2018 - Page 15 of 18 - Best Money Moves

Your Employees Are Stressed About Healthcare Costs. What Can You Do?

by Leah Rosen | Feb 19, 2018 | Blog

Healthcare costs are the leading cause of financial stress for 17 percent of Americans, according to a 2017 Gallup poll gauging household stress. As uncertainty around the fate of Affordable Care Act mounts, this stress is only getting worse for your employees – and more expensive for your business.

Fifty two percent of male employees and 58 percent of female employees worry about becoming ill and not being able to work anymore, according to the 2017 Workplace Benefits Report. Financial stress leads to lower productivity and higher rates of absenteeism – this stress is even causes physical illness among some employees which only compounds the problem.

What can you do when healthcare costs leave your employees financially stressed? Try these 5 strategies:

1. Understand which healthcare-related stressors are affecting your employees
Your employees may be feeling massively stressed about their healthcare, regardless of their employee-sponsored benefits programs. The costs associated with monthly coverage, the difficulties of navigating confusing plan options and the weight of outstanding medical bills continue to stress out employees. Talk with your team as well as your HR department to determine exactly how healthcare may be contributing to your employees’ stress levels. This will allow you begin taking the appropriate steps to resolve these healthcare-related stressors.

2. Reassess the healthcare resources you already have
Once you understand the root cause of your employees’ stress, begin to review the healthcare resources you already have in place to help them. It may be time to diversify your approach. Reach out for external resources in order to analyze existing data.

Request assistance and information directly from your company’s insurance provider and its agents.
Reach out to company-linked financial advisors for relevant employee data
Access your company’s existing financial wellness programs in order to evaluate your employees’ stress levels, major financial concerns and overarching long term personal and professional goals.

If your company doesn’t currently retain all three of the above, it’s time you change that. These professional services assist you with educating yourself and your employees on how to maximize their healthcare benefits.

3. Provide your employees with the tools they need to educate themselves.
Your employees want to take control of their financial stress – many of them just don’t know where to start. Do your employees know the difference between an HMO, PPO, EPO, or POS? Between a copay and coinsurance? Do they understand how the size of their deductible will affect their monthly payment? Do you?

Improving employee literacy around healthcare is paramount to reducing employee stress and improving both their healthcare usage and your company’s savings. Look for tools through your insurance provider and if you don’t have one already, finding a financial wellness platform that will break down complex laws and regulations into readable, consumer-friendly language. By empowering your employees to take an active and supported role in researching their options, you’re helping them make educated and informed decisions. This translates into nearly $409.38 in savings for your company – per procedure, per employee.

4. Help your employees stay on top of recent changes to the healthcare system.
Healthcare stress is the highest it’s been since 2007, according to the same Gallup poll. This rising stress is tied in no small part to the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Affordable Care Act and what legislation might take its place. Whether your employees are receive insurance through you or the open market, stay aware of the changes happening in the world of healthcare – and make sure your employees do the same. Encourage employees to be proactive in gathering their own healthcare information. Task HR with maintaining effective outreach strategies including email updates, written literature in clear, readable language, face-to-face meetings and regular surveys. Host recurring employee workshops or lunch-and-learns to catch employees up on the latest changes to their plan options. Keeping employees up-to-date on the latest changes to their healthcare will cut down on employee stress, keep you connected with your workforce and keep your company’s overhead in check.

5. Make sure your employees are using the healthcare resources you already provide.
Employee benefits are useless if no one uses them. Employees who understand and utilize their benefits are more likely to be satisfied with their employer and recommend their organization as a good place to work, according to research from the Society for Human Resource Management. Yet, 80 percent of employees don’t even open the benefits materials given to them and of those who do, less than half don’t fully understand the benefits options available. In-person communication is the best way to cover confusing, and often changing, healthcare benefits. Make sure that resources about provided benefits – and about healthcare in general are easily accessible online.

Increase your employees’ access to their benefits resources. Create an environment that allows you to ensure that your employees are less stressed and more productive. That’s good for the health of your employees – and your business.

