Topic: HR & BENEFITS

n today’s post-COVID workforce filled with Millennial and Gen Z workers, mental wellness and mental health no longer carry the stigma of the past and have now become top of mind for employers and employees. No longer can we “rub some dirt in it” to get a fix when one in five adults each year is affected by a mental health condition and 55% of them go untreated1. The PEO industry has an amazing opportunity to further bring big business benefits to small businesses across the country by adding mental health solutions to product and service portfolios.

The pandemic was a wake-up call for many of the largest U.S. companies who have since implemented a wide range of initiatives to address mental health concerns among their employees. PEOs have a role to play in addressing the issue of stress in the workplace and the social stigma surrounding mental health, for our internal employees, for our clients, and for our communities.

PEOs are often on the forefront of new and innovative ideas to help employers and employees grow their enrollment. One idea that has recently gained traction in the health insurance market is the Individual Coverage HRA, or ICHRA1. ICHRAs are a new type of group health insurance that can provide significantly lower premiums and offer another avenue to win or retain business.

For today’s PEOs and the employers they represent, attracting and retaining talent requires facing challenges on multiple fronts. Workers’ priorities have shifted to center on health and wellness in the wake of the pandemic. Employers must recognize and support the “whole employee,”and attend to employees’ needs both on and off the clock. Runaway inflation has further raised the stakes, compelling small business employers to help their staff manage a higher cost of living amid steeper supply costs. And the Great Shuffle has heightened the competition for talent, empowering employees to leave if their needs are not met.

PEOs can contribute in a meaningful way to find and develop talent by offering internships. Many local universities have resources available to assist in starting an intern program, and talent is already in the pipeline waiting to be tapped. Since finding and keeping talent is a top concern for all employers, now is the time to do some research and begin developing a plan. With proper planning and implementation, an intern program can be very beneficial for the PEO, the student, and the PEO industry overall.

As insurance brokers, we know we have to start getting some quotes from PEOs, but most brokers are too scared to make the call. Why? It’s partially because we still mostly have no idea what a PEO is among other reasons. So, it’s up to you, the PEOs, to seize the opportunity! Convince us we should want to get quotes from you and make it easy for us. Better yet, teach us how a PEO really works and how businesses thrive with PEOs. Just get group brokers to love your PEO.

PEOs are uniquely positioned to lead the conversation about supporting caregivers with their clients to ensure caregiving in the workplace is no longer stigmatized. It starts with providing an objective view of their clients’ benefit strategies as well as organizational structure, and identifying the gaps in support for the worksite employees that might exist. When considering the benefits to implement as we come out of the pandemic, begin with evaluating the culture and environment within your client’s organization so you can help them design a benefits strategy that is tailored to that specific workforce.

“I just can’t find the workers we need,” is an intensifying concern we hear every day from nearly every client. While the staffing function previously stayed in the middle-management court, it now has the appreciably driving attention of our clients’ most senior executives. In 2022, every employee counts.

In recent years, Congress, the federal agencies, and the Trump and Biden administrations have taken significant actions affecting health and welfare plans, and 2022 promises to be no different. This article discusses some of the primary issues we expect PEOs to be grappling with over the coming months with respect to their PEO-sponsored group health plans.                 

The Great Resignation or the Turnover Tsunami—however you refer to this period of change in the workplace—is a historic moment for the workforce. As the quitting rate continues to increase along with the number of open positions, employers are being forced to take action to counteract the labor shortage. 

It’s an “employee’s market.” That’s a phrase business leaders have heard over and over again during the past year. Many HR professionals and business owners alike were hoping to see a change after stimulus programs ended. Since then, employers haven’t seen a rush of candidates back to the workforce as anticipated, nor have companies experienced a widespread rebalancing of workforce supply and demand. A change in worker attitudes and a return to normal also have been slow to materialize. That has left employers questioning whether these trends are here to stay. Regardless, these employment challenges can’t be ignored. To remain competitive and to continue business operations, organizations need to bridge the gap between employee expectations and workplace realities.

Years ago, a business owner talked to me about his organization’s diversity initiative. The challenge he faced was retaining employees hired as part of the diversity initiative. He was perplexed because he and his team put considerable energy into hiring African American employees only to have them quit within months of being hired. He attributed the poor retention to the assumption that “they just don’t want to work here,” and the diversity initiative was shelved. This conversation stuck with me for many years and pushed me to learn more about creating successful and sustainable diversity and inclusion initiatives.

PEO industry professionals are in a unique position to experience a feeling of déjà vu around this time of year. That’s because we’re probably following a specific cadence that has been built from years of experience around the usual end-of-year/beginning-of-year processes that apply to our own organizations as well as those of our customers. You likely end up asking yourself, “Didn’t we just do that?” more than once

Many employers carry employment practices liability insurance (EPLI), which provides cost-of-defense and other insurance coverages to employers for covered employment claims. EPLI claims, such as discrimination, harassment, and wrongful termination, can be extremely costly and time-consuming to defend. As a result, proactive employers should seek ways to reduce the number of EPLI claims to cut down on business costs. 

A successful business is dependent on positive employee relations and as our nation battles racial inequity, it is crucial to understand the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. In trying to keep up with this progressive trend, it behooves any business to work on its DEI strategy. Many business owners would be surprised to learn that DEI is imperative for success and growth. The influential byproducts of DEI include increased overall company performance, positive employee morale, innovation, and financial gain. According to an article in Forbes Magazine, “Companies with a strategic focus on diversity produced higher revenue based on innovation in comparison to companies that did not have the same strategy.”

Uber. Netflix. Airbnb. They all took business-as-usual ideas—taxis, video rentals, hotel stays—and turned them on their heads. They were all disruptions we welcomed because they fixed friction in our lives, unless of course you were a taxi driver, Blockbuster, or hotel chain. Disrupt or die became a critical shift for all industries, and it became crystal clear that digitally enabled, diverse experiences were the future.