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Volume 3, Issue 2 April 2008
QUICK CLICK
Curbing Health-Care Costs

What strategy would your institution most likely consider implementing this year or in the near term to mitigate increasing health-care costs?

Join a health-care consortium.

Implement an employee wellness program to help keep workers healthy and reduce the overall number and amount of claims.

Offer a consumer-directed health-care plan with individual health reimbursement or savings accounts.

Conduct an employee census for the purpose of developing targeted communication about existing benefits and/or to realign benefits to address specific health-care needs of different employee populations.

Ask employees to pay a portion or a greater portion of their health insurance premiums.

Cover 100 percent of preventive care services.
  

The results from this question will appear in the July 2008 issue of HR Horizons.

Results from April Quick Click:
Flexibility On Demand

By far, the top concern for institution employers with regard to offering flexible work arrangements for employees centered on the issue of fairness, followed by concerns about communication and productivity.

  • Forty-one percent of responding institutions say allowing flexibility for some employees will be viewed as unfair by others for whom the institution can’t provide flexible schedules.
  • Eighteen percent worry that communication and coordination with other project or department team members would suffer, while 14.5 percent express concern that employees who are not physically present during set hours will not be as productive.
  • Nearly one-fifth of respondents, 19 percent, note as a key barrier the fact that scheduled or onsite labor requirements limit the kinds of flexible work options they can offer, especially to non-exempt hourly employees.
  • Only 6 percent suggest as a concern that equipment and logistical requirements (e.g., secure network access) for allowing employees to work offsite are cost- and/or time-prohibitive.
  • A mere 1.5 percent worry that employees who are allowed extended time off or reduced hours on a transitional basis would not be willing to return to a more traditional arrangement.
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BIG PICTURE

Taking Health Care Head-On

With rising claims and premium costs, institutions are implementing new approaches to assess risk, promote wellness and prevention, and encourage employees to prepare for post-payroll health-care expenses.   Read

STRATEGY

Segmenting Risk

Duke University's Prospective Health program focuses on controlling health-care costs by creating a healthier workforce, in part through targeted communication and provider support for those employees at greatest risk for developing a disease or chronic condition.   Read

SNAPSHOT

Modeling Costs, Pushing Prevention

Rollins College makes wellness a no-brainer, with 100 percent coverage of preventive care. It also makes a concerted effort to educate employees about their share of costs through models that calculate out-of-pocket expenses.   Read

PERSPECTIVE

Return on People

Jac Fitz-enz has been assessing human performance for more than three decades. Find out what he thinks is most important to measure and why most organizations spend too much time tracking what doesn't matter.   Read

RESOURCE

HR: The Next Chapter

The seventh edition of NACUBO's "College and University Business Administration" core reference work includes a soon-to-be-released chapter on human resources.   Read
HR RADAR

What's on Your Horizon?

What specific concerns would you like to see covered in this newsletter? Do you have an institutional success story to share? Send questions, comments, and article queries to Michele Madia, NACUBO Director, Environmental Leadership, michele.madia@nacubo.org.
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