Women and Financial Stress: Reducing Financial Stress for Women Can Help Your Workforce Overall

by Kris Mackenzie | Feb 15, 2018 | Featured - For Employers

When it comes to money and financial stress, women and men are not created equal.

Despite the fact that women make up roughly half the U.S. workforce, many employers don’t recognize and aren’t prepared to solve to unique financial stress points facing female employees. In her recent article for Shortlister, Best Money Moves Founder and CEO Ilyce Glink took a hard look at how financial stress affects American women – and what their employers can do to help:

More than half of all college graduates are women and women make up just under 50 percent of applicants to the top business schools. Yet by the time they graduate and enter the workforce, women are paid a median salary that’s 81 percent of what their male colleagues make, according to data from the US Department of Labor.

And the picture isn’t much better at home. Whether through choice or cultural expectation, women continue to take the lionshare of housework and child rearing duties and spend an average of 2.6 hours completing these tasks compared to 2 hours for men.

Between being underappreciated at work and overworked at home, it’s not hard to imagine why women feel overwhelmed. The problem is compounded by the reality of financial stress. Roughly 75 percent of Americans don’t have any savings to fall back and many live paycheck to paycheck. More than half of all workers admit to feeling financially stressed, costing business an estimated $250 billion a year in lost productivity and absenteeism, according to one Mercer study.

That’s a ton of stress to deal with all at once, which is why it comes as no surprise that women report higher percentages of stress than men. Your employees shouldn’t have to worry about staying financially stable paycheck to paycheck. Take action and provide relief for your workforce by:

Instituting recognition and rewards programs.
Acknowledging that financial stress is an issue for your workforce.
Creating new job sharing and flex opportunities.

If employers can help the women on their workforce deal better with stress at home, work and in their wallets, then they’re sure to see huge improvements across the board.

This is all only a piece of the picture. For a full look at women and financial stress, read the full blog post on Shortlister.

A Feature on Best Money Moves’ Co-Founder and President, Angus Carroll

by Nicole Smith | Feb 14, 2018 | Blog

Get to know the team behind Best Money Moves!

This week, I’ve had the pleasure of highlighting Best Money Moves’ co-founder and President, Angus Carroll. Before founding Best Money Moves with Ilyce Glink, Carroll held executive positions in technology, marketing and business development at Fortune 500 companies (Dun & Bradstreet, Ceridian) and small technology companies (Medicus, MindLeaders). He was VP of Editorial and Production at Cengage Learning, one of the largest educational publishers in the U.S.

When not overseeing development for Best Money Moves, Carroll lives outside of Detroit with his wife Susan, their son Ian, their two cats Stormy and Marshmallow and an attic full of dinosaur fossils and rare books.

Angus, explain Best Money Moves in one sentence.

Best Money Moves helps people reclaim control of their finances by creating a budget, paying down their debt and saving for their future.

How did you get involved with Best Money Moves?

Well, BMM didn’t come out of the blue. It’s the brainchild of Ilyce Glink, a personal finance expert and consumer advocate with more than 20 years of experience helping people take control of their financial future, as seen in her best-selling book, 100 Questions every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask (now celebrating it’s 4th edition). She knows how to talk to people about their money.

I met Ilyce while we were working on a project for Medicare. We liked working together and made a great team. We knew there was more we could accomplish when it came to financial wellness, so we built a career successfully managing financial wellness projects for large companies. But, everyone we worked for was trying to use financial wellness to sell something as opposed to just helping people. There was no platform on the market that provided financial advice without a sales pitch – so we built one ourselves.

Why is Best Money Moves the best personal financial wellness platform?

Ilyce’s background as a finance expert along with my experience building online services has helped us create a best-in-class product. We believe that financial wellness is something that every employer should provide to their employee, and now they can – at an affordable price. Our content is unbiased and focused entirely on helping people make better decisions. No ads, no “special offers” – it’s all about quality content and guidance.

Are there any new features or milestones on the horizon for Best Money Moves?

