10 everyday things that cost more than term life insurance
Many people don’t purchase life insurance because they think it’s too expensive. Read on to find out which everyday items cost more than term life insurance.
Adults and parents worry. We worry about our family’s health, safety, financial security and future, but more families need to put their money where their heart is by buying term life insurance. (This is the most affordable type when initially purchased and provides protection for a specific period of time or the “term”.) However, the issue isn’t a matter of hypocrisy, but a lack of research and financial literacy. According to a Life Happens and LIMRA study from this year, 65% of households have not purchased life insurance because they think it’s too costly.
To show that this is a common misconception, the study asked Americans to estimate the cost of a 20-year, $250,000 level term life insurance policy for a healthy 30-year-old male. Eight in 10 people overestimated the cost, saying it would be $400 a year, which is more than double its actual cost of about $160 a year or about $13 a month. Astonishingly, one in four thought it would cost more than $1,000 a year.
And just know that unless you have serious health issues, pre-existing conditions or high-risk hobbies that would likely necessitate high-risk insurance, getting affordable coverage is really straightforward.
How Much Is Life Insurance?
To put the true cost of term life insurance in perspective, here are 10 products or services that people regularly spend money on that cost more than a term life insurance premium would for a healthy 30-year-old at $13 a month.
- Food – According to the National Resource Defense Council, Americans waste about $529 per year, or $44 per month, on unwanted snacks and meals.
- Alcohol – According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American consumer spends 1% of their discretionary income on alcohol.
- Tobacco – For households with smokers, 14% of Americans’ incomes are spent on cigarettes.
- Gym Membership – The $30 per month you spend on a 24 Hour Fitness membership that goes unused could be better spent funding your life policy.
- Electronics – That new 55” LED TV that costs $800 could be used to cover about five years of term life premiums.
- Games – Video games average $50 per new release. Don’t you think your child would prefer to have financial security than a game he/she will play for a few months?
- Cars – Underspend on your next car purchase by $3,000 and over a six-year loan period with 0% APR, you will save $500 per year, or $40 a month.
- Gadget – Depending on which version you get, an iPad costs around $550 with tax, almost three and a half years of premium payments.
- Entertainment – A pair of movie tickets, popcorn, and a drink, totaling $25.
- Fashion – One pair of designer jeans costing $50 or more.
Saving money and funding your life insurance policy doesn’t have to make your life miserable. In fact, the average cost of life insurance is so small compared to your overall budget, that even small concessions such as minimizing waste and limiting frivolous purchases can open up your budget enough to buy a much-needed financial tool.
Ultimately, the peace of mind and pride of securing your family’s financial future will outweigh any temporary pleasure from a materialistic purchase.
Don’t wait to protect your livelihood. Have a chat with a specialist at Saxon Financial today by visiting this link.
Learn about the different types of life insurance here.
SOURCE: Dek, G. (15 June 2015) "10 everyday things that cost more than term life insurance" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.lifehappens.org/blog/10-everyday-things-that-cost-more-than-term-life-insurance/
5 things millennials need to know about life insurance
Does life insurance cross your mind often? Odds are, it's the last thing on your mind. Read this blog post for the five things millennials should know about life insurance.
Being catapulted into the adult world is a shock to the system, regardless of how prepared you think you are. And these days, it’s more complicated than ever, with internet access and mobile devices being must-have utilities and navigating tax forms when they aren’t as “EZ” as they used to be.
Maybe you’re still living with your folks while you get established. Or maybe you’re looking forward to moving out of a rental and into a house or to tie the knot. Life insurance might be the last thing on your list of things to deal with or even think about. (You’re not alone.) But here are five things you might not know about life insurance—that you probably should.
1. Life insurance is a form of protection. If you Google “life insurance” you’ll get a slew of ads telling you how cheap life insurance can be, without nearly enough information about what you need it for. That’s probably because it’s not terribly pleasant to think about: this idea that we could die and someone we care about might suffer financially as a result. Life insurance provides a financial buffer for the people you care about in the event something happens to you. Think just because you’re single, nobody would be left in the lurch? Read the next point.
