While many employers reduced their benefit packages over the past year, a select few took an alternate route, choosing instead to bolster their offerings to recruit, retain and motivate the employee population.
From wellness programs reinvigorated to amped-up EAP programs for managing employee financial health and stress, 10 award-winning employers show the benefits world how it’s done.
The Principal 10 Best Companies for Employee Financial Security 2009 details while connecting the dots for employers looking to emulate these star performers. Available at no charge, profiles of the winners, the new guide offers a benchmarking chart for comparing benefits with the Principal’s 10 best along with national averages and a checklist that can help plan sponsors fine-tune their benefits programs.
Examples abound: Of the employers profiled, one paid into employees’ HRAs whenever they participated in approved wellness activities to mitigate health care costs.
“We’re really starting to see a lower utilization [in health care],” says Karen Roch, vice president and chief personnel officer, Credit Union West. “When we first started this, our loss ratio was—on average—about 107%. In the two-year period, we’ve dropped down to 70%. It’s definitely having a positive impact.”
In a different approach to a similar problem, Synaptics Inc. required that managers participate in health screenings, exercise, diet training and more.
“It starts with the CEO all the way to first-level managers,” explains Jim Harrington, vice president of human resources at Synaptics. “The first day of the leadership forum, everyone gets their blood drawn. Every day we get up at 6:30 a.m. and go for a walk or a run. Two hours each day are devoted to information and training about health and diet. It’s mandatory.”
Another company shared cost savings with employees when they experienced an 8% health care cost reduction by subtly altering their plan design, despite having absorbed cost increases for employees many years previous.
On the retirement side, the Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union did the unthinkable: they introduced a defined benefit plan on top of their existing 401(k) plan to reward their hard-working employees. They made sure that employees knew the cost of their benefit addition so that they would better appreciate the sacrifices made by their employer.
“If you see employees as your greatest asset, then you want to take care of that asset.
The defined benefit plan is not cheap, but it’s a great benefit,” says Glenn Siler, the credit union’s president and CEO. “And with other companies having to cut their benefits over the last year,” Siler continues, “people appreciate it. We constantly have people calling in saying how thankful they are.”
