New England Employee Benefits Company

Webinar Preview: Reining in Runaway Pharmacy Spending | Alera Group

To assist employers in navigating the costly and complex landscape for prescription drugs, Alera Group will host a one-hour webinar on Thursday, April 20.

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What You’ll Learn in Our Webinar on Inflation-Proofing Employee Benefits | Alera Group

Employers may not be able to totally negate inflation’s effects, but they can blunt them. Our Feb. 16 webinar is a start.

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Helping Heroes

Axios asked veterans, academics and community organizers how we can best help those veterans who are with us — and help remember those who are gone.

Axios Finish Line: Helping heroes About 15 in every 100 veterans are living with PTSD.

Why Science Says Employee Recognition Is Vital

Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? It's important for workplaces too.

Why science says employee recognition is vital Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs? It's important for workplaces too.

Stop by and see us on the 29th!

A new era of downtown opportunity Despite the pandemic's devastating impact on the office market, downtowns and nearby walkable neighborhoods are looking forward to two decades of growth driven by demographic and economic change.

According to the authors, managers need help with three things. First, they need help shifting the focus of career conversations from promotion to progression and developing in different directions. Second, they need help creating a culture and structure that supports career experiments. Finally, managers need to be rewarded not for retaining people on their teams but retaining people (and their potential) across the entire organization.

It’s Time to Reimagine Employee Retention According to Gartner, the pace of employee turnover is forecast to be 50–75% higher than companies have experienced previously, and the issue is compounded by it taking 18% longer to fill roles than pre-pandemic. Increasingly squeezed managers are spending time they don’t have searching for new ...

"We’ve spent so much time over the past two years analyzing the way companies and offices have been disrupted by COVID-19 that we’ve lost sight of the fact that, for the first time in history, five generations are together in the workforce ... Employers must understand that each generation represented in today’s workforce has different expectations that affect their job satisfaction and retention rates."

This is the key to reaching all the generations with your hiring strategy Benefits tied to education, such as upskilling and loan repayments, can reach all workers.

“If we can find ways to ask people, ‘How do you see yourself?’ and then make efforts to meet them where they are, that’s the goal,” Bailey says.

3 ways to make your Pride Month investments last beyond June Accenture's Beck Bailey offers insights for deepening and sustaining a commitment to LGBTQ inclusion in the workplace.

Revamped mental health benefits. A joint caregiving platform. Awareness of microagressions that hurt LGBTQ employees. Anti-racist business practices. These are some of the ways employers are trying to create a better work environment for their employees.

Long story short: Show employees compassion through your culture and benefits Employees want to feel empowered to be their best. Here’s how these top companies are updating their culture and benefits to support them.

Organizations who neglect the "retain" part of "attract and retain talent" risk finding themselves in a perpetual state of recruitment.

Council Post: The Double Standard Of Post-Pandemic Employee Benefits Employers are feeling the pressure to give job seekers what they want in order to fill open positions.

"As chaotic as work has felt since the start of the pandemic, it would be even more so without the often unseen work of HR teams. Over the past two years, they’ve been asked to do a ton of heavy lifting in the background to stabilize work environments and provide a sanctuary from the whirlwind of global uncertainty."

Human-Resources Workers Are Beyond Burned Out An HR leader's firsthand account of what the past two years have been like for the field.

"Employees need to be more involved with their benefits, beyond open enrollment. Employers need to redefine what benefits are. If someone asks an employee why they stay at a company, their answer probably won’t be because of the life insurance or long-term disability; it’s for some other reason."

Post-pandemic employee benefits: 3 areas to watch | BenefitsPRO Here are three areas of work and employee benefits that HR professionals should be focused on.

"There are three critical items that organizational leaders should consider to retain their youngest employees. Flexible work arrangements, mentorship and fostering and promoting an inclusive culture will help companies retain their youngest employees, setting up their workforce for the future."

How to retain millennial and Gen Z workers As an organization evolves, having younger, yet invested and knowledgeable employees is critical to effective succession planning and growth.

At Alera Group, our analysis of over 300,000 lives revealed healthcare claim and spending trends including: -Increases in behavior health diagnoses and treatments -Decreases in preventative care visits, particularly during early stages of the pandemic -Increases of elective procedures that may have been deferred due to COVID-19 concerns Download your copy of your findings.

COVID-19 Healthcare Utilization, Spending and Strategies The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted every aspect of our society. In addition to coping with illness and loss of loved ones, we’ve had to adapt to marked and evolving disruptions in our daily routines and livelihood. The challenges associated with the pandemic have also changed our health...

“The pandemic spurred an increased focus on the ongoing mental health crisis with demand for health and fitness apps increasing by 25% compared to 2019,” says Lexi Sydow, head of insights, digital insights platform data.ai. “As employees return to the office, mobile enables consumers to practice meditation no matter their location.”

The 10 most popular mental health and wellness apps In just the first quarter of 2022, over 52,000 claims have been submitted by employees, and 22.5% were for mental health apps and perks.

Alera Group is hosting our 2022 Virtual Employee Wellbeing Fair on Tuesday, June 7, and we'd love for you and your team to join us. Registration and attendance are free, and you can participate in as many, or as few, sessions as you'd like.

