Your benefits package.
Stop wondering. Start comparing.

We provide fresh, relevant, local, and customized data for employers to benchmark their benefit plans using proprietary tools that are unique in the marketplace.  Try us today!

Back Button
Menu Button

Iowa Employer Benefits Study© on ‘Hold’
Plus: The Great Resignation

November 24, 2021 By

Iowa Employer Benefits Study©

I have decided to put a ‘hold’ on the Iowa Employer Benefits Study for 2022 and into the indefinite future. Although the COVID-19 pandemic was not helpful to this annual survey, changes in the background research resources that I had relied on for the past two decades have also impacted the long-term viability of pursuing this important survey.

Data Point Research, Inc. (DPR), my trusted research partner for twenty years, no longer offers its excellent survey services. Our history of joint collaboration was immensely important to having both accurate and consistent data when trending benefits and costs in Iowa. I will miss my long-term relationship with Andrew Williams, founder of Data Point Research, but just as importantly, I have been very fortunate to call him a great friend and professional colleague. My best to Andrew!

I also owe a great deal of gratitude to those organizations, consultants and brokers who purchased blocks of the Lindex® benchmarks and studies over the years. Without their support and loyalty, the Iowa Employer Benefits Study would not have been as relevant and successful.

Finally, since 1999, the first year this annual study was performed, over 15,000 Iowa organizations have participated in this random survey process. I am proud that our survey results have provided Iowa employers with reliable, relevant, and customized information that cannot be found anywhere else in Iowa. This comprehensive statistical review of Iowa employee benefits has been a key resource for Iowa employers and policy makers. I am very thankful to the Iowa organizations that have taken the time to dutifully respond to this survey. Without their annual assistance, this study would not have been possible.

Although this study has been put on hold, future assessments are certainly possible.

The Great Resignation

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a record 4.4 million Americans quit their jobs in September alone (4.3 million in August). In fact, according to data from the people analytics firm Visier, at least one in four people quit their jobs in 2021. A PwC survey indicates that 65 percent of people were looking for a new job as of August.

Since experiencing work place changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, employees are now expressing their work culture and location preferences and finding opportunities elsewhere. This has become a big wake-up call to organizations in Iowa and around the country – its a phenomenon known as the GREAT RESIGNATION of 2021.

Without question, employee benefits are extremely important when attracting qualified employees. But employee retention requires adhesive steps that will serve as ‘glue’ to keep employees both happy and on the payroll. What is this special glue? It begins by having a culture that permeates throughout the organization that promotes work-life balance and invites a sense of trust and belonging.

Employees are quitting their jobs in food, retail, hospitality AND in higher-paying jobs in many other industries. These employees no longer wish to commute to work and want to learn new skills to grow beyond their current job opportunities. Job dissatisfaction varies across demographics and occupations, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. Work-life balance and flexibility was important to employees prior to COVID-19, but it has become more pronounced during the pandemic and its importance is here to stay. Pay equity and child care are critical issues for many who are dissatisfied with their current employment arrangement.

We certainly found this in our 2007 Iowa Employment Values Study. In the workplace environment, employees value respect, achievement and having the opportunity to balance work time with family needs as most important. To attract and retain employees, employers will need to create a culture that is more responsive to employee needs and values. In an uncertain labor market where job openings outnumber applicants, assessing the local market of employee desires and sources of discontent will be crucial for any employer to stand out.

It is time for employers to evaluate existing employment practices and look for new opportunities to meet the expectations of their employees. Employers want their employees to be committed to their jobs, but employees want employers to show commitment to them. It is a two-way street.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it is to be honest with ourselves and others – and then act accordingly!

To stay abreast of employee benefits, we invite you to subscribe to our blog.

Filed Under: David P. Lind, Lindex Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Caregiving Crisis – Employers Beware

January 23, 2019 By

Iowa is fortunate to have many jobs available for applicants, but unfortunately, there are not enough bodies to fill those positions. According to a 2017 Wall Street Journal article, Iowa, and 11 other Midwestern states have experienced a net outflow of 1.3 million people between 2010 and July 2017. In fact, if every unemployed person in 12 Midwestern states was placed into an open job, there would still be 180,000+ unfilled positions. The Iowa Workforce Development recently announced the number of unemployed Iowans in December (2018) is 40,600, an historic low of 2.4 percent. Iowa has THE lowest unemployment rate in the U.S.  (The U.S. unemployment rate in December moved up to 3.9 percent.)

To combat low unemployment, Iowa along with other states have developed plenty of free programs to train low-skilled workers for higher-skilled positions. For the second consecutive year, Iowa was named by Site Selection magazine as the Midwest’s top state for workforce training and development.  Another 2018 Wall Street Journal article indicated that Iowa’s extremely low unemployment rate has drawn “thousands of workers off the sidelines…with the share of Iowa adults working or seeking work at 67.9 percent in February (2018), nearly five percentage points more than the national average.” Rural Iowa employers have it more challenging, as the pool of local talent is just not there to fill positions.

Caregiver Responsibilities at Home

Now comes yet another challenge, but not just for Iowa employers. A new national survey by a pair of Harvard Business School researchers found that employers are likely to underestimate the struggle their employees have when balancing their professional and caregiving responsibilities. Caregiver responsibilities include providing for children and elderly parents. In fact, about three-quarters of U.S. employees face caregiving responsibilities, of which, 32 percent have left their job because they were unable to balance work and family duties. If employers fail to provide support for caregiving responsibilities, they will pay the hidden costs of presenteeism, absenteeism, turnover and rehiring.

