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How Finance Executives Are Confronting Rising Benefit Costs, the Aging Workforce, Recruiting, ...

Excerpt: [CFO Magazine] asked 249 senior finance executives from a diverse range of companies to share their views on these challenges and tell us how they are responding. As our second annual human-capital survey shows, CFOs are taking the challenges seriously -- in particular, they are showing new willingness to experiment with remedies for their human-capital ills.

ACA Compliance Remains a Concern for Employers

"Employers may be receiving an unwanted letter in the mail, if they haven't already. The final stage of the 2015 [ACA] tracking and reporting process has hit employers in the form of penalty letters from the IRS."

Consolidation Results in Fewer 401(k) Recordkeepers, Better Prices for Employers

"As a result of plan sponsor demands, fees paid for record-keeping services have been squeezed, hitting record lows each year. The median record-keeping fee was $64 per plan participant in 2015 down from $70 in 2014, according to data from investment consulting firm NEPC. When NEPC started tracking fees 10 years ago, it was $118.... About 10 years ago, record-keepers needed to service 1 million participants to stay alive. Today, providers need 2.5 million to 3 million participants[.]"

Sorry, ERISA Is Hardly a Failure

"To see how the private sector would have fared without ERISA ... look no further than state and local pension systems for public workers.... It's true, not everyone has a 401(k) at work, but whether there's any type of retirement plan at your workplace is irrelevant. Practically anyone can open an individual retirement account either by walking through the doors of a bank or opening it online. And lots of people have done just that. Simply look at the trillions of dollars in individual retirement accounts today."

Employers Winging It on Phased Retirement Programs

Excerpt: Even though the Pension Preservation Act of 2006 eased some restrictions on keeping on older employees while they draw on pensions, companies have been reluctant to give up the relationships they have formed with third-party providers. Companies with established ties to staffing firms are happy with an arrangement that's familiar and fulfills their need for additional help on an as-needed basis.

Up in the Air: Does USERRA Require Paid Leave?

"Until recently, most employers familiar with USERRA's intricacies were confident that the statute does not require paid leave for military service. The Act, itself, is explicit in its pronouncement that servicemembers are entitled to up to five years of cumulative unpaid leave. The spate of class-action lawsuits targeting commercial airlines -- whose pilot workforces are made up of high percentages of service members -- has tossed that basic premise up in the air."

Carefully Choosing the Right Benefits Package Pays Off for Employees -- and Employers

"There are a few important tips that can increase the success of employers as they create a balanced and cost-effective benefits package that will appeal to current and future employees. Ask questions-and the important ones.... Choose a customized benefits plan over an off-the-shelf package.... Build it around the workforce.... Start a healthcare literacy program to help employees help themselves."

What's the ROI on Wellness Programs?

Excerpt: Hannaford has frequently been touted as running one of the best wellness programs in the country .... Like other notable companies on the short list, Hannaford has a huge workforce -- 12,000 people -- and much to gain from improving the health of its employees. There are no exact figures on what the wellness program pays back for the more than $11 million in insurance discounts that it hands out in a year, says Udeh, but there is one very healthy trend line to boast about. 'Over the last two years, there's been a negative spending trend in medical, which is pretty unheard of,' says the wellness director. 'We're pretty sure a lot of the wellness initiatives are contributing.'

Wellness Programs No Longer Just an Add-On

Excerpt: America's health plans have heard the message: Employers want wellness services, and the plans are delivering with gusto. The nation's biggest plans are rolling out slick programs that are designed to improve the health status of a client's workforce by picking off the incubating health problems of each worker -- one at a time if that's what it takes.

Companies Working in a Variety of Ways to Improve Employees' Care

Excerpt: Helen Darling calls it 'revolutionary,' this effort on the part of employers to more closely monitor and improve the health of their workers. Darling, the president of the National Business Group on Health, ... says that corporate America began getting much more involved in trying to improve clinical outcomes for its workforce about three years ago.