Category: Benefits and Compensation

This topic provides guidance on how to handle compensation issues in a way that attracts and retains the best talent and advances the strategic goals of your business. You get news and tips on what’s going on nationally and in the states, and updates on changes in regulations, possible governmental action, and emerging compensation trends.

How Virtual Primary Care is Changing Healthcare

Just about all employers and brokers agree the health plan industry needs an overhaul. That’s one of the clear takeaways from Centivo’s late 2022 Employer & Broker Health Plan Trends Survey. Exactly how to make change happen, however, is where these groups somewhat disconnect: We found that far more employers are open to innovative ideas […]

What Employers Can Do to Fight Back Against Banking Junk Fees

Everyone’s talking about junk fees these days. Even the president called them out in his State of the Union Address. One of the worst offenders is the banking industry, which makes money from overdraft, bounced check, and credit card fees. Junk fees cost your employees money and eat into their paychecks, but employers have a […]

The Rise of the 4-Day Workweek                                                      

The decade ahead will likely be known for innovations we haven’t even imagined yet. In the workplace, it may be known for the rise of a new way of scheduling employees: the 4-day workweek. As overwork has become a chronic issue, entire countries have started piloting and testing shorter workweeks. Between 2015 and 2019, Iceland […]

401K Matching for Student Loan Payments Finally Arrives

In this economic environment, employers are doing almost anything to attract and retain a quality workforce. Improving the suite of employee benefit offerings, sometimes without incurring major new expenditures, is top of mind for many. Enter SECURE 2.0, which includes a long-awaited 401(k) feature that has sparked employer interest for years. What Is It? The […]

What the 32-Hour Workweek Can Mean for the United States

The 4-day workweek (32 hours at 8 hours/day x 4 days/week) recently has come back into major discussion. The latest brick in the wall is researchers at Boston College, think tank Autonomy, and Oxford and Cambridge Universities wrapping up the largest research study to put that question to the test, with 61 companies and 2,900 […]

Holistic Health Is Part of a Balanced Benefits Plan

As the pandemic (arguably) comes to a close, most teams have been left with heightened mental health issues. Anxiety is at an all-time high, more than 75% of the workforce reports experiencing burnout in their current job, and 81% of employees are looking to their employer to give them more robust mental and emotional health […]

Encouraging PTO to Avoid Burnout in 2023

In today’s workplace, work-life balance, flexibility, psychological safety, and advocacy for mental health and well-being are all signs of a positive culture. With employee burnout at a record high, organizations are looking for new ways to keep their employees productive, happy, and stress-free. Fortunately, organizations already a tool they can utilize: paid time off (PTO). […]

NLRB Narrows Permissible Terms in Severance Agreements

A recent National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling determined that including certain nondisparagement and confidentiality provisions in severance agreements violates the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Facts McLaren Macomb Hospital permanently furloughed 11 employees and contemporaneously presented them each with a “Severance Agreement, Waiver and Release.” The agreement contained provisions that broadly prohibited them from […]

How HR Teams Can Secure Their Employees’ Financial Health

Over the past several years, employees have faced a level of economic volatility that some haven’t seen for decades and many have never experienced in their working lives. First, there was the massive job displacement and economic chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Then came surging inflation, which triggered a stock market plunge and a […]

Case Study: DOL Dings Asheville Company for Overtime Pay Violation

A common question from employers is whether they can use a “comp-time” system instead of making monetary overtime payments. The answer (unless you are a public-sector employer) is almost always “no.” A company in Asheville found that out the hard way when it was investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for alleged failure […]