Remote work's shortcomings, meeting fatigue and other top benefit news

October 24, 2024 2:58 PM

In this roundup of the top trending topics in the benefits space, explore how remote work is having a detrimental impact on Gen Z's professional skill development, the true depth of the living wage gap, building a suite of more tailored and holistic benefits and more.

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Summer Fridays might be a thing of the past

Article by

Deanna Cuadra

Summer Fridays are likely over for the year, but will companies roll them out in 2025? Data from management software company Envoy reveals that the perk may just be a thing of the past.

Envoy found that just 10% of employees go into the office on Friday, showing that employees are strategic about when they want to commute in a hybrid work environment. Friday traffic has declined since 2021, and even return-to-office mandates haven't disrupted the trend.

But what does that mean for summer Fridays? Traditionally starting after Memorial Day and ending with Labor Day weekend, summer Fridays allowed employees to clock out at least a few hours early. However, the rise of remote work meant that employees could not only work from home but plan their week with shorter Fridays in mind — and not just for the summer.

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Remote work is stunting Gen Z's professional development

Article by

Paola Peralta

As the digital generation, Gen Z has been the poster child for the success of virtual and hybrid work, but the very thing they've excelled at is starting to hurt their careers.

Forty percent of business leaders believe that Gen Z is unprepared for the workforce, according to a survey from educational insights resource Intelligent.com. Additionally, 88% said this younger generation was less prepared than graduates from more than three years ago, and 94% admitted to avoiding hiring recent grads.

Part of this issue stems from the lack of professional development opportunities in remote and hybrid work settings. Overall, Gen Z has worked remotely a significant portion of their careers to date due to the pandemic, meaning they have missed out on some experiences that come only with in-person interactions.

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$0 copays and deductibles? Curative is helping companies make their healthcare plans accessible

Article by

Paola Peralta

Employees shouldn't have to sacrifice their finances for healthcare, and one company has made it a mission to ensure that they can have both.

Since it launched in January 2020, healthcare services company Curative aimed to improve healthcare outcomes. Given the timing of the company's funding, many of those efforts focused on COVID-era responses such as testing. Since the end of the pandemic, its focus has shifted and their offerings have expanded to meet the current and pressing healthcare demands coming from Americans — accessibility.

"We wanted to take on the systemic challenges of healthcare that became so apparent in dealing with thousands of payers during the pandemic," says Fred Turner, CEO and founder of Curative. "We explored various options that would help us make the most impact and ultimately landed on challenging the status quo commercial health insurance market with a powerful alternative."

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Why more companies should brace for ERISA lawsuits

Article by

Deanna Cuadra

For many Americans, health insurance doesn't guarantee they will be able to afford care without risking their financial stability. Some workers are taking steps to shake up the status quo.

This year alone, workers from Johnson & Johnson and Wells Fargo have filed class actions against their respective companies for violating their fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, the federal law that establishes standards for private sector retirement and health plans.

The plaintiffs have argued that their employers failed in their selection of prescription drug plans as well as in their negotiation of drug prices and administrative fees, and in monitoring the plans' formulary and pricing decisions.

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Creating benefits that care for the whole employee

Article by

Lee Hafner

Employers are on a never-ending quest to build benefits options that make healthcare more efficient and personalized. Looking at the entire spectrum of employee wellness and how to best reach them with solutions is a necessary part of this.

Heather Dlugolenski, U.S. employer chief strategy officer at Cigna Healthcare, addressed this during her fireside chat at EBN's Benefits at Work conference. While strides have been made to make benefits more personal and adaptable, there is more work to be done, she says.

"When you think about 10-15 years ago, it was a plan design that we gave to everyone," says Dlugolenski. "It was a disease management program that had maybe a shallow sweep across asthma, diabetes and cardiac — it was the same thing, just with a little bit of different content. The industry has definitely sub-segmented into narrower, more precise, more personal solutions."

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The living wage gap: How Americans' salaries are failing them

Article by

Deanna Cuadra

Do your wages cover all of your family's needs, or are you falling short? This HR software company decided to find out.

Dayforce partnered with the Living Wage Institute for its first Living Wage Index. The report found that 44% of Americans are not making a living wage according to county-level estimates of what different size families would need to afford basics like food, child care, housing, transportation and healthcare. On top of that, the report revealed gender and race gaps, with women being 32% more likely not to earn a living wage and Black and Latino workers being nearly twice as likely.

In other words, some employers are falling short on not just their compensation practices but their DEI promises.

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Prevent retirement-saving regrets with these tips

Article by

Rob Burgess

Most Americans wish they had started saving for retirement sooner and that they hadn't withdrawn money early from retirement accounts, according to a recent study.

The report, conducted by Censuswide and commissioned by Human Interest, also indicated employers can help employees avoid retirement planning decisions they'll later regret. The research was conducted with 1,041 full-time, non-self-employed American workers between July 8 and 10.

The study found that 41% of Americans expect to retire later than planned due to recent financial circumstances and 83% plan to continue working after retirement.

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Meeting fatigue is bad for business

Article by

Deanna Cuadra

Does your meeting schedule keep you away from actual work during the week? You're not alone.

According to work collaboration platform Miro, 43% of workers report that meetings negatively impact their productivity, and 65% have felt panicked due to their meeting load. In total, WorkLife estimates that workers spend 37% of their workdays in meetings or coordinating them. While the rise in remote work demonstrated that office workers are more than capable of completing tasks and projects asynchronously, the number of meetings people have on their plate has increased by 60% since 2020, according to Harvard Business Review.

"If you had a bad meeting culture before, hybrid work has amplified it," says Dom Katz, Miro's way of working lead. "It has a lot to do with the lack of trust — leaders feel if they can't see their workers, then they are not working. So, meetings have become a crutch for control, whereas companies should have embraced distributed work."

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These resources can help workers recover from substance use disorders

Article by

Lee Hafner

Employer efforts to address substance use disorders among employees are more important than ever, and these resources can help.

More than 13 million employees struggle with substance use disorders (SUDs) in the U.S., according to addiction education and mental health platform Addiction Center. Studies show that, on average, these workers miss twice the number of workdays as coworkers without a SUD, have a greater risk of accidents, injuries and disciplinary issues, have lower productivity and morale, and cost the economy billions in work-related loss.

Employers have everything to gain from establishing themselves as a recovery-ready workplace — one that provides support and resources to help employees overcome SUDs. Florida has given them a partner in this, recently establishing a Recovery Friendly Workplace (RFW) Coalition to develop formal standards and training, as well as customized programs that allow businesses to become certified as a RFW.

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Is your company compliant with voter leave laws?

Article by

Deanna Cuadra

If you're heading to the polls on Election Day, you may have to take some time off work to do your civic duty. But if you live in one of the 31 states with voter leave policies, the time off may not have to come out of your paycheck.

And there's no better time to check — for employers and employees alike.

For example, states like California, Maryland and New York require employers to provide two hours of paid leave for voters, while states like New Mexico, Illinois and Arizona forbid employers from financially penalizing employees for the time they take off to vote.

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