Yes there are! Mid-year we’ll make it possible to choose to link your Best Money Moves account to your personal bank account and credit cards. That way, you can view a complete picture of your spending. In March, we’ll be releasing another optional feature allowing users to access their credit score – completely free – and import it to their Best Money Moves account. We are very excited about these new features and how they’ll help complete the journey towards financial wellness.

What’s most exciting about the growth of Best Money Moves to date?

The best part is seeing how engaged our users have been with the product. One of our customers has nearly 50 percent of their employees actively engaging with Best Money Moves. That’s extraordinary. This means people are getting real value from our product.

Where do you think your growth will be next year?

We’ve just hired two account executives and they’re off to an incredible start – they’ve had immediate success. I think they are going to be the key to our growth in 2018, selling into medium to large businesses.

If you weren’t building Best Money Moves, what would you be doing?

I would be digging dinosaurs! A friend of mine owns a museum and I join his team in the field whenever possible. I usually go at least once a year, for a week or so to dig with them in the badlands of Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. A week is about all I can stand – the food is horrible in the field!

Why is now the best time for Best Money Moves?

Companies are realizing how significant of an effect that employee financial stress has on their bottom line. Financially stressed employees have higher rates of lost productivity and absenteeism and even higher healthcare costs than employees who are without financial stress. It just makes sense to provide tools to help employees lower their financial stress – and that’s exactly what Best Money Moves does.

Is Protecting Confidential Employee Data A Priority For Your Company?

by Nicole Smith | Feb 13, 2018 | Blog

In this week’s Best Money Moves roundup, we take a look at news stories and new research studies that may impact employee benefits and HR issues. We hope you find this news roundup helpful, and we’d love your feedback.

Is protecting confidential employee data a priority for your company?

Today, confidential data is at a higher risk of being stolen than ever before. A data security breach can quickly lead to identity theft, creating a chain-reaction of ever-growing problems.

Identity theft is not just stressful for your workforce, it costs your business money. More than half of identity theft victims reported missed time from work. Did you know that work-related stress leads to lost productivity, higher rates of turnover, lowered levels of financial wellness and even puts your employees at a greater risk for significant health problems?

Safeguarding your workforce from identity theft is a constant battle. Stay vigilant when collecting (and storing) sensitive employee data and stay informed on the latest and most innovative cyber-security options.

Show your employees you care about employee data with these five strategic steps.

The Equifax hack may be worse than previously reported. Last year’s hack affected 145 million Americans. In addition to Social security numbers, birth dates, driver’s license numbers and addresses, it is now being reported that tax identification numbers and driver’s license issuance dates were also stolen.

Hackers are stealing your identity – here’s what you need to know

Small business owners need to know about Amazon Web Services. AWS provides software to not only large corporations, but also to small businesses who may be seeking a way to offload software and infrastructure management.

Why your small business may benefit from AWS

Companies understand that happier and healthier employees are more productive. Improving their benefits will help retain your workforce and is much less expensive than raising salaries. With this year’s tax cut, companies are starting to spend a bit more on employee perks – do you know which employee benefits your team wants?

Which perks are the best perks after the new tax cut?

#MeToo hasn’t lessened harassment on professional social media sites. Since October 2017, there’s been a “public reckoning over workplace sexual assault and harassment.” So, why is it still pervasive? Why are inappropriate messages (still) being sent on professional networking sites? Are your employees receiving (or sending) harassing correspondence?

How to deal with cyber-harassers and their victims

Can tax reform influence defined benefit funding decisions? How will these benefit funding decisions impact pension management strategies? If your company is in the midst of figuring out how tax reform will affect everything related to short and long-term spending options, here are four steps that can help guide you – and your decision making.

2018’s tax reform and your company’s spending decisions

Are you attempting to build a diverse and inclusive workplace? We certainly hope so! Here are the most impactful recruiting trends when you want to recruit for diversity, inclusion, and social fit. Do you need to completely overhaul your company culture?

Refresh your selection criteria for an inclusive workplace

Color, texture, technology and atmosphere. These aren’t necessarily the words you think of when imagining positive affectivity and productivity in an office space. But, workplaces have come a long way – investing in person-friendly work environments improves efficiency, enhances productivity and inspires innovation.

