workforce.com
March/April 2019
From Our Editors
FROM PERSONNEL TO WORKFORCE
Browse through business books and you’ll see that workers are somehow less and more productive than ever; that our labors are building resilience but also killing us; that work fills us with more stress and yet fulfills us. Breathless cover blurbs declare it’s a brave new world of work. Spurred by emerging technology and a hypercharged business cycle, a cottage industry of thinkers, consultants and conferences have sprung up.Their aim? To “rethink” work for the new era. Some have original ideas, others simply put a new package on the same old product. There’s no doubt we’re living through a period of change. But it’s always that way. Stability isn’t the status quo. Change is. That’s not to say HR can just sit tight. HR will have to evolve alongside every other business function. But it always has.There’s no such thing as new work. It’s work.And it’s never the same. — Mike Prokopeak, Editor in Chief 4
Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m
The workplace has changed a lot since 1922. That year The Journal of Personnel Research debuted, rebranded later as Personnel Journal and finally Workforce. Now in our 97th year, we take a look back at what was on the minds of past generations of people managers.
Rosie Returns Home,
OCTOBER 1945
World War II concluded just two months before the publication of the October 1945 Personnel Journal. Understandably, the issue was dominated with stories about returning war veterans. Among stories titled “Veterans Placement” and “Veteran as Individual” was one simply titled after the iconic female factory worker. “Rosie the Riveter” was penned by the Staff of Women’s Personnel at Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. and assessed women’s role in the postwar workplace: “Will ‘Rosie the Riveter’ be content to return to the unsung tasks of the home, washing, mending, picking up toys and binding little Willie’s cuts? Or will she want to continue bringing home the bacon, leaving the frying of it to Grandma?”The piece was actually a survey of female workers, which made up one-fourth of the company’s personnel.The authors’ conclusion? “Rosie would prefer to go back to her traditional sphere; and should you throw ‘Cash, Careers, Clothes and Cavorting’ at her, you’re apt to hear a chorus from millions of feminine throats — ‘A fig for your fat paychecks, a pox on your independence and as for your so-called masculine prerogatives — now that we know what they cost — YOU CAN HAVE ‘EM BACK!’ ” (Their capitalization, not mine.) —Rick Bell
HR and the Dot-Com Crash,
MAY 2001
The phrase “dot-com company” is arguably dead in 2019. But in 2001, many companies were recovering from the dot-com crash of 2000. Dot-com companies at the time — with their lax policies, sex-discrimination issues and tendency to ignore HR — had left themselves open to countless sexual harassment charges. Further, these companies had more HR problems, like “eschewing performance evaluations,” which left them unable to “document against employee lawsuits claiming they were underpaid and overworked, not promoted, or let go unfairly.” According to one business columnist, “many dot-coms lack seasoned human-resources managers or even written human-resources policies.”The article continued that while there were other problems that led to the dot-com downfall, HR problems were a big one. With similar complaints of rampant harassment and culture problems still relevant at today’s tech start-ups and more grounded tech companies alike, has the tech industry learned its lesson from the dot-com crash? The issue also contained a Q&A in which employers asked such colorful questions as, “Can my employee be forced to have lunch with co-workers?” and, “If an employee is not intoxicated at work but has a distinctive odor of alcohol on her clothes, how can I legally address this smell issue?” — Andie Burjek march/april
2019
andrea
isn’t thinking about her benefits right now. And that’s exactly how it should be. Because finally, he’s here. This tiny human actually belongs to her. And this is the start of the tiniest big adventure of her life. No, she’s not thinking about her coverage right now. Because her company’s got Unum. To make sure the last thing she’ll be losing sleep over is her benefits. Enjoy the ride, Andrea.
From a new baby to planning for leave, when you’ve got Unum, we’ve got you. Get benefits that keep your employees going at unum.com/andreaWF ©2019 Unum Group. All rights reserved. Unum is a registered trademark and marketing brand of Unum Group and its insuring subsidiaries. NS18-210
“
Attempt the end and never stand to doubt; nothing's so hard but search will find it out.” —Robert Herrick (1591-1674) Transform expert opinions into actionable insights The HCM Research and Advisory Group delivers thought leadership tailored to your business. Survey our highly engaged group of practitioners and create customized whitepapers and infographics based on our research. Work with us to gather and discuss strategic insight for the leaders of tomorrow and beyond. Learn more at humancapitalmedia.com/research
A PUBLICATION OF March/April 2019 | Volume 98, Issue 2 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER VICE PRESIDENT, John R. Taggart RESEARCH AND jrtag@workforce.com ADVISORY SERVICES Sarah Kimmel PRESIDENT skimmel@workforce.com Kevin A. Simpson ksimpson@workforce.com VICE PRESIDENT, GROUP PUBLISHER Clifford Capone ccapone@workforce.com VICE PRESIDENT, EDITOR IN CHIEF Mike Prokopeak mikep@workforce.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Rick Bell rbell@workforce.com
RESEARCH MANAGER Tim Harnett tharnett@workforce.com DATA SCIENTIST Grey Litaker glitaker@workforce.com VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER Andrew Kennedy Lewis alewis@workforce.com
MANAGING EDITOR Ashley St. John astjohn@workforce.com
MEDIA & PRODUCTION MANAGER Ashley Flora aflora@workforce.com
ASSOCIATE EDITORS Andie Burjek aburjek@workforce.com
VICE PRESIDENT, EVENTS Trey Smith tsmith@workforce.com
MARKETING DIRECTOR Greg Miller gmiller@workforce.com MARKETING SPECIALIST Kristen Britt kbritt@workforce.com REGIONAL SALES MANAGERS Derek Graham dgraham@workforce.com Daniella Weinberg dweinberg@workforce.com DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Kevin Fields kfields@workforce.com
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jennifer Benz Carol Brzozowski David Chasanov Marc Coleman Randy Conley Kris Dunn Sarah Fister Gale Jon Hyman Michelle W. Johnson Patty Kujawa Rita Pyrillis Daniel Saeedi Rachel L. Schaller Drea Zigarmi
FREE, LIVE, WEBINARS.
DIGITAL & AUDIENCE INSIGHTS MANAGER Lauren Wilbur lwilbur@workforce.com
DIGITAL COORDINATOR Steven Diemand EVENTS CONTENT EDITOR sdiemand@workforce.com Malaz Elsheikh AUDIENCE INSIGHTS ASSISTANT MANAGING melsheikh@workforce.com COORDINATOR EDITOR WEBCAST MANAGER Micaela Martinez Christopher Magnus Alec O’Dell mmartinez@workforce.com cmagnus@workforce.com aodell@workforce.com LIST MANAGER EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR EVENTS GRAPHIC Mike Rovello Theresa Stoodley tstoodley@workforce.com DESIGNER hcmlistrentals@infogroup.com Latonya Hampton EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES BUSINESS lhampton@workforce.com Eva Mick ADMINISTRATIVE emick@workforce.com BUSINESS MANAGER MANAGER Vince Czarnowski Melanie Lee Bethany Tomasian btomasian@workforce.com vince@workforce.com mlee@workforce.com Ave Rio ario@workforce.com
WORKFORCE EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Arie Ball, Vice President, Sourcing and Talent Acquisition, Sodexo Angela Bailey, Associate Director and Chief Human Capital Officer, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Kris Dunn, Chief Human Resources Officer, Kinetix, and Founder, Fistful of Talent and HR Capitalist Curtis Gray, Senior Vice President, Human Resources and Administration, BAE Systems Jil Greene, Vice President, Human Resources and Community Relations, Harrah’s New Orleans
CHECK OUT WHAT YOU’VE MISSED! FEBRUARY 13 Forget About Engagement, It’s All About Productivity
FEBRUARY 20 Building a Culture of Meditation in your Organization
Available live on the air date and on-demand for one year after unless otherwise specified. Check them out today and keep the education going!
Ted Hoff, Human Resources Vice President, Global Sales and Sales Incentives, IBM Tracy Kofski, Vice President, Compensation and Benefits, General Mills
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Jon Hyman, Partner, Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis Jim McDermid, Vice President, Human Resources, Cardiac and Vascular Group, Medtronic Randall Moon, Vice President, International HR, Benefits and HRIS, Lowe’s Cos. Dan Satterthwaite, Head of Human Resources, DreamWorks
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Workforce (ISSN 2331-2793) is published bi-monthly by MediaTec Publishing Inc., 150 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 550, Chicago IL 60601. Periodicals postage paid at Chicago, IL and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Workforce, P.O. Box 8712 Lowell, MA 01853. Subscriptions are free to qualified professionals within the US and Canada. Digital free subscriptions are available worldwide. Nonqualified paid subscriptions are available at the subscription price of $199 for 6 issues. All countries outside the US and Canada must be prepaid in US funds with an additional $33 postage surcharge. Single price copy is $29.99 Workforce and Workforce.com are the trademarks of MediaTec Publishing Inc. Copyright © 2019, MediaTec Publishing Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Reproduction of material published in Workforce is forbidden without permission. Printed by: Quad/Graphics, Sussex, WI
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Human Capital Media is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CPSM or SHRM-SCPSM. For more information about certification or recertification, please visit www.shrmcertification.org.
CONTENTS
ON THE COVER THE MYTHS OF HEALTH CARE COSTS
Experts dispel a variety of myths surrounding soaring modern health care expenses. ART BY THERESA STOODLEY
24 FEATURES
34 SECTOR REPORT 48 VISION INSURANCE PROVIDERS
Employers finally see vision care benefits as a true mainstay of their employee benefits package.
50 CORPORATE WELLNESS PROVIDERS
Wellness programs have evolved beyond screenings to embrace the physical, social and emotional needs of employees.
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24 THE 4 MYTHS OF HEALTH CARE COSTS
Myth 1: Lower Prices! Save Money! A misconception in cutting health care costs is that it often doesn’t rely on addressing employee benefits at all.
Myth 3:The Consumer Rumor Merging health and wealth benefits is changing the benefits industry and the workplace relationship.
Myth 2:Wellness Works Creating a successful workplace wellness program isn’t as simple as offering one and watching the ROI grow and grow.
Myth 4:We’re Doing All We Can Employers are doing a lot to help employees with health care costs. But in actuality they demand much more.
34 RETIREMENT RETURNS
Employers have no clear strategy for older workers phasing out of the workforce. That could cost them in many ways.
42 A PASSION FOR WORK
Stop obsessing over engagement and focus on creating a high-trust culture where workers will flourish. march/april
2019
ON THE WEB SPEAK UP!
The Workforce online community provides you with virtual meeting places to chat about issues and trends affecting you and your workplace.
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LIKE US: workforce.com/facebookpage
FOLLOW US: workforce.com/twitteraccount
JOIN THE GROUP:
TRENDING
workforce.com/linkedingroup
WATCH US:
10 RELEASE THE RAGE
workforce.com/youtubechannel
42 COLUMNS 4
14 WORK IN PROGRESS
Blowback Over SHRM-Koch Ties Misses the Point.
FOR YOUR BENEFIT 16 CARING FOR CAREGIVERS
Some organizations are realizing that as family dynamics evolve, so do caregiving needs at home.
19 BENEFITS BEAT Be Bold With Your Benefits.
22 THE PRACTICAL EMPLOYER Spotting the Risk for Employee Violence.
54 THE LAST WORD
The Employee Caregiving Crisis.
march/april
2019
11 PEOPLE MOVES AND BY THE NUMBERS
Corie Pauling is TIAA chief D&I officer; health care’s workforce.
YOUR FORCE
HR’s Nature Is to Continually Evolve.
Two HR practitioners operate a rage room nights and weekends.
17 HORNING IN ON A SABBATICAL
Scooping rhinoceros poop was just one chore for a PwC employee during a company-mandated sabbatical.
18 SECOND CHANCES
Amid the opioid epidemic, a company offers drug treatment with a promise of a job upon program completion.
12 Q&A
Kronos CEO Aron Ain talks about building a fun organization.
13 AN ULTIMATE DEAL
Ultimate Software sells for an astounding $11 billion.
LEGAL 20 WE ARE FAMILY
Paid family leave and its economic and social benefits.
21 LEGAL BRIEFINGS
Unfair competition; concerted activity.
w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce
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TRENDING
Rage Rooms Offer a Chance to Vent … and Smash Stuff Although their methods have detractors, two HR practitioners are taking a swing at employee catharsis. By Carol Brzozowski
T
he woman from an IT firm frustrated company and discovered that in order by challenges in both life and to advance she needed to become a liwork glided through the warehouse censed CPA. She found studying for swinging a baseball bat, a golf club and al- and taking the CPA exam intensive ternately a sledgehammer attempting to and difficult. destroy office equipment and glass bottles Exasperated, she took out her annoysitting on a table. ances during a Smash the Rage visit. In most any other scenario, an HR “Each time, it’s like a workout,” she said. professional may have called security or “It gives you an exhilarating feeling.” referred Jane Gardner to counseling. On the low end, patrons pay $30 to Instead, an HR practitioner applauded bring in their own box of items to smash the effort. Kathy Barrios, a human re- during a 15-minute session. An “office sources business partner for Polyconcept smash” costs $100 for one person for 25 North America, and Massiel Reyes, a re- minutes. Additional people pay $30. cruiter with staffing firm Westaff, offered Patrons must sign a waiver and wear Gardner water and a smile after she was closed-toe shoes. Protective gear includes done “raging.” a safety suit, a helmet with a face shield, Barrios and Reyes own Smash the goggles for extra precaution and gloves Rage, a 1,500-square-foot facility in a with phone-friendly fingertips for those Miami area industrial complex. It’s one wanting to photograph their sessions. of the nation’s newest so-called “rage Patrons use a number of weapons for rooms” in which patrons are encouraged raging, including bats, sledgehammers, to funnel their anger through what they golf clubs, legs of tables, wrenches, metal believe is a more appropriate and enjoy- poles and shovels. able outlet. Workplace frustrations account for the reason most patrons visit the facility. Some are repeat customers; others are referrals. “A lot of retail employees come in and complain about their customers. People are frustrated with their workloads; their bosses and their colleagues are a major issue,” said Barrios. Other Smash the Rage events center a theme on parenting stress, divorce parties Barrios and Reyes source most of the and holiday blues. People also celebrate materials for destruction through convictories like conquering cancer. ducting free bulk pick-ups from people “Kathy came into my office upset one seeking to get rid of items. After the rage day and wanted to smash things,” said session, the broken items, including glass, Reyes of Smash the Rage’s genesis. “Of metal and aluminum, are sorted for recycourse, when people talk like that, you cling or disposal. give them a pat on the back and say, ‘You The Smash the Rage website makes it know what, champ? It’s OK. There will clear the facility is for entertainment and be better days.’ ” not therapy. Barrios instead researched rage Even so, “we try to make it a therapeurooms and suggested to Reyes they tic experience in the way we welcome open one. They still maintain their them,” said Reyes of patrons. “We tell day jobs and manage the rage room at them they’re in a safe space to let it out nights and on weekends. and let it go. They’re doing something The woman letting out her frustra- unconventional they’re not raised to do.” tions works as an accountant at an IT Reyes and Barrios are aware that some
PATRONS CAN PAY $30 TO BRING IN THEIR OWN BOX OF ITEMS TO SMASH IN A 15-MINUTE SESSION.
