For insurance businesses that are looking to update their social media strategies, this recent article collects some top tips and pieces of advice offered by executives from the Insurance Marketing & Communications Association.

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With nearly 5 billion social media users worldwide, the scope of the opportunity is obviously significant for companies seeking to expand brand awareness and share their vision and values globally, in addition to identifying customers and engaging with them on the platforms that already receive their attention. 

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Another major advantage that social media marketing has over many other marketing channels is the ability to gather very specific data about who is interacting with your content and accounts. This data analysis enables adaptability with content that can be tailored and redistributed practically in real-time in response to feedback and engagement levels. 

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In fact, there may be no better way to both challenge and improve upon internal assumptions than to put those assumptions to the test against social media sharing patterns. Not just listening to what your audience says but also paying attention to what your audience does are often two of the most important drivers behind how content strategy changes over time. 

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That said, despite the value of experimentation, the process should be one of continuous fine-tuning on a consistent theme and tone. The goal of adaptability is to improve, but there must be a consistent baseline against which small improvements can be tested for effectiveness. An environment of continuous wild swings in voice or content selection can devolve into chaos and is generally counterproductive in most social media spaces for most company promotional purposes.

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In terms of developing an effective social media strategy that is optimized to meet the needs of your business, one key is clearly defining in advance the particular goals for any given campaign. Mission creep - where the goals of an initiative slowly evolve over time as the project progresses away from the original objective - can be particularly problematic in digital marketing where there are so many different potential approaches and endgames. 

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By first outlining the reasons that your company has elected to utilize social media, those decisions can then shape how the company and/or product offerings are presented via content. Further, determining in advance the particular audience segments that you most want to target is an important precursor to deciding what social media platforms are most appropriate, which in turn also shapes content and posting frequency (i.e. how much content you need to produce), as well. 

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It’s also important to recognize that different platforms have different norms and expectations when it comes to tone and voice, which should be complementary to your company’s own brand in order to avoid customer confusion, misrepresentation, and dilution of the existing brand value.

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In order to engage with these sought-after customers through social media, of course, your company’s social content must first attract their attention. One tried and true strategy is to use the platform to boost the reach and penetration of thought-leadership-related content, which helps position your business in the minds of the consumers as a source of expertise and prominent player within the relevant industry/space. 

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And in the process of engaging with customers/clients/competitors and the general public across social media, it’s of course important to make sure employees don’t lose sight of their responsibilities as representatives of and spokespeople for the company, which is true of both formal, team-produced content as well as likes, shares, and individual comments or messages. 

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While there is clearly much to be gained from effective social media use and many more avenues for insurance professionals and their companies to explore, the bottomline with social media is that there will never be one right answer, as the optimized social media strategy for any given person or company will likely look just a little different from the optimized social media strategy for just about any other person or company. But clearly defining your targets and working through the process of content-creation followed by analysis and adjustment  - then rinse and repeat - is a great place to start, as is getting in touch with social media marketing specialists with experience in your particular industry and/or market.

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You can read more about this topic here. 

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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is collecting data and conducting research into heat-related illness and injuries that occur on the job with a goal of establishing a new standard that can help reduce the occurrence of these kinds of heat-caused accidents. 

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As a part of that information gathering effort, the US Department of Labor is enlisting the aid of small businesses and local government officials as well as other stakeholders and interested parties to collaborate in the standard-development process and engage in discussions about the potential impacts and consequences - intended or unintended - that may result from any particular provision being considered.

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Accordingly, OSHA will be hosting Small Business Advocacy Review Panels this summer in order to bring together representatives of the various interests involved to share their experience and shape the new standards in order to achieve the desired results. Panel members will include OSHA staff as well as representatives from the US Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy and the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs from within the Office of Management and Budget. And while experts from a wide variety of industries are certainly welcomed and encouraged to attend and provide input, the most-sought-after insight involves the industries where heat exposure illnesses are most common and dangerous, such as agriculture, landscaping, construction, manufacturing, warehousing, oil and gas, utilities, waste management, and food services - particularly restaurants with hot kitchen working spaces.