2. College debt may not go away. Did someone—like your parents—co-sign your student loans through the bank? If so, the bank won’t discharge that debt upon your death the way that the federal government would with federal student loans. That means your parents, or others who signed the paperwork, would be responsible for paying the full balance—sometimes immediately. Don’t saddle them with the bill!
3. If you don’t know anything about life insurance, it’s probably better if you don’t buy it off the internet. It’s what we’re used to: You find the thing you need or love on Amazon or Ebay or Etsy, click a few buttons, and POOF. It arrives at your door. But life insurance is a financial planning product, and while it can be as simple as a 20-year term policy for less than a cup of coffee each day (for real!), going through your options with an insurance professional can ensure that you get the right amount for the right amount of time and at a price that fits into your budget. And many people don’t know that an agent will sit down and help you out at no cost.
4. Social fundraising only goes so far. This relatively recent phenomenon has everyone thinking that they’ll just turn to GoFundMe if things go awry in their lives. But does any grieving person want to spend time administering a social fundraising site? The chances of going viral are markedly slim, and social fundraising sites will take their cut, as will the IRS. And there is absolutely no guarantee about how much—if any—money will be raised.
5. The best time is now. You’ll definitely never be younger than you are today, and for most of us, the younger we are the healthier we are. Those are two of the most important factors for getting affordable life insurance coverage. So don’t delay. And if you don’t have an agent, you can also use our Agent Locator. The key is taking that first step.
SOURCE: Mosher, H. (5 July 2017) "5 things millennials need to know about life insurance" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.lifehappens.org/blog/5-things-millennials-need-to-know-about-life-insurance/
Everything benefits managers need to know about Generation Z
Generation Z is making their way into today's workforce. Yes, they have similarities to millennials, but they have plenty of differences as well. Read this blog post to learn more.
Just when you thought you had finally figured out the millennial generation, there’s another young cohort of professionals entering the workforce. Sure, they’ve got some similarities to tech-focused millennials, but they have plenty of their own attitudes and opinions about money, relationships and, of course, work and benefits. Meet Generation Z.
Generation Z was raised in a post-9/11 world, following the dot-com boom and bust and during the midst of the Great Recession. There’s no doubt that these world events have colored the way they think and the way they work. Generation Z is a large cohort of about 72.8 million people and about 25% of the population. It’s a generation that employers will need to understand to create meaningful relationships. Here’s what you need to know.
They’re true digital natives. Generation Z was born between the 1995 and 2010, which makes them the first truly digital native generation. By the time they were heading off to Kindergarten, the internet had reached mainstream popularity and Mark Zuckerberg had already launched Facebook across college campuses.
Like many of us, Generation Z is rarely without their phones. But unlike your older colleagues, Generation Z may be more connected than ever — documenting their days on Instagram Stories and Snapchat, and messaging friends by text and other messaging platforms.
However, they’re also a relatively private bunch. Rather than broadcasting their lives on Facebook (like their parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents), they favor networks that allow for privacy. Snapchat snaps disappear, as do Instagram Stories. Gen Z also gravitates toward apps like Whisper, an anonymous social network for sharing secrets.
Here’s the takeaway for HR pros: Rather than seeing this as a barrier to communication, look at it as an opportunity. Try using text message reminders for open enrollment deadlines or creating a Slack channel for benefits communication, in addition to email and paper updates.
They’re seeking financial security. Generation Z grew up during the Great Recession, during which they may have seen their parents lose their jobs or deal with serious financial hardships. Because of this, Generation Z is focused on financial stability.
Unfortunately, many Gen Zers may join your company drowning in student loan debt from college. Consider offering benefits that help them get out of debt and begin saving for the future. Student loan debt repayment benefits with platforms like SoFi or Gradifi provide appealing avenues to pay off debt faster. You can also promote tax-deferred savings programs such as a 401(k) or health savings accounts to minimize their tax liability and maximize savings opportunities. These benefits may also appeal to millennials struggling with student loan debt and the prospect of saving for retirement — all while they start families.
