ASHHRA Health and Wellness Pulse

World at Work
These days, the details of a benefits package can be a deal breaker.

Visit http://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79210 to view the full article online.

Bruce Hentschel, Benefitspro
Which generation has become the nation’s largest living generation by population? Baby boomers? Generation X? Nope. The millennials – aka Generation Y – are projected to number more than 75 million this year, according to Pew Research.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2015/09/25/5-things-millennials-want-from-benefits to view the full article online.

Dan Cook, Benefitspro
Recruiters are probably secretly anticipating the next recession. Their jobs are just getting too hard. The big bosses won’t loosen up on salaries, so they’re having to turn to juicier benefits packages to land the big fish.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2015/10/16/benefits-more-important-than-ever-to-recruiters to view the full article online.

Katie Kuehner-Hebert, Benefitspro
Our annual survey of employers, Benefits Selling's 2015 Employer Survey, showed a lot of interesting changes coming in the employee benefits arena, at least from the employer perspective.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2015/10/20/top-4-employee-benefits-issues?ref=hp-news&page_all=1 to view the full article online.

Melissa A. Winn, Employee Benefit News
Increasing benefit enrollment numbers is often as easy as offering better education about the benefits offered, yet employers continue to struggle with their education strategy.

Visit http://ebn.benefitnews.com/news/practice-management/can-better-enrollment-communications-really-increase-employee-engagement-2747504-1.html to view the full article online.

Nick Otto, Employee Benefit News
Whether employees are missing work for a day or two recovering from a cold or away from work an extended period following the birth of a child, employee absence has an economic impact on employers.

Visit http://ebn.benefitnews.com/news/employer-strategies/onsite-clinics-associated-with-lower-employee-absence-2747481-1.html to view the full article online.

Gregory A. Freeman, HealthLeaders Media
The right approach can help reluctant physicians embrace value-based payment models.

Visit http://healthleadersmedia.com/content/HR-321751/Boost-VBP-with-Financial-Incentives-For-Physicians to view the full article online.

Marlene Y. Satter, Benefitspro
Financial wellness programs: Employees want them – or say they do. But when push comes to shove, employees either say their employers don’t offer financial wellness programs or they aren’t sure if they do.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2015/10/12/employees-want-financial-wellness-programs-private?t=wellness to view the full article online.

Chris Carosa, Benefitspro
I was at a financial journalist workshop in New York last week and discovered many interesting facts, not the least of which is that everything you always feared about reporters is true – but I digress.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2015/10/14/how-millennials-listen-to-financial-advice?t=strategies to view the full article online.

Jack Craver, Benefitspro
A new study suggests offering employees free food is an easy way to keep them happy and productive.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2015/09/21/the-key-to-workplace-happiness-free-food?t=employee-paid to view the full article online.

Compensation.BLR.com
Employee perks are nothing new. Great company perks can even be the deciding factor for a lot of candidates when choosing a place to work.

Visit https://compensation.blr.com/Compensation-news/Compensation/Compensation-Administration/InfographicHow-important-are-perks-in-the-workplac/ to view the full article online.

Lauren Brousell, CIO.com
A new survey suggests millennial workers respect their bosses, look to them for motivation and want to become leaders themselves; but salary, workplace perks and high-end technology are more important to them than to older generations.

Visit http://www.cio.com/article/2986262/hiring/millennials-want-to-be-leaders-but-not-without-big-salaries-perks.html to view the full article online.

World at Work
When it comes to retirement readiness, employees at the tail end of their careers aren't the only ones stressing out. Their bosses are too.

Visit http://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79209 to view the full article online.

World at Work
There's a gap not only in pay when it comes to women and men, but also with how prepared they are to retire.

Visit http://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79139 to view the full article online.

Uri Berliner, NPR
Comfortable with technology and skeptical of Wall Street, a growing number of young investors have turned to low-fee automated financial advisers for help saving for retirement.

Visit http://www.npr.org/2015/10/20/445337189/would-you-let-a-robot-manage-your-retirement-savings to view the full article online.

Julie Appleby, NPR
As health insurance open season heats up for businesses, many employees will discover that participating in their company's wellness program includes rolling up their sleeves for blood tests.

Visit http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/10/05/446005616/overtesting-of-employees-can-be-a-side-effect-of-workplace-wellness to view the full article online.