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These meetings will also be open to the public and can be attended in person and/or via teleconference so that all that choose to do so are able to share their thoughts and concerns about how new regulations might impact their current operations in addition to providing the panel with information about current best practices and safety protocols both at their companies and with regard to industry norms generally as they are commonly understood. 

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While the new standards remains a work-in-progress and have yet to be solidified let alone implemented, of course, the intention is that the new rules will be applicable both to indoor and outdoor workplaces alike across industries currently under OSHA’s jurisdiction, including maritime industries. 

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The impetus for implementing new heat standards stems directly from rising temperatures around the globe, with the hottest 8 years on record all occurring since 2015. Accordingly, the physical conditions that stem from severe and/or prolonged exposure to excessive heat - which can include death - have been increasing as well, with thousands of people being affected every year despite the fact that cases often go unreported, thus masking the true scale of the problem. 

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Perhaps the worst aspect of the damage done in terms of loss of life and health as a result of heat exposure at work is that it is almost entirely preventable, which makes the potential impact of well-crafted regulation in this space all the more promising.

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The info-seeking panels this summer represent the latest step toward the culmination of a process that began in the Fall of 2021 when OSHA published their Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings. In addition to conducting the current rulemaking process and initiating the development of new heat exposure workplace standards, OSHA has already taken several supplemental measures to address these heat-related dangers, including creating an enforcement initiative for heat hazards, launching a National Emphasis Program promoting heat inspections, creating a national advisory committee covering this topic, and developing an educational campaign to keep both employers and employees informed about the risks and injuries that coincide with high-temperature working conditions. 

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You can find more information about OSHA’s development of new heat-related workplace standards and how you and your company can participate here.

Workplace stress is so common that it’s practically a cliche, and for understandable and sometimes even good reasons.

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After all, most of us want the work we do to make a meaningful contribution to the team and company’s overall efforts. We want to come through for our coworkers and managers alike and deliver on the expectations that seek to meet. Wanting to do a good job can be admirable.

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But that desire to succeed of course is always coupled with the possibility of falling short, and when you’re fulfilling a function that is critical to the group mission, falling short can lead to consequences that range from internalized feelings of guilt or shame to major negative outcomes for the business and/or the loss of your livelihood and means for supporting your current standard of living.

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These are very high stakes, and high stakes can lead to high levels of stress, so it’s no surprise that workplaces are going to consistently serve as very efficient factories for manufacturing especially high stress levels.

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What may be more surprising is how unhealthy and dangerous those high levels of stress can be, but according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) workplace stress is directly responsible for 120 thousand deaths a year.

In fact, the relationship between stress and health is so well documented that the police forces in some of the biggest cities in the United States - including New York City  and Los Angeles - will attribute any heart attack or other coronary event experienced by an office as a work-related injury, whether the officer is on the job at the time of the event or on vacation, sleeping in a hammock on a beach thousands of miles outside their jurisdiction. Hypertension is another condition with widely acknowledged and documented ties to stress.

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Beyond negatively affecting the health and well-being of the employees experiencing it, workplace stress tends to have a number of negative effects at a company level, as well. For one, job performance goes down on an individual basis, which of course can hamper company workflow and output and will have compounded effects in workplaces where the problem is more widespread. Stress will similarly diminish productivity and employee communication, as well as inhibit highly stressed employees’ physical capability and their ability to function consistently day to day. 

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While workplace stress is unfortunately commonplace, however, it is not equally experienced across all industries and the levels of stress involved can play a significant role in determining the severity of the outcome. The healthcare, finance, construction, and education industries register higher levels of stress on average than most industries, for example.

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Where a person falls within their company hierarchy also impacts the average level of stress they experience, with 14% of managers on the top hierarchical tiers experiencing high levels of stress as a result of higher levels of responsibility for both the work product and the people who help produce it. Workers on the lowest levels of the corporate ladder experience the next greatest amount of stress following those on the uppermost rungs, with 10% of interns and temp workers reporting high levels of stress from uncertainty and a lack of control over their work and position within the organization. 

