Don't rely on meetings to connect with your employees
Employee Benefit News
The leading information resource for the ever-changing HR and Benefits marketplace.
WORK CULTURE: Employers have touted the benefits of returning to work as a way to foster greater connectivity and productivity among their teams, but filling an employee's calendar with meetings and other workplace obligations — without considering how to do so intentionally — can actually do more harm than good.?
"I don't think employers are wrong to hustle people back to the office. But if they're not doing it in a very purposeful, connective way, it's not going to help the situation at all," says Emily Killham , Perceptyx 's senior director of people analytics, research and insights. "Have we done a good job of bringing back good connections with people? I think the answer is no."?Killham shares how employers can foster connections in a better way:
RETIREMENT: Beginning in 2024, IBM will no longer match employee contributions to their 401(k) plans. In addition to the new automatic 5% benefit provided by IBM, called a Retirement Benefit Account (RBA), employees will receive a one-time 1% pay increase. For the first three years of this new plan, all employees are guaranteed a 6% annual interest rate, at which point IBM guarantees 3% of the rate on 10-year treasuries. Compared to a 401(k), IBM employees have expressed concern around lower returns and less control over their retirement funds.?
"The optics of this — depending on how you read it and who you are as a reader — are varied," says John Lowell , partner at October Three Consulting , a benefits and retirement advisory that champions the combination of 401(k) offerings along with cash-balance pensions. "There's been a lot of negative reaction, but there are a lot of positive things that this does, and positive ways this affects certain constituencies."?Lowell walks through the new plan and what it means for the retirement industry:
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PRODUCTIVITY: An engaged employee has the power to raise an organization's profits by up to 21%, according to data from Gallup . In an effort to find where in the U.S. employers are seeing the most bang for their buck, business resource platform UpFlip analyzed the newest labor productivity data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to see which states added the most financial value to the economy for every hour worked.
New York was found to be the most productive state statistically, with a total of 14,296,359,000 hours worked in 2022 and a value-add of $1,725,176,181,000, which refers to the amount of additional financial gain brought in by a productive workforce. This also means that for every hour worked, employees in New York were churning out $120.67 worth of work. Washington took the second spot with a value-added output of $107.12, with Delaware close behind at $104.09.?Check out the full list: