Best of the Week news roundup: December 13

December 20, 2024 12:00 PM

I need everyone to give me their best ideas. Shot of a group of businesspeople sitting together in a meeting. — Shot of a group of businesspeople sitting together in a meeting

This week, EBN released a special package, "Secrets to HR Success." The package includes how to build a health plan for the year ahead; how AI can do more than just shift through resumes—it can now predict when an employee needs to access a benefit; six components of a great workplace culture; and our top 10 HR stories of the past year.

We also looked at how Chime is helping employees achieve financial wellness, four benefits trends to watch for the year ahead, and how a platform developed by Genius Avenue is helping employees streamline their benefit selections.

Read these stories and more in our weekly news roundup.

How to build a health plan that will survive 2025

HR teams face no shortage of challenges, but healthcare is likely the problem they can never seem to solve. From rising benefit costs to an increasingly uncertain regulatory landscape, HR teams have their work cut out for them.

For a third year in a row, health benefit costs jumped past the decade-long average of 3% per year, with 2025 predicted to see a 5.8% increase in benefit costs per employee, according to consulting firm Mercer. Unsurprisingly, 53% of employers plan to alter their plans, including raising deductibles, which would mean higher out-of-pocket costs for employees. In the midst of a never-ending loop of higher costs and worse benefits, now more than ever, HR teams need to break away from the status quo and rethink their approach to healthcare — but where do they even start?

Secrets of HR: 6 components of a great workplace culture

When a company creates a culture where people feel happy, confident and unified, it sets the tone for every aspect of employees' work. A strong culture also helps with recruitment and retention.

And if this was easy to do, everyone would do it.

But it's not, which may explain the current disconnect in how leaders view their efforts to enhance workplace culture versus how employees feel about it. A survey conducted by Dayforce found that while 84% of executives and 81% of HR leaders said their company invests in culture, only 49% of workers said the same. To ignore this gap is to gamble with talent: Nearly 50% of respondents said they have left a job due to poor company culture.

How AI is impacting HR

Look for more companies in 2025 to adopt artificial intelligence tools not only in their hiring processes, but to improve benefits usage, employee retention and experiences training, according to a researcher who studies the use of AI for HR.

More and more HR staffs will need AI to keep up not only with other companies, but with job candidates who deploy their own AI agents to apply to hundreds of jobs with just a click or to fake their way through job interviews, says Ben Eubanks, chief research officer at HR consultant Lighthouse Research & Advisory and author of "Artificial Intelligence for HR."

Mass job applications are "creating more clutter for employers," he says. "If employers are not using AI, then they are falling behind. There's no amount of human input that's going to keep up with that kind of volume."

10 best HR lessons of 2024

As 2024 draws to a close, we gathered 10 of our most-read articles to help inform and educate human resource professionals.

Employee wellness programs should take into account both the mental and physical aspects of wellbeing. As GLP-1s become more widely available to employees, companies should encourage their workers to seek out lifestyle guidance to help them adjust to weight loss and other concerns they may have.

We also offer advice on smarter ways to recruit. A resume is just one piece of what recruiters should consider when they are interviewing candidates. The CEO of gym franchise Crunch Fitness says that the interviewer should also consider how a job candidate thinks and what they think about.

Chime's financial offerings cover broad needs of employees

Meeting the needs of a diverse workforce is a challenge for employers, especially when they are on a budget. The more impact a single benefit can make, the better.

This is especially true for financial wellness offerings, an ongoing necessity as employees continue to struggle with everything from paying bills to saving for retirement. Fintech company Chime is aiming to help meet employees where they are with multi-tiered financial support, including early wage access, a high-yield savings account option and credit-building resources. Whether someone is in the early stages of learning how to budget or feeling very financially secure, there are options to help them keep moving in a positive direction within the same platform.

4 benefit trends employers should watch in 2025

A new year means a fresh start, but for many employers, it's also an opportunity to tackle old problems.

From healthcare costs to AI training and development, 2025 will likely be defined by the benefits and policy challenges leaders have struggled to make headway on in the last few years. Add in the political and economic uncertainty Trump's incoming presidency brings, and it's clear HR teams will continue to have a lot on their plates. But if leaders need a guiding light for 2025, they don't have to look further than their own employees, says Linda Keller, the national chief operating officer and employee benefits practice leader at insurance brokerage HUB International.

How Genius Avenue enhances the employee benefits experience

When employees can easily access, understand and engage with their benefits, they and their employers come out ahead.

A large contributor to improving these factors is the shift by employee benefits and insurance providers to digital platforms, giving their workforce consolidated information at the click of a mouse or on their phone versus spread over emails and endless paperwork. But the most effective tools go beyond this, empowering workers to the point they enjoy interacting with their benefit options.