Open enrollment is usually the only time all year employees give their benefits a second thought. Even then, they don’t think much about it. The latest EBRI/Greenwald Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey shows that about half of privately insured adults spend less than an hour choosing a health plan. Plenty take no action...
Heading into 2027, employers and employees face the same problem: rising health care costs. For the first time since 2022, controlling those expenses is employers’ top goal. Employees feel that same squeeze in their monthly paychecks and family budgets. Here is what recent research tells us about what your team actually values right now. 1....
Every fall, employers that offer prescription drug coverage must send a federal notice. Many miss it because it is small, it comes every year, and it is easy to assume a broker or carrier handled it. For the upcoming October 2026, it deserves a closer look. The deadline is only a few weeks away, and...
September 30th marks a critical compliance checkpoint for many organizations, though its significance depends entirely on your operational calendars: Calendar-Year Compliance: September 30 closes Quarter 3 (Q3)—the ideal window to prep for year-end reporting and tax filings. June 30 Fiscal-Year End Organizations: September 30 closes Quarter 1 (Q1)—the first true status check on budget alignment,...
Treat the Employee Lifecycle as a Connected System, Not Separate Checklists One of my clients is currently restructuring its central office and rethinking how all of its business functions are organized — including HR — at a point where no one is quite sure what HR is supposed to cover. That conversation kept circling...
Labor Day weekend has come and gone, signaling the end of summer and its short workweeks. It also marks the start of the final quarter’s high-stakes sprint: hitting annual targets, setting next year’s operational goals, and building the 2027 budget. Naturally, raises and compensation increases are top of mind. Recent employer surveys place 2027 salary...
One of my favorite things as an HR Director was sharing quick, engaging, meaningful, and sometimes just humorous “thoughts” with our employees once a week. It also helped support a strategy for “Microburst Learning.” Traditionally, employers have relied upon the day-long in-service or company training approach. But how effective is it? Not very, if...
Gallup released an update to its State of the Global Workplace report in April 2026. The findings are not subtle. Manager engagement is collapsing, stress among U.S. workers is at a record high, and AI anxiety is no longer theoretical. If you lead people, this data should change how you’re spending your time and...
If you or anyone you know is job hunting right now, you already know the process feels broken. Applications disappear into a void. The only response, if there is one, is a form rejection that reads like an auto-reply — even for jobs you were clearly qualified for. No explanation. No acknowledgment. Plenty of...
I cannot remember the last conversation I had, TV show I watched, or post I read that did not in some way reference AI, or at least one of the many tools out there, whether it is Claude, Gemini, or something else. Remember when our biggest AI issue was arguing with autocorrect? Now we...
The “Pretend Time Off” Trap July 21, 2026 (24)
“Microburst Learning”: Boosting Employee… September 1, 2026 (23)
Manager Burnout Is the Real Retention Crisis August 25, 2026 (20)
Human Resources in the Age of AI August 11, 2026 (20)
Communication Paralysis July 28, 2026 (20)
2027 Employee Benefit Expectations October 6, 2026 (18)
Is the Fruit Bowl Your Wellness Program? August 3, 2026 (17)
HR At Every Meeting? July 15, 2026 (16)
September 30th Checkpoint! September 22, 2026 (14)
The Real Cost of Your 2027 Personnel Budget September 8, 2026 (14)