Using Workforce Analytics to Optimize your Employee Benefits Strategy – How well do you understand your employees’ benefit plan utilization? Do your benefits meet your employees’ needs during each career stage? Optimizing a benefits plan design strategy using comprehensive data analytics yields benefit programs that meet employees at each point of their career and life cycle. Hear how member companies have used analytics to:
Can you just do it for me? – Finding ways to educate that achieve desired employee behaviors as benefit consumers: No matter how much we communicate, it seems many “just don’t get it” – or don’t want to have to do the work of understanding the overwhelming amount of benefit plan information we make available, or how to navigate the health care system or manage their financial wellbeing. But the needs go beyond “educating” to the need for advocacy. This workshop will explore creative and effective ways to reach employees during moments that matter, with a mix of personally relevant tools and timely human intervention.
Mental Health: Tackling Disability Leave, Access to Care & the Provider Gap – Managing leave and getting participants to use the resources you provide are top employer priorities. The gap in providers compounds this issue. This workshop will discuss strategies and/or programs employers are implementing to help navigate and manage mental health related disability leave and address provider access. How do companies determine which of the dozens of solutions available might work best to assist in managing mental health time off? How can success be measured? We’ll also discuss bridging the mental health provider gap using digital therapeutics, expanded EAP services, point solutions, and manager/HR training, and more.
Vendor Management & Accountability – An open discussion about how to best manage the onslaught of point solution and carrier based vendor solutions across various aspects of benefit strategy. We will explore which vendors are delivering results and which are not, how we are packing these solutions into a cohesive strategy, and the role of the point solution vendors in our future strategies. Accountability for results and meeting expectations plays heavily here and that can include having tough conversations with these vendor partners. As part of this session, we will discuss best practices to hold partners accountable without breaking trust and the ongoing relationship.
Health Equity: Pursuing equity in an inequitable landscape – We know 80% of an individual’s health is determined not by the health care system, but by social determinants of health (SDoH) including income, education, environment, transportation, access to food, and more. What can and are we doing to help close this gap? For example, how can we use data analytics to identify and address social determinants of health to help employers target solutions to support a food-insecure population? In terms of plan designs, have we gone too far with HDHPs, HSA's, etc. leaving those most financially vulnerable (typically lower paid workers) with the least amount of insurance? This workshop will help us explore various employer strategies seeking to counter the disparities and close the gaps on the issue of health equity.
The Competitive Necessity of Putting a Premium on Flexibility – Flexibility in the workplace is a hot topic these days. During the pandemic, those who could work remotely enjoyed more flexibility than ever, changing employee experience expectations. Now, as many return to the office, workplace flexibility has emerged as a key retention factor. This session will explore ways to give more flexibility to employees using total rewards exchanges and lifecycle accounts to meet the diverse needs of a multi-generational workforce and enhance recruitment and retention, without also breaking the bank.
Segmentation by Gen(d)eration – There is no one-size-fits all approach when it comes to employee health and wellbeing, and every employee desires benefits tailor-made for their individual needs. Given limited resources, it is challenging for organizations to attempt to customize their approach to meet the unique needs of every gender, generation and work-life situation in the workforce. If you can't provide a personalized experience for every employee, which approaches are meeting your goals and generating the greatest value for your time and financial investment?
Making Your Plans State-Proof/ Protecting ERISA – State and local regulations driving decisions for health, disability, and leave plans continue to be on the rise. What can employers and plan sponsors do to shore up their plans? For example, travel benefits rose in priority as a response to the Dobbs ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, and new state laws for paid family leave and long term care are common. What do consultants and ERISA attorneys suggest employers do to anticipate further state law changes to minimize administrative burden? How can we be more proactive rather than reactive?
Retirement Roundtable – This session will offer participants an opportunity to cover a number of DC and DB retirement topics chosen by the workshop attendees. Topics for consideration might include: DC Vendors, ideas and strategies aimed at addressing DC investments and financial wellness during turbulent economic times, aiding DC plan participants through the accumulation phase of their financial lives, strategies and tools to help participants in developing an effective approach to retirement drawdown, the impact of rising interest rates on DB plans – funding status, plan payments, investment strategy, etc. These topics and more are all on the table for discussion.
Cancer Care - Transforming Our Strategy – What does the future look like? Generally seen as one of the top drivers of healthcare spend, cancer affects more people now than ever, especially with delayed care over the past two years. The impact of delayed healthcare and screenings has begun to present in the data. Employers will discuss the current and anticipated impact of delayed care on their data and share their future strategies to reduce the incidence and severity of preventable cancer. Strategies might include utilizing point solutions, genetic screening and gene therapies, regular screenings, second opinion services, centers of excellence and more.