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Recruiter Massiel Reyes, left, and HR practitioner Kathy Barrios own rage room Smash the Rage.
psychologists believe rage rooms are not a healthy way to manage anger, instead believing they encourage and promote it. “We are in a world where sometimes the physical outlet — what we call raging — is sometimes more cathartic in dealing with a high level of emotions than sitting in a small space in the quiet with your eyes closed trying to take a deep breath,” Reyes said. Customers who arrive with pent-up anger leave the facility “sweaty, red and relaxed,” Reyes said. “We give them a cold bottle of water, a pat on the back and say, ‘All right, have a good day and take a deep breath for tomorrow,’ ” she added. As an HR professional, Barrios said she believes rage rooms could be a useful employee benefit. “We’ve had customers whose companies just had major layoffs and they were affected and frustrated by the system,” she said. “They go through many emotions and come here and tell me they felt completely different afterward.” Raging crosses a line people normally are afraid to cross, Reyes said. “We definitely don’t want to promote violence.We tell them we want them to let it out here so they don’t carry it out with them.” march/april
2019
TRENDING
By the Numbers
PEOPLE MICHELLE ARMER CareerBuilder promoted Michelle Armer to chief people officer. Joining as an HR coordinator, Armer was instrumental in helping to cultivate a unified culture focused on diversity and inclusion. Armer has been with CareerBuilder for 15 years and is part of the executive leadership team. Previously, Armer held positions with ADP and Career Education Corp. CARRIE O’DELL Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin named Carrie O’Dell as chief human resources officer. O’Dell has worked for GHC-SCW for over 10 years, first as an HR generalist and then as an HR manager. O’Dell has more than 17 years of experience as an HR professional and a bachelor’s degree in human resource administration, as well as additional human resources certifications. COLON MCLEAN Technology company Alight Solutions named Colon McLean as chief human resources officer. McLean brings more than 30 years of human resources experience to Alight including experience leading and integrating acquisitions, major system implementations, global engagement and talent strategies. McLean served as CHRO at the Warranty Group. He holds a degree in business administration from Wingate University in North Carolina.
moves
CORIE PAULING Financial services provider TIAA named Corie Pauling as chief diversity and inclusion officer. Pauling will oversee the firm’s D&I strategy and lead an expanded D&I team. She will report to CHRO Sean N. Woodroffe. Pauling brings extensive experience and insight to the position. Previously she worked in TIAA’s Advocacy & Oversight department as associate general counsel. DANIEL STAUTHAMER International engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti named Daniel Stauthamer chief human resources officer. He brings more than 15 years of HR experience in the engineering and construction industry. Stauthamer is responsible for talent acquisition and retention, employee experience, inclusion and diversity and organizational development. TANISA WILLIAMS Amalgamated Bank named Tanisa Williams senior vice president, HR director to lead the bank’s human resources and employee management division. Williams previously worked for 18 years in various HR roles at American Express. Williams holds a JD from Syracuse University College of Law, is certified in executive coaching and is a member of the New York State Bar.
To be considered for People Moves, email a brief announcement and a color photo to editors@workforce.com. Health high-resolution Care Contributions Include People Moves 2018 2010 2005in the subject 2000line.
Employee VERAGE ost $5,711 $4,150 c $1,186 m a r c h / a p r i$899 l 2019 $6,896 $5,049
$3,413 $610 $4,024
$2,137 $334 $2,471
compiled by Rick Bell
Health of the Workforce Who is working in health care and what are the costs?
12,647,000: Employed in health care
In the Field 9.1 M
Practitioners and techs
Aging Out
3.5 M
Support occupations
Youth movement or silver tsunami in the exam room?
25.9% 24.6% Doctors 23.4% Nurses 21.6% 21.5% 21.9%
19.7% 17.8% 12.1% 5.4%
5.6% 0.5%
16-24 years 25-34 years 35-44 years 45-54 years 55-64 years 65+ years Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics via Talent Tracker, 2018
What They Make Doctors Comp/benefits managers Nurses Therapists Diagnostic techs Clinical lab techs
$161,762 $130,010 $99,966 $78,740 $64,040 $53,230
Benefits Breakdown What employers offer employees 91.7%
84.9%
Health Retirement insurance (IRA, 401(k))
84.7%
80.7%
80.2%
Dental
Vision
Life insurance
Source: Workforce HR State of the Industry Survey, 2018
Employer/Employee Health Care Contributions Single coverage Family coverage $19,616 Total cost Employer cost Employee cost
$2,471 $2,137 $334 2000
$14,069 $6,896 $5,711 $1,186 2018
$6,438 $4,819 $1,619 2000
$5,547
2018
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Employer Health Benefits Survey, 2018
w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce workforce.com 10 | Workƒorce
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TRENDING
SHRM’s New Credit By David Chasanov
THE MAGIC FORMULA By David Chasanov Kronos Inc. CEO Aron Ain released his Aron Ain, author book, “WorkInspired: How to Build an Organization Where Everyone Loves to Work,” in October. Ain discusses how prioritizing employees is beneficial for an entire company. Workforce Editorial Associate David Chasanov spoke with Ain and found out what workplace elements are most important to him as a leader. Workforce: What’s your favorite element in making the workplace fun? Aron Ain: Having a great place where great people can come to work and enjoy what they’re doing. A place where they can also have balance in their lives. I love when I tell people that if the most important thing in their life is working for Kronos, they have their priorities mixed up. People get uncomfortable at first when they hear that, but then they end up believing in it because I keep repeating it to them.
WF: Where does building a workplace culture begin? Ain: At the top. If the CEO and leadership don’t believe, encourage or support [workplace culture], it’s not effective. [At Kronos], if people know it’s important to me, people take it seriously. There’s safety in making sure employees are looked after and encouraged to have the right balance in their life. There’s safety in giving active feedback about how we can do better. I can’t imagine you would have great engagement in your company if people at the top don’t believe in that deeply.
WF: Are you a rah-rah leader or lead-by-example type of leader? Ain: Both. I’m very communicative. I do video blogs all the time with employees, I talk to people all the time, I make sure when I’m walking through the halls or on the elevator that I don’t have my nose in my cellphone and I have my head up and I’m saying hello and talking to people. I visit Kronos offices around the world, and the first thing I do is go and say hello to everyone in the office. In India, where there’s about 1,000 people, it takes me a whole morning to go shake hands and say hello.
WF: Is employee engagement all about the money? Ain: Absolutely not. What’s most important to us is that the workplace should be a place where people have a great career opportunity, where they feel they have a great manager who respects them and helps them grow. It’s a place where they have confidence in the future, where they’re learning and growing, where they enjoy their co-workers, where people are making a difference with customers. If a place is a fun place to work but they’re working for a miserable manager, they’re out of here.
WF: What is a common misconception in the business world right now? Ain: The whole thing about what makes a company successful or what impact people have on making a company successful. People think having the magic product will make all the difference. The problem is you can’t deliver great products without great people. People say what comes first, the chicken or the egg, and in my world, what comes first is great people. It’s crystal clear. Once you have great people, you must work hard to do all the components to motivate people to want to stay.
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T
he Society for Human Resource Management’s new professional development program has an analytical look. Those who attain the new People Analytics Specialty Credential can demonstrate that they have the knowledge and analytics literacy to study business issues and effectively communicate data-supported recommendations to their organizations, according to a SHRM official. SHRM Chief Global Development Officer Nick Schacht said people analytics has taken on greater organizational significance. From data on contacts a company has with an individual during the recruitment process to the hiring and ongoing processes, people analytics serves an increasingly important purpose. “You can look at data all day long. If you don’t do something with it, then you might as well have not collected it in the first place,” Schacht said. To earn the credential, candidates must purchase the SHRM People Analytics Specialty Credential Package. The package costs $1,930 for nonmembers and $1,655 for members, Schacht said. It includes enrollment in the SHRM seminar,“People Analytics:Taking Data-Driven Action,” which can be taken in person or online, Schacht said. Candidates must complete three SHRM e-learning courses before taking the seminar, Schacht said. The courses are “Foundational Data Literacy,” “The Metrics Behind People Analytics” and “Analyzing People Data.” After the applicant passes a 50-question online people analytics knowledge test, they will be awarded the SHRM People Analytics Specialty Credential. Tests became available in January. Schacht said the credential’s end goal is to influence the development of more applicable hands-on people analytics expertise. Schacht added that the credential is built to be “cross-disciplinary,” which he cited as a benefit. Schacht also said the credential is foundational and that SHRM will have an “advanced version” later in 2019. march/april
2019
Keeping Data Safe: The Next Wave of HR Tech Innovation By Marc Coleman
A
s we get closer to 2020, it is an exciting time for the human resources profession. Workforce and HR technology is the enabler that will optimize talent and ensure HR becomes the most important function in an organization. The next decade will unleash the potential of innovative HR technology, empowering functions to build smarter frameworks for workplaces. Led by HR, all functions of the business will evolve quicker, become agile and stronger, and be more cost efficient. Artificial intelligence is the fuel. After the introduction of on-premise software and cloud-based technology systems for HR, AI is the third wave of HR technology. On the vendor side, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Slack, Amazon, Facebook, Google and Salesforce are entering the space.We are seeing new names and investors coming into the HR industry each week, investing in blockchain, health and well-being, and AI. While it’s still not front and center, the “people first” approach of the HR industry is being pushed further to the side with these newer – and buzzier – innovations. There is a risk that’s becoming increasingly clear in this growing movement. HR technology gives organizations unprecedented access to employee data and seeks to know everything about them. This can be well-intentioned but may also breach an employee’s right to privacy. Snack maker Mondelez International is one example of a company using sophisticated HR analytics to help employees make health care choices. Other companies use the technology to pinpoint employee skill shortages and identify and reward top performers. However, all this raises the question of how accurate the data is and how ethical it is to use it. Last year European governments enacted General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, to protect the privacy of citizens and employees in Europe, posing another compliance challenge to organizations. Having reliable HR systems is essential for ethical data management. Legacy systems are holding employers back. Big Brother behavior, privacy laws and quality of data are also causing the snail pace of HR analytics innovation. It’s made worse by HR professionals still being last to the table. Fortunately, much of the initial hype around big data and AI has subsided to a more realistic level. But regardless we need to raise the level of debate, better protect employee privacy and ensure our governing institutions are held accountable.There is no doubt we need a plan to keep employee data safe in a world full of uncertainty. IT and HR need to work together towards cybersecurity in the workplace. Basic cyber hygiene and automated HR processes coupled with reliable HR systems that still offer flexibility for innovation are a way to keep employee data safe. Bringing an inclusive and diverse group of HR professionals and technology vendors together can help ensure a better and stronger future. It’s a conversation that is overdue. Marc Coleman is founder and CEO of Unleash. This content was developed in partnership with Unleash America. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.
march/april
2019
Ultimate Software Sells for $11 Billion By Sarah Fister Gale
I
n one of the biggest deals in recent HR technology history, Ultimate Software agreed to be acquired by a private equity group for $11 billion. The move will allow the cloud-based human capital management vendor to leave the pressures of Wall Street behind — at least for a while. The February announcement was a surprise considering Ultimate appears to be thriving and has delivered steady year over year growth, said Holger Mueller, principal analyst for Constellation Research. “Usually private equity investors acquire troubled companies or those in transition but Ultimate is doing really well.” The 29-year-old human capital management company, which provides a suite of tools including payroll, benefits management and talent acquisition, has more than 5,000 customers in 160 countries, and delivered $1.1 billion in revenues in 2018, up from $940 million in 2017. It dominates the market among mid-sized companies, and it has been expanding its client base to support larger global companies, making it increasingly competitive with Workday, ADP, and other industry leaders. The question now is what effect this acquisition will have on the company’s long term business prospects. “My gut reaction is that this is probably a really good move for employees and customers,” said George LaRocque, founder and principal HCM market analyst for LaRocque LLC in New York. The company is already known for making significant R&D investments, and now that it won’t be pressured to deliver quarterly returns to public shareholders, it will more time and space to focus on long term strategy, he said. While acquisition deals in HR tech are constantly happening, Mueller and LaRocque don’t see this one as an indicator of a new acquisition trend. “There are no other companies of Ultimate’s caliber that could go private,” Mueller said. One of its close competitors, Ceridian, just went public, and companies like ADP, Oracle and SAP are simply too big to acquire. In the meantime, Mueller encouraged current and future customers to pay attention to Ultimate’s road map, and where it plans to invest R&D dollars post acquisition. The company is known for investing in new development, but it remains to be seen how this deal will affect that trend. “It’s always a good idea to know what your vendors are going to do next,” he said. It is the best way to determine if the choices they are making today will meet a company’s needs in the future. w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce
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TRENDING
CLAMOR OVER SHRM AGENDA MISSES THE POINT By Kris Dunn |
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Wo r k i n P r o g r e s s
’m sharing a ride with a colleague heading back to our hotel after work.As we pull in to the hotel parking lot, the topic of a struggling restaurant there with service issues comes up. I offer the following: “If I owned that place, I’d solve all the service issues by hiring nothing but people with criminal backgrounds who were recently released.” Some of you may think I’m enlightened making that statement, others will think I’m crazy. It’s neither. I’ve just been influenced by the recent agenda of the Society for Human Resource Management. SHRM recently announced a partnership called “Getting Talent Back to Work,” which includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Restaurant Association and Koch Industries. The singular goal of this initiative is to encourage companies to take a national pledge to hire workers with criminal backgrounds The average HR pro might think the controversy would be getting past America’s long-term tradition of refusing to hire those with criminal records. Instead, there was a small to moderate outcry related to presence of Koch Industries in the initiative. Owners Charles and David Koch — the Koch brothers — are active (some would say notorious) fundraisers and influencers in conservative politics. Research Koch Industries and you’ll find environmental issues as well. But you’ll also discover an industrial business hurting for employees in a low unemployment/peak economic cycle environment. Which begs the question: Will those with criminal convictions in their background care about the political leanings of the owners if they get a job at Koch Industries? I think not. I believe they’ll be thrilled for the chance. But back to the evolving agenda of SHRM. What should we expect from SHRM related to its agenda and politics? Should we be outraged when SHRM CEO Johnny C.Taylor Jr. shakes the hand of an American president whose tweets spark widespread division? Should we expect that companies with the ownership background of Koch Industries never have the chance to partner with SHRM? First, you must first understand the reality of SHRM.The DNA of SHRM includes the following components: • SHRM leans conservative as an organization focused on helping companies perform better through progressive talent practices. SHRM serves its membership in this regard, as any company with
strong internal HR talent has a better chance of marketplace success. But make no mistake, SHRM is directly aligned with the business community. Go to any SHRM legislative update and you’ll hear the pro-business focus. This conservative focus attracts partners with deep roots in the business community. SHRM’s affiliations are easy when the partner is a broad, vanilla association like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Companies like Koch become harder to evaluate for fit. • SHRM is at its best when its initiatives merge business need, policy trends and inclusion. “Getting Talent Back to Work” is a good example of this. We’re dealing with the lowest unemployment in decades (business need) and immigration policy trends will continue to put pressure on workforce planning (especially in non-white collar jobs). Any SHRM initiative to relieve this pressure would seem to be a good investment of resources. But the real magic happens when SHRM can create these types of programs with an inclusion element. Rather than teaching HR pros how to recruit existing employees away from competitors, “Getting Talent Back to Work” attempts to bring new candidates into the tent. It’s the not the first example of inclusion most of us would list, but it’s a brilliant program when you step back and evaluate the convergence of business need, policy and demographic in need. • SHRM doesn’t always move first, but when they move, it matters. SHRM’s a mega-association battleship. With hundreds of thousands of members, you’ll find a cross-section of America including comparable percentages of conservatives, liberals, Christians, atheists and more. Like any other association with demographics that rival the United States at large, SHRM is rarely first on any issue that involves societal change. But when SHRM moves, it matters. Hundreds of thousands of members are influenced by various SHRM media properties monthly, meaning SHRM opens minds on any issues linked to the world of HR. SHRM’s not perfect. But an agenda that challenges HR pros to rethink traditional views that may be limiting in today’s world matters.
RATHER THAN TEACHING HOW TO RECRUIT EXISTING EMPLOYEES AWAY FROM COMPETITORS, SHRM IS ATTEMPTING TO BRING NEW CANDIDATES INTO THE TENT.
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Kris Dunn, the chief human resources officer at Kinetix, is a Workforce contributing editor. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.
