Integrating Benefits Decision Making
by Lori Lucas, Mindy Kairey and Lisa Horuczi Markus
Integrated employee benefit decision making helps employees use their benefits more wisely and identify opportunities to balance their immediate benefits needs (such as health care) and future benefits needs (such as retirement). This article discusses how employers can overcome employees' behavioral barriers to making integrated employee benefit decisions by changing the ways benefits are communicated and employees are presented with action decisions. Undertaking these steps allows employers to not only improve their employees' overall financial perspectives, but also furthers plan sponsors' goals of actively promoting personal responsibility with respect to retirement funding and changing employee behavior with respect to controlling health care costs.
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Communicating Total Rewards to the Generations
by Leah A. Reynolds
This is the first time in American history that four distinct generations have been in the workforce at the same time. Because employers have finite resources with which to compete for talent, they must understand the generations, what matters most to them and what they can do to motivate different generations of workers. Perhaps surprisingly, the author argues that the generations share in most valuing “soft cost” rewards over “hard dollar cost” items. This article advises employers on how to make their company a great place to work for all generations.
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Health Care Consumerism: Engaging the Real Buyers - Employees
by Martha Terry
Many employers have begun moving toward health care consumerism strategies designed to encourage employees to take more responsibility for their health care and the cost of that care. Recent surveys suggest ways employers can ensure their consumerism strategies succeed in engaging employees and, ultimately, encourage employees to change their behavior. This article describes what those surveys reveal about employer and employee perspectives on consumerism and suggests steps employers can take to align their interests with those of their employees in order to manage the demand for and use of health care.
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The Importance of Financial Communication for Participation Rates and Contribution Levels in 401(k) Plans
by Steven A. Nyce
This article updates and expands upon Clark and Schieber's previous research (1998) by using more recent plan administration records and more extensive plan communication information. Among its findings are that enhanced financial communication—particularly when it is sophisticated and Web based—has important beneficial effects on plan participants' financial decisions. In addition, the author finds that by overlooking the complete match rate design (i.e., both match rate and match threshold), previous studies have likely skewed accounts of the relationship between match rates and savings behavior. In fact, enhancing financial communication may be actually more effective in encouraging employees to save than adjusting the match rate design.
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Understanding the Real Risks of Changing Employee Benefit Plans
by Jon Kane and Jeffrey St. Amour
In an environment of constant change, corporations are looking to alter employee benefits programs to make them more responsive to employee and business needs. A complete risk assessment process is the key to preparing for changes to employee benefits programs by providing employers with an analysis of cost savings against the potential negative ramifications of change. This article outlines the steps involved in a complete review of risk assessment. It then discusses how employers can develop successful change management communication strategies if, after conducting a risk assessment, employers decide to move forward with alterations to their employee benefits programs.
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Economic Damages, Employee Benefits and the Expert Witness
by Richard L. Hannah, CEBS
Employee benefits are significant in the computation of economic damages (losses) in a wide variety of legal cases. The expert witness, narrowly defined as a forensic economist in this article, often does not have the practical background to probe nuances that can significantly impact the estimate of losses. On the other hand, the benefits practitioner is often responding to legal requests without understanding the implications of the information provided, or being asked for input into benefits explanation or interpretation. This is a descriptive article that brings these two perspectives into the same arena by reviewing the methodologies and computational framework and providing illustrative anecdotes that catalyze practical and academic experience.
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