Financial wellness benefits are attractive to all of your employees — Gen Z included. Consider partnering with local banks or credit unions to provide other savings options and financial education. Make this education appealing to everyone by providing it in different formats — in-person for anyone to attend, as well as on-demand webinars or Skype meetings for those who appreciate a more interactive experience.
Gen Z wants to actively participate. Generation Z is the most connected generation yet; they’re used to Googling an answer before you can finish your question or chatting with their friends throughout each day.
This hyper-connectedness lends itself to more interactive workplace meetings. Keep your Gen Z employees engaged and garner feedback by incorporating polls into your meetings, or creating recordings and presenting to computers and smartphones using a platform like Zeetings, Presentain or Mentimeter.
Whereas millennials were known for their interest in collaborating with each other, Gen Z wants to own their work a little bit more and compete against colleagues. Use this to your advantage to introduce gamification into your programs. Platforms such as Kahoot cannot only help you create some fun competition, but it can improve information retention.
They have a surprising communication preference. We’ve established that Generation Z is a hyper-connected cohort. But research uncovered one surprise about this generation’s preference for feedback: they prefer to be in-person. Use this knowledge to mentor your managers who will deliver feedback, and use it to make your benefits more appealing, too. For example, a confidential advocacy program with phone, email and chat options can be a great source for Gen Zers who want more information on their benefits.
While not everyone in this age group will conform to these attitudes and feelings, it can be helpful to pull back the curtain and understand how this generation could be different from millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers.
One sure-fire way to engage employees in voluntary benefits
Do you want to increase employee engagement when it comes to voluntary benefits? Read on to learn how to increase employee engagement.
Whether your employees are 22 or 62, they need to plan for the unexpected. A sudden injury or illness can dramatically derail their financial well-being and retirement readiness. As the responsibility for healthcare costs shifts to employees, employers are taking steps to help their employees by offering voluntary benefits, like critical illness and accident insurance.
The hitch, however, is that many employees aren’t taking advantage of these benefits.
There are many reasons for this: Employees may not have much appetite for voluntary insurance benefits after choosing medical benefits. They may not understand what’s being offered or how it is relevant to their lives. Further, if they haven’t been close to someone who has dealt with a catastrophic health issue, they may not grasp how destabilizing that is and how voluntary benefits can help at a difficult time.
So how do employers keep employees from hitting the snooze button on voluntary insurance benefits, and wake them up to how these benefits can help with their overall financial wellbeing?
One way is to understand what employees might need given their life stage, family situation or other variables. To help employees sort this out, here are few scenarios of how voluntary benefits could help employees — with fictional people based on a combination of our experiences with customers.
Leaving nothing to chance
Scott tends to be a worrier. His friends joke that he’s a 45-year-old man in a 25-year-old body. He is in the “adulting” stage of life — getting settled in a career, figuring out his personal life, and living on a salary that’s just a few steps up from entry-level. Scott worries about what might happen if he gets sick or injured and can’t meet his portion of his high-deductible plan. He’s also open about the fact that he doesn’t want to move back in with his parents. Unlike most of his friends, he’s also thinking decades ahead and is already contributing to a 401(k).
Scott wants it all — financial protection now and for the future. Based on what he’s seen happen to friends and colleagues close to his age, he chose critical care and accident insurance coverage during benefits enrollment at work. These options will help cover unexpected costs if an unexpected covered event does happen, and the cost won’t take a big chunk out of his paycheck thanks to his employer’s group rate. What’s more, the benefit is tax-free if he ever needs to use it, and can help keep him independent, and out of his parents’ house.
For employers, these kinds of benefits can help mitigate employees’ financial stressors so they can focus on wellness and getting back to work if an unexpected health issue strikes.
Weekend warriors and thrill-seeking hobbies
Catherine is a marketing manager who is married with two children. She is 44 and in the “balancing” stage of life, between “adulting” and “planning.” Her main concern when looking at voluntary insurance benefits was her husband, who likes high-thrill, risky sports. While Catherine tends to shy away from motorcycles and extreme sports, she is a bit of a weekend warrior since it’s hard to find time to exercise during the week. Her kids are also active and perpetually on the go, whether playing sports or just running around with the neighborhood kids.
