The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will affect employees well beyond the immediacy of the initial crisis. As an employer, you have a unique ability and responsibility to manage your benefit providers, such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) and health insurance plans to ensure your workers have access to the help and support they need. Having your workers know you are here to support them through these difficult times can make a world of difference for their mental and physical health. Your Human Resources team and supervisors can help make this difference a reality.

After a year that was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic, many aspects of the workplace have changed, including employer-sponsored wellness programs. Prior to the pandemic, employers were already making a shift to the way they viewed and implemented wellness initiatives at their organization. Some of these changes included focusing on holistic well-being and bolstering mental health offerings.

Employee benefits liability (EBL) is insurance that covers businesses from errors and omissions that occur when employee benefit plans are administered. These errors and omissions may include failing to enroll, maintain or terminate employees in a plan, and failing to correctly describe benefit plans and eligibility rules to employees. EBL insurance covers a wide range of plans, including health, dental and life insurance, profit-sharing plans, workers’ compensation and employee stock plans. EBL insurance is typically sold as a standalone policy.

Open enrollment can be an extremely positive and rewarding experience for you and your employees, providing you plan for it well in advance. During this unprecedented time, it’s important to review and modify your benefits offerings to enhance your employees’ physical, mental and financial health. Consider the following suggestions to help you prepare for a successful open enrollment period this year.

Flexibility can be a great way to attract talent to your company. Employees are looking for innovative workplace solutions to cater to their needs. Luckily, technology makes it easy for most teams to create flexible - and often remote - solutions.

Do you know how long the average employee stays with a company? With the hard-to-swallow cost of attrition, the average tenure is not nearly as long as you would hope. The current average is estimated right around 4 years for most employees, and closer to 3 years for employees under the age of 35. Year over year, these numbers are continuing to drop as job-hopping tendencies among employees are on the rise.