The number of mid-market employers giving Group Health plan members incentives to participate in wellness programs has more than doubled since 2010, says a recent report by Fidelity Management and Research L.L.C.

The study found that more than three in four midsize businesses (77%) - those with fewer than 5,000 employees - offered employees monetary rewards tied to wellness activities and health management outcomes in 2011, compared with fewer than two in five (38%) that provided cash incentives in 2010. Overall, nearly nine in ten employers surveyed (86%) gave some type of incentive for wellness activities and/or outcomes in 2011, up from with 63% a year earlier.

The average value of incentives offered to employees and their dependents has also increased substantially. For the 2013 plan year, the average employee incentive value will reach $521, up from $460 in 2011; while the average incentive value for dependents will grow to $465 this year, from $390 in 2011.

Despite the rapid increase in mid-market businesses offering incentives for wellness program participation, they're still less likely than larger employers to provide these rewards. The value of incentives also remains lower among midmarket employers than those given by larger businesses. Less than half of midsize firms (45%) offered inducements for healthy behavior worth $500 or more, compared with 50% of large employers and 68% of very large employers.

"As the cost of providing health care continues to increase, employers recognize one of the key ways to manage their company's costs is to give incentives to their workforce for leading a healthier lifestyle," says Adam Stavisky, Fidelity Senior Vice President/ Benefits Consulting.

If you'd like to implement, or a revise, an incentive program to help keep your workers stay more healthy - and, thus, more productive - just let us know. We're here to help!

Finding -- and keeping -- great employees is always the challenge of any business. While recruiting and training employees can be an expensive process, it is an investment in the growth and well-being of your company. In order to protect your investment, you need to make sure you are giving your employees the best benefits for their needs. 

Health Insurance

Whether you are required by the federal government to provide health insurance to your employees or not, you should offer them the choice. In addition, paying for a certain portion of that health insurance goes a long way toward retaining those high-quality employees you worked so hard to find and train. 

Retirement Plans

If you have a young workforce, you might not think that they are concerned about retirement. Even though young people thrive on adventure, it doesn't mean that they aren't planning for their retirement. Offering the option to pay into a retirement plan helps your employees plan for their future and makes them feel like you are invested in that with them. 

Other Benefits

While other benefits such as life insurance, disability insurance and vision and dental coverage might not be on the must-have list for all of your employees, it is still important to offer them these options. Providing a range of different benefits allows your employees to pick and choose those options that best fit their situation at that time. You will likely find that their choice of benefits changes as their life circumstances change. A 20 year old employee, for example, might not be interested in obtaining life insurance until he becomes a father years later. 

In today's increasingly complex and litigious business environment, your corporate officers and board of directors - the brains of the company - need protection against personal financial liability arising from their corporate activities.

• Providing inaccurate or unlawful advice.
• Fraud and malfeasance.
• Misrepresentation of company assets.
• Failure to comply with workplace laws.
• Poor hiring decisions. (A Towers Perrin survey found that 40% of all reported D&O claims involved flawed employment practices.)

Large corporations often use "alternative risk financing" - assuming some of their own risks, in addition to buying insurance - as a way to improve cash flow and lower their total costs. However, this technique can offer substantial benefits for medium-sized companies that face significant potential risks from one line of insurance, such as Workers Comp, General Liability, or Auto Liability.

Basic alternative risk financing methods include:

• Guaranteed cost insurance - the company pays a premium based either on a rate, such as payroll or property values, or a flat amount.
• Incurred loss retrospective rating plans ("retro) - use a standard premium adjusted after policy expiration based on loss experience.
• Large-deductible plans - the organization assumes a substantial (often $50,000 to $250,000) per-accident or per-occurrence deductible.
• Self-insurance - the firm retains its loss obligations and pays them as they become due.
• Captive insurance - this variation on self-insurance pre-funds risks through an insurance subsidiary ("captive") usually owned by the parent company.

Because each of these methods has advantages and disadvantages, your choice should depend on the situation and needs of your business. For example, a guaranteed cost plan minimizes the upside risk, but won't help your cash flow; while a captive usually costs the least to finance, but can be expensive to administer.

Whichever alternative risk financing option you choose, make sure your accounting and human resources departments educate managers on their responsibilities in daily hands-on administration of the program. The more widespread their "buy-in," the stronger your bottom line.

We'd be happy to help you select and develop an alternative risk financing program that's tailored to your needs. Just give us a call.