Once Catherine learned about voluntary benefits, it was a no-brainer to choose accident insurance for her entire family. While she hopes that her family will only have fun — and avoid injury — doing what they all enjoy, she knows they have to be prepared for anything.
Employers can help employees choose the right benefits by encouraging them to think about how they and their families spend their leisure time, including sports, hobbies, adventure travel or any other activities.
Taking account of a family history of cancer
Meet Justin. He’s 55, married, and has a daughter. He is at the “planning” stage of life — following “adulting” and “balancing.” While Justin is healthy, his family history of cancer is a concern when he considers his future. He’s seen family, friends and colleagues struggle with the costs of a serious illness. He also is acutely aware of saving enough for retirement as he has only 10-15 more years in the workplace, during which he can save.
For Justin, his life stage, family history of cancer and concern for his family’s physical and financial well-being led to his purchasing decisions. To help mitigate financial setbacks if he should become ill, Justin purchased critical illness insurance. He also purchased critical illness and accident coverage for his wife and daughter.
From an employer point of view, emphasizing that employees should consider their family and individual medical history — and how an adverse event could impact them and their families — is a compelling way to make voluntary benefits relevant.
Making it real for employees
Many employers want to help their employees choose the right benefits for their specific needs to protect their financial well-being now and for the future. Showing how needs change with age and lifestyle sheds more light on how voluntary insurance can provide benefits for covered events that will help mitigate financial losses and reduce stress.
Digital technology is making it easier than ever to engage employees across channels with easily digestible but important information. Employers can set up “decision tools” that help employees make choices, offer videos that bring different situations to life, develop app-based calculators, and tell stories about how voluntary benefits can help them and their families during an unexpected illness or injury.
Employees have a lot on their minds. The key to making voluntary benefits real is to show employees why they matter and how to choose the right products. What many employees don’t know is that employers are working hard behind the scenes to offer benefits tailored to their workforce. This is an opportunity for employers to personalize the experience and demonstrate to employees that they truly care.
Grubka, R. (27 June 2018) "One sure-fire way to engage employees in voluntary benefits" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/opinion/engaging-employees-in-voluntary-benefits?tag=00000151-16d0-def7-a1db-97f024870001
Improve workplace fitness by focusing on the collective "we"
Do your employees participate in workplace wellness programs? Try involving the collective "we" to increase involvement. Continue reading to learn more.
Workplace wellness programs are implicitly focused on the individual: biometric screenings, individual incentives, gym member reimbursements. This approach can leave employees feeling less than motivated to take part because, even though the programs focus is on the individual, by no means does it make the program personalized.
As workplace wellness programs rapidly improve to meet the expectations of today’s workers, it’s important to remember the value of accountability and what a culture of health can do to create a workplace committed to wellness solutions.
Since wellness programs have traditionally focused on the individual, oftentimes employees never know if their colleagues are participating in any of the programs being offered. Bring it into the light by giving your employees a program they want to talk about, while still keeping it personalized. The collective “we” are not only more likely to try a wellness program, but we are also more likely to stick with it, if we know our peers are also partaking.
The power of sharing with your peers
We all know writing down a goal gives you a much higher chance of achieving it, but research from the Association for Talent Development says someone is 65 percent more likely to achieve a goal if the goal is shared with another person. Why? Because it creates accountability.
We are in the day and age of a social media frenzy, and, it’s cross-generational. We share everything we do and spend a lot of our time concerned with what our friends, family and co-workers are doing through these social platforms. Wellness practitioners can and should be taking advantage of this, especially as you build your culture of health.
