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Our payroll stuffer this month will focus on the important topic of Nutrition. It covers topics important to your employees such as:
Increasing Your Nutrition IQ
More and more people are learning to read the labels when grocery shopping, but so you know what all the terms mean? Learn how to decode a few of the more confusing food label phrases.
Three Surprising Superfoods
Learn about the many health benefits of mushrooms, quinoa, and pistachio nuts.
Surprising Fact about Mushrooms: Mushrooms as medicine have been used for centuries in Asian cultures. Today, maitake and shiitake mushrooms are being studied for potential cancer-fighting properties. Studies are being done to see if the shiitakes may also help boost the immune system and fight heart disease.
Never heard of quinoa? It is a grain with a fluffy, creamy, slightly crunchy texture and a nutty flavor when cooked. It is higher in protein than other grains and the protein is provides is a complete protein meaning it includes all nine essential amino acids just like animal protein.
Pistachios rank as one of the most popular nuts that contain high amounts of phytosterols. These are substances that are known to help lower cholesterol in your body.
Why Kids Overeat and How You Can Help Them Stop
Overweight and obese kids face serious health concerns. The extra weight puts kids and teens at risk for many health problems, including high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. By understanding why kids overeat, you can help your child get on the right path to a healthy weight.
For the full version of this document, please contact luann@visitaag.com.
According to a recent employer survey by the nonprofit National Business Group on Health and Fidelity Investments, corporate employers plan on spending an average of $521 per employee on wellness-based incentives in 2013. This marks a 13% increase from the average of $460 per employee in 2011 and almost doubles the per employee average from 2009.
The survey also found that the overall use of these incentives among corporate employers continues to increase. 86% of employers surveyed indicated that they offered wellness-based incentives.
The most populate wellness-based incentives continue to be:
A large majority of employers (54%) have also expanded their wellness-based incentives to include dependents as well. As part of the wellness incentives, employer are requiring employees to complete a health activity- like an employer sponsored biometric screening or health risk assessment- in order to determine their eligibility for the company’s health plans in 2013. Some employers are even taking steps as far informing employees that their failure to complete a health risk assessment may result in the employee being moved automatically into a less attractive medical plan offered by the company or even completely being removing them from the health coverage.
Forty-one percent of employers include, or plan to include, an outcomes based metrics as part of their incentive program. This will give both the employer and employees a measurable goal that can be used to reward behavior or results in certain health categories, such as lowering cholesterol or blood pressure or their waist line.
The infamous internal memo concerning eliminating telework at Yahoo was never intended for public release. At the top of the memo the call for privacy was clearly defined as “Proprietary and Confidential Information- Do Not Forward”. However, despite Yahoo’s directive, the memo was leaked on a blog post on February 22, 2013. This leak resulted in a lot of online attention – most of it bad. But it is not the first time a firm’s information has been leaked online and it will not be the last.
Recently, a Groupon CEO tweeted “I was fired today”. As a British entertainment retailer was announcing that it was laying off nearly 200 employees, a member of the company’s social media team took to Twitter and posted “We’re tweeting live from HR where we’re all being fired! Exciting!!”.
It is an aspect of the business world now. From layoffs to policy changes, decisions and information that was intended only for the eyes of your staff may actually be shared with the world via social media now.
The question- what is management to do?
Be Transparent and Proactive
To be transparent is to be clear and concise about expected or even suspected changes that have the potential to be controversial and could cause issues internally with your staff. Employer privacy is very limited and you can not realistically control what someone posts on their blog, Facebook, or Twitter account. Corporate bad news has a way of seeping into the limelight online.
“In the era of social medial and social sharing there’s almost no such thing as a truly internal e-mail announcement,” said Curtis Midkiff, director of social strategy and engagement at SHRM. “There are ways to share confidential information with your employees, but e-mail may not be the most appropriate because it is not a truly private form of communication. You can put as may disclaimers as you want, but when you push send…you always have to be prepared for it to fall in the wrong hands. You should almost pre plan that the e-mail may be seen by unintended audiences.”
One way to pre plan and be proactive is to break the news on social media sites yourself first. For example, Zappos CEO often tweets memos to employees from his Zappos Twitter account. He did so a few years ago when the company announced layoffs.
Another good rule of thumb? Try to limit surprises by including workers in decision early on, if at all possible. There are different obligations depending on if the company is a public or privately held company, but the more input that employees feel they have the better they will handle change in the long run.
Companies can try to soften the blow of bad news by keeping employees in the loop and telling them that change is coming. They can educate their employees on the process so that when the memo actually comes out, they are expecting it and do not freak out and leak it online.
Bad news is never good news and you can strive to be as transparent as possible with information. However, business leaders often have to make difficult and unpopular decisions and it can, in the end, become difficult to manage the emotions or reaction of one employee.
Our topic this month covers the Final Rule from HHS and the Exchanges.
Areas discussed include:
Contact us today for more information on this topic.