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Collected, organized and tailored to your needs. WORKFORCE DATA FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION
AN ANALYTICS SERVICE FOR TALENT
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thetalenttracker.com
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FOR YOUR BENEFIT
Caregiving Perks Enter the 21st Century As the traditional family becomes less common, so does the traditional caregiver. By Andie Burjek
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mployers should consider a more inclusive definition of “caregiver,” argues employee caregiving platform Torchlight, which released its annual report titled “Modern Caregiving Challenges Facing U.S. Employees” in January. While caregiving has traditionally been defined as “care for an aging loved one or child with a diagnosis or disability,” the report says, the “modern caregiver” may or may not fit in that limited box — but they may have similar problems regardless. Torchlight analyzed its user data to see the top caregiving challenges people face whether caring for a child or an elder. Some of these relate to a specific disability, but others don’t. For elder care, the most pressing problems include housing (tasks such as helping a loved one move or helping them create safe home environments) and cognitive impairment (managing Alzheimer’s or other causes of dementia). For child care, the most pressing problems are mental health (addressing anxiety or depression in one’s child with a concrete strategy) and executive functioning (teaching children organizational skills and basic skills like managing time and setting goals).
THE FINE LINE BETWEEN A CAREGIVER AND SOMEONE WHO HAS FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES OUTSIDE OF WORK THRUSTS TO THE FOREFRONT THE NECESSITY OF PROACTIVE RATHER THAN REACTIVE SUPPORT. This fine line between a caregiver and someone who simply has family responsibilities outside of work is difficult to define, according to Adam Goldberg, founder and CEO of Torchlight. Still, what makes it necessary is that it provides proactive rather than reactive caregiving support, he added. “So many of the things associated with caregiving can be mitigated or avoided by taking steps upfront, and we feel that’s a really important part of caregiving,” he said. For example, an employee’s child might be experiencing “homework hell” at school. An employee knows to look out for red flags that might signal a problem like a learning disability, executive dysfunction or emotional issues like budding anxiety — all things that can be chronic, costly disorders. These red flags might not turn out to be a traditional caregiver challenge like a diagnosed disability, but if they do, employees can be proactive. Many caregivers don’t report their caregiving challenges to their manager or HR until there’s a crisis, Goldberg said. That means that when HR hears about it and they want to help, they’re often struck by the suddenness of it. What may end up 16
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happening then is that HR decides to deal with the situation by implementing a point solution, also known as coming up with a solution without considering the underlying issues. “Leading employers are speaking out and saying the traditional benefits approach [to caregiving] has not worked, so we need to take a fresh look at this,” Goldberg said. One of PepsiCo’s strategies to address the caregiving population includes something that a company of any size could consider: It looks at the perks it already provides and Adam Goldberg, left, and Erik Sossa. considers how they could be expanded to help caregivers. For example, the company extended its second-opinion medical service provider perk to extended family members and parents of employees, said PepsiCo Vice President of Global Benefits and Wellness Erik Sossa. It’s a good example of taking advantage of something they were already paying for. The large organization — with 108,000 U.S. employees — offers other perks that caregivers (as well as other employees) benefit from, like flexible schedules and compressed work weeks, parental leave for mothers and fathers, and onsite day care. “I don’t think an employer is going to distinguish themselves anymore in having a really great pension plan or a really great benefits plan. Those are the prices of admission now. How do you bring value beyond that? That’s going to distinguish some of the leading employers,” Sossa said. In general, large organizations have more resources and opportunities to offer richer caregiving benefits, like leave time, but small- and medium-sized employers can get creative, said Candice Sherman, CEO of the Northeast Business Group on Health. Even the smallest employers, she said, can do things like provide a list of nonprofits that offer services caregivers could take advantage of, she said. Also, many communities have community organizations, religiously affiliated or otherwise, that may offer relevant services. “The more recognition there is about the fact that in any employee workforce, there are caregivers in our midst, I think employers will definitely get more creative and expansive in terms of the kinds of things they think about offering,” Sherman said. Law firm Balch & Bingham, based in Birmingham, Alabama, is another organization trying to appeal to the broader needs of the modern caregiver. While 20 years ago the term primarmarch/april
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FOR YOUR BENEFIT ily described a woman caring for a child or parent, now it applies to a much bigger demographic, said Director of Human Resources Lisa Arrington.The law firm’s caregiving population includes men caregiving with a partner, grandparents caring for a grandchild and employees in less traditional, blended families. With caregivers in different circumstances, their first and foremost approach is to listen to employees and ask questions, Arrington said. “What are their needs? We have people in all different seasons of life, and all those needs are completely different from one another. It’s important to find and target things for each of those different groups.” Balch & Bingham, which has about 425 employees, promotes getting this type of feedback from employees through ongoing discussions rather than one-time conversations. This could happen in a formal context like a one-on-one meeting between a manager and an employee or an organized discussion among the workforce to tackle a specific topic. It can also happen informally, just by passing someone in the hallway and asking how their day is going. Some of the ways the law firm uses to appeal to caregivers include flexible work arrangements; EAPs Candice Sherman that offer caregivers support resources about budgeting, dealing with stress and navigating blended families; and hosting family-friendly holiday events like a Halloween costume parade. One major thing employers of any size can do differently is have top level executives be open about their caregiving experiences, Sherman said. Many executives have personal experience with it, and as more of them that share their experiences, that can help unveil some of the stigma that may exist in the organization around caregiving. For example, employees may worry that if they label themselves as a caregiver and admit they have competing caregiving responsibilities outside of work, they may not get put on a big project they’re interested in or get the promotion they’ve been working toward. Senior leadership has a promising role in relating their own personal stories to their people, Sherman said. “That goes a long way in creating what we as a business group call a ‘caregiving-friendly working environment.’ ” march/april
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Horning in on a Sabbatical Time away brings home the value of re-energized workers. By Rita Pyrillis
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hen executive recruiter Beata Zagona, a self-described city girl, decided to take a fully paid sabbatical from her job, her choice of destination came as a surprise to some. Last summer, she spent a month scooping rhinoceros poop, among other chores, at a rhino sanctuary in South Africa. “I had worked for the firm for two weeks in South Africa and fell in love with the country,” said ZagPwC’s Beata Zagona on sabbatical in ona, a manager at PwC in New South Africa alongside a rhinoceros. York.“I had gone on safari in Kenya and became more aware of wildlife poaching and saw the atrocities being committed against these animals. I thought the sabbatical was a great opportunity to do something adventurous and meaningful.” Many employers would agree that a rested and recharged employee is more engaged and productive and that sabbaticals are a good idea, but PwC requires it for all newly promoted senior managers. The firm offers four weeks off — it pays for three — to give employees a chance to pursue a lifelong goal, volunteer or do nothing at all. “They can sit and read movie star magazines for all we care, but we do require that they take time off,” said Anne Donovan, U.S. people experience leader at PwC. “We’re adamant. It’s not just a wink and a nod.” The firm has always allowed individual employees to request a sabbatical but few employees did, according to Donovan. So in 2011, PwC established a formal program that requires senior managers with five years or more of service to take some time off. About 17 percent of companies offered a sabbatical — either paid or unpaid — in 2017, according to a report from the Society for Human Resource Management. But the need for time off among senior level employees is supported by a number of recent studies showing that job burnout is a costly problem for both workers and employers. Job burnout accounts for an estimated $125 billion to $190 billion in health care spending each year and has been attributed to type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, gastrointestinal issues, high cholesterol and even death for those under the age of 45, according to 2017 article in the Harvard Business Review. And the number of employees reporting burnout is on the rise, according to a recent Gallup study of nearly 7,500 full-time employees. The study found that 23 percent reported feeling burned out at work very often or always, while an additional 44 percent reported feeling burned out sometimes. For Zagona, spending weeks waking up at dawn to feed rhinos, clean their enclosures and dig ditches made her feel more resilient. She said that she came back to work more focused. “The attitude and innovation that comes back to us and to our clients is huge,” said Donovan. “You get an employee that has an appreciation for life and for the firm that’s unmatched.” w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce
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Recovering Employment Employers in opioid-riddled states are offering second chances to workers facing addiction. By Rita Pyrillis
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hen a job seeker fails a pre-employment drug test, often the company rescinds the offer and both parties move on. That scenario wasn’t working for the Belden wire and cable factory in Richmond, Indiana, which in 2016 faced a labor shortage due to a spike in retirements and a dearth in qualified applicants. So they tried something dramatically different. Belden’s factory, which sits near the Ohio state line and employs more than 400 people, began offering drug treatment to those who failed their drug screening with a promise of a job if they successfully complete the program — all on the company’s dime. The pilot program, called Pathways to Employment, was launched in February 2018 and is believed to be the first of its kind. “We had many people who were retiring and we needed to fill dozens of positions, but it was getting harder to find candidates because so many were failing their drug test — around 10 percent,” said Dean McKenna, Belden’s senior vice president of human resources. “There was no mechanism to deal with this except to say, ‘Sorry, you can’t work here.’ The CEO and others talked about what would happen if we hired these people.They said, ‘How bad would it be to give them the opportunity to get back in the workplace?’ ” Belden teamed with Richmond-area organizations including Centerstone, a mental health and drug addiction provider, Meridian Health Services, Ivy Tech Community College and employment agency Manpower of Richmond, to manage the program. Participants are referred to a health care provider for evaluation and to develop a treatment plan, according to McKenna. So far, 26 have been through the program. “The success rate is better than what we could have hoped for,” he said. “My peers probably thought we shouldn’t do this. There are risks of injury and litigation.You need the right level of support from the community.” 18
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While many states are struggling with the opioid epidemic, Indiana is among a handful that is also facing a growing labor shortage, according to research from Indiana University. The economic damage caused by opioid abuse cost the state $4.3 billion in 2018 and will exceed $4 billion again this year, the study showed. In 2015, nearly a million Americans were not working because of opioid addiction, according to a study by the American Action Forum, a nonprofit advocacy group. Between 1999 and 2015, the decline in labor force participation cost the U.S. economy $702 billion as the result of 12.1 billion worker hours lost, the study found. In some industries, such as construction, trucking or manufacturing, the numbers are even higher.
THROUGH OPIOID TREATMENT PROGRAMS, EMPLOYERS ARE READYING A POOL OF CAPABLE EMPLOYEES. In neighboring Ohio, which leads the country in drug overdose deaths per capita, opioid addiction, abuse and overdose deaths cost the state anywhere from $6.6 billion to $8.8 billion annually, according to a 2017 report from the C. William Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy at Ohio State University. In order to help employers improve worker health and safety, the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation launched a pilot program in October to reimburse companies for drug testing and to provide training that helps managers deal with workers in recovery. “In Ohio we are almost at zero unemployment, but we have employers that can’t find candidates who can pass a drug test,” said Dr. Terry Welsh, the bureau’s chief medical officer. “We aim to help employers hire and manage folks in recovery no matter their addiction. Nor-
mally, drug testing is an expense that employers bear themselves, but we are incentivizing them to do it by offering reimbursement. We are also providing professional training to folks in management for second chance employees.” The agency has been a pioneer in tackling the opioid crisis, according Welsh, who pointed to the 2011 overhaul of its pharmacy program to better monitor and reduce addiction to potentially dangerous prescription drugs. In 2016, the agency also created safeguards to hold prescribers accountable if they don’t follow best practices.The agency saw a drop in opioid addiction among injured workers of 59 percent between 2011 and 2017. The bureau’s Opioid Workplace Safety Program will provide up to $5 million over two years to employers in the state’s hardest-hit counties for expenses related to both pre-employment and random drug testing, manager training and support for workers in recovery. At Belden in Indiana, the cost to treat a candidate classified as low-risk for relapse is around $16,000 and up to $25,000 for someone who is considered a high risk. McKenna said it’s a small price to pay. “When you look at the difference in cost between a manufacturing job we can’t fill and a machine we can’t run versus what it costs to help someone get back on their feet, you see that it’s worth it,” he said. “These are people with real illnesses. They aren’t choosing to be in that situation. It’s unfair to discount them from society because of the problems they’ve stumbled into.” march/april
2019
FOR YOUR BENEFIT
BE BOLD WITH YOUR BENEFITS By Jennifer Benz |
Benefits Beat
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t is an exciting time for employee benefit professionals. The takeaway here is that benefits should be a huge Just a few years ago, we were consumed with legis- focal point for companies of all sizes. We should be lative challenges and daunting health and retirement is- shouting from the rooftops about how amazing benefits sues. Those issues haven’t gone away, of course, but are and the tremendous role they play in people’s lives. there’s a newfound optimism around the strategic and And we shouldn’t be shy about the considerable increative opportunities benefits bring. Several factors are vestment employers make in these programs. A signifipushing benefits to the forefront of talent strategies and cant portion of total compensation goes to benefits, and the employee experience. that percentage is only set to grow. First, we have an incredibly diverse workforce that So, how can you educate employees and position this needs benefits to solve real problems. It’s marked by a investment in benefits in a positive light? How do you vast range in age — employees from Gen Z (those in elevate the significance of benefits in your organization? their early 20s) to baby boomers (some working well One example from this past fall’s annual enrollment into their 70s) and everyone in stands out. Our client Hitachi Vanbetween. It also encompasses evtara, a tech company recently ery definition of family and lifeformed by three industry leaders style. And it challenges the very (Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Indefinition of “work,” which is sight Group and Pentaho) and a evolving as more and more people leader in cloud-based data solutions. build careers around part-time Hitachi Vantara has made a huge and contract roles or take long commitment to employee benefits, breaks from full-time employment. especially around getting employSecond, we’re seeing an exciting ees engaged in programs and manshift in how we’re designing and aging costs. Its message during antalking about benefits. The focus is nual enrollment this past fall? moving away from traditional benefits like health insur- “Health care costs are rising.Yours aren’t. For the seventh ance and retirement plans and toward a more holistic year in a row, you won’t see an increase in what you pay approach to taking care of employees and their families. for your medical plan. Which means your paycheck conThis change is driven by the understanding that benefits tributions continue to be significantly less than those at and HR programs can drive greater business results most other companies.” when they’re considered more broadly, with attention to The company teamed that messaging with a camtheir impact on the mind, body, finances and even sense paign that focused on getting employees to use the proof purpose. grams that are often overlooked, like tuition assistance, Third, there’s tremendous innovation in our space as virtual doctor visits and fitness reimbursements. And it employers and employees demand new programs and did so with a bold and definitive point of view on why new technology (and as venture capitalists have figured benefits matter and what they mean to employees. out that employee benefits are ripe for disruption). HR Susan Ramirez, Hitachi Vantara’s senior director of totechnology is starting to keep pace with consumer tech- tal rewards, Americas, explains: “Since it really was a nology, which means we can now deliver sophisticated ‘good news’ message for our benefits in 2019, we wantbenefits to meet those broad needs and create solutions ed to be sure to share that message with employees. Takfor those very challenging issues we’re still tackling. ing a bold approach not only captured our employees’ On top of all that, people care about their benefits. A attention, it also emphasized that Hitachi Vantara truly lot. For 87 percent of employees surveyed for MetLife’s cares about them.” 15th annual “Employee Benefit Trends” study, having inAs 2019 unfolds I challenge you to be bold with your surance/benefits provides peace of mind for the unex- benefits. What will you do to make your benefits stand pected. In fact, 83 percent of employees would be will- out? And how will you let employees know that you ing to take a small pay cut (on average, 3.6 percent) to value them by taking care of them? have a better choice of benefits from their employers. Finally, consider this: Low unemployment is driving Jennifer Benz leads Segal Benz, a national leader in HR and massive competition for talent. Benefits are positioned employee benefits communications. She was honored as one to be a huge strategic differentiator and a competitive of Workforce’s “Game Changers” in 2013. To comment, email weapon for employers across industries. editors@workforce.com.
THERE’S A NEWFOUND OPTIMISM AROUND THE STRATEGIC AND CREATIVE OPPORTUNITIES BENEFITS BRING.