To find the right wellness solution for your company or client, look for solutions that are social and easy to use. If the company as a whole has buy-in, or even a few internal advocates, word-of-mouth can be incredibly powerful. Whether that is around the water-cooler at work, on employees’ personal social media channels, or within the work intranet, create opportunities for employees to talk about your program and encourage them to use it. We know when an employee knows a few of their coworkers are planning to attend yoga or kickboxing on a Tuesday evening, they are much more likely to sign up and actually go.
These “wellness relationships” help not only build stronger bonds at work, but they also help you create and maintain healthy habits. You want your employees to engage with your wellness solution, so encourage them to share and become part of the “solution” themselves. At the end of the day, workplace wellness solutions are there to help everyone get healthier and stay that way, but they have to use the program.
More than just an incentive
We have spent at least a decade looking at incentives and how we align them to solve problems with low participation in our wellness program, when we should have focused on building a program that empowers our employees and puts them in the driver’s seat. I’m not suggesting you stop incentivizing your employees, but I do suggest you measure what it is you are rewarding. If it can’t be measured you may as well burn the money you are investing.
Remember, your employees are the real reason your program will sink or swim. Take care of your employees and encourage them to be and find their healthiest selves. Empower them in the process and give them choice in how, when and with who they participate in your wellness program and let them become your wellness solution.
Maurer E. (18 July 2018). "Improving workplace wellness by focusing on the collective 'we'" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitspro.com/2018/07/18/improve-workplace-wellness-by-focusing-on-the-coll/.
3 ways to support employee caregivers
Caregiving can impact the well-being of employees. Because of this, many employers have started offering benefits to employees who provide care to loved ones.
Think about the people you work with every day—their similarities and differences, their hobbies and family backgrounds, their areas of expertise. Despite their myriad differences, employees of all backgrounds face common challenges that preoccupy their thoughts and pull them away from their work.
A newly released white paper, “Taking Care of Caregivers: Why corporate America should support employees who give their hearts and souls to those in need,” highlights caregiving as an emerging factor that greatly impacts the well-being of today’s workforce.
The scope of what it means to be a caregiver is broad, and many employers remain unaware of how caregiving affects the well-being of their employees. “For many, caregiving is comparable to holding down a second job, and the lines between their work and personal lives become blurry, at best, when the care of a loved one is top-of-mind,” the white paper states. “Tethered by an emotional struggle to leave unpaid caregiving at home, these people must go to work and are expected to perform at the highest level.”
Transamerican Institute’s pivotal study, The Many Faces of Caregiving, reported that 14 percent of employee caregivers go so far as to reduce their work hours or receive a demotion. Another 5 percent give up working entirely.
While caregiving proves costly for employee well-being, studies also reveal how costly it is for business. According to AARP and the Family Caregiver Alliance, employee caregiving costs employers:
- Up to $33 billion annually from lost productivity
- $6.6 billion to replace employees who retire early or quit
- $5.1 billion in absenteeism
It doesn’t take a “Big Four” accounting firm to see that ignoring this challenge is bad for business. The National Business Group on Health reports 88 percent of employers have “expectations that caregiving will become an increasingly important issue in the next five years.”
But what can be done to make life easier for employee caregivers and keep them happy, healthy and focused at work? Companies of all sizes are taking notice of this challenge and embarking on the first steps to support employee caregivers.
Taking Care of Caregivers highlights a few policies industry leaders have implemented thus far to support employee caregivers.
1. Offer paid leave for caregivers
Giving employee caregivers time and space to be with their loved one and figure out what’s next is a great starting point.
Companies like Microsoft, Starbucks, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Facebook all offer paid time off for employees to care for sick family members. Facebook even offers 10 to 20 days of bereavement leave, which provides much-needed time for caregivers to focus on self-care after experiencing the loss of a loved one.
Renee Albert, Facebook’s Director of benefits, goes so far as to say, “Caregiver support is part of our DNA,” as Facebook aspires to be “the best company for families, no matter how you define ‘family.’”
2. Get creative with online resources
While paid leave certainly frees up time for employee caregivers to focus on their loved one’s care, simply providing PTO doesn’t guarantee that the employee will figure out how to best care for their loved one while they’re away from work. Most first-time caregivers spend hours searching the internet for what to do next with little luck or clarity.
