Fewer employees are confident that they understand how their health care plans work in 2023 than last year, according to the 2023 Healthcare Literacy Report by benefit solutions provider Optavise. Notably, this confidence is linked to satisfaction; 90% of employees who said they were extremely confident they understood their plan reported plan satisfaction, compared to just 13%-14% of employees who weren’t confident at all.

A recent study from Metlife found that an increasing number of employees feel they are not receiving the benefits they need from employers. Employee satisfaction with benefit offerings has fallen to 61% in 2023 from 64% in 2022, reaching its lowest point in the past decade of the study’s history.

Small businesses often have fewer resources than larger ones, potentially making it more efficient to outsource certain functions rather than keep them in-house. Certain functions of an organization’s HR operations are common options for outsourcing. According to a study by staffing agency Kelly Services, 36% of all employers outsource part or all of their HR responsibilities, with the most outsourced functions being payroll (56%), recruitment (49%) and benefits (40%).

Deciding how many HR professionals an organization needs to operate effectively is a hotly debated topic. Some organizations rely on metrics to guide them in making this decision. One of the most common metrics organizations use when deciding whether to hire HR professionals is the HR-to-employee ratio. When properly analyzed, this ratio can aid employers in meeting their HR needs and benchmarking their organizations against others.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law providing eligible employees of covered employers with unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. In general, eligible employees may take up to 12 weeks of leave each year for FMLA-qualifying reasons, including for treatment of a serious health condition.

More businesses are exploring low- and no-code development, which enables employees outside of IT to design and develop software solutions to problems specific to their function. A low-code development platform requires users to have little or no coding experience, increasing accessibility and feasibility for many functions and teams, including HR professionals. Similarly, no-code platforms require no coding experience.

Despite an employer’s best efforts to ensure a successful open enrollment, it’s likely that some employees will still miss the enrollment deadline or mistakenly select the wrong benefits. Employees in these situations may ask their employer to allow them to correct their mistakes.

A recession is a prolonged and pervasive reduction in economic activity. Generally speaking, multiple successive quarters of negative growth in gross domestic product—a monetary calculation of the market value of goods and services generated and sold during a set time period within a given country—constitute a recession.

Many Americans pay attention to prices and shop around when buying gas, groceries or big-ticket items like automobiles, but most don’t do the same for their health care. A survey from AKASA, a health care artificial intelligence company, revealed that nearly two-thirds (64%) of Americans have never tried to find the price of a health care service.

Health insurance may be one of the most critical annual purchases since it impacts your physical, mental and financial wellness. Unfortunately, selecting a health insurance plan can feel overwhelming. With so many options, it can also be easy to make a mistake when selecting coverage.

Identifying and retaining key employees is especially important in light of ongoing attraction and retention difficulties many employers have been facing. According to Zywave’s 2022 Attraction and Retention Survey, more than 75% of employers consider attraction and retention to be among their top five business challenges.

Current health care costs in the United States are high and rising. For many individuals, their health care costs outpace their wages. Since 2010, medical trend has grown by 73%, according to the Council for Affordable Health Coverage (CAHC). This is approximately four times faster than the average American’s wage and five times quicker than the consumer price index.

Pay transparency is when an employer openly communicates pay-related information through established practices to current or prospective employees. Employers can provide this information through various channels, such as online job sites, job postings or during an interview. As a result of changing labor markets, more and more employees are demanding pay transparency.

Each year, the Kaiser Family Foundation conducts a survey to examine employer-sponsored health benefits trends. This document summarizes the main points of the 2022 Employer Health Benefits Survey.

“Quiet quitting” continues to be an emerging trend where workers only do what their job description entails without going above and beyond. Or, this could mean only doing work directly assigned to them by a manager, while not looking for other ways to contribute to a team.

On Nov. 16, 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Speak Out Act, prohibiting courts from enforcing nondisclosure and nondisparagement clauses between employers and their employees and independent contractors that were in place before sexual harassment and assault disputes. The U.S. Senate signed the bill on Sept. 29, 2022.

The last months of the year are a great time for HR professionals to ensure they’re prepared for everything that needs to be done. It’s also an opportunity to evaluate which HR processes organizations want to take forward into the new year and which to leave behind.

Many organizations rely on seasonal workers to supplement their regular workforce during peak times. This often occurs during busy seasons or holidays, as there’s an influx of business activity. While similarities exist, there are important differences between seasonal and regular employment.

Open enrollment season—the annual period when you enroll in a health insurance plan—is now in full swing. For employer-sponsored plans, you should expect your employer to provide information about open enrollment during this time. There are several things you may want to consider when selecting a health insurance plan and this article covers some common considerations.

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) took effect in 1989 to protect workers, their families and communities by ensuring workers receive advance notice about qualified plant closings and mass layoffs. With sufficient notice, workers can better plan for and adjust to a loss of employment, and communities are better able to cope with large-scale job loss.