Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER July 10, 2017 8 NEWS cent of employees feel they have an obligation to help control the costs of their health benefi t plan — down from 76 per cent in 2008 and 73 per cent in 2005. At the same time, 68 per cent feel their employer is more con- cerned about limiting costs than ensuring the best health benefi ts are available — up from 51 per cent in 2000. Plan sponsors should better educate employees about the ben- efi ts off ered, said Art Babcock, se- nior vice-president at Aon Hewitt in Calgary. "Employees like the fact that it pays some costs but they tend to get more upset when something is denied or not paid fully and that tends to taint their view of benefi t plans," he said. "(Employers) don't tend to ex- plain, 'We've been able to pay $3 million of drug claims and we've assisted people to continue their income stream when they've be- come disabled and we've helped benefi ciaries when people have passed away.'" Genetic testing ere was a big boost in the num- ber of people surveyed who said they would give consent to their insurance carriers using personal claims data to provide targeted benefi ts. Last year, 58 per cent said this would be an idea they would accept, compared to 70 per cent this year. " at's something that has re- ally changed over the years, the willingness of people to share that kind of information, because if they see that they can get the benefi t by showing that kind of information, they are willing to share that information," said Na- thalie Laporte, vice-president of product development, marketing and strategy at Desjardins Assur- ances in Montreal. " ey will get more targeted solutions and they will benefi t from it." Human resources should be mobilized to use claims data for plan management, said Babcock. "HR departments can build on that when they are thinking about their wellness initiatives and see how they can support that. We've had a look at our claims and we can't individualize it like the insur- ance companies could do, but (for example) we see there is a lot of diabetic claims in our drug spend, so maybe we'll promote education and information that would sup- port people with diabetes." To best accomplish this, there has to be a trust established be- tween employee and employer. "There's disconnect because the employee is going, 'But my particulars are my particulars and I'm nervous about sharing that information because in the past, it's been used against me," said Smith. "Can you use the data from the underwriter — whether it's insured or de-insured — in a confi dential way that doesn't iden- tify individuals but allows you to be able to respond to those indi- vidual needs?" Confi dentiality must be main- tained to enable that trust to fl our- ish, said Mark. " ey have to feel that their privacy is protected, because we don't want somebody avoiding getting a diagnosis or treatment because they're concerned it might impact their employability or their eligibility for benefi ts." e confi dence of employees allowing this is "growing because they know they have an option to opt out," she said. "We're all getting more used to when to give permission and not give permission — regardless of the generation." Chronic knowledge gap When it comes to chronic con- ditions, there's a disconnect be- tween employees and employers, according to the survey. More than half (57 per cent) of workers said they suff er from a least one chronic condition (such as high blood pressure or depression). is number jumped to 72 per cent among those aged 55 to 64. Employers, on the other hand, estimate 32 per cent of employees have a chronic condition. "We've seen a historical gap in what the employers think chronic illness looks like and what the employees are reporting," said Laporte. " at's not something that you will necessarily talk about with your employer." Employers could probably do a better job in understanding the state of health of their workforce, said Babcock, "and that comes through sitting down with the right reports, the right advisors, to have a look at those; what are those reports telling you, what are those claims telling you?" But having a condition doesn't always mean a person is using drugs through the benefi t plans to treat that condition. For example, some people succeed in manag- ing high blood pressure through diet changes and "the employer might not even be aware of this," said Mark. "Even if somebody has a chronic condition, it may not mean that they are currently being treated or using a benefi t for that." If employers use claims data to manage plans, it might help them deliver more targeted off erings, she said. "If we knew that you — through your claiming pattern — have or may likely have certain chronic conditions, we can off er up to you options of additional services, re- sources and you can choose if you want to take advantage of them or not, and a lot of that can be deliv- ered digitally," said Mark, and as long as it maintains the person's privacy and it's optional, employ- ees will embrace it. Flexibility key driver He alth- sp ending account s (HSAs) seem to be popular, ac- cording to Sanofi . Plan members with HSAs are more likely to de- scribe the quality of their benefi t plan as excellent or very good (55 per cent) compared to those with- out such accounts (45 per cent) " e one-size-fi ts-all really cul- turally doesn't fi t anymore; it's not the way people's brains are inter- preting value," said Darcy Smith, president of Benefi t Consultants Inc. (BCI) in Calgary. "Flexibility doesn't necessarily have to present itself in the form of a fl ex benefi t program, as much as fl exibility is about trying to meet the need of the individual or giving them the capacity to customize." Flexibility is getting more atten- tion now because there are more generations in the workplace, and a simple, traditional model doesn't meet everyone's requirements, said Babcock. "Employers and employees are saying, 'Well, you know, it's nice to have it but I think I'd like to be able to focus a bit more on the needs of my family and myself, and the plan that we have in place just doesn't seem to give me what I need.'" But HSAs may be too complex for some companies to consider. "Smaller employers may say, 'I don't have the internal HR sup- port to manage a plan or make decisions around