Taking Care of Caregivers cites online support groups, decision-support systems and digital support platforms as primary ways to support employee caregivers in today’s digital world. These tools can be particularly helpful for emotional support and guidance.
“Use opportunities to create communities,” Albert suggests. “Often just knowing you aren’t alone and have someone to share your experience with goes a long way.”
3. Consider how your workplace culture can benefit caregivers
Caregiving programs come in all shapes and sizes, and companies of all sizes can leverage their resources to develop solutions that are responsive to the needs of employee caregivers. This includes options like telecommuting and flexible schedules, which are becoming increasingly common as traditional workplace culture continues to change.
A study conducted by AARP and the ReACT coalition confirms the importance of these programs, stating that “flextime and telecommuting programs saw an ROI of between $1.70 and $4.45 for every dollar invested. What’s more, a work-family human resources policy is associated with a share price increase of .32 percent on the day that policy is announced.”
Even incorporating stress-reduction activities into the workplace can go a long way for caregivers. On-site yoga and exercise classes, relaxation techniques, and massage therapy are just a few options that can help caregivers focus on self-care.
As America’s workforce continues to face the challenges of caregiving, it is time for employers to creatively consider ways to offer support to this preoccupied and stressed-out employee group. Caregiving will eventually touch us all. Take part in these initiatives now, and your employees will thank you later.
SOURCE:
Payne, E. (19 July 2018) "3 ways to support employee caregivers" [Web Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.benefitspro.com/2018/07/19/3-ways-to-support-employee-caregivers/
Point-of-sale wellness: How health plans are cashing in
Many health plans are starting to offer preventative approaches to help promote health and reduce skyrocketing healthcare costs. In this article, Vielehr talks about one approach, the point-of-sale wellness method.
Health care costs continue to skyrocket, and payers are constantly looking for ways to keep their populations healthier and to reduce these costs. Payers looking for more effective strategies to improve health and wellness for members should be aware of the new preventative approaches that more health plans are offering.
One such method that health plans are deploying to engage members is point-of-sale wellness, a type of incentive program that encourages members to actively make healthier purchases and lifestyle choices. As point-of-sale wellness becomes more prevalent among health plans, human resource managers and benefits brokers should understand how these programs work to best determine if they would be a valuable option for their employees and clients.
What is point-of-sale wellness?
Point-of-sale wellness is all about helping health plan members make smart, healthy purchasing decisions when they’re in a retail store or pharmacy. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the average consumer visits their doctor 3.1 times per year. This same consumer will visit his or her favorite retailers multiple times per week. This presents the perfect opportunity for actionable engagement. It is often too easy for individuals to make impulsive decisions that favor cheaper care items or junk food that provides instant gratification but lead to an unhealthy lifestyle in the long run. Empowering consumers in these moments before checking out at the register with the understanding — and more importantly, the financial incentive — to make informed, smarter choices can lead to a healthier lifestyle and reduced health care costs. In short, the goal is to help individuals prioritize health and wellness at retail point of sale.
There are numerous ways that health plans can achieve this goal. One of the most common is by providing members with prepaid cards that are loaded with funds and discounts for the purchase of over-the-counter (OTC) items such as vitamins, diabetes care items and medications for allergies or cold and flu symptoms. The key component of these specialized prepaid cards is that they can be restricted-spend cards. In other words, they cannot be used to purchase any items that the health plan members want; they can only be used to purchase items off a curated list of products.
Under this arrangement, all parties, from the individual to the health plans and retailers, benefit. With a restricted-spend prepaid card in hand, an individual is rewarded for making purchases that contribute to a healthier lifestyle, while reducing health care costs both for themselves and the health plans administering the cards. In the meantime, the retailers partnering with the health plans to make point-of-sale wellness possible enjoy the opportunity to build long-term customer relationships with the health plan members using the cards.
