44th Annual ISCEBS Employee Benefits Symposium

With the dust still setting from the pandemic and the Great Resignation of the past five years, it’s clear that employers need competitive benefits to attract and retain top talent. With shifting expectations and the looming role of AI and other technological factors, leaders need a strong understanding of what employees want and expect from a workplace, from work-life balance support and flexibility, career development and retirement planning, to personalized benefits to retain their talent for organizational success. Join us for a discussion of how the employment relationship is being reframed through the lens of workplace culture and support.

Amid the pandemic and a tight labor market, many employers increased their benefits budgets to compete for talent. Recruitment and employee experience were the primary drivers of benefits decision making. But now, employers need to make a critical shift to evaluating the health and cost outcomes of the benefits they provide. But first, employers must ensure that they are adequately measuring their performance. Finding the right combination of measures that aligns closely with their benefits strategy is a challenge. This session will review how employers should be thinking about their measurement strategies and to help keep their workforce healthy and productive.

Takeaways

• Evaluate available health benefits measures by weighing effort vs. value provided
• Find the right combination of measures that aligns closely with your benefits strategy
• Apply a framework to guide creation and implementation of a measurement plan

Heightened disclosure requirements imposed on group health plans, along with opaque fee and benefit structures, have contributed to a new focus on the fiduciary risks inherent in the administration of those plans. But while sound governance—including the creation of a fiduciary committee and committee charter—is important for all plans, an off-the-shelf strategy can actually increase risk. This session will explore how to create a customized governance structure, reflecting the uniqueness of individual plans and corporate decisions about risks and responsibilities.

Takeaways

• Key variables employers should consider when creating fiduciary governance structures
• Deciding who should serve on a fiduciary committee and how to assign fiduciary roles
• How plan governance decisions can mitigate personal and corporate risk

There is no fiduciary duty to assist participants in avoiding leakage, and many plan sponsors prefer to avoid obstacles to plan participation. Congress has added additional liquidity options in laws such as Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, SECURE and SECURE 2.0, CARES and CAA, features of ever-greater liquidity that clash with the concept that
plans are exclusively for retirement preparation. Plan sponsors could curtail all leakage by precluding all pre-retirement distributions—inservice, hardship or post-separation. However, this may prompt many to limit contributions to only those amounts they are willing to earmark solely for a distant and uncertain retirement, affecting their retirement readiness.

Takeaways

• Replacing liquidity that is really leakage, with steady contributions and ready access to liquidity
• Why new leakage opportunities in employer-sponsored plans are not beneficial for participants
• Why you should embrace asset retention, asset aggregation and account consolidation

This session discusses awareness and emotional intelligence as prerequisites for interpersonal success. Learn about the transformative impact of focusing on intrapersonal skills in leadership training, including the value of intrapersonal skills as a cornerstone for successful leadership and how prioritizing self-care and selfmanagement enhances the ability to lead effectively. By cultivating intrapersonal competencies, we empower leaders to understand their values, motivations and behaviors, which ultimately strengthens their interpersonal skills. This holistic approach not only fosters effective leadership but also enhances organizational culture and collaboration, showcasing that true leadership starts from within.

Takeaways

• The critical relationship between intrapersonal skill development and effective interpersonal leadership capabilities
• The importance of intrapersonal skills as a foundation for leadership success
• The role of self-care and self-management in the development of effective leaders

Health benefit trends are increasing at a rate nearly double prepandemic levels. Can employers continue to offer the same benefits as before? Alternative health plans are growing in popularity to offer lower out-of-pocket costs for members when they select health care providers with higher quality health outcomes. This session will compare these new plans to traditional health plans, share key considerations when evaluating alternative health plans, realistic outcomes to expect and lessons learned from early adopters. Gain a greater understanding of these options to help determine whether these types of plans are a good fit for your company’s benefit strategy.

Takeaways

• Structure of alternative health plans and how they differ from traditional PPO-, HSA- or HRA-based plans
• Key considerations and realistic outcomes to expect when considering alternative health plans
• Scenarios when alternative health plans can make sense for an employer’s benefit strategy

Overdose deaths in 2022 were 18 times greater than in 2013, with billions of dollars in lost work productivity, days of work missed and lost wages. Recognizing and responding to active substance use disorder (SUD) in the post-COVID workplace is a must for every employer; yet, due to remote assignments, flexible work arrangements, negative psychological and social effects of the pandemic, employers have less access and observation of employees than previously and often struggle to respond to this need. Get an in-depth analysis of employer policy and benefit design recommendations, and explore legal protections and requirements for a comprehensive employer response to today’s SUD crisis.

Takeaways

• Learn to identify the presence and effects of active SUD in on-site and remote employees
• Complying with MHPAEA, HIPAA privacy and security standards and ADA accommodation standards
• Evaluate tax-qualified and other ancillary employee benefit programs to create an adequate employer response

Your drug plan is a key part of your benefits package and can help improve the health and well-being of your workforce, but it also comes with a significant cost. This session will provide an environmental scan and update on hot topics and emerging developments and trends impacting Canadian private drug plans.

Takeaways

• The potential impact of national pharmacare on private plan coverage
• The federal strategy for drugs for rare diseases
• What’s next for obesity drugs, biosimilars and specialty generics

Protecting an employee’s retirement plan assets from potential security threats and attacks is a critical issue. It is pivotal for leadership to understand where their organization stands in terms of protection, potential vulnerabilities and how to respond to an incident in the event of an attack. This session will discuss the types of threats facing today’s employee benefit plans, methods of protection from cyberattacks and the ERISA Advisory Council’s Report on Cybersecurity Issues in Benefit Plans.

Takeaways

• Latest developments in cybersecurity
• Where to focus valuable risk mitigation resources
• Develop and refine a framework of knowledge to plan ongoing security efforts and response strategies

On a national scale, men as an overall group report 17% utilization of mental health resources, which drops to 6% for African-American men. Join us for a discussion of how Great Lakes Water Authority reversed this trend to achieve a remarkable 40% increase in mental health engagement within just one year and created a more inclusive and supportive environment for all employees.

Takeaways

• Strategies and interventions that led to this substantial improvement
• Insights and practical solutions that can be applied across various organizational contexts
• Innovative approaches that can transform mental health support in the workplace

While automatic enrollment is important to help employees save for retirement, the downside is often an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude. For those automatically enrolled in a 401(k) plan, are many missing out on taking a proactive approach to their retirement? Do participants proactively add a beneficiary, do they increase their deferral percentage, do they understand the plan and its available options? Seneca Foods has found that after automatic enrollment and auto increase, participants often do little else, especially if their knowledge or understanding is lacking. Learn about their proactive approach that helps increase participant engagement and retirement savings.

Takeaways

• The surprising advantage of paper forms
• How one-on-one meetings and a personalized approach drive retirement savings, engagement and resource utilization
• Balancing the individualized approach with efficiency

Nearly 40% of workers in the United States live with chronic pain (pain that lasts more than three months), which can lead to increased absenteeism and presenteeism, reduced productivity and efficiency, higher turnover rates and recruitment/training costs, and elevated health care and disability expenses. In addition, employees suffering chronic pain are more likely to experience loneliness, less likely to view their job as rewarding, and more likely to perceive discrimination at work and increased levels of anxiety and depression. Creative strategies are needed to support these overlooked workers to combat this silent epidemic.

Takeaways

• Understand the biopsychosocial model of pain care and related value-based care designs
• How to foster inclusivity and reduce stigma for chronic pain workers
• Learn key steps to develop a workforce chronic pain action plan