This study was based on surveys of both employers and employees. A key finding was that despite more than 80 percent of employees saying their responsibilities at home kept them from doing their best at work, only 24 percent of employers believed that caregiving was affecting their employees’ performance. This enormous divide is troubling, yet it can also help nudge employers to understand what they can do to retain employees, especially during a very tight labor market.

Other study highlights include:

  • Younger employees, ages 26 to 35, were more likely to leave a job because of caregiving responsibilities.
  • Hard-to-replace higher-paid employees and those in managerial or executive positions were also most likely to quit.
  • More men than women said they left a job because of family needs.
  • As the nation ages, caregiving responsibilities are expected to grow. The Census Bureau projects that for every 100 working-age Americans, aged 18 to 64, there will be 72 people outside that range by 2030, an increase from 59 in 2010.
  • With an increasing share of jobs expected to require a college degree or beyond, the loss of many women could exacerbate labor shortages in the future.

This study caught my interest because, for the first time since we began in our employer benefits study in 1999, we will ask a series of work-life and convenience questions in our 20th Iowa Employer Benefits Study©. Among asking many work-life benefit questions, we will learn about the prevalence of the following caregiver benefits offered by Iowa employers, such as:

  • Personal days
  • Sabbatical leave
  • Adoption leave
  • Foster child leave
  • Leave to attend a child’s activities
  • Maternity leave
  • Paternity leave
  • Child-care subsidies
  • Elder-care subsidies
  • On-site or near-site child and/or elder care
  • And more…

As we learned from surveying both Iowa employers and their employees in our 2007 Iowa Employment Values Study©, there can be a great disconnect between what employees’ desire at the workplace versus what their employers think is important to employees. The aging of the Iowa workforce, in addition to the challenges faced by young families can cause caregiver ‘tension’ that adversely impacts both employees and the unsuspecting employer. To address these challenges, Iowa employers must search for new ways to further accommodate the changing workforce environment pressures that are vital to employee well-being and, consequently, their productivity.

Sometime this summer, our 2019 survey will reveal new results about the prevalence of caregiver programs offered by Iowa employers. Such benefits, I suspect, will vary greatly by industry and by employer-size categories.

To stay abreast of employee benefits and healthcare issues, we invite you to subscribe to our blog.

Filed Under: David P. Lind, Lindex Tagged With: , , , , ,

Engaging Your Employees

February 25, 2015 By

Employee EngagementMotivating employees to go that ‘extra’ mile can be extremely difficult for any organization. Arguments can be made on whether the ‘carrot and stick’ approach will result in the necessary motivation desired.

For years, organizations have strived to more fully engage their employees to create an environment where workers emotionally connect to their employer. After all, engaged employees are known to provide critical contributions to organizational performance and success through consistent brand delivery, exceptional customer service, innovation, and day-to-day commitment to product and process excellence –  all greatly affecting the organization’s bottom line.

Understanding what is most important to employees within the workplace is often overlooked. Being able to intentionally manage this is absolutely crucial. At engagement’s core is the fundamental notion that most employees want to make a difference by contributing within their workplace. Most employees bring a wealth of skills, such as personal experience, knowledge, agility, creativity, discipline and two large intangibles – passion and motivation.

Employees choose to use or withhold their skills based on whether their organization allows them to exercise such skills and desires at work. For example, allowing employees the opportunity to provide input on a given project can be powerful, in addition to handing them challenging work that will allow for continuous learning opportunities. Listening closely to what they have to say and involving others to obtain better solutions will allow employees the room to grow professionally.

A good book on employee engagement is “Closing the Engagement Gap,” by Julie Gebauer and Don Lowman, both from the consulting firm, Towers Perrin. Until recently, this book collected dust on my bookshelf for over four years before being rediscovered. Much like an aging bottle of wine, the contents appear to be timeless and, well, satisfying.

The authors suggest five ways to actively engage employees, which are summarized below:

  1. Know Them – Make a sincere effort to get to know employees by using personal touch approaches, such as scheduling small, casual Q&A sessions. Encourage candid conversations with employees, making sure that they routinely grasp the overall direction of the organization to ensure that the message, values and priorities are sinking in.
  2. Grow Them – Establish a flexible, training curriculum that provides opportunities for personalized growth experiences via a mix of learning activities.
  3. Inspire Them – Establish venues to share organizational, team and employee successes with the entire workforce on a regular basis. Foster pride throughout the workforce. Articulate the organization’s products or services and how they impact the overall good for others.
  4. Involve Them – Equip every boss with the ability to show employees how their day-to-day responsibilities ultimately contribute to product quality, customer experiences, the organization’s brand and the overall profitability.
  5. Reward Them – Encourage employees to recognize the contributions of their colleagues. Publicly reward performance and valued behaviors. Understand what employee’s value most, and design benefits and compensation packages that balance those values.

Finally, much like we learned from our 2007 Iowa Employment Values Study, it’s really about the sincere relationships we develop with others, and relating in a genuine way that allows each employee to know they are respected and valued. This gives them a sense of purpose and meaning with their work. An employee’s sense of well-being will go a long way in the engagement process at any organization.

This is good, vintage stuff – just like that glass of aged wine!

To learn more, we invite you to subscribe to our blog.

Filed Under: David P. Lind Tagged With: , , ,