Point-of-sale wellness in action
Point-of-sale wellness can be customized to be as general or specific as a health plan needs. For example, a health plan that supports a high number of new parents on a regular basis may offer a prepaid card designed specifically to assist members with newborn children. The first years of an infant’s life are among the most expensive from a health care perspective. More health plans are starting to offer new parents prepaid cards that are loaded with funds and discounts for items such as OTC medications, baby food and formula, diapers, strollers, car seats or thermometers. This opens an easier path for new parents to do basic at-home diagnostics and keep their babies’ health monitored so costly trips to an emergency room or urgent care center are not needed as often.
Payers that offer health and wellness programs to assist new parents in their populations can consider engaging health plans that offer these types of prepaid cards. Having a healthier child has the added benefit of reducing stress on the parents, which means they are in a better position to continue performing in the workplace.
Financial incentives for healthier choices
Most wellness programs are focused on informing participants of the best ways to support a healthier lifestyle, but that is only half of the equation. Point-of-sale wellness goes one step further to ensure participants are empowered from a financial perspective to make smarter purchasing decisions while shopping for daily care items. Businesses and benefits brokers who want to provide their employees and clients the best opportunities to live a healthier lifestyle should consider engaging health plans that prioritize these prepaid card incentives into their offerings.
Vielehr, D. (19 July 2018). "Point-of-sale wellness: How health plans are cashing in" (Web Blog Post). Retrieved from https://www.benefitspro.com/2018/07/19/point-of-sale-wellness-how-health-plans-are-cashin/
3 questions to ask about paid leave programs
Paid time off policies are offered by employers for numerous reasons, employee wellness being one of them. Continue reading to learn about the 3 key questions to ask about these programs and their costs.
Employers provide paid time away from work policies for a variety of reasons: to attract and retain talent (responding to employee needs and changing demographics); to be compliant with local, state and federal laws (which are proliferating); and to support general employee well-being (recognizing that time away from work improves productivity and engagement).
While offering paid absence policies delivers value to both employees and the employers, employers recognize the need to balance the amount of available time with the organization’s ability to deliver its products and services.
To help employers balance paid time away drivers, here are three key questions to ask to get a handle on the costs and benefits of paid leave.
1. Do you have a complete picture of the costs associated with your employees’ time away from work?
A challenge for many employers is getting a handle on the cost of time away from work and the related benefits. If an employer cannot quantify the costs of absence, it may not be able to define management strategies or to engage leadership to adopt new initiatives, policies or practices related to paid and unpaid time away programs.
Ninety percent of employers participating in the 2017 Aon Absence Pulse Survey reported they hadn’t yet quantified the cost of absence, and 43 percent of participants identified defining the cost of absence as a top challenge and priority. Though intuitively managers and executives recognize there is an impact when employees are absent from work, particularly when an absence is unscheduled, they struggle to develop concrete and focused strategies to address absence utilization without the ability to measure the current cost and collectively the impact of new management initiatives.
Employers struggle to quantify the cost of absence in the context of productivity loss, including replacement worker costs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2017, employers’ cost of productivity loss associated with absenteeism was $225.8 billion, and 9.6 percent of compensation was spent on lost time benefits and overtime.
Employers are expanding their view of absence, recognizing that use of paid and unpaid time away programs are often associated with an employee’s health. As a result, combining data across health and absence programs allows an employer to recognize drivers of absence “work-related value” and define strategies to address not just how to manage the absence benefit, but to target engagement to improve well-being and the organization’s bottom-line.
As an example, musculoskeletal conditions are frequently associated with absence, which is not surprising when 11 percent of the workforce has back pain. It is noteworthy that of those with back pain, 34 percent are obese, 26 percent are hypertensive and 14 percent have mood disorders. The Integrated Benefits Institute reported in 2017 that back pain adds 2.5 days and $688 in wages to absence associated with this condition. It is this type of information pairing that provides employers with the insight to develop strategies to address comprehensive absence.
When absence and health costs are quantified, organizations quickly recognize the impact on the business’s bottom line. As the old saying goes, “we can only manage what we can measure.”
