The Origins of Labor Day

As experts in the field of employee benefits, it seems only fitting that we share with the curious the origins of Labor Day, most especially as we enter this holiday weekend. Labor Day is, after all, a celebration of the American labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of workers.

We have President Grover Cleveland to thank for the getting the first Monday of September as a holiday every year. Several factions lobbied for the holiday to be on May 1st, to link up with International Worker’s Day, which is celebrated in over 80 countries worldwide. But for President Cleveland, May 1st was too close to the date of Chicago’s Haymarket Massacre, which occurred on May 4th, 1886.

Summer Blog Series (Part 4):

Notable PTO Trends and Novel Approaches

In previous posts in our Summer Blog Series, we’ve discussed the benefits of PTO, the advantages of using PTO automation to handle the administrative function, and common PTO policies, procedures and FAQs. For this final installment, we’ll focus on notable PTO trends and novel approaches some companies are experimenting with today.

PTO Trends:

Bank Systems on the Rise

According to a 2014 study released by WorldatWork, a non-profit research association, 41 percent of organizations participating in the study used bank-style PTO systems, while 56 percent still used traditional systems of paid leave for their employees. (PTO banks offer a combined “bucket” of available paid days off which can be used for a variety of reasons.) This approach differs considerably from the better-known system of assigning a pre-set number of days each year in separate categories like vacation, sick leave, bereavement leave, and personal days.

Summer Blog Series (Part 3):

Paid Time Off - PTO Policies, Procedures and FAQs

The summer months typically bring about a unique set of attendance issues, from abnormally high absenteeism rates to dealing with three major holidays to the administrative burdens of an onslaught of time off requests.

Here are answers to some of the most common questions about paid holidays and other PTO to help your organization navigate these challenges and create a competitive and compliant PTO plan.

The Upside of Regular Vision and Dental Exams:

Early Warning Signs of Other Health Problems

Can your eye doctor or dentist save your life? It turns out the answer is yes. Taking advantage of employer-offered vision and dental benefits may have unexpected advantages. While the more obvious benefits of eye and dental exams are better vision and good oral health, routine vision and dental exams can also spotlight early warning signs of other health problems. What are some of these health issues, and how are they discovered by your ophthalmologist or dentist?

Summer Blog Series (Part 2):

Paid Time Off - Eliminating Administrative Burdens Through PTO Automation

As we mentioned in our first post in this four part series on Paid Time Off, statistically speaking, PTO is the most highly utilized employee benefit. Makes sense, right? For this very same reason, management of PTO can also be a real burden for an already swamped HR department, most especially if PTO is still being managed in a manual, non-automated fashion.

The reason for this is simple: employees don’t do a good job of keeping track of the time they’ve taken. This seems to be true even when the accrued amount is posted on each paystub ;) The problem compounds when there are multiple "paid time off" accounts such as vacation days, sick days, bereavement days, etc.

Five Key Factors to Measuring Wellness ROI

As we discussed in our last post, those tasked with the job of overseeing company wellness programs often find it difficult to quantify the success of those programs in a definable way. The problems facing HR departments when tasked with establishing the ROI on wellness are many, from program structures that don’t provide enough trackable data, to the difficulties of measuring intangible successes in terms of money, to the simple fact of limited time, resources, and manpower. These issues are often compounded by unrealistic expectations and a desire for quick results.

Why Is Wellness ROI So Difficult To Measure? 

When making policy decisions around wellness initiatives, companies often find it difficult to quantify the success of these programs in a definable way. There are many reasons wellness ROI is difficult to measure. Because of the sheer number of variables to be considered, there is no simple, standard formula into which HR departments can plug a set of numbers to get an answer to the ROI question. Any calculations in this area require considerable critical thought.

Pitfalls of Program Design and Company Culture

One of the problems facing HR departments is the inaccessibility of several baseline elements that must be tracked accurately in order to calculate their programs' ROI. Poor original structuring of wellness initiatives compounds the problem. If the wellness program is not structured in such a way that there is accountability for employees involving concrete, measurable tracking of progress, it will be virtually impossible to calculate ROI with any degree of success.

Effective Wellness Programs Focus on Screenings and Immunizatons Over Behavior Modification 

Many workplace wellness programs focus, rather unwisely, on altering unhealthy employee lifestyles. Examples of such programs include weight-loss contests and smoking cessation campaigns, just to name a few.

While these efforts are certainly admirable, anyone who has tried to lose weight or quit smoking will tell you that changing ingrained behaviors and habits is extremely difficult – even when there are significant incentives involved. To us, it seems that the focus on lifestyle and behavioral changes as a starting point misses the mark.

Rather, we recommend that employers almost always start with age appropriate screenings and immunizations. This approach is a simple and effective way to care for employees and prevent and/or treat developing conditions. And because most of the recommended screenings and immunizations are covered at 100% by most health plans, there’s less pushback from a participation standpoint.

Summer Blog Series (Part 1):

Paid Time Off - Why PTO Is Such a Critical Benefit

Ask any seasoned HR individual about the most frequently asked question of them, especially around this time of year, and most will tell you that it’s some version of an inquiry regarding vacation, holidays, sick days and leave policies; in other words, paid time off (PTO).

So as the July 4th holiday approaches, this seems like an appropriate time for us to introduce a four part series on PTO, the most highly utilized of all employee benefits.

In this, the first post in the series, we’ll focus on why PTO is such a critical benefit to both employee and employer. The second part of our series will focus on the latest in PTO automation and why it no longer has to be such an administrative burden. The third part of our series will focus on frequently asked questions about PTO policies and procedures, and in the fourth and final part in our series, we’ll discuss some recent and notable trends in PTO and well as some new and novel approaches to the concept of time off.

Key Takeaways From MetLife's Employee Benefit Trends Study

The recently published MetLife Benefit Trends Study contains some very interesting and perhaps surprising statistics regarding the annual benefits enrollment process.

We encourage you to check it out for yourself (it’s a very quick read). Here are a few of our key take-aways:

• Smaller companies (under 500 employees) have a lower percentage of employees engaged in the annual benefits enrollment process than larger ones.