Unfortunately, life doesn’t come with guarantees, and there is always the possibility of a premature death or a permanent disability, either from accidental or natural causes. That calls for contingency planning to make sure that you or your family receive a realistic value for the equity stake you have in your business in the event of the unexpected.
In the current market, there are many opportunities to buy and sell companies. Acquiring a company can help meet business expansion goals, but can also create potential risk of future liability and financial loss flowing from the acquired firm or purchase agreement.
While traveling abroad for business can be exciting and fun, international travel is also stressful. Take into consideration these steps before departure to reduce risk and stress while traveling abroad.
Wire transfer requests top the list of business email compromise (BEC) objectives, according to a study by Barracuda Networks. Additional objectives laid out by the report include duping users into clicking on malicious links, establishing rapport and stealing information, with the end goal of extorting millions of dollars from unsuspecting companies.
This month's Threat Intelligence Report is about a large hotel chain that reports an “unauthorized access” to its customer database since 2014, exposing data of 500 million guests; a vulnerability in a postal service site that left 60 million customers exposed for more than a year; a third-party vendor breach that exposes data of millions of healthcare patients; a new report that profiles notorious MageCart cyber criminals; court documents that reveal first-ever indictment on ransomware charges; and a bundled pack that makes SamSam and other ransomware easier for hackers to obtain and deploy.
A recent survey by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) reported 94% of leaders feel employee engagement is an important or very important workforce challenge. An engaged workforce increases operational income by over 19%, while a disengaged workforce can drain over 34% of an organizations’ operational income. Additional risks of low engagement can be seen in increased turnover, low customer satisfaction ratings and even increased employment litigation.
Employee retention continues to be a top concern for employers, even more so than last year, according to a PayScale survey of more than 4,000 executives and human resources professionals.
In 2014, a staggering 59% of employers were more concerned about retaining talent than anything else. Five years ago, only half of those employers thought retention was their number one concern.
In the ongoing battle to contain costs, employers are always looking for tools, old and new, to help keep their healthcare spending in check. One approach is healthcare consumerism — but too often consumerism is discussed as just another plan design option and many employers are hesitant to implement this cost-saving strategy.
Health plan benchmarking is an essential part of your strategic plan, for two important reasons:
What are some of the critical decisions you must make when designing your organization’s health plan?
If you could give human form to your safety culture, what would it look like?
Maybe it would be a thick-set, shirtless brute named Trog with a foul disposition beating out a drum cadence to keep your employees rowing in-sync.
Or would it be more like a fussy and constantly disapproving Dickensian paper-pusher named Fizzlewhite who has never met a rule or procedure he didn’t like, even though he hasn’t done most of the things he creates rules to address?
If you were to search the various “mommy blogs” and parenting advice websites out there, how many of them do you think would endorse the following practice?
A child’s safety should always be a top priority for any parent. When leaving children under the age of 10 alone in the house for lengthy periods of time, be sure to provide the kids with a loaded pistol with the safety off in case a stranger should happen by. In a pinch, recently sharpened knives can be substituted for the pistol.
Introducing our 2019 MarketPulse trend report, where we discuss what our clients and other employers are doing to manage risks, promote employee productivity and morale, reduce costs and improve their organizations as a whole. In this issue, we explore retirement plans featuring target date funds as well as specialty drugs, cyber risk, predictive modeling, workplace well-being, advanced data analytics, the cost of large and often ongoing medical claims, and various emerging trends. In addition to a discussion of each trend, you will find supporting materials at AssociatedBRC.com/MarketPulse.
Download the PDF: MarketPulse 2019
Biometric screenings top the list of wellness tools that employers use today, according to MetLife’s 2014 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study. After biometrics, employers use other types of wellness programs as follows:
When it comes to an employer’s health plan, good information is like currency. Resourceful employers analyze their plan’s medical claims data and, with a few tweaks in plan design, they can create significant savings.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules require group health plans to provide special enrollment opportunities to certain employees, dependents, and Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) qualified beneficiaries. Being aware of special enrollment situations is important, along with making sure special enrollment rights are communicated.
During the White House’s Summit on Working Families on June 24, 2014, President Obama indicated he was signing a presidential memorandum requiring every federal agency to address flexible work schedules and give employees the right to request such schedules. Absent what could be a dramatic increase in workplace flexibility for federal employees, it is undeniable that the demand for flexibility and work-life balance is on the rise.
Public health insurance exchanges have a head start over private exchanges, but in the coming years, employer and employee awareness will increase, and soon the private options should receive the recognition and utilization they deserve.
Regardless of the industry or the current state of the economy, conducting a criminal background screen on employment candidates has become standard practice for many employers. It is not so much the practice that presents the issue as it is the potential result. To that point, the critical question becomes, what does an employer do if the background check reveals a criminal record?
According to the Federal Reserve, 44 million Americans owe a staggering $1.56 trillion in student loans, and the average incoming college-educated worker has over $37,000 in student debt (a $20,000 increase from just 10 years ago). As a result, the average college grad will take over 21 years to pay off their student loan debt making minimum payments. Many of the negative effects of overwhelming student debt include delaying the decision to buy a house or start a family, save for retirement, or just cause a tremendous amount of financial stress.
Many employers with more than 10 employees are required to keep a record of serious work-related injuries and illnesses throughout the year. This “record” is known to most of us as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) 300 or OSHA Log. February 1 marks the deadline for employers to tabulate their OSHA 300 Logs and post your OSHA 300A Summaries. March 2 marks the deadline for submitting Form 300A summary data to OSHA electronically via OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application (ITA).