2. What is your talent strategy to improve work-life benefits, inclusive of time off to care for family?
The race for talent is on, and every industry recognizes the huge impact the changing workforce demographics currently has, and will continue to have. The current workforce incorporates five generations, though an Ernst and Young report from 2017 estimates that by 2025 millennials will make up 75 percent of the workforce. As a result, the work-life needs of millennials—and their perspectives around benefits—is driving change, including time away from work policies.
It is worth noting that, per a 2015 Ernst and Young survey, millennial households are two times more likely to have both spouses working. The Pew Research Center reported in 2013 that, among all workers, 47 percent of adults who have a parent 65 years or older are raising a minor child or supporting a grown child. Additionally, a 2016 report from the Center for Work Life Law at the University of California Hastings claimed that 50 percent of all employees expect to provide elder care in the next five years.
In response, employers are expanding paid time off programs for care of family members. The paid family leave continuum often begins with a paid parental policy providing time to bond with a new birth or adoption placement. An elder care policy may follow, and the culmination might be a family care policy covering events like those under the job-protected Family Medical Leave Act. An Aon SpecSelect Survey reported that 94 percent of employers offer some form of paid parental leave in 2017; this is a significant change from 2016 when 62 percent offered this benefit. Two weeks of 100 percent paid parental leave was the norm per Aon’s SpecSelect 2016 Survey, but we are finding that many employers are expanding these programs, offering between 4 to 12 weeks.
Offering paid leave programs on their own may meet immediate needs for both time and financial support, but may be incomplete to help the employee address the full spectrum of issues that could affect success at work. In combination with family care needs—even those associated with a happy event such as a birth—there may be other health, social or financial issues. Employers combining their paid leave programs with a broader well-being strategy deliver greater value, improve engagement and increase productivity.
3. If you’re a multi-state employer, how are you ensuring your sick and family leave policies are compliant across all relevant jurisdictions?
Paid leave is a hot legislative topic lately. Last December saw the enactment of a paid FMLA tax credit pilot program as part of the federal Tax Reform The paid sick leave law club now totals 42 states and myriad municipalities. Both Washington state and Washington, D.C. are ramping up to implement paid family leave laws in 2020, joining the four states and one city that already have some form of paid family or parental leave law.
How are multi-state employers keeping up with this high-stakes evolving environment? The 2017 Pulse Survey saw 70 percent of employers report they are aware they have an employee who is subject to a paid sick leave law. Ten percent of respondents said they did not know if they had anyone subject to such a law. If knowledge is the first step in the process of compliance, deciding on a compliance strategy and then successfully implementing it are surely steps two and three.
With respect to paid sick leave, there are three major compliance options: comply on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction level, with as many as 42 different designs and no design more generous than it has to be; comply on a national level with one, most generous design, or meet somewhere in the middle, perhaps with one design for each state where a state- or local-level law is in place, or by grouping jurisdictions with similar designs together to strike a balance between being overly generous and being bogged down by dozens of administrative schemes.
Data analytics can be a key driver in designing a successful compliance strategy—compare your employee census to locations with paid sick leave laws. The ability to track and report on available leave is a requirement in all jurisdictions, and at this point, few if any third-party vendors are administering multi-state paid sick leave.
For paid family leave, the primary policy design issue is how an employer’s FMLA, maternity leave and short-term disability benefits will interact with the various paid family leave laws. So, while there may be fewer employer choices to be made with statutory paid family leave, clear employee communications will be critical to success.
Employers may tackle time away from work program issues individually to meet an immediate need, or collectively as a comprehensive strategy. Such a strategy would include data analytics across health and lost-time programs, absence policies that meet today’s needs for the employer and employee, health and wellness programs targeting modifiable health behaviors, and absence program administration that is aligned to operational goals. The expected outcome for time away from work programs isn’t about the programs themselves: it is about an engaged, productive workforce who delivers superior products/services. How do your programs stack up?
SOURCE:
VanderWerf, S and Arnedt, R (13 July 2018) "3 questions to ask about paid leave programs" [Web Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.benefitspro.com/2018/07/05/3-questions-to-ask-about-paid-leave-programs/