Lisa Schencker, Modern Healthcare
The surgeon was moody. He seemed drowsy at work. He was secretly an alcoholic. The situation could have led to patient harm, the loss of his license and malpractice lawsuits. But none of that happened.

Visit http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20151017/MAGAZINE/310179979 to view the full article online.

Jack Craver, Benefitspro
Maybe sitting isn't the new smoking. Or even the new soft drink. A recent study pushes back on the increasingly popular theory that sitting for hours on end is a significant detriment to one's health.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2015/10/19/sitting-at-work-might-not-kill-you to view the full article online.

World at Work
Working moms and dads in today's workforce go home hating work and feeling burnt out.

Visit http://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79212 to view the full article online.

Brian White, WorldatWork
In the 1970s, a rocket scientist from NASA was confounded. The agency had just landed a crew on the moon and his superior asked him: Why, with all this engineering achievement, couldn't they do anything about Earth's traffic? His solution? Teleworking.

Visit http://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79183 to view the full article online.

David Zax, Fast Company
When Douglas Merrill founded ZestFinance and began to think about the culture he wanted to install there, he thought back to his years as Google's CIO, from 2003 to 2008.

Visit http://www.fastcompany.com/3051048/second-shift/getting-creative-about-benefits-for-working-parents-with-midweek-playdates to view the full article online.

Carlos Gieseken, Pensacola News Journal
Stephanie Duggan, MD, loves to work in emergency medicine. Even though she is the chief medical officer at Sacred Heart Hospital, she still works one shift a week in the emergency room.

Visit http://www.pnj.com/story/news/2015/10/17/physician-burnout/74140268/ to view the full article online.

The Faas Foundation via PR Newswire
In order to explore bullying and wellness in the workplace and to create methods to assess psychological health and eliminate the unnecessary stress factors, the nonprofit Faas Foundation launched the Initiative to Create Psychologically Healthy Workplaces.

Visit http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/first-ever-international-study-on-workplace-wellness-finds-80-percent-of-people-would-rather-work-alone-because-of-unhelpful-or-hostile-work-environments-300153768.html to view the full article online.

Tori Rodriguez, MA, LPC, Psychiatry Advisor
With the vast range of therapeutic tools and techniques at our disposal, mental health practitioners often overlook a key resource that has a multitude of mental, emotional and cognitive benefits, is generally accessible to most people and doesn't cost a thing: the great outdoors.

Visit http://www.psychiatryadvisor.com/mood-disorders/nature-cognitive-anxiety-depression-mood/article/448018/ to view the full article online.

Keith Sorrano, HR.BLR.com
More than half of the U.S. population accesses health benefits via employer-provided benefit plans, and employers collectively spend over a trillion dollars providing them.

Visit http://hr.blr.com/HR-news/Benefits-Leave/Healthcare-Benefits/Health-management-smarter-approach-healthcare# to view the full article online.

HealthLeaders Media
Without a serious commitment to analytics and risk-related efforts, population health management will not reach its full potential.

Visit http://healthleadersmedia.com/content/QUA-321848/Intelligence-Report-Slideshow-Population-HealthmdashInvesting-in-a-RiskBased-Future to view the full article online.

Jonathan Bees, HealthLeaders magazine
While leaders recognize the value of a new health care model, they are still early in forming strategies and making investments.

Visit http://www.healthleadersmagazine-digital.com/healthleadersmagazine/october_2015?pg=26#pg26 to view the full article online.

World at Work
The state of business these days means managing rising health costs. Many companies are rethinking their health strategies to contain it.

Visit http://www.worldatwork.org/adimLink?id=79120 to view the full article online.

Justine Hofherr, Boston.com
Thanks to a $30 million funding deal, meditation app "Headspace" could soon join the ranks of innovative workplace wellness perks some companies offer employees.

Visit http://www.boston.com/jobs/news/2015/09/24/the-next-workplace-wellness-trend-path-nirvana/tQ3xISf2JViqOMILp5UGyH/story.html to view the full article online.

Ann Wyatt, Benefitspro
To attract and retain top talent, research suggests some employers are spending more dollars on richer benefits in lieu of higher salaries.

Visit http://www.benefitspro.com/2015/10/13/7-corporate-fitness-trends-to-watch to view the full article online.