Top workplace design trends for 2018

Employee Privacy in 2018: 5 Ways to Show Your Employees You Care About their Data

by Leah Rosen | Feb 12, 2018 | Blog

Protecting employee privacy is more important in 2018 than ever before. Show your employees you care about employee data with these five strategic steps.

It’s simply assumed that the confidential employee data workers share with their employers will remain exactly that: confidential. But if you’re collecting employee data in any capacity, that data is at risk of a security breach, potentially leading to identity theft.

Sixty-four percent of all Americans have experienced a breach in their personal data, according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, and about half of Americans feel that employee privacy is less secure now than it has been in years past.

What’s worse, identity theft resulting from stolen employee data isn’t just stressful for your workforce, it’s expensive for your business. Fifty-five percent of identity theft victims reported missed time from work, 39 percent of these victims cited an inability to concentrate or focus while at work and an overwhelming 74 percent cited an increase in their overall level of stress, according to a recent survey of identity theft victims conducted by the Identity Theft Resource Center. In addition to absenteeism, stress at work leads to lost productivity among staff, a higher rate of employee turnover and even puts your employees at a greater risk for a number of significant stress-related health problems.

These days, it may seem as though a data breach is an inevitable risk for your company, but there are strategic steps you can take to protect against criminals accessing your sensitive data.

1. Be clear with your workforce about which employee data you need to access and which data your employees should keep private.
Generally, employers have the right to access and own anything their employees do, say or record on company property or while on company time. Bottom line: make your company’s privacy policy explicitly clear in comprehensive written agreements, HR workshops, employee handbooks or even pop-up warnings on any monitored devices. Ensure that any employee benefits platforms that collect sensitive information – including retirement or financial wellness – do the same. When employees have a clear understanding of what information their employers have access to and what the information is used for, they can better protect the information they divulge. It’s also important that employees understand why these privacy policies are necessary.

2. Use the best data security for the information you keep.
Data from an employee’s computer may help you monitor office productivity, while information about your employees’ average length of employment can help with turnover predictability. You can also use data about employee health or employee finances to help you choose the best benefits programs for your team. Access to this information brings the responsibility of implementing strong security protocols for the safeguarding of employee – and employer – privacy. Work with your data security team to establish best practices for handling internet usage and document storage or destruction of confidential employee data. Limit the time your employees spend on unsecured networks and opt for a private, secure network when dealing with company and employee data. Encrypting all messaging done on company time and property should be a default practice, but utilizing multi-factor authentication adds another layer of safety.

3. Know how your benefits providers handle your employee’s information.
Your company might be handling your employee’s data with care, but what about your third-party employee benefits providers who have access to sensitive employee information about retirement, healthcare and financial wellness? Work with benefits providers that meet your business’ security standards and reevaluate them regularly. Assess what your vendors have access to and limit it to what is absolutely necessary. Look for a retirement or financial wellness provider who can anonymize sensitive information about your employees’ finances. Put your company’s confidentiality requirements in writing. Be transparent with your expectations and only use vendors that comply with company security and privacy protocols and who are willing to submit to regular auditing.

4. Encourage your employees to take an interest in their own privacy.
Employee error is the number one reason for company-wide data breaches, according to research from the Association for Corporate Counsel. Ensuring that individual employees are practicing safe data management can ensure the safety of your company at large. Helping your workforce understand that employee privacy is valuable (and vulnerable) is your first line of defense. Host company-wide workshops with IT professionals to bring everyone on the same page.

5. Stop thinking of employee privacy as a one-time problem.
Criminals are constantly finding new ways to access sensitive employee data. Staying on top of employee privacy isn’t a one-time activity, it’s something that requires constant review and regular maintenance. As quickly as technology improves, criminals find new strategies for stealing employee data.

Safeguarding your workforce from identity theft is a constant battle, but it’s one your company can accomplish by staying vigilant about how you handle sensitive employee data. Stay informed on the ever-growing online privacy landscape in order to take the correct steps in securing the privacy your company’s and employees’ data.