Once employees have gone through safety training, make sure that they use what they've learned. When every worker knows and chooses the safe way on a daily basis, you'll have a workplace with less chance of accidents and injuries.

This four-step approach to job safety will pay dividends:

1. Team up to solve problems and improve safety. Create employee teams in every department to gather information on potential hazards, analyze problems, develop and test solutions, and implement and monitor results. Being part of a team makes workers feel that they share responsibility, which keeps your safety message top of mind.
2. Talk up safety every day. Update employees on information that affects their safety. Provide ongoing feedback, praising safe performance, correcting unsafe behavior, and pointing out areas for improvement. Make sure that communication flows both ways. Urge workers to offer suggestions, identify problems, and pose questions - for example, through a safety suggestion system.
3. Encourage employees to become hazard detectives — and reporters. Make every worker responsible for finding hazards. Create an effective system for reporting problems, and respond promptly to correct hazards that employees identify. This is harder than it sounds because it means that management has to listen when workers discuss safety concerns.
4. Create a "want-to" safety culture. Encourage your workers to do the safe thing, not because they have to, but because they want to avoid injuries. Remind them of how many safety-related decisions they make every day - and how one bad decision is all it takes to get hurt.

For professional advice on creating or updating your workplace safety program, just give us a call.

Non-traditional voluntary employee benefits are becoming increasingly popular with workers because they address their real-world lifestyles and financial needs. If you'd like to offer your workers a benefit that can help them invest in their future, advance their careers - and make them more productive - all without costing you a dime, consider online learning programs.

According to a recent nationwide study by Harris Interactive, more than half (53%) of workers and their spouses surveyed would be at least "somewhat likely" to use educational services for themselves or their families through an employee purchase program.

While higher education has become essential to get ahead in today's high-tech world, skyrocketing costs have made it increasingly difficult for workers to afford. More than nine in ten college students have taken out loans to earn their bachelors degree - and the value of student loan debt has topped $1 trillion ($300 billion more than credit card and auto loan debts combined)!

Many employers currently offer some form of tuition assistance for the continuing education of their workers. However, online learning can provide a more affordable and convenient alternative for your employees to fund their education and that of their family members (through tutoring programs and SAT/ACT preparation programs) while learning at their own speed. Workers would pay through convenient pain-free payroll deductions, providing a responsible way to budget, together with the opportunity to graduate free of debt. What's more, the program won't burden your employee benefits budget.

To learn more about how you can offer this creative benefit to your workers, just give us a call.

A recent nationwide study found that more and more businesses and workers are benefiting from voluntary employee benefits programs. According to the Prudential Insurance Company State of Group Voluntary Benefits survey:

• More than six in ten employees surveyed (63%) believe that voluntary benefits increase the value of their company's benefits program.
• The percentage of employees who would like to receive more benefits grew to 34% from 24% a year ago.
• One in three employees feels that losing their voluntary benefits would be disruptive and expensive.

"Employers and employees agree on the value of voluntary benefits," says Bob Patience Prudential Group Vice President, Voluntary Benefits Insurance. "Employers see an increase in employees' satisfaction with these programs, while employees appreciate their employers' endorsement of the products offered, and believe they get good value because of their employers' involvement and diligence."

Voluntary benefits offers workers a number of advantages, including the education and resources they need to make informed decisions based on their needs. Taking full advantage of these programs is a great way for employees to improve their "wellness" - both physical and financial. What's more, voluntary benefits offer workers the convenience of employer-based enrollment systems and "pain free" payroll deduction.

What employees saw as the primary advantage of voluntary benefits varied based on age, education, and gender. More than three in five workers (62%) over the age of 60 focused on the guaranteed coverage feature. More than half (56%) of college graduates preferred the wide range of available products. A slightly higher percentage (53%) of women than of men (45%) chose the convenience of payroll deductions.

Our agency's professionals would be happy to advise you on creating or updating, your Voluntary Benefits program - just give us a call.

Product Liability Insurance helps protect your company from damages for losses related to manufacturing or selling products or other goods.

1. Manufacturing or production flaws that create an unsafe defect in the product. For an example, just recall the recent claims against Chinese manufacturers for using dangerous chemicals in their products.
2. Design defects that make the product inherently unsafe. (The series of lawsuits against Toyota vehicles for defective acceleration controls during the past two years comes to mind.)
3. Inadequate warnings or instructions, such as failing to label a product properly or advise consumers about potential risks. A famous example is the McDonald's "hot coffee case."