a plan,' so they tend to go for something that's a little more simple," said Mark. "We know we need to bring in more choice, for small plans as well as large plans." Plan sponsors are a bit con- cerned about the administration that comes along with the advent of a fl ex plan and the communica- tion that's required, said Babcock. " e education of employees, you have to ramp that up a little bit to get employees understand- ing how the fl ex plan works." But things are changing, he said. "Flex plans have come a long way in terms of the ease of administra- tion: ere are programs that are very user-friendly and they give employees the ability to model their choices and see what the outcomes would be with respect to contributions requirements." HSAs popular with workers HEALTH SURVEY < pg. 1 Wellness levels plateau While wellness programs have consistently shown positive results, such as boosting employee loyalty and employee health, the percentage of employees who say their corporate culture encourages health and wellness has dropped to 53 per cent, after reaching 62 per cent in 2012, found the Sanofi survey. And 64 per cent of employers feel their corporate culture encourages wellness, down from 90 per cent in 2012. The economy is to blame for some of this — especially in Alberta — said Darcy Smith, president of Benefi t Consultants Inc. (BCI) in Calgary. "When there is lots of buoyancy in the economy, there are dollars to spend and employers are a little more comfortable putting money into programs that they don't necessarily see an immediate return on," he said. "It's always been a little bit precarious on wellness initiatives because from the employer's perspective, they want to have some way of gauging ROI and with a number of those initiatives, it's a little harder to give actual hard data that can validate what that return on investment is." But promoting wellness must be a long-term investment to be successful, said Art Babcock, senior vice-president of Aon Hewitt in Calgary. "You can't make employees healthy in a year, or two or three; you have to develop a wellness culture over a number of years and put some effort into it before it starts to pay off." Conversations should take place before implementing a plan so employees' needs are best met, said Marilee Mark, vice-president of product development and integrated health solutions, group benefi ts, at Sun Life Financial in Toronto. "You can say, 'Let's just do a general wellness program,' but if you really took a look at both what employees say they want, and where your expenses are going in your plan, if you could fi nd out what are the drivers both as satisfaction, and the drivers of claims, then you could target a program." will be freed up for other training investments. "Most of the development that will happen over the next bit in this country will come in First Na- tion Aboriginal communities," he said. "It will be a terrible thing if all you're doing is developing their resources but you're not off ering people (a chance) to enhance their skills and work in the sec- tor from which they can benefi t tremendously." Additionally, women's numbers continue to be low in trades' roles, and a call to action is critical, said Yussuff . "This needs to change, and change significantly," he said. "Otherwise, you'll end up repeat- ing the same milieu of people that you've trained over and over, which is mostly males — and, in most occasions, white males." " ere's nothing wrong with that, but you can do better." Why unions? e Union Training and Inno- vation Program will target the Red Seal trades and is open to all unions. The presence of collective agreements in unionized work- forces provided the platform for this opportunity, said Blakely. "If there was a non-union group of employers who got together and wanted to provide training, it would happen," he said. "(Union- ized workplaces) are using their own money out of the collective agreement to do training. What the government money does is it increases their capacity." "It's not the program — it's an enhancement on a program that's already done with private investment." The government's extension of an olive branch to unions is an extremely good development for a variety of reasons, said Yussuff . "Union-based training has a higher rate of completion," he said. "It's about 90 per cent of people who end up completing the pro- gram and end up working in the trades, compared to 50 per cent of non-unionized training." e number of union appren- ticeships has been consistent thanks to bargaining agreements, according to Yussuff . And as long as trade sectors are growing, more apprentices need to be ready to fi ll in the gaps to off set the growing numbers of retirees. "The number of apprentice- ships will have to increase, other- wise we're going to have a tremen- dous challenge going forward," he said. " e key is to support and encourage people to get into the trades and remain in the trades over time." e program is similar to the Training Centre Infrastructure Fund administered under the pre- vious Liberal federal government, said Blakely. e idea at that time was to have a suffi cient amount of equip- ment available so apprentices could learn on the latest — and most appropriate — equipment. " e fi rst year is to deal with what you might call pent-up de- mand for equipment," he said. "For example, a sub-arc welding machine costs a ton, and really increases the ability for people to produce on the job." From there, the program will attempt to deliver solutions to apprentices far from major cities requiring distance-learning for- mats, said Blakely. "Community colleges are really a good provider of training, but they don't provide all the training that there is in the country," he said. "Signifi cant portions of the training that's required are deliv- ered by the union training centres. Virtually every welder beyond the journeyman standard has had to do additional training which isn't off ered in the community college." "Painters have two or three centres across the country where they've got a booth that teaches people how to spray for industrial coatings. So there are lots of ap- plications where provision of this sort of equipment is really a smart thing for people to do." Number of apprentices needs to rise FEDS < pg. 3

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