Traditionally, benefits engagement has existed in a bubble for most companies. The typical timeframe for open enrollment is November 1 through January 15, and then the window closes until the following year.

But even though you might need to comply with the timeframe in the technical sense, you might want to expand year-round benefits engagement with your valued employees.

Maybe you and your HR team have considered trying to find ways to keep the conversation going long into the new year until the next official window opens. With this approach, you can foster a healthy relationship and more robust communication. Best of all, you can help your employees increase their benefits knowledge and confidence so that they can make the best decisions for the next open enrollment period.

Workplace ethics generally defines how your leaders, managers, and employees define right from wrong within the scope of the company environment. However, we all know there is never a simple answer to most business challenges – and defining right from wrong is usually easier said than done.

Telemedicine became an essential technological tool in the healthcare industry amid the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone’s interactions were restricted, including health patients with pressing needs and their dedicated healthcare providers.

Fortunately, telemedicine was already in place before the pandemic, available to meet the needs of people in rural areas and in other complicated situations where an office visit didn’t work.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), however, telemedicine in the U.S. hadn’t taken off before COVID-19. The interest was minimal. But the pandemic changed everything, opening the healthcare community’s and patients’ eyes to the immense value of remote patient services.

Many patients and healthcare providers are now taking the time to learn more about what telemedicine means in terms of private insurance and Medicare coverage.

As your organization’s benefits manager, it might help to take a deeper look at the now fast-rising telemedicine trend and its vast potential benefits for the healthcare industry, patients, and employers.

Digital health innovations are transforming the way people access healthcare services – so it’s only fitting that employers are increasingly turning to digital health to increase employee awareness and engagement with their health benefits. In fact, according to a recent survey, 68% of employers plan to invest more in digital solutions over the next five years. It’s a change that’s likely to excite many employees – 49% of employees surveyed said they’d be more likely to use a digital health solution if their employer offered it.

Approximately 93% of fathers and 72% of mothers make up the U.S. workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Because many of the men and women who are not currently parents will be at some point, family-friendly benefits are essential to offer as part of an organization’s employee value proposition.

However, in 2018, only 17% of workers had access to paid family leave, leaving approximately 80% of American workers without. Furthermore, 93% of low-wage workers who are in the bottom quarter of wage earners have no access to paid family leave, and 94% of part-time workers have no access to paid family leave.

Nearly all 193 countries in the United Nations offer paid parental leave to its citizens; the United States is one of the rare exceptions. The United States is also the only country out of the 41 in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union that does not mandate some level of parental leave benefits for employees.

While these statistics paint an unfortunate picture for the U.S. workforce, competitive companies often offer paid parental leave – and for good reason. In the following content, we explore the history of paid leave in the U.S. and discuss the top 5 benefits of offering this competitive benefit.

Let’s dive in!

We all know the workplace today looks a lot different than it did just a couple of years ago. The pandemic helped accelerate changes in the workplace – such as shifts toward remote work and greater flexibility, the continued march of digital transformation, and a greater focus on collaboration.

Over the past few months, as companies slowly returned to regular in-person work, employees resignations spiked in a phenomenon dubbed the “Great Resignation.” As we continue to deal with the effects of these major cultural shifts, many organizations are reimagining the components that make up their workforce strategy.

Whether these changes are already underway or in your near future – we took a look at how the future of work will look in three popular scenarios – in-office, remote, and contingent.

When you evaluate your employees, their productivity is likely among the top measures you use to determine how well they’re doing their jobs. If workers aren’t meeting their targets or their work product is suffering, it might not necessarily be their fault. They might be dealing with organizational factors outside of their control.

All too often, employees are confronting workplace obstacles that hinder their productivity and keep them from carrying out assigned tasks. This may also affect employee morale and lead to high turnover rates as employees grow increasingly dissatisfied with their jobs.

When you diagnose the actual problem that’s hampering productivity, you may end up solving a host of other employee issues as well – such as the overall satisfaction and morale.

Let’s take a look at the most common barriers to workplace productivity as well as strategies you can use to overcome them.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

No, not Christmas – Open Enrollment!

When the autumn leaves fall, and the weather starts to cool, we know it’s time to start thinking of open enrollment hype and meetings (and meetings and meetings). During an especially difficult year, managing the expectations of open enrollment can be overwhelming – successful open enrollment may seem virtually impossible.

Well, we’re here with some good news: a successful open enrollment is 100% possible with a few communication changes.

So, how can you change normal, ordinary, and lackluster communication about employee benefits into proactive, rockstar communication that results in a successful open enrollment? We have six tips that may help.

Let’s dive in!

Caring and dutiful employers want to ensure workplace safety. Some reasons for a focus on safety are as simple as caring for everyone’s well-being, from executives and managers to daily staff and facility guests and clients.

There are also self-preservation-oriented goals that drive businesses to tighten up workplace safety, such as avoiding injury or loss of life, workers’ compensation claims, and lawsuits. Any of these instances have the power to damage a company’s reputation and, in some cases, can invite financial disaster that ultimately results in shuttering their doors. Therefore, a practical philosophy about workplace safety has the same impact as being concerned about people’s health and well-being.

When business leaders focus on these primary goals, risk reduction success becomes increasingly likely.

Let’s take a closer look at the value of reduced risk for your employees and business and how you can do it with some simple and effective tips.

Your organization’s health care workers are committed to serving patients with care – but unfortunately, that strong work ethic can put them at risk for their own workplace injuries. According to one report, health care workers sustain more injuries and illnesses on the job each year than other industries – with back injuries alone costing the health care industry more than $7 billion annually. In 2019, U.S. hospitals recorded 221,400 work-related injuries and illnesses, a rate of 5.5 work-related injuries and illnesses for every 100 full-time employees – almost twice the rate for other industries and even higher than the construction and manufacturing fields. The physically demanding nature of the job can certainly be a factor in these injuries, but there are other factors at play, too.

Let’s take a look at the circumstances that make health care workers more likely to sustain a workplace injury, as well as the possible solutions that can help them stay safe.