Editor's Note

We love our pets, and for all good reasons! Several scientific studies have proved the strong psychological and physiological health benefits from having a pet. Pets help us relax and make us more actively engaged with our environments. They play an important part in helping us deal with the difficulties of life. According to a survey by U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographics Sourcebook by the American Veterinary Medical Association, 65 percent of American households own pets. Now, this makes it even more important for companies to offer pet insurance!

Pet Insurance: An essential voluntary benefits offering?

While employers seek ways to attract and retain talent, benefit diversification is top-of-mind for employees. A recent survey conducted by Willis Towers Watson, a global insurance brokerage firm, revealed 92 percent of participants considered voluntary benefits to be an important part of their total compensation package. As the fastest growing segment of the workforce, millennials are shifting not only organizational culture, but also the quality and diversity of employee benefits. More than any other generation, millennials embrace their pets as children; and as a result, they seek holistic benefits packages, which include pet insurance plans.

Employee Benefits and Wellness Excellence August 2016 Advertisers

Is Your Workplace Dog-Friendly?: 4 tips to make it possible

Your ideal employee benefit program is likely structured to reduce stress, protect and improve emotional and physical health, elevate morale and even promote collaboration among teams. You would like the program to be part of attracting and retaining talent and to differentiate you from competitors. It’s time for you to let the dogs out.

Get The Most Out Of Your Wellness Program: 3 things every benefits administrator should do

Over the past several years, wellness programs have rocketed to the forefront of employers’ tool boxes for improving employee health and controlling health care costs; according to a 2015 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, nearly half of small to medium-sized companies and 81 percent of enterprises offer some kind of wellness benefit. However, more recent numbers show that that trend may be reversing; in a report released in June, the Society for Human Resource Management found that only 61 percent of companies provide a full wellness program, down from 70 percent last year. This is possibly because ROI of these programs has proven to be so difficult to measure.

Coworking Communities: How they can give small businesses big human resources power?

Whether it’s planning their next vacation using Airbnb, or using Uber in lieu of owning a car, a growing number of people are participating in the sharing economy in their daily lives. Now it’s permeating the work environment—but it’s more than just offices, it’s the human resources function, too.

Measuring Corporate Wellness: Higher well-being leads to higher engagement

Corporate wellness is rapidly evolving. More and more companies are moving away from traditional health-only focused wellness programs to broader well-being programs. As part of this evolution, thinking around wellness ROI and how it’s measured is maturing. We’re seeing a shift away from health risk and cost reduction to an expanded list of business results that are shorter-term, easier to measure and improve the lives of employees (versus punishing the unhealthy).

Wellness At Work- Part 1: What businesses should know about wellness programs

What does “wellness” in the workplace mean? Well, it depends on who you ask. As stated on ViaSat’s website, “Wellness is personal, and it means different things to different people.” For example, one employee may enjoy a monthly membership to a yoga studio; another employee may participate in weekend triathlons. According to ViaSat, a California employer, “If it’s important to you, it’s important to us and we want to support and inspire your wellness for years to come.”

Employee Happiness: The secret to achieving it

Happiness is something that researchers, HR professionals, managers and companies alike have been striving to understand for decades. Happiness has been linked to productivity, retention, creativity and most importantly, success. The path to achieving workplace happiness is not so happy though. It takes a high level of understanding of workplace dynamics and human behavior to ensure employees at the workplace are content. In addition, happiness is different for everyone. Each person’s personality and experience form their understanding of happiness. So how do you make all your employees happy? We’ll get to that but first, let’s talk about why you need to think about this.

Employer-Sponsored Health And Well-being Programs

When it comes to motivating employees, there truly is no one-size-fits-all, and many employers find this challenging. In response, employers over the past several years have expanded the breadth of health and well-being programs offered in an effort to create a healthier, happier and more productive workforce. Many employees are now finding value in the wide range of programs targeted at improving their physical, emotional, financial and social health.