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Legal Raising the Topic of Paid Parental Leave The US lags behind other countries when it comes to family time for workers. By Michelle W. Johnson
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ccording to a 2014 study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the United States is one of eight countries — and the only industrialized country — that does not guarantee paid parental leave for employees. In contrast, nearly every member of the European Union provides at least 14 weeks of job-guaranteed maternity leave and 81 countries extend paid paternity leave. In the U.S., New York, Rhode Island, California and New Jersey currently require paid family leave programs. Additionally, the District of Columbia, Washington state and Massachusetts have enacted legislation for leave programs to begin in 2020 and 2021. On the federal level, the Family and Medical Leave Act provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave for several covered circumstances, including the birth or adoption of a child. However, only 60 percent of American workers qualify for FMLA leave, and because FMLA leave is unpaid, many workers who qualify cannot afford to take it. There is a growing consensus that paid family leave provides tangible economic and social benefits to both workers and their employers. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, paid leave increases the likelihood that workers will return to work after childbirth, improves employee morale, reduces costs to employers through improved employee retention and increases family incomes, which in turn reduces government spending on public assistance programs. Access to family leave also increases the rate and duration of breastfeeding, reduces the risk of infant mortality, enhances maternal emotional well-being and mental health, and increases the likelihood that babies will receive well-baby care and vaccinations. The Congressional Research Service reports that only 13 percent of private sector employees have access to paid family leave. Members of both political parties have expressed support for federal legislation requiring such leave, although they differ significantly as to the proposed scope of paid family leave programs and how to pay for them. The Family and Medical Insurance Leave, or FAMILY Act, was originally introduced in 2013 and re-introduced in 2017 by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., The FAMILY Act would provide workers with up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave each year. 20
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As with unpaid FMLA leave, FAMILY Act leave would permit parents to bond with and care for a newborn or newly adopted child, to care for a family member with a serious health condition, to address the worker’s own serious health condition or handle needs related to the active duty deployment of a family member.
FAMILY Act benefits would equal 66 percent of an individual’s monthly wages up to a cap and would range from $580 to a maximum of $4,000 per month. FAMILY Act benefits would equal 66 percent of an individual’s monthly wages up to a cap and would range from $580 to a maximum of $4,000 per month. Eligibility for benefits would be based on the work history requirements of Social Security Disability Insurance, and benefits would be available to anyone with earnings and work history that qualify for SSDI. A new Office of Paid Family and Medical Leave would administer the program, and benefits and administrative costs would be funded with additional payroll taxes (2 cents per $10 of earned income), levied on workers and employers. For example, workers earning $48,860 per year would pay an extra $1.88 per week, or $97.72 per year.The Institute of Wommarch/april
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en’s Policy Research has estimated that the plan would cost approximately $33 billion per year. The Republican proposal for paid family leave would be funded from the Social Security Trust Fund rather than additional payroll taxes. The Economic Security for New Parents Act (S. 3345) was introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in 2018 and would allow parents to use their Social Security retirement benefits, up to 70 percent of their current salary, for 12 weeks after the birth or adoption of a child. Recipients would repay the advance by either postponing retirement for three to six months or accepting a small but permanent reduction in their retirement benefit. There would be no new taxes under this proposal, as parental leave would be funded by drawing on participants’ Social Security benefits.The Independent Women’s Forum estimated that approximately 2 million parents would receive $7 billion in benefits each year. Neither proposal has enough support to pass in 2019, but there is reason to believe that Congress may find a compromise this year.While the Republican Party will continue to control the Senate, the House of Representatives will see a Democratic majority for the first time since 2011. Given the bipartisan support for some form of paid family leave program, passage of family leave legislation may finally be on the horizon. For now, no immediate action is required for employers in the 45 states that do not yet require paid family leave. However, it may be time for employers that do not provide paid family leave to consider taking this step. Company policies will vary depending on the size of the employer, type of industry and labor pool. Employer-funded short-term disability coverage is one option. Companies may also design family leave policies that are tailored to their workforces and budgets. For example, Netflix offers 52 weeks of paid maternity and paternity leave, eBay offers 24 weeks of paid maternity and 12 weeks of paid paternity leave, and Amazon offers 20 weeks of paid maternity and six weeks of paid paternity leave. While small businesses may not be able to afford such robust leave plans, they may have the flexibility to offer other benefits such as temporary part-time schedules, flexible work hours, job sharing and telecommuting options. The Department of Labor estimates that the median cost to replace a worker is 21 percent of their annual salary. Clearly, leave policies that encourage work-life balance make solid business sense. Michelle W. Johnson is a partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP in Atlanta, practicing in the areas of labor and employment law, business litigation, and appellate work. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.
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Legal Legal Briefings AN UNFAIR COMPETITION CLAIM DTC Energy Group Inc. is a Colorado staffing company. Adam Hirschfield was DTC’s business development manager and signed an employment agreement with a non-solicitation clause. DTC and another staffing entity, Ally Consulting LLC, began working together on a limited basis regarding staffing projects. DTC discovered that Hirschfield was sending DTC’s business and contacts to Ally. DTC confronted Hirschfield about this behavior but allowed him to continue working for a few more months until he resigned and began working for Ally. As an employee for Ally, Hirschfield continued to solicit DTC’s business and customers. Months later, DTC filed a lawsuit against Hirschfield and sought a preliminary injunction to prevent him from continuing to solicit DTC’s customers. DTC alleged that Hirschfield breached his employment agreement, stole trade secrets and engaged in unfair competition. The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado denied DTC’s motion for a preliminary injunction, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit affirmed this decision. The 10th Circuit held that DTC could not show how it was being irreparably harmed by Hirschfield’s conduct so as to require a preliminary order preventing Hirschfield from soliciting DTC customers. Rather, Hirschfield had already diverted 12 contracts from DTC to Ally. The court held that this restrictive covenant had lapsed and there was no further basis to enjoin Hirschfield. DTC Energy Group Inc. v. Hirschfield, No. 18-1113, 2018 WL 6816903 (10th Cir. Dec. 28, 2018). IMPACT: It’s important that companies plan in advance for unfair competition scenarios.
A LIMITED DEFINITION OF CONCERTED ACTIVITY Alstate Maintenance LLC staffs Kennedy International Airport with tipped baggage handlers. Two managers from Lufthansa asked a group of Alstate skycaps to assist a VIP soccer team with their baggage. A skycap stated to his Alstate manager, in front of others, “We did a similar job a year prior and we didn’t receive a tip for it.” The skycaps initially refused to help with the baggage but ended up pitching in. Alstate terminated the skycap. An unfair labor practice was filed alleging Alstate terminated the skycap for engaging in concerted activity. The National Labor Relations Act provides employees the right to engage in “concerted activities” for purposes of their “mutual aid or protection.” Protection for engaging in concerted activity extends to all employees. In a 3-1 vote, the NLRB held the termination did not violate the NLRA and adopted a more limited definition of “concerted activity.” In finding the skycap’s comment was not concerted activity, the NLRB held concerted activity must involve “bring[ing] a truly group complaint regarding a workplace issue to management’s attention. … [I]ndividual griping does not qualify as concerted activity solely because it is carried out in the presence of other employees and a supervisor and includes the use of the first-person plural pronoun.” Alstate Maintenance LLC, 367 NLRB No. 68 (2019). IMPACT: All social media and other communication-related employment policies should recognize no adverse employment actions will be taken against employees for engaging in concerted activity. Rachel L. Schaller and Daniel Saeedi are attorneys at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.
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Legal
Spotting the Risk for Violence Jon Hyman |
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The Practical Employer
t was like most any other Friday afternoon at Henry Pratt Co., and then all of a sudden it wasn’t. The Aurora, Illinois, company informed one of its employees, Gary Martin, of his termination. Shortly thereafter, he opened fire with a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson, killing five of his co-workers — including the HR manager and an HR intern who was in his first day on the job — and wounding five police officers. Martin himself was the sixth casualty, killed in a shootout with police. After the news of this tragedy broke, reports surfaced of Martin’s history of violence — six prior arrests by the local police department for domestic violence, and a decades-old felony conviction for aggravated assault. It begs the question, should this employer have known that Martin was prone to violence, and, if so, should it have taken added measures in connection with his termination? A criminal history of violent arrests and offenses is not necessarily a predictor of workplace violence. Still, there are certain warning signs for which an employer can look to help determine whether an employee is at risk for potential violence. According to tech firm ESI Group, these warning signs include: • A repeated inability to get along with co-workers. • Mood swings and anger control issues. • Expressions of paranoia or persecution. • Frequent complaint of being the “victim.” • A history of problems with past jobs and/or personal relationships. • An inability to get past minor setbacks or disputes. • A fascination with guns, weapons or violent events. • A sudden deterioration in work habits. • A sudden deterioration in personal grooming. • Expressions of stress, depression or suicidal ideation. • A major life problem, such as divorce, legal problems or financial problems. If one or more of these red flags surface, I recommend that you refer this employee to an employee assistance program for assessment and treatment. If you are compelled to fire an employee who you think poses a risk of violence, it is recommended that you take further steps to guard against a workplace tragedy. ESI Group suggests the following: • Consider a professional threat assessment. • Consider using a neutral manager or outside security consultant to carry out the termination. • If there is a manager or supervisor who has been the object of threats or anger, that person should not be the
person to conduct the termination. • Have security nearby — not in the same office but close enough to hear signs of a problem and to act. • Do not take a break.There are numerous instances of employees asking for a bathroom break or time to compose themselves and using the break to retrieve weapons. • Wait until the end of the workday to terminate, if possible. This protects the dignity of the fired employee and minimizes the number of employees on hand should a situation escalate. • Minimize any reasons why the employee would have to revisit the workplace. Mail a check; have uncollected belongings sent to the person’s home via a delivery service. • Allow the person as much dignity as possible, but be brief and to the point. Do not get into a back and forth. Moreover, the law does not require that employers faced with a legitimate and potentially dangerous employee wait for the powder keg to explode. While the Americans with Disabilities Act covers employees suffering from a mental illness, it does not cover employees who pose a “direct threat.” The statute defines “direct threat” as “a significant risk to the health or safety of others that cannot be eliminated by reasonable accommodation.” The ADA’s regulations require that the determination that an individual poses a direct threat must be “based on an individualized assessment of the individual’s present ability to safely perform the essential functions of the job.” Employers must base this assessment on either “a reasonable medical judgment that relies on the most current medical knowledge” or “on the best available objective evidence.” In making this determination, employers should rely on these four factors: 1. The duration of the risk. 2. The nature and severity of the potential harm. 3. The likelihood that the potential harm will occur. 4. The imminence of the potential harm. Thus, provided the evidence supports the employer, it can treat a dangerous employee as a “direct threat” and separate the individual from employment. As with most issues in the workplace, the proverbial ounce of prevention really matters. While there exists no foolproof way to protect your workplace against these kinds of tragedies, a few preventive steps can go a long way to putting you in the best place to deter and respond.
A criminal history of violent arrests and offenses is not necessarily a predictor of workplace violence.
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Jon Hyman is a partner at Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis in Cleveland. To comment, email editors@workforce.com. Follow Hyman’s blog at Workforce.com/PracticalEmployer.
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4 Myths of
Health Care Cost Reduction E
STORIES BY ANDIE BURJEK, ART BY THERESA STOODLEY
mployers are doing everything they can to curb health care costs. Sure, and if you believe that you may also believe in unicorns, the Loch Ness monster and Bigfoot roaming the Pacific Northwest. Cutting health care costs is the elusive white whale for many businesses. Employers indeed may be putting forth a good faith effort to cut their health spend but oftentimes the results just aren’t there. It’s like the arcade game of whack-a-mole — try one new fad and miss, and another pops up followed by the same result. In the meantime, health care costs have soared. In 1999, the average annual premium (both employer and employee contributions included) was $2,196 for an individual and $5,791 for a family, compared to $6,896 and $19,616, respectively, in 2018, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation 2018 “Employer Health Benefits Survey.” Among the myriad solutions employers try, there are overriding myths about cutting costs that don’t save money, provide a nonexistent ROI or are just plain ineffective. We’ve asked several leading health care experts to offer their thoughts on what we’ve determined are four prevailing myths to cutting employer health expenses.There are others, but this is a good start at peeking behind the wizard’s curtain.
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Myth 1:
Lower Prices! Save Money! big misconception in cutting health care costs is that A employer expenditures rely on addressing what costs the most, said Jaja Okigwe, president and CEO of First Choice
Health, a Seattle-based national health provider network. In fact, sometimes cost control doesn’t rely on addressing employee benefits at all.There’s a link between health costs and environmental factors like how employees are treated and how they think about their job, he said. “Those things carry over into the potential for more serious illness. And there aren’t very many companies who have an easy time at getting at that,” Okigwe said. There are some companies that have acknowledged the direct relationship between environmental factors and health and done something about it. It’s a positive step when employers decide that “we’re going to do things that create an environment that allows our employees to be their healthiest and most productive, and that’s going to spill over into our health care cost,” Okigwe said.
Utilization of Health Care Services Health Advocate’s Arthur “Abbie” Leibowitz, chief medical officer, founder and president emeritus at the national health advocacy, patient advocacy and assistance company, also believes that companies can’t control costs by controlling price. Rather, health care costs are driven by utilization. This brings up a different problem for employers: Motivating employees to use the health care system effectively and efficiently. One thing that employers can do is help employees connect with trusted medical professionals and offer a path for employees to foster a consistent patient-doctor relationship, Leibowitz said. This does not necessarily mean that employers should encourage employees to see the doctor for a physical every year, he added. In fact, that can be a fallacy because there’s little reason for the average person to see a doctor annually. “The likelihood of discovering a problem you didn’t know about at a visit like that is so low that it makes it almost [impossible],” he said. Instead, employers can promote getting in touch with 26
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one’s doctor when the employee actually needs help. Promoting the idea that it is good for patients to connect with a trusted physician is smart because many plan designs now don’t require a patient to choose a primary care physician, Leibowitz said. When HMOs were more popular, a patient initially needed to select a primary care doctor in order to access the health system, but fewer models require that now. “So, in that regard, employers can encourage people to select a doctor even though their plan design may not require it,” he said. “It’s the attitude — people call it a culture of health — that the employer creates within the work environment that is the best trigger to getting people plugged into a physician relationship that will come in to pay dividends if not immediately then down the road,” he added. Okigwe offered suggestions to establish a culture of health other than promoting the doctor-patient relationship. For one, companies can have regular walking meetings, since research shows 30 to 40 minutes of walking a day changes one’s risk of heart disease over time. “Yet sometimes employers don’t think that’s really their job,” he said. Rather, their focus is on the bottom line and employee productivity. But small investments in making the workplace healthier to work in can pay off.
Long-Term vs. Short-Term Costs It’s hard for most employers to think long term with health care costs, Okigwe said. “I do think the vast majority are looking at the annual spend and trying to figure out how to reduce it in one year, and that’s just very difficult.” But thinking long term is something that could help with heath care costs. Employers and employees alike may have to pay short-term expenses in order not to have the shock of major medical expenses in upcoming years. “In general, we tend to think of any spend as being bad,” Okigwe said, but that’s not an accurate way to view health care costs. It’s almost as if employers believe employees want to spend money on health care, he said, while in some cases what causmarch/april
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care at these facilities is likely to cost less than going to an out-of-network provider. Michelson’s organization works with patients who have medical problems and identifies for these patients the most advanced doctors with promising and cost-effective interventions. “If you want to address the cost bar, what you need to do is sweep in a supportive way to help people who are going to become expensive cases, identify the top experts for their care, educate them about the treatment options available, and provide a coordinated, integrated support system to channel them to the best doctors and to ensure they’re getting the care they need,” he said. The key to control health care costs is addressing this small subset of patients with the most expensive cases, he said.Ten percent of patients represent 65 percent of health care costs, and 1 percent represent 25 percent, he said. “If you aren’t doing something that meaningfully addresses that very small portion of the cases, you’re not going to have a significant impact on the costs,” he said.
