Straight From The Source Blog by Higginbotham Insurance

If 20 percent of your workers had a problem that increased absenteeism, decreased work performance and resulted in higher turnover, you’d probably want to do something about it.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives eligible employees the right to take up to 12 weeks of time off for qualifying reasons. It sounds simple, at least in theory, but there’s a lot that needs to be considered to comply with this law while keeping employees happy and businesses running smoothly. Here are some basics on who is eligible, when to designate leave as FMLA leave, how the FMLA works with the temporary Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and what happens when a company isn’t subject to FMLA.

Offering a good salary may no longer be enough. According to a Glassdoor survey, 63 percent of job seekers and employees consider benefits to be a top factor when looking at job ads, and Benefits Pro found that 62 percent of employees under age 50 wouldn’t work for a company that doesn’t offer voluntary benefits. Clearly, to attract and retain talent, employers need to offer the benefits that employees want.   

Prescription drug costs have become a key issue for both workers and their employers. According to the CDC, 60 percent of U.S. adults between the ages of 18 and 64 were prescribed medication during the previous 12 months. This means that the majority of your workers are likely taking at least one prescription, possibly more, during the average year.

“This tax form is too simple and logical,” said no employer ever.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives covered employees the right to take time off for qualified family and medical reasons. Employers who do not understand the intricacies of this law may land themselves in hot water.

Businesses around the country are striving to employ a diverse workforce. While this is a worthy goal, pursuing it in the wrong way could lead to problems. Specifically, if a company isn’t careful, pushing for diversity could result in claims of reverse discrimination.

You can’t run a healthy business without a healthy workforce. However, maintaining a roster of healthy employees is a constant challenge, especially when you consider that about half of all adults have one or more chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease.

Many of your workers have student loan debt. It may be causing significant stress. It may even be distracting them from work. To help with this growing problem, more employers are offering student loan assistance benefits. Here’s what you need to know before you launch your own program.

When you work in human resources, you’ve got to be good at juggling. There’s new talent to recruit, benefits to manage and conflicts to resolve. You’re onboarding and offboarding and even crossboarding. And then there are all the rules and regulations. If anything goes wrong, you could be facing a lawsuit. An extra hand or two sure could help. Good HR technology would be even better.