2022 Virtual Employee Wellbeing Fair We're excited to host our third, annual Employee Wellbeing Fair to help employees and employers across the nation engage in key topics related to physical, mental, financial, career, social and community wellbeing.

"The Internal Revenue Service announced Friday that for the calendar year 2023, the health savings account contribution limits for an individual with self-only coverage will jump to $3,850 — a significant $200 increase from $3,650 for this year. Last year, the amount climbed just $50 from $3,600 for 2021. For family coverage, the HSA contribution limit jumps to $7,750 next year from $7,300 in 2022."

IRS takes shot at rising inflation with 2023 HSA limits Contribution limits are increasing significantly as inflation soars.

It's Disability Insurance Awareness Month. Contact us with any questions you have!

What to Look for in a Disability Insurance Policy | Kiplinger Income protection insurance will keep your paycheck working, even when you can’t. Here are five key features of an individual disability insurance policy that can protect you and your family.

At a time when attracting and retaining employees is a major challenge, recognizing the real-life impact of inflation and doing something to help is one way for employers to engender goodwill.

5 employer strategies to help with soaring inflation As the cost-of-living climbs, employees are looking for help—and employers can assist with creative perks, compensation changes and more.

"In addition to pandemic-related concerns around safety and reopenings, employees are also grappling with the stress associated with current world events, like the war in Ukraine. These back-to-back stressors make the risk of PTSD even greater for employees who may have already been susceptible."

Employees are still traumatized by COVID and are at risk for mental health issues Risk for PTSD is 121% higher than pre-pandemic levels, leading to increased risk for other mental health conditions like depression, anxiety and substance use disorder.

The pandemic has exposed a critical need for high quality, comprehensive mental health care that is not likely to disappear after we are through the worst of the pandemic, according to an HR executive at a national provider of mental health benefits.

Supporting Mental Health in the Post-Pandemic Workplace ​In many workplaces, there is still a stigma around discussing employee mental health conditions. Yet the pandemic has created an unexpected opportunity for more open and supportive conversations between HR, employees and senior leadership.

Addressing and improving mental health has become a workplace touchstone in the past few years. Many employees report feeling anxious, stressed and even burned out. But in this "As We Work" podcast from the Wall Street Journal, social psychologist Dr. Amy Cuddy says we are experiencing something more specific to this moment, something she calls “pandemic flux syndrome.”

‎As We Work: Beyond Burnout: Pandemic Uncertainty and Your Mental Health at Work on Apple Podcasts ‎Show As We Work, Ep Beyond Burnout: Pandemic Uncertainty and Your Mental Health at Work - Mar 29, 2022

"When you have diversity at the leadership table, the magnitude of what you can accomplish is enormous," Fahmida Chhipa, FAPAC's vice president, told NPR. "You really expand yourself in the horizons to have something creative and innovative."

The story behind Asian Pacific American Heritage, and why it's celebrated in May May marks the beginning of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This year's theme is Advancing Leaders Through Collaboration.

The solution to your organization's talent-acquisition challenges may be closer than you think: Educate and train the workers you already have.

6 Strategies to Upskill Your Workforce The World Economic Forum estimates that more than half of all employees around the world need to upskill or reskill by 2025 to embrace the changing nature of jobs. So many organizations in these situations are turning towards reskilling to build the talent they cannot acquire or productively deploy....

A vital source of protection for any business, Cyber Insurance has become not only increasingly expensive but also more difficult to obtain. Here are four critical steps to address the problem.

Follow These Best Practices To Meet Cyber Insurance Requirements and Save - CPO Magazine By improving your overall security profile and demonstrating a low risk profile, you’ll be able to negotiate lower cyber insurance premiums and enjoy long-term savings.

"It can be easy for smaller companies to fall into the trap of pushing cybersecurity to the side. Most breaches that receive wide media attention are those that happen to gargantuan corporations, but there are plenty of bad actors out there targeting small and medium businesses (SMB), as well."

Small businesses are underestimating cyberthreats | PropertyCasualty360 A report from Corvus shows many small businesses are aren't addressing the threat they face from hackers.

Concerned about losing valued employees? Talk with them before they start looking for other opportunities.

7 tips for retention-boosting 'stay interviews' Kate Grimaldi, senior director of enterprise talent strategy at Paylocity, offers best practices for conducting talent-retention interviews.

Two tips for making hybrid arrangements work: Be aware of bias favoring employees who spend more time in the office; and monitor employee burnout as many who work from home put in longer hours.

A former Google HR leader thinks hybrid won't survive. Is he right? While the jury is still out on hybrid's long-term success, Visier's Paul Rubinsten offers some considerations for employers gearing up for a part-time office return.

"Here's how to update and modernize your company’s employee value proposition, or the benefits and support your employees receive for all aspects of their work and personal life in exchange for the skills and experience they bring to your company."

Council Post: How To Meet Employees Where They Are And Provide Benefits That Matter By offering benefits that support and amplify all areas of an employee’s life, companies gain a more engaged, productive and loyal employee.

Here's a look at some of the most in-demand employee benefits — and the biggest asks employees are making of their employers.

Employee Benefits That Are Most in Demand 2 Years Into the Pandemic What do employees want most in a post-COVID-19 landscape? As people evaluate what the future of their work looks like, they are showing less interest in office perks and significantly more interest in...