Bad Incentives
es costs to skyrocket is that they don’t want to. There needs to be some sort of balance on spending a little bit on the care and activities that deter crises from happening down the line. Employee cost concerns aren’t necessarily founded in reality in some cases, according to Leslie Michelson, chairman and CEO of Private Health Management and author of “The Patient’s Playbook,” a book about how to become an effective health care consumer. “People are always concerned that the best care is the most expensive care, and that’s just not true,” he said. “In the rest of our economy there’s a pretty tight coupling between cost and quality. In health care there isn’t.” About 80 percent of the U.S. population lives within an hour drive of at least one large city where there is at least one major medical academic center. Virtually all of these centers are in-network for most carriers. Patients could access specialists on complex conditions here, and march/april
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One health care myth related to costs is that quality and prices aren’t improving because of cheaters in the system, according to Rob Andrews, CEO of the Health Transformation Alliance, a nonprofit group made up of 47 companies whose goal is to fundamentally transform the corporate health care benefits marketplace. Of course, he said, there are some in the health care system who have committed wrongdoings, but they are rare. “The problem isn’t that insurance companies are bad, or that drug manufacturers are bad, or that hospital systems are bad or that government regulations are bad. Some of all that is true. But the main problem is that incentives are bad,” Andrews said. Over the past 60 years or so, he said, a system has been built where incentives aren’t aligned with what’s best for people’s health, giving the example of two hypothetical practices. If there are two radiology practices — one that does 1,000 images a week and produces wrong results 5 percent of the time, and the other that does 500 images a week and only gets incorrect results 1 percent of the time — the first practice would make more money under Medicare. That’s because Medicare rewards are based on the number of procedures done, not how well they’re doing. Not to say that medical practices or insurers are incompetent, he said.This problem exists because the incentives aren’t aligned correctly in the health care system. “What we aim to do in the HTA is align the $27 billion a year our members spend on health care with value.”Andrews said. “We want to identify and reward the producers who produce the best value.” “We chase the shiny object — the price — but we need to be focused on the real issue of value,” he added. w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce
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Myth 2:
Wellness Works
reating a successful wellness program isn’t as simple C as offering one and watching the savings roll in, said Gary Kushner, president and CEO of benefits consultancy
Kushner & Co. Workplace wellness programs have gone through numerous iterations in the past several decades. While there have been health-related work programs dating back to the 1920s, it wasn’t until the 1980s and ’90s that wellness programs took off on a much larger scale.The first iteration of this more recent workplace wellness boom is what Kushner called “An Apple a Day” wellness. If an employee eats right and exercises, health care costs will drop.This was not successful, Kushner said. The second iteration took the original idea a step further, with organizations subsidizing health club memberships and contracting with nutritionists to show employees how to prepare healthy meals. This also didn’t work to reduce costs because the types of employees taking advantage of these subsidies were the ones who already worked out regularly and had healthy lifestyles, Kushner said.The habits of employees who didn’t go to the gym remained the same. The third iteration of wellness features employers who target their own workforce based on the health needs of that specific population. An employer with a large population of employees with type 2 diabetes may track things diabetics should be doing — like A1C testing and eye exams — through their health plan and encourage at-risk employees to get appropriate testing done. This type of program, which is more altruistic in nature, has slightly better results. Still, “Every CFO I’ve talked to with these employers keeps coming back to wanting to see savings in the health plan. And they’re having trouble quantifying those. They’re not seeing the difference,” Kushner said. 28
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Where Art Thou, ROI? Investing in employee wellness is a good thing, but it’s not a short-term policy, said David Henka, president and CEO of ActiveRadar, a health care analytics and patient education company based in Gold River, California. Although there’s value in wellness programs, he said, that value is not a financial return on investment.Wellness companies often cite huge ROIs for their programs. But academic research reveals that wellness programs do little to reduce health care costs. A University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign study published in June 2018 found that workplace wellness programs don’t change employee behavior much or save money on health care costs. Similarly, a University of Pittsburgh clinical trial whose results were published in JAMA in 2016 found that the use of monitoring devices and wearables — often a hallmark of corporate weight loss programs — may have no advantage over traditional weight loss strategies. “As an employer, if you go into the wellness space thinking you’re going to get an ROI, then you’re going to be greatly disappointed,” Henka said. “But if you go into it by saying it’s the right thing to do for my employees because I want them to maintain healthier habits or lifestyles, then I think you’re tracking along the right frame of mind.” The realistic value of wellness is more cultural, he said. Wellness companies claiming big returns are not accurate, but it is the right thing for employers to do. It lets employees know that the company values them, he said. Many employers are not holding wellness providers accountable for the results of their programs, said Cheryl Larson, president and CEO of Midwest Business Group on Health. There are reliable wellness programs on the market, but unfortunately the average employer only pays attention to what the vendor tells them, Larson said. march/april
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Employers need to know the right questions to ask wellness vendors and the best way to research their options. Simply asking fellow employers about their programs is one way to conduct research. Another way to improve vendor services is only agreeing to terms that suit both parties, Larson said. “I would say if you ask [the vendor] for things, and they say, ‘We’re not going to do that’ — and you’re being fair, you’re doing industry standards, yet they still won’t do it — maybe that’s not the right vendor for you,” Larson said. Henka suggested providing flu shots as a clear way to show ROI since the flu accounts for lost productivity and absenteeism in the workplace. As last year’s flu season showed, it can be deadly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 80,000 Americans died of the flu and its complications in the winter of 2017-18.
Barriers to Employee Behavior Change There are many workplace barriers that exist that may deter employees from adopting healthy behaviors, said Cheryl Larson, president and CEO of the MBGH, such as the company that encourages employees to eat healthier but then offers unhealthy food options in its cafeteria.
Wellness Done Right First Choice Health’s Jaja Okigwe addressed potential issues with health screenings — a common component of wellness programs. One staple of preventive care is annual health screenings and checkups. But the younger a person is, the less likely they are to need regular screenings, according to Okigwe. It’s not until they get older that they need annual screenings. “It’s a big production to take off time from work and do your screenings,” he said, especially if a patient also has to do something additional like fast for a certain amount of time before the screening. “From a person’s [point of view], there’s a barrier to do it, and then in the end you get this set of information that you probably already knew.” Companies such as Chicago-based Visibly and Tel Aviv-based 6over6 Vision allow people to get an eye exam using the camera in their phone. The process only takes about 15 minutes, and with results that are 95 to 98 percent as effective as the results they’d get at the optometrist’s office, it’s beneficial for employees who simply need a new prescription for glasses, Okigwe said. While a virtual test can’t diagnose glaucoma, it has a clear benefit for a specific need. A patient who doesn’t need a glaucoma test won’t need to take an hour out of their day to see an optometrist. “I’m at the age where I wear two pairs of glasses. And sometimes when I’m in that in-between zone I get headaches. Updating the prescription becomes very important and allows me to be more productive,” Okigwe said. march/april
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Or the employer that offers a health program with materials primarily offered in English, thereby isolating employees in a multicultural and multilingual workforce. Or the employer that offers a diabetes program that supplies employees with a glucose monitor without realizing that spotty cell service in rural areas will impact the ability of the meter to work for certain employees. There are also internal triggers that deter people from changing health behaviors or taking advantage of a program, Larson said. They include lack of time, lack of trust in the company health plan, money problems, stress and lack of convenience Employers should address such barriers in their wellness programs, Larson said. — Andie Burjek
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Myth 3:
The Consumer Rumor mployers often turn to the consumer-directed health E care plan — commonly referred to as a high-deductible health plan — in part to make their employees smarter health care shoppers. These organizations have a lofty goal when they seek to turn employees into sophisticated health care consumers. Although the goal itself is admirable, the reality is that the health care delivery system is too complex and patients don’t touch it with enough frequency, said Brian Marcotte, president and CEO of the National Business Group of Health. An employer might have a comprehensive program that
gives employees treatment options and resources when they face a surgical decision. But that may be a decision a person has to make once a year or lifetime. “It ends up being a resource that’s out of sight, out of mind,” Marcotte said. The idea that giving employees more resources and price transparency information would make them more sophisticated consumers did not pan out like employers thought it would, he added. Employers started rolling out HDHPs in the early 2000s and ramped up the strategy when the Affordable Care Act was passed with the Cadillac tax provision. Since health care is generally not part of most people’s regular spending routine like grocery shopping, organizations need to find a way to fit it into employees’ everyday lives.
The Growth of Virtual Solutions One way organizations are trying to make health care more a part of employees’ routines is through virtual solutions. While people today can find basically any product or service on demand, what is lacking in health care is the ability to get on-demand service, Marcotte said. The promise of virtual solutions is that they open up avenues to access, convenience and quicker response times from medical professionals. Virtual care covers a lot of bases including chronic disease management for conditions like diabetes, lifestyle coaching and virtual second opinion services. However, virtual care can create complicated issues when a patient has to rely on an outside care team rather than the primary care physician with whom they might already have a strong relationship. “The challenge for all these virtual solutions as well is, ‘How do I integrate them back into care and get it within the delivery system itself?’ ” Marcotte said.
Barriers to Health Care Navigation One reason for the “rampant confusion on how these plans work” — which unfortunately sometimes leads to 30
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employees avoiding care — is that “the industry has never done a good job teaching people how to shop for coverage,” said Kim Buckey, a health compliance expert and vice president of client services with benefits compliance company DirectPath. A person can’t be a good consumer if they don’t know the prices of services, and there’s no easy-to-read or readily available price list, said Buckey’s colleague, Bridget Lipezker, senior vice president and general manager of advocacy and transparency at DirectPath. She referenced what she called the “myth of transparency.” “The lack of control the consumer has over what they’re paying for something, or even understanding what they’re paying for and what their level of responsibility is — to me, consumerism becomes a myth because of the that. Because you don’t have choice,” Lipezker said. Another barrier to employees is time. Patients can call their doctor and ask for options and prices, Lipezker said, but finding this information is a difficult and time-consuming process, and, as Buckey pointed out, most doctors are only available during business hours, so employees need to find the information they need while at work, adding to their stress and cutting into their productivity. “Some employers are taking the bull by the horns and are offering advocacy and transparency services to their employees to give them a source of support where they can turn over these issues to someone else to fight on their behalf,” Buckey said.
Socioeconomic Issues With HDHPs Socioeconomics also is an important factor that employers must consider in health care strategies. One problem that HR has, according to technology-led business process services company Conduent’s Bruce Sherman, is that “we design benefits for people like us,” thus isolating people with different benefits needs and life experiences. Low-income workers have been especially impacted by employers’ attempt at cost containment through HDHPs. According to the February 2017 Health Affairs article “Health Care Use and Spending Patterns Vary By Wage Level in Employer-Sponsored Plans”— which Sherman co-authored with Teresa B. Gibson, Wendy D. Lynch and Carol Addy — cost shifting in benefits plans has meant a 67 percent increase in deductibles since 2010. That’s six times more than the rise in workers’ wages (10 percent) and inflation (9 percent). The article explored patterns of health care usage relative to employee wages and found that workers in the lowest wage group ($24,000 or less a year) were the most likely to have (had) an avoidable emergency visit, while the highest earners ($70,001 or more a year) were the least likely. “It may be helpful to ask employees in different socioeconomic groups what benefits they’d like to have,” said Sherman, a longtime researcher of health issues. “This opens the door for information sharing and doesn’t obligate the employer to provide what employees request.” march/april
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Employee Response to Rising Costs Employers aren’t the only ones who have been shifting their costs. So have employees. Among employees with increasing health care costs, many need to shift resources from other areas to make up for the change, according to a 2018 Employee Benefit Research Institute report. The report found that 43 percent of respondents have decreased contributions to other savings, 34 percent have increased credit card debt and 28 percent have difficulty paying for necessities like food, heating and housing. Surveying 1,518 workers in the U.S. ages 21 to 64 in June 2017, the report also cited common changes in health care usage resulting from cost increases. Some of these behavior changes are more positive than others. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they try to take better care of themselves, and 56 percent talk to the doctor more carefully about treatment options and costs. Less promising, 63 percent only go to the doctor for serious conditions or symptoms. — Andie Burjek
While more employers are talking about establishing a “culture of health,” oftentimes they also fail to address social and economic determinants in that culture of health, he said, suggesting that employers review organizational policies and practices and keep that perspective in mind to give themselves a broader understanding of where there’s opportunity to improve workplace health for different groups of people. Some employers offer hourly employees a half day every year specifically to see their doctor for preventive care services, he said. Other employers offer paid sick leave to all employees, including hourly workers. And other employers have ditched “just-in-time” scheduling practices and opted for fixed work hours for all employees — a perk for hourly employees since variable scheduling limits predictable income for employees living paycheck to paycheck. Some organizations are utilizing wage-based cost-sharing arrangements to address socioeconomic disparities, according to the National Business Group on Health’s 2019 “Large Employers’ Health Care Strategy and Design Survey.” According to the survey, 34 percent of employers offered a wage-based premium contribution in 2018, with 32 percent of employers planning to do the same in 2019. Similarly, 8 percent of employers offered a wage-based cost-sharing arrangement through deductibles or out of pocket costs in 2018, compared to 7 percent planning to do that in 2019. w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce
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Myth 4:
We r’ e Doing All We Can Already any employers are doing a lot to help employees with M health care costs. But in actuality they demand more from insurance companies and other providers, said DirectPath’s Bridget Lipezker. Employers comprise the largest group of payers for health care in the United States. According to 2017 National Health Expenditure data, private health insurance accounted for 34 percent of health spending, beating out Medicare (20 percent), Medicaid (12 percent) and out-ofpocket (10 percent). Employers have a responsibility to do more and they carry a lot of clout. But there are many barriers hindering that influence, she said. It takes a lot of time, energy and focus, and most organizations don’t have the luxury of hiring a person solely focused on benefits. A majority of small- and midsized businesses only have one person managing HR, and oftentimes HR isn’t even their primary responsibility, according to HR platform BerniePortal’s 2019 “HR Today and Tomorrow” report. “I think that employers do try to act in the best interests of their employees, at least in my experience. But they don’t always have the expertise in-house or the dollars to hire consultants to help them figure it out,” Lipezker said. 32
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Disruption Will Cut Costs … Not Counting on disruption to save on health care spend (think major policy changes like the Affordable Care Act) is a strategy, but it’s a poor one for plan sponsors, said ActiveRadar’s David Henka. Employers need to be proactive. There’s only so many levers employers can pull to affect cost, Henka said. With trends like the consolidation of health systems and influential health care industries like pharmacy benefit managers clashing with employers, organizations have limited options to influence costs. The most valuable and accessible lever is at the pharmacy, Henka said. Pharmacy costs and formularies are decided on a national scope, unlike hospital and provider networks, which are often decided on locally or regionally. This adds an additional challenge for an employer with offices or employees in multiple states to trim costs. The lack of transparency in pharmacy benefits is noteworthy, Henka said, and the reality is that for many drugs, there are alternatives that have the same therapeutic benefit for a fraction of the cost. For example, the brand name drug Lipitor has an average cost $184 while Atorvastatin, the generic version with the same active ingredients, has an average cost of $36, according to Henka. march/april
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He suggested reference pricing programs, with which costs go down in the short term and, in the long term, patients became more compliant with drug treatments. Reference-based pricing uses complex algorithms to identify the most expensive drugs used by the employee population, highlights more cost-effective alternatives and then encourages members to switch to the most affordable drug. While reference pricing is trending in parts of Europe, it’s mostly gaining traction in the U.S. among large employer groups, Henka said. He added that many employers think that by switching to a generic-mandated program, they’re doing enough — but they can do more.They could save money by switching from one generic to a different, more cost-effective one. The types of U.S. organizations mostly adopting these programs are union trust funds and private employers, he said. The second largest health care purchaser in the country, CalPERS, is also a proponent of reference pricing, he added. Second only to Medicaid, CalPERS purchases health care benefits for employees in the state of California that work for school districts and other public agencies and covers about 1.2 million lives. They have “already implemented reference pricing for a number of medi-
cal procedures and are in serious discussion of implementing it for their pharmacy program as well,” Henka said.
