Benefits June 20, 2017

Employee Well-being Impacts the Bottom Line

The average U.S. worker eats more than half his meals on the job and spends several hours a week at work managing his finances or other personal responsibilities.

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During a recent webinar presented by Preventure, a national provider of corporate wellness solutions, executives from the firm urged benefit plan sponsors to “push their conversations from employee wellness to employee well-being.”

It may seem like merely an exercise in semantics, but, according to Preventure, employers that have truly embraced programming to help their employees make better decisions with their health and finances—i.e., those that have moved from promoting ad hoc wellness to holistic well-being—perform better economically over time.

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Preventure executives pointed to one study of the stock performance of 45 publicly traded Fortune 500 companies with “robust employee well-being programs.” The analysis showed that these companies outperformed their peers in the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 index during 16 out of 24 quarters during the study period.

In terms of actually establishing well-being programming, Preventure urges employers to stop viewing employee happiness as a human resources (HR) function. Instead, employee well-being is an “end-to-end concern for the whole company.”

“When employees feel their employers care about them, they are so much more likely to stay around and  be an advocate for the employer outside the workplace,” said Laura Walmsley, chief client officer. “It has a profound impact on their engagement during the workday and their willingness to go above and beyond.”  

Walmsley urged employers to “clearly demonstrate to workers that executives and managers care about their workers. We love the use of direct messaging from leadership, to show [its] support,” she noted. “For example, with new well-being programming, you could make it a point to always include a recorded video message from the CEO on the portal—or executives could distribute letters to the home, encouraging participating in well-being programs.”

Another powerful way to boost the performance of well-being programming, according to Preventure, is to hold executives accountable for their participation. Further, policies and procedures should be put in place to ensure equitable programming outcomes. “In other words, don’t just have a fancy new fitness center at corporate headquarters … make it open for everyone and accessible for everyone,” Walmsley concluded. “Finally, measurement is very important—choose metrics that relate to and drive business success. If billable hours run your business, fewer sick days or PTO [paid time off] might be your metric. Other employers may measure for other goals.”

More research and information is available at www.preventure.com. 

Investing June 20, 2017

Transparency A Growing Concern for Alternative Investing

Since the financial crisis of 2008, transparency has grown in importance among asset managers dealing with alternative investments, but there is a lack of consensus about how to grasp it.
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Alternative investing is pushing further into the mainstream for institutional investors, but a survey sponsored by Northern Trust finds best practices around transparency requirements are lagging behind. The study shows transparency continues to lead all investment considerations and has significantly grown in importance following the financial crisis of 2008.

“Degree of transparency” was cited as very important by 63% for alternative and 62% for traditional investments. It was also cited as the most important post-investment consideration by 21% for traditional assets and 17% for alternatives, compared to 9% and 3%, respectively in pre-crisis.

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However, there was no consensus around which department within an organization ensures that existing and potential investments are adequately transparent. Responses pointed most often to either the investment management or risk and compliance functions.

“These results tell us that investment transparency is a growing priority, but asset managers and institutional investors remain unsure of how to best achieve it,” says Pete Cherecwich, president of Corporate and Institutional Services at Northern Trust. “As alternative investing has reached the mainstream, the industry would benefit from consistent standards and stronger policies around transparency. Working with the world’s most sophisticated investors, we are committed to enabling greater transparency through continued research and technology development.”

The survey shows asset managers and investors turn to various sources for information about both traditional and alternative investments, including specialist databases, media reports and in-person visits. Four out of five respondents rely heavily on internal data management and analytic capabilities to manage their data. Only 6% outsource this function entirely, the survey finds.

The survey of 200 executives in organizations ranging from private equity firms and hedge funds to corporations, nonprofits and insurance companies was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and sponsored by Northern Trust.

A whitepaper detailing the survey findings, “The Path to Transparency in Alternatives Investing” can be found on NorthernTrust.com. 

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