Enter the Chief Medical Officer A conversation that is gaining traction among employers is working to get more control of health care costs in unique ways, said of First Choice Health’s Jaja Okigwe. MYTHS continued on page 53
M&A Headaches for Employers One of the biggest cost control issues for employers is the mergers and acquisitions happening in health care, according to Cheryl Larson, president and CEO of the Midwest Business Group on Health, a group that represents employers’ interests. Concerns include that mergers mean less competition and higher prices, which is especially bad for the self-insured plan. Larson posed the question many employers ask: What should we be doing? She suggested that employers sharpen their negotiation skills and understand the value of what they’re buying in a health plan. She also suggested they join forces. “Employers need to march/april
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merge; they need to aggregate their power, their lives [and] their knowledge to increase not only their size but their voice,” she said. In January 2018, the CEOs of Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase Co. joined forces to create an independent venture to address health care. Larson has noticed some attempts at disruption here. Some employers are trying to “unbundle the jigsaw puzzle” of their pharmacy plan A recent survey found that many employers are adopting this “trailblazing” attitude and expanding their view on
health care responsibilities. According to the National Business Group on Health’s 2019 “Large Employers’ Health Care Strategy and Design Survey,” which had a sample size of 170 employers representing 13 million U.S. employees, most respondents (56 percent) were skeptical that mergers among health plans and PBMs would lower costs, improve quality and improve the patient experience. Meanwhile, almost half (49 percent) indicated they want to take a more activist role in health care rather than wait for disruption to happen. — Andie Burjek w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce
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Retirement Returns
Employers have no clear strategy for older workers phasing out of the workforce. That could cost them in both the short and long term. BY PATTY KUJAWA
A
fter 37 years of teaching high school English, Martha Taylor-Nobile wanted to wake up just a little later in the morning. So at 60, she retired earlier than she had planned. “I could’ve kept going, but it just felt right,” she said. “My energy level was down, so I questioned whether I was doing the best job possible.” Taylor-Nobile said her employer, the Greenwich, Connecticut, Public Schools District, allowed her to transition out of full-time work by becoming a mentor to new teachers. She had fewer classes to teach and spent time observing and coaching other less-experienced instructors. “It was invigorating,” said Taylor-Nobile, now 66. “I got to share my experiences, and they showed me new ways of doing things too.” Transitioning from full-time work to full-time retirement isn’t always as flawless as Taylor-Nobile’s experience. Often, baby boomers — those born between 1946 through 1964 — need to retire earlier than they expect, have to take a job that requires a lower skill set or must work longer at their current job to save more for retirement. While employees are juggling all these scenarios and more on one end, employers have remained relatively quiet. Few organizations have formal phased retirement programs, which tend to help employee and employers equally. Workers enjoy being challenged but not at stressful rates while employers are able to get information and skills transferred to new employees.With a tight job market hovering
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just around or under 4 percent unemployment over the past year, and the exodus of 10,000 baby boomers leaving the workforce daily, employers are realizing they are dismally unprepared for the talent that may be leaving their organizations, or for managing the workers who plan to stay on the job longer to save more for retirement. “These issues have been around for a while, but with the sheer quantity of baby boomers who are retiring, employers are increasingly paying much more attention to them,” said Lauren Hoeck, director of retirement practice at consulting firm Willis Towers Watson.
A Blind Eye for Boomers? Organizations know they don’t have a cohesive strategy when it comes to older workers. Today, only a quarter of employers say they are effectively managing the pace and timing of employee retirements, a December survey by Willis Towers Watson found. The study, “Working Late: Managing the Wave of U.S. Retirement,” revealed that 83 percent of employers believe a significant number of their employees are at or near 65 years old — the typical retirement age.While 81 percent of employers think managing employees transitioning to retirement is important, only a little more than half think they know when workers will retire. Hoeck said that to get a better handle on employee retirement timing, employers need to have a clearer understanding of what influences workers’ decisions. Savings is a top driver for employees, and the survey showed a clear mismatch.While 71 percent of employers said employees should have enough money to retire when they want, more than half of employees reported having financial worries and added that they plan to stay working after age 70. “Many employers misunderstand their employees’ motivations and circumstances for retiring,” Hoeck said. “They don’t have a firm grasp on their likely retirement patterns and may be vulnerable to certain workforce issues.” Still, employers are aware of the consequences they face when workers delay retirements. Nearly half said workers who stay on the job longer will increase benefits costs over the next five years; 41 percent said this group would increase wage and salary costs, and might also block younger worker promotions, the report showed. Early departures also could create problems. Half of employers said they will have trouble finding similarly skilled workers, and nearly that same percentage said there will be a loss of company-specific knowledge over the next five years. Just over 40 percent predicted issues with succession planning. A June 2017 report by the Government Accounting Office said many employers do not offer solutions like phased retirement because they are worried about breaking employment or benefit laws that might put their business in jeopardy. “Issues are compounding, and it is a complex situation for employers,” Hoeck said. “The important thing [for em36
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The Path to Phased Retirement Congress and federal agencies need to make changes to current law and policies so organizations can have a clearer path in offering phased retirement programs, said Jack Towarnicky, executive director of the Plan Sponsor Council of America. Right now there is too much ambiguity in the law and no incentive for employers to offer the program, Towarnicky said. “Not too many employers feel comfortable approaching someone over age 40 and asking whether they would like to talk about phased retirement,” Towarnicky said. Just like most benefit offerings, employers need incentives and clarity to offer phased retirement. Initiatives like encouraging employers to add a Medicare-eligible retiree health benefit for workers who waive other types of coverage, or an amendment to current IRC rules to allow profit sharing contributions would be a good start, he added. “Congress and agencies are not enabling employers to facilitate phased, flexible retirement programs,” Towarnicky said. “I favor action to adopt a number of modest, tax revenue neutral changes which will enable and encourage private sector employers to adopt formal, human resources policies. Once in place, older workers may be able to incorporate those opportunities in their retirement planning.” —Patty Kujawa
ployers] is to step back and assess where employees are before they start plugging holes.” With unemployment levels flattening at a low 4 percent and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting higher quit levels (meaning workers voluntarily leaving jobs), employers are beginning to understand that staffing changes can have a significant effect on the company’s success, said Catherine Collinson, chief executive officer and president of Transamerica Institute and the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. “Market conditions are starting to play a noteworthy role,” Collinson said.“Now [employers] may find this to be a top priority.”
The Transition to Retirement The first wave of baby boomers seems to be faring decently in retirement despite reports that paint a bleak picture. The Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies march/april
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looked at how and when retirement happened to 2,043 respondents in its latest study, and found that most are healthy and have a positive outlook on life. Many are spending time with family, pursuing hobbies and traveling. Financially, 64 percent of respondents said their standard of living has remained the same, with 9 percent saying the way they live in retirement has gotten better. More than half of retirees (53 percent) said they fully retired before age 65. Most respondents (56 percent) who retired early didn’t plan their lives that way, citing unexpected job loss, health or caregiver responsibilities as the primary reasons for their premature departure from the workforce. Only 11 percent retired earlier than expected, like Taylor-Nobile, because their finances allowed it. Because many retirees were forced to leave jobs before they were ready, there were fewer years to earn money and save for retirement, Collinson said. That may be fine for now because Social Security picks up most expenses, but leaving early may prove troublesome down the road and for the second wave of soon-to-be baby boomer retirees. “Very few people plan on [an unexpected retirement] happening to them,” Collinson said. “Now, many working people may not be aware of the financial vulnerabilities they may face in the future.” Most retirees are financially OK because 66 percent use Social Security as the main source of income,Transamerica’s report said. But that income stream may not be available for future baby boomer retirees, experts say. For the 85 percent of people who said they factor government programs into their retirement income, potential drops in Social Security and Medicare benefits could severely damage their plans. It’s not just a looming scare tactic. Last year, the Social Security Administration said in its annual report that it would need to cut benefits by more than 20 percent by 2034 if nothing is done to shore up the program. Meanwhile, Medicare’s hospital insurance fund is expected to dry up in about seven years. Other factors, including an impending bear market, a lack of defined benefit pension plans and expected longer lifespans all may hamstring younger boomers when accumulating enough wealth for retirement. “These folks have all these headwinds that are going to force them to spend more assets if they are going to maintain their current standard of living,” said Bruce Wolfe, principal at C.S. Wolfe & Associates LLC. In the near future, “there will be pressure for them to save more now.”
An Uncertain Future Fidelity Investments, the nation’s largest record keeper, crunched numbers for Workforce and found these soon-tobe retirees (people currently ages 55-59 and 60-64) are around the recommended 15 percent savings rate, with the youngest group saving 14.6 percent and the 60-plus set at 15.9 percent. Despite the aggressive percentages, average account balances are anemic. The 55-59 group had an average $198,700 in 401(k) savings while the 60-64 bracket has a march/april
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few more dollars with $201,200. Many participants take advantage of the Internal Revenue Service “catch-up” contributions, allowing those over age 50 to add $6,000 more per year than regular limits allow, said Meghan Murphy, vice president at Fidelity. “What we see is that as folks get closer to retirement, they see an opportunity to increase savings rates,” Murphy said. Murphy pointed out that many of these savers may have more savings accounts outside the Fidelity spectrum. Looking at the Fidelity numbers though, Murphy noted that neither of these averages covers the $280,000 Fidelity estimated couples will need to cover retiree health care costs, as well as household expenses like gas and groceries. Even with the extra help, these last-minute catch-up savings rates may not be enough, experts agree. It’s part of the reason most Americans currently in the workforce plan to stay on the job past retirement age, many studies show.The problem with this is that most employers don’t have a strategy to manage workers staying longer than the traditional retirement age.
MOST AMERICANS CURRENTLY IN THE WORKFORCE PLAN TO STAY ON THE JOB PAST RETIREMENT AGE. HOWEVER, MOST EMPLOYERS DON’T HAVE A STRATEGY TO MANAGE THOSE WORKERS. In fact, it could be argued that some organizations’ strategy is to find ways to simply fire older workers. One recent study showed that 56 percent of workers ages 51-54 reported being laid off with serious financial consequences. The December 2018 report by the Urban Institute showed older worker layoffs did not vary by gender, race, education or industry. What’s more, 90 percent of laid-off older workers who found another job said they earned less in that one compared to the first one. “Employment becomes increasingly precarious as workers age,” the report noted. “The steady earnings that many people count on in their 50s and 60s to build their retirement savings and ensure some financial security in later life can vanish, upending retirement expectations and creating economic hardship.”
Unfazed By Phased Retirement Employers should realize that it is only natural that people who are living longer lives want to extend their working careers, said Josh Gotbaum, guest scholar in the economic studies program at the Brookings Institution. Phased RETIREMENT continued on page 52 w o r k f o r c e . c o m | Workƒorce
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How to Build a Best-in-Class Education Benefits Program Join the talent-forward companies offering the education benefits employees want. By: Tim Harnett Lessons from America’s biggest companies Education benefits are hot. There are two good reasons for that: • There is a shortage of motivated, talented
workers — especially in occupations like retail sales, food service, IT, health care and data analytics. Companies seeking these workers are looking for compelling benefits that will attract and keep the people they need. • Talented, motivated workers expect education
benefits. Millennials rate development as the most important non-cash benefit. Importantly for corporations, people who crave development are those who are motivated to move up.
Best tuition assistance practices for your bestin-class program. Corporate Learning Solutions at Bellevue University partners with more than 60 companies around the U.S. to create and offer strategic education benefits to their employees. They range from companies with more than 1 million employees to those with fewer than 1,000 workers. Here are five guidelines to consider if you are building or revising your education benefits program. 1. DON’T BE OVERLY RESTRICTIVE. Education
benefits help employers because they reward talented and motivated employees — exactly the team members you want. It’s important to not be too restrictive with your benefits. In fact, when you open benefits to all, you will likely be surprised to see who steps up. They may be future leaders who were not on your radar.
2. ASK EMPLOYEES TO INVEST AS WELL. A lesson
learned early was that when the company funds 100 percent of education programs, employees don’t feel fully committed and drop-out rates increase. It’s not easy being a student while working full time and taking care of others in the family. Having just a bit of skin in the game may give employees the extra incentive to hang in there. 3. ENCOURAGE MIDDLE MANAGEMENT SUPPORT.
Middle management is stressful. The last thing middle managers want to hear is that one of their team members wants to go back to school. Even when it’s off the clock, managers still fear a lack of focus on work. However, the opposite is often true. As employees get engaged in the learning, they look for ways to apply their lessons at work. Middle managers are key to a successful education benefits program. It’s worth hosting an orientation just for them before you roll out your new program. 4. PROMOTE YOUR PROGRAM. Once you’ve set
up your program, let your employees know about it. If you expect it to impact recruitment, let potential recruits know about it. Modern tuition assistance (TA) programs are funded and promoted because talent-forward companies understand that every dollar spent in employee education returns multiple times its value in productivity, retention and engagement. 5. PARTNER WITH A UNIVERSITY THAT UNDERSTANDS ADULT LEARNERS. Adults
balance significant challenges when they undertake education — even when you reduce financial concerns. They should be congratulated and encouraged. Universities with a strong history of working with adult
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learners understand this and are experts at making services accessible. They know how to handle tuition assistance and other forms of financial aid. And they know how to work with working adult students. Simply offering a tuition assistance program — no matter how generous — may not be enough to distinguish your company as a great place to work among talented and motivated employees. A successful, best-in-class program both supports and encourages participation and is strategically aligned with the company’s goals.
Join the nation’s largest and most successful companies by creating your best-in-class tuition assistance program. Corporate Learning Solutions, powered by Bellevue University, works with companies around the country to assure their tuition assistance programs are strategic, effective and generous.
Solutions include: • Incremental funding for qualifying tuition
assistance programs. • Consultation on tuition assistance programs that
meet strategic corporate goals. • Career-relevant learning and degree programs
that support employee motivations and corporate talent needs. More information: https://corporatelearning.com/ ta-offer-more The Corporate Learning Solutions division of Bellevue University works with corporations to support the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises by increasing the skills, knowledge and talents of workforces. Corporate Learning Solutions has been working with corporations for more than 25 years and has pioneered a wide range of innovation solutions to human capital development. These include the Human Capital Lab™, which measures the impact of learning on Key Performance Indicators, custom learning programs that address corporate skills and knowledge gaps, Skill Accelerator™ boot camps and Power Skills™ boot camps, which teach soft skills essential for workforce agility.
Corporate Learning Solutions publishes monthly Workforce Planning Overviews — workforce planning abstracts by key industry and occupation groups. Workforce Planning Overviews are available at https://corporatelearning.com/workforce-overviews/ A nonprofit university, Bellevue University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission (hlcommission.org), a regional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
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The Millennial Mindset
Increasing retirement program participation through student loan debt relief By Tim Harnett The amount of student loan debt shows no sign of abating. The numbers are sobering: 1 in 4 Americans carries an average of more than $37,000 in student loan debt, adding up to 44.7 million people and $1.53 trillion in debt.1 With student loan payments averaging nearly $400 a month, workers may often defer putting money into retirement accounts, using the money to pay down their immediate debts. When it comes to well-being, many organizations consider employees’ physical and mental health, offering health insurance and other benefit programs. Financial well-being is less often considered, but it can make a big impact for both employees and employers. More than any other kind of debt, student loan debt causes workers to have less favorable views of their own financial well-being, according to William Elliot, director of the School of Social Welfare for the University of Kansas. 2 How can organizations improve their employees’ financial well-being? Student loan repayment plans that integrate into an existing 401(k) program offer one solution. Retirement packages like a 401(k) can be an attractive benefit option that many employers offer to their workforce. Yet with the student loan debt crisis strongly affecting the American economy, employers need to do more for their employees’ financial well-being. This is where a student loan repayment program — such as one offered by BenefitEd — can help. By pairing with a current match program, Employee Choice by BenefitEd offers seamless integration, places choice in the hands of employees and positions the employer in a great light for offering an in-demand and much-needed benefit.
Integrate student loan repayment into your existing match program With nearly half of all organizations offering some sort of retirement benefit, 3 chances are your company already has a 401(k) match program of some kind. More importantly, organizations are stepping up and increasing their 401(k) match dollars. According to a recent Vanguard report the average match value is 4.2 percent. 4 Matches are attractive to employees, as they’re often seen as “free money.” Implementing a student loan repayment program can be as simple as integrating it into an existing 401(k) match. Employers don’t need to change their current plan to accommodate student loan repayment, and the program can be implemented with or without HR integration.
Give employees the choice With Employee Choice, employees are given the choice to decide where their match dollars go. Employees can allocate their match dollars entirely to student loan repayment, a retirement plan or split funds between the two. Thanks to Employee Choice, employers don’t have to go through a new budget cycle when taking advantage of this program, because employees choose between a retirement plan match, student loan repayment match or both. Employers don’t have to come up with additional match dollars to contribute.
Let your partners do the heavy lifting Communication is one of the biggest challenges associated with introducing a new benefit. Many employees don’t use their benefits simply because they don’t know about them. Communication
1 Comet Financial Assistance (2019). Student loan debt: a current picture of student loan borrowing and repayment in the United States. 2 Gorman, R. (2015). “How student-loan debt is dragging down the economy.” Business Insider. 3 Bureau of Labor Statistics (2018). Employee Benefits Survey. 4 Vanguard. How America Saves 2018.
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is sometimes an afterthought — left to the initial enrollment period or not at all. Vendors can be powerful assistants here, taking care of communicating the benefit details so employers don’t have to. For its student loan repayment program, BenefitEd takes the reins on educating and communicating the availability of student loan repayment benefits to employees. Employee Choice gives employees confirmation of their student loan repayments or deductions, reinforcing the value of the program.
Employee Choice also provides enrollment reports to employers, giving metrics that HR leaders can use to prove the business case for the student loan repayment program. Awareness drives adoption and usage, ultimately leading to increased employee well-being. Learn more about options for implementing a student loan repayment program at YouBenefitEd.com/Millennials, calling 844-358-5707, or emailing support@youbenefited.com.
BenefitEd offers customized employer-assisted student loan repayment programs and college savings programs to employers looking to build highly competitive, differentiated benefits packages. We offer these programs direct to employers, through benefit brokers, and white label solutions. In 2017, BenefitEd became a joint partnership between Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. and Nelnet, Inc. This partnership leverages Ameritas’ expertise in the distribution and management of employee benefits and Nelnet’s relationships with student loan lenders and decades of experience in payment processing. Through significant scale and experience, BenefitEd can meet the needs of companies both large and small.
Producing a
Passion Play Stop obsessing over engagement; instead focus on employee work passion and creating a high-trust culture where workers flourish. BY RANDY CONLEY AND DREA ZIGARMI
E
very day the spirits of millions of people die at the front door of their workplace. There is an epidemic of workers who are uninterested and disengaged from the work they do, and the cost to the U.S. economy has been pegged at more than $300 billion annually. According to a recent survey from Deloitte, only 20 percent of people say they are truly passionate about their work. Gallup surveys show that nearly 70 percent of the workforce is not engaged, with an estimated 23 million “actively disengaged.”These employees have quit and stayed — they show up for work but do the bare minimum to get by, don’t put in any extra effort to care for customers and are a drain on organizational resources and productivity. On the trust front, the findings are just as stark. Studies
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show that 50 percent of employees who distrust their senior leaders are considering leaving the organization, with 62 percent reporting that low trust causes unreasonable levels of stress. According to workplace consultancy Tolero Solutions, 45 percent of employees say lack of trust in leadership is the biggest issue impacting work performance. Building and sustaining high levels of engagement is a critical competency for today’s leaders. In our technology-fueled, digitally connected world where new products, competitors and business models seem to emerge overnight, one of the few competitive advantages an organization possesses is its people.The level of skill, talent, creativity, innovation and passion in the workforce of an organization can mean the difference between mediocre and exceptional results.
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5 Employee Work Intentions • Discretionary effort: The extent to which the employee intends to expend his or her discretionary effort on behalf of the organization above and beyond agreed-upon requirements. • Intent to perform: The extent to which the employee intends to do his or her job well and work effectively to help the organization succeed. • Organizational citizenship behaviors: The extent to which the employee is committed to supporting fellow workers behaving in ways that are respectful, considerate and sensitive to others. • Employee endorsement: The extent to which the employee readily endorses the organization to others as a good place to work and as a quality supplier of goods and services. • Intent to remain: The extent to which the employee plans to stay with the organization. — Randy Conley and Drea Zigarmi
Focusing solely on engagement is not enough to get us there. We must shift the focus from engagement to the creation of a high-trust culture where employees are passionate about their work.
From Engagement to Employee Work Passion Employee engagement is a broad and complex problem that organizations spend $720 million a year trying to solve, according to a Bersin & Associates report. Yet when it comes to engagement there isn’t even a commonly accepted definition of the term. Descriptions vary widely, with elements that include commitment, goal alignment, enjoyment and performance, to name a few. We make a few critical distinctions between the concepts of engagement and employee work passion. First, employee work passion is supported by a theory and model that explain how work passion is formed. We believe employee work passion is better understood by considering the influence of research on social cognition, appraisal theory, job commitment and organizational commitment.Therefore, it is a different and more expansive concept than engagement. Second, the combination of relationship, organizational, and job factors influence an individual’s level of work passion. Whereas engagement is often linked to job satisfaction, employee work passion considers the cognitive and affective appraisals people make when assessing their environment and the meaning they ascribe to their thoughts and feelings. 44
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Third, the literature on engagement usually describes three states of engagement: engaged, disengaged, and actively disengaged. This three-part description lacks a positive upper range of active engagement — distinguished by the concept of employee work passion, this passionate commitment comes from repeated involvement in self-defining activities. Employee work passion goes beyond simple engagement in various work activities to the incorporation of self-defining activities that become a central feature in an employee’s identity.
Creating Employee Work Passion To understand how employee work passion occurs, one must consider the process an individual goes through when deciding to employ a specific behavior.As stated earlier, much of the research on engagement does not take the full scope of this process into account.Through deeper exploration of the literature, we began to incorporate significant ideas found in cognitive psychology. Employee choices are driven by the understanding of how the experience or event being appraised impacts well-being. Since people are meaning-oriented and meaning-creating, they are constantly reacting (cognitively and affectively) to their environment to form judgments (appraisals) about how their well-being is affected by environmental events. Cognition and affect go hand in hand, happening almost simultaneously, over and over, as individuals make sense of a situation.The conclusions they reach about what is happening, what it means to them, how it will affect them, how they feel about that, what they intend to do, and — finally — what they actually do, are all filtered through the lens of who they are. The model suggests that the appraisal process begins with an assessment of the organizational, job and relationship factors. During the appraisal process, an employee makes sense of how they feel about the extent to which the 12 factors are present in the work environment. There are multiple steps in the appraisal process. First, individuals make cognitive (thinking) and affective (feeling) judgments of their environment: What do I think about what’s happening around me and how does it make me feel. Next, an employee’s passion moderates, or shapes, those appraisals into intended behaviors. Passion can be categorized in two ways: obsessive and harmonious. Obsessive passion can be described as activity individuals engage in because they “have to,” “must do,” or “needs to,” often to their own detriment (such as addiction, compulsiveness, etc.). Harmonious passion are those activities that could be described as “gets to,”“wants to,” or “can’t wait to” perform. Harmonious passion is exhibited when people lose themselves in the flow of an activity. The final step of the appraisal process occurs when individuals form conscious intentions to behave in certain ways, as measured through the five intentions. These intentions ultimately lead to either positive or negative job and organizational behaviors. march/april
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Trust’s Role in Employee Work Passion High levels of trust between leaders and employees foster engagement and vitality in an organization’s culture. The 2017 “Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement” report from the Society for Human Resource Management showed the top two contributors to employee satisfaction were respectful treatment of all employees at all levels (65 percent) and trust between employees and senior management (61 percent). Studies have shown that committed and engaged employees who trust their leaders perform 20 percent better and are 87 percent less likely to leave the organization, and that hightrust organizations experience 50 percent less turnover than low-trust organizations. Despite the amount of evidence pointing to the personal and organizational benefits of having a high-trust culture, however, many organizations lack an intentional approach to building trust. Trust doesn’t come easy and it doesn’t happen by accident. One challenge in building trust is that it is based on perceptions — one person’s idea of what trust looks like in a relationship can be different from another’s. So, it is critically important for leaders and organizations to establish a shared definition for and understanding of trust. A leader’s trustworthiness is composed of four elements that we’ve captured in the ABCD Trust Model. Leaders are trustworthy when they are: Able: Able leaders have the expertise, training, and qualifications to perform well in their roles. They also have a track record of success as they demonstrate the ability to consistently achieve goals. Able leaders are skilled at facilitating work getting done in the organization.They develop credible project plans, systems and processes that help team members accomplish their goals. Believable: A believable leader acts with integrity by dealing with people in an honest fashion; e.g., keeping promises, not lying or stretching the truth, not gossiping, etc. Believable leaders have a clear set of values. They communicate these values to their direct reports and use them consistently as a model for their behavior:They walk the talk. Finally, treating people fairly and equitably is a key characteristic of a believable leader. They are attuned to the dynamics of distributive and procedural fairness (see sidebar) and uphold those principles in the workplace. Connected: Connected leaders show care and concern for people, which builds trust and helps create an engaging work environment. Leaders can create a sense of connection by openly sharing information about themselves, the organization and by trusting employees to use that information responsibly. Taking an interest in people as individuals, not nameless workers, shows that these leaders value and respect their team members. Recognition is a vital component of being a connected leader and praising and rewarding employees’ contributions builds trust and goodwill. WORK PASSION continued on page 52 46
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The 12 Factors of Employee Work Passion Organizational Factors • Distributive fairness: The extent to which resources, compensation and workloads are fairly balanced. • Procedural fairness: The extent to which policies and procedures are consistently and fairly applied. • Growth: The extent to which there is support for current and future career growth. • Performance expectations: The extent to which individuals feel that their work is compared to an agreed-upon standard and understand what is expected of them. Job Factors • Meaningful work: The extent to which people understand and resonate with the organization’s purpose and believe they are working on projects that matter and produce positive results. • Autonomy: The extent to which individuals can choose how tasks are performed, are trusted to do their jobs, and have the authority to make decisions. • Workload balance: The extent to which individuals feel they have ample time to accomplish their work. • Task variety: The extent to which individuals feel they have variety in both the type and complexity of tasks. Relationship Factors • Connectedness to colleagues: The extent to which colleagues make an effort to build rapport and personal and professional relationships. • Connectedness to leader: The extent to which leaders make an effort to build rapport and personal and professional relationships. • Collaboration: The extent to which the organization encourages the sharing of ideas, teamwork, and collaboration on projects and tasks. • Feedback: The extent to which individuals receive adequate feedback on performance and are recognized for improvements and ideas. — Randy Conley and Drea Zigarmi
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SECTOR REPORT
Vision Benefits Providers
Vision: The Must-Have Benefit for 2019 Before 2020 comes around, employers want to ensure employees see a vision plan in action. By Sarah Fister Gale
V
ision care benefits have become a mainstay of the employer benefits package. “Virtually all companies now offer vision,” said Peter DeBellis, head of the total rewards practice for Bersin by Deloitte in Washington, D.C.“It is table stakes, especially for companies of a certain scale.” Vision care is listed as one of the 10 essential benefits included in the Affordable Care Act, and employees have come to expect it as part of the core employee benefits package. “Health, dental and vision are the benefits triad,” DeBellis said. These programs have a very high rate of participation, which further reinforces the value they bring to employees. This category of benefits has evolved in recent years in the care options offered and the way these treatments are accessed and paid for. Telemedicine, for example, is a new trend in the vision benefits space, noted Paul Piechnik, senior vice president of group benefits for MetLife. A growing number of organizations now offer basic examinations to check visual acuity and the need for eyewear via do-it-yourself applications or through a physician-led online virtual exam.
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%
PREVENTIVE CARE Companies are also offering a broader array of treatment options, including laser surgery, blue light protection on lenses to reduce the impact of light emitted from digital devices, and proactive vision exams to identify risks for glaucoma, hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol. This last benefit is viewed as a useful preventive care intervention, particularly in Workƒorce | w o r k f o r c e . c o m
VISION COMES AT A PRICE The other steady trend in vision care is who’s footing the bill. The rising cost of offering any health care benefits has pushed employers away from supporting fully employer-paid vision care to cost-sharing programs, or providing vision as a fully employee-paid/voluntary benefit. Piechnik said this hasn’t caused outrage among cost conscious workers. “Employees for the most part see the value in nonmedical benefits such as vision care, so are willing to pick up some or all of the cost of these benefits.” Regardless of the payment structure, benefits administrators should look for a comprehensive plan that provides annual vision examinations and eyewear benefit levels that employees value. “With many employers offering vision on a voluntary basis there is no reason not to offer this benefit,” Piechnik said. “It’s a key product for creating a benefits package that truly increases employee satisfaction and loyalty.” Once the program is in place, benefits administrators should educate employees about what the program covers, and the value of getting annual exams and keeping their glasses up to date. “It’s not just about getting a new pair of readers,” DeBellis added. When employees take care of their vision they are healthier and more productive, which benefits everyone.
OF EMPLOYEES SAY VISION CARE IS A “MUST HAVE” BENEFIT.
“Some are even offering virtual walk-in exams with an optometrist to mirror the same comprehensive examination steps one would encounter at a standard brick-and-mortar optometrist’s office,” he said. The interest in telemedicine is being driven by the digital generation, who prefer self-service for everything, as well as addressing the needs of remote workers. “Telemedicine is just emerging for routine vision care, though it’s too soon to say whether this will become a vision care standard in the future.”
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an aging workforce. “Vision has a role to play in a lot of chronic health conditions,” DeBellis said. Encouraging employees to have vision exams can help them identify bigger health care risks so they can get prompt treatment. Piechnik suggested that companies offer sunglasses coverage as part of their vision plan as a way to get more employees to take advantage of these wellness visits. MetLife, for example, has a SunCare rider as part of its vision care benefits that allows members who don’t need corrective eyewear to use their frame allowance for non-prescription eyewear. “This encourages them to get their routine ‘wellness’ vision examination and spot those early issues that can become costly medical expenses for the member and employer alike.”
Sarah Fister Gale is a writer in Chicago. To comment email editors@workforce.com.
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HOT LIST Vision Insurers Listed alphabetically; compiled by David Chasanov; editors@workforce.com TOTAL REVENUE FOR MOST RECENT 12 MONTHS
TOTAL NUMBER OF PLAN MEMBERS
NUMBER OF MEMBERS IN EMPLOYER-SPONSORED PLANS
EYEMED VISION CARE eyemed.com
Would not disclose
Would not disclose
52 million
METLIFE, INC. metlife.com/business-and-brokers/
Would not disclose
2.3 million
Would not disclose
THE GUARDIAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA guardianlife.com
$3.11 billion
4.2 million
1.2 million
VSP VISION CARE vsp.com
$4.58 billion
80 million
79 million
TOTAL REVENUE FOR MOST RECENT 12 MONTHS
TOTAL NUMBER OF PLAN MEMBERS
NUMBER OF MEMBERS IN EMPLOYER-SPONSORED PLANS
HEALTH CARE SERVICE CORP. hcsc.com
$34.5 billion*
15 million
13 million
HIGHMARK INC. highmark.com
$18.3 billion
5 million
Would not disclose
HUMANA, INC. humana.com
$18.2 billion*
22.6 million
7.4 million
TOTAL REVENUE FOR MOST RECENT 12 MONTHS
TOTAL NUMBER OF PLAN MEMBERS
NUMBER OF MEMBERS IN EMPLOYER-SPONSORED PLANS
Would not disclose
20,818,602
Would not disclose
THE GUARDIAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA guardianlife.com
$2.01 billion
3,503,211
2,163,246
UNITED CONCORDIA DENTAL discoverucd.com
$1.4 billion
25,000
8.9 million
COMPANY NAME & Web Address
Health Insurers COMPANY NAME & Web Address
Dental Insurers COMPANY NAME & Web Address METLIFE, INC. metlife.com/business-and-brokers/
Note: Delta Dental did not respond to requests for Information. * Revenue figures from 2017. Source: Companies march/april
2019
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SECTOR REPORT
C o r p o r a t e We l l n e s s P r o v i d e r s
Hello, Talent Management Wellness programs have evolved beyond screenings to embrace the physical, social and emotional needs of employees. By Sarah Fister Gale
W
ellness benefits have officially changed teams. These health-inspired programs and resources are no longer viewed as health care initiatives, but rather as a “new talent value proposition,” said Mike Maniccia, specialist leader for Deloitte in Los Angeles. “The origins of wellness programs were about saving money by creating a healthier workforce,” he says. But the financial returns on wellness investments have been notoriously difficult to measure, which diminished their value and caused them to lose the backing by cost-conscious execs. However, in a low unemployment economy where millennials dominate the talent pool, wellness has gained new life as a powerful recruiting tool. Offering on-site yoga classes, healthy food options in the cafeteria, and a suite of physical and emotional wellness apps can help win over hard-to-land new hires. “Appealing to millennials is dominating the wellness conversation,” he said. Companies like Google, Apple and Patagonia win constant accolades for their innovative wellness efforts, which often include over-the-top offerings like on-site massage therapy, weekly cooking classes, and free outdoor-inspired daycare centers. Maniccia worries a bit that the hype generated by a handful of mission-driven and well-funded wellness programs will make it impossible for others to keep up. “It’s difficult to replicate that kind of culture in manufacturing, retail or a small business,” he said. However, in reality, companies don’t have to spend a lot of money on wellness to impress talent, as long as they are creative and offer programs that employees actually want. Deloitte’s 2018 “Human Capital Trends” report found that the top two wellness benefits desired by employees are flexible schedules and the option to telecommute, both of which require no real financial investment and can actually cut overhead costs.
BENEFITS COME FROM WITHIN Beyond flex time, employees are seeking wellness tools that fit their unique needs and interest. That’s has caused an evolution in the types of programs offered and how employees are encouraged to take part, said Linda Natansohn, head of corporate development, meQuilibrium, a resiliency training company in Boston. Most companies have evolved past things like incentives for biometric screenings, in part because of negative publicity that saw incentives as a form of coercion, but also because they didn’t generate the desired results.
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“No amount of extrinsic rewards will drive people to change their behavior,” she said. “Employers have to figure out what is meaningful to their people.” To connect with these personal drivers, companies have begun curating an assortment of offerings to address employees’ physical, social, emotional and fiscal needs. Many of them come in the form of apps and wearables that encourage healthy behavior and offer intrinsic motivators, like leader boards and positive messages when users hit daily goals. Though not everyone is motivated by an app, said Steven Noeldner, head of total health management for Mercer. Some employees like self-directed programs, but others will prefer real-time workshops, consulting, or small group classes. “The idea is to have a broad array of services designed for different segments of the population.” That includes social and emotional wellness programs, which are gaining popularity as companies realize the value of having a happy and well-adjusted workforce, noted Natansohn.These offerings can range from on-site therapists, to meditation apps to “kindness clubs,” where employees work together to create a better and more inclusive culture, she says. “It’s a more holistic approach to well-being.” Regardless of the scope of offerings, managers and executives have to show their support for using these programs if employees are going to get on board, according to Noeldner. “Organizations with strong leadership support have higher participation and better health outcomes,” he said. He recently completed work on a joint study between Health Enhancement Research Organization and Mercer that found organizations whose leaders actively participate in health and well-being initiatives reported higher median rates of both employee satisfaction with health and well-being programs (83 percent) and employee perception of organizational support (85 percent) compared to organizations whose leaders did not actively participate (66 percent and 67 percent, respectively). “The C-suite and management create the climate around wellness,” he said. No matter how carefully companies select their wellness offerings and vendors, leadership support for the program will be critical to their success. Sarah Fister Gale is a writer in Chicago. To comment email editors@workforce.com.
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2019
HOT LIST Corporate Wellness Providers Listed alphabetically; compiled by David Chasanov; editors@workforce.com
COMPANY NAME & Web Address AXUM CORPORATE HEALTH STRATEGIES axum.com
LIMEADE limeade.com
% OF BUSINESS REPRESENTING CORPORATE WELLNESS
100 percent
75 percent
MARINO WELLNESS marinowellness.com
VIRGIN PULSE virginpulse.com
VITALITY GROUP vitalityGroup.com
100 percent
100 percent
Would not disclose
NUMBER OF CORPORATE CLIENTS
Would not disclose
250
500
3,500
450
NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES SERVED
TYPES OF WELLNESS PROGRAM OFFERED
NOTABLE CLIENTS
10,000
Employee biometric analyses; employee wellness programs; companywide health insights
Ken Garff Automotive Group; Clearlink; Instructure Inc.
2 million
Personalized challenges; social activities; interactive learning
Stanley Black & Decker; Kohl’s; Panasonic; VF Corp.; Brunswick
150,000
Office massage; meditation; fitness & health education programs
Fox; CBRE; Dermalogica; Dollar Shave Club; Toms; Toyota; Thrive Market
5.5 million
Personalized healthy habit information; health literacy; behavior change; nutrition; sleep; mental well-being; financial wellness; digital and live coaching
HP; Intuit; Brown Forman; Central Michigan University; Movement Mortgage; Los Alamos National Labs; Medtronic; Micron; CDM Smith; Raytheon; Providence St. Joseph Health
Behavior change platform; digital health; rewards for healthy behaviors
Ericsson; Baylor College of Medicine; Stantec; DaVita HealthCare Partners; McCarthy Building Co.; McKesson
8 million
Note: Corporate Health Partners LLC, Corporate Wellness Partners and WellRight either declined to participate or did not respond to requests for Information. Source: Companies. march/april
2019
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RETIREMENT continued from page 37 retirement is a little-used concept that allows an employee to gradually transition to not working at all. During this stretch, employers get time to have the older worker’s skills and information passed on to other workers. Studies have shown that older workers tend to want to stay at their current employment but in a different, often less time consuming or less stressful role. Highly skilled workers in particular are not interested in moving to the local museum or discount store to greet guests. “What most people want to do as they get older is to phase down at work and many organizations do not offer that,” Gotbaum said. “Why not find a way to make employers think twice about doing that?” Gotbaum and Wolfe co-authored a paper for Brookings that looked at helping workers extend their time on the job. The two suggested amending the Age Discrimination in Employment Act to charge employers with age discrimination if a phased retirement program was not offered. Employers not interested in phased retirement could provide proof that the program would be too costly or impractical. “This could provide an incentive for employers to change their current practices,” Gotbaum said. Indeed, employers are hesitant to offer phased retirement programs. A January report by Alight Consulting found that while 65 percent of respondents were very likely to expand financial well-being programs, only 4 percent wanted to evaluate phased retirement alternatives this year. The GAO’s report showed 71 percent of employers are reluctant to offer phased retirement programs because federal tax and age discrimination laws are vague; in addition, some rules may hurt employee benefits and certain Internal Revenue Code nondiscrimination rules can be tricky too. For example, some defined benefit plans use an employee’s salary in the last five years of work to determine a final benefit. Reduced hours may severely damage that worker’s final payout. Interestingly, the GAO found a handful of organizations that were able to set policies working around these types of obstacles. Five companies set age and service policies to their phased retirement program to bypass IRC nondiscrimination policies. Some identified the program as meeting a business need. To avoid discrimination issues, some employers said they do not advertise the program. They wait until performance reviews or other likely scenarios where the topic naturally comes up. Overall, companies that offered phased retirement found it helpful to their organizations, the GAO reported. They had an even knowledge transfer, a smooth transition to retirement for employee and employer, as well as increased employer confidence in workforce planning. Patty Kujawa is a writer in the Milwaukee area. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.
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WORK PASSION continued from page 46 Dependable: Being dependable and maintaining reliability is the fourth element of trustworthiness. One of the quickest ways leaders erode trust is by not following through on commitments. Conversely, leaders who do what they say they are going to do earn a reputation of being consistent and trustworthy. Maintaining reliability requires leaders to be organized so that they can follow through on commitments, be on time for appointments and meetings, and get back to people in a timely fashion. Dependable leaders also hold themselves and others accountable for following through on commitments and taking responsibility for their work. The trust one places in a leader comes in two forms: cognitive trust and affective trust. In relation to the ABCD Trust Model, cognitive trust is based on the confidence one has that a leader is able and dependable. This is trust from the head, where rational thought and experience rule. Affective trust, or trust from the heart, is formed by emotional closeness, empathy or friendship. It aligns with “Believable” and “Connected” in the ABCD Trust Model. Our research has shown a large degree of correlation between trust (cognitive and affective combined) and all five work intentions.
Next Step for Leaders When looking to create a culture where trust flourishes and employees are passionately committed to their work, leaders should examine how the ABCDs of trust are modeled in everyday behaviors, and the extent to which the 12 factors of employee work passion are present. Leaders should ask themselves the following questions: Does our culture allow individuals to find meaning in their work, their roles and our organization’s purpose? Are policies, procedures, benefits and compensation transparent and equitably applied to all? Does our organization provide growth opportunities? Do our feedback mechanisms allow individuals to improve? Do individuals understand what is expected of them and have a reasonable amount of autonomy when engaging in projects and tasks? Does our organization provide opportunities for individuals to collaborate with others? Are job roles balanced and reasonable, with enough variety to challenge people perform at optimal levels? Does our organization have an intentional approach to building trust? And do leaders exhibit the ABCDs of trust in their relationships? While it may seem daunting to address and incorporate the ABCDs of trust and the 12 factors of employee work passion into the workplace, organizations that do so will be rewarded by trustworthy and passionate employees dedicated to creating devoted customers, achieving sustainable growth and increasing profits for the organization. Randy Conley is the vice president and trust practice leader and Drea Zigarmi is a senior consulting partner and founding associate for the Ken Blanchard Cos. To comment, email editors@ workforce.com.
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2019
MYTHS continued from page 33 Cable and internet provider Comcast was among the first companies to hire a chief medical officer. In 2005, it hired Tanya Benenson to have an expert solely focused on health care outcomes. Similarly, Google hired David Feinberg, former CEO of Geisinger Health, in November 2018 to lead its health strategy, and banking giant Morgan Stanley hired David Stark as its first chief medical officer in October 2018. “The novelty of Comcast’s situation was that they were taking charge of crafting the whole benefit program and experience for their employees,” Okigwe said. “This is typically done by carriers and benefit consultants.” The role of the chief medical officer varies by industry, said DirectPath’s Kim
Buckey. In a hospital, that role likely will oversee clinical outcomes, while at an insurance company the position is responsible for decisions on what should be covered, or to help develop health and wellness programs. For organizations like Comcast, a CMO will identify opportunities for savings, oversee the organization’s health vendors to control costs, lead negotiations with providers and analyze claims data. Large employers can afford to have someone in this position, Buckey said, but most are “a ways away” from the chief medical officer being a common corporate title.
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LAST WORD
Rick Bell
CARING ABOUT THE CAREGIVING CRISIS
A
friend from overseas recently messaged me about a work-related event at her employer’s innovation center. College students utilize technology as they tackle social causes, and then senior-level executives from her company provide guidance and coaching for their projects. She described several ventures, including early identification of autism through digital gamified screenings, handling crowd management at a massive religious pilgrimage, and road safety through Internet of Things.“My god, it was inspiring to be there,” she told me.
CAREGIVING IS NOT THE EXCLUSIVE TERRITORY OF EARLY AGE BOOMERS OR GENERATION X. I can only imagine. Considering that her company hosts and sponsors an incubator-like operation rather than merely scratching out a check to a nonprofit organization for young entrepreneurs is worthy of recognition. But more importantly — to me, anyway — is the incubator’s cause: solving social issues. Supporting causes and not institutions remains a recurring trait among millennials and Generation Z. They also seek transparency and social impact. Smart companies recognize this, and they’re using corporate social responsibility initiatives as a beacon for young, talented, principled workers. Such employer-employee activism can’t come soon enough. Employees empowered by socially conscious entities are wielding the power to address and perhaps one day remedy all types of social issues affecting the workplace. Take the crucial role employees play as family caregivers. This is an immense workplace issue with few solutions. My friend mentioned one presentation that focused on engaging and profiling people with dementia through the use of virtual reality. The “restlessness” in the person with dementia wears down the caregiver to the point of exhaustion. It’s a problem that strikes particularly close to home. My friend said her family is dealing with a similar situation and that she broke down as she listened to the presentation. “It was good to see that people are working on very real issues,” she said. She is not alone when it comes to providing aid and comfort to those caring for a sick or elderly family member.This clearly is an issue that crosses international borders as well as social and economic boundaries. I can easily count 10 people among my circle of friends, family and colleagues who are either directly caring for an aging or sick loved one or are part of the caregiving orbit 54
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around that person. I was among that cohort until my mother died in January. The costs as a caregiver are staggering. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, 70 percent of working caregivers report suffering work-related difficulties because of their dual roles. The alliance also reports that 10 million caregivers age 50-plus who care for their parents lose an estimated $3 trillion in wages, pensions, retirement funds and benefits. Caregiving is not the exclusive territory of early age boomers or Gen Xers. Millennials are helping care for grandparents and even parents. And for those who are caring for elderly family members as well as children — the sandwich generation — their burden is compounded. But the emotional toll … I can’t begin to count the hours I’ve spent talking to friends and colleagues about the strain of caregiving. So many of us can relate to the frustration and even anger that bubbles up as overwhelming stress sets in. One friend with an elderly parent recently told me, “I felt closed in, like there is no escape. I called the Alzheimer’s Association to get some information and just started bawling.” You want a true national emergency? We have 10,000 baby boomers retiring daily in the U.S. Caregivers are at the end of their financial and emotional ropes with no clear solution in sight. Only a concerted effort by employers, employees and border wall-obsessed politicians can ease this crisis. Employers can do their part by implementing reasonable flexible-work schedules, paid sick leave and common-sense family leave policies. Telecommuting can help ease part of the burden. And by all means make sure your employee assistance program puts a priority on caregiver services, and communicate that with your employees. If millennials and Gen Z are advocates for social reform, let’s also lean on our future leaders to find solutions. Incorporating VR for dementia research is an encouraging signal that advanced technology offers the potential to produce tangible results on social issues like caregiving. Perhaps these younger workers will play a vital new role in caregiving. Indeed they offer support and compassion for those working the front lines caring for elderly relatives. But they also are creating innovative concepts behind the scenes to help solve the caregiving crisis before us. Caring for an ailing family member is a demanding, emotional burden. Caring for those caregivers who also happen to be our co-workers is a challenge we all should readily accept. Rick Bell is Workforce’s editorial director. To comment, email editors@workforce.com.
march/april
2019
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