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In one study by CommPsych involving a survey of North American employees across a variety of industries that inquired about the primary sources of workplace stress, the largest proportion of respondents cited workload as the main generator of their stress at 41%, followed by 32% of respondents who pointed to interpersonal issues, 18% who blame their work-life balancing act, and 9% whose stress was driven by concerns about job security.

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Clearly, workplace stress is having an outsized effect on the people who experience it as well as the companies where they are employed. And with the stakes as high as they are in terms of health and success both for the afflicted individuals and the companies they work for, the responsibility must fall on all parties involved in order to minimize workplace stress and the negative impacts that always come with it. 

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You can read more about this topic here.

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There are two types of problems - the kind you’ve encountered before and the kind you’re running into for the first time - and the pandemic has forced most people, companies, and industries to face more than their fair share of both of these types of problems in the span of a few short years.

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In the healthcare industry, bed shortages are not a particularly new phenomenon and have presumably been around for as long as group medical care facilities have existed, for example. Dealing with a short-circuiting global supply chain and competing with patients and other non-medical institutions for PPE supplies, on the other hand, was probably a more novel experience in the healthcare field.

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Similarly, HR teams around the globe had plenty of experience prior to the pandemic with rapid-fire retirement announcements and managing external factors that unexpectedly necessitate change within personnel structure, but it is probably safe to say that very few human resources professionals throughout history have ever had to reconfigure entire recruitment and hiring processes on short notice around sometimes untested video chat platforms or overhaul employee benefits packages in light of hybrid-work schedules for entire company divisions. 

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While it would surely be understandable to want to leave all of this in the past after several years in a near constant state of alert in anticipation of the next shoe drop, however, that unfortunately does not appear to be the plight of the HR professionals in the current era who’ve been carrying the torch and must now manage the next great obstacle that workplaces around the world are grappling with - Long Covid - defined by symptoms lasting more than 3 months following initial infection, often characterized by especially debilitating fatigue. 

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Most HR departments have experience accommodating various forms of disability, of course, but the novelty of the challenge at hand will be in the massive scale and harsh severity of the problem that Long Covid presents. 

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In terms of scale, about 1 out of every 13 adults in the US is experiencing Long Covid. Given a workforce of about 160 million people, that could lead to more than 12 million cases just in the US alone.

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As for severity, one study determined that fatigue and quality of life for some Long Covid patients is worse than it is for late stage cancer and kidney disease patients, and 80% of people experiencing Long Covid report having at least some difficulty conducting day-to-day tasks as a result, which can significantly hinder productivity.

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With regard to employer costs that affect the bottom line beyond diminished productivity, estimates indicate that companies’ medical contributions for employees with Long Covid will be $9,000 greater on average than the comparable expenses required for employees who are infected with Covid but show no extended symptoms. For additional context, average Long Covid expenditures exceed expenditures on employees with diabetes by about 26%. 

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On the brighter side, there have been some recent advancements within the medical research community that’s working to more specifically identify the biological mechanisms and responses in play with Long Covid. Also, some of the more ubiquitous Covid strains appear less likely to produce Long Covid Cases and repeated infection may reduce the likelihood of Long Covid symptoms, which is especially relevant as the disease transitions from pandemic to endemic. 

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Still, while there are many aspects of life that have largely returned to normal at this point in the pandemic cycle, there are also many ways in which ‘normal’ has been entirely redefined. Barring any additional speculative breakthroughs, Long Covid will likely be a new normal to which people, companies, and industries will once again adapt as it impacts our lives and offices for a long time to come. 

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You can find more information about Long Covid as well as data-supported ideas about how HR departments can best prepare for and manage some of the specific impacts that can be expected with Long Covid here on the Mployer Advisor blog.

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Economic Outlook

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New Jobs/Unemployment

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The unemployment rate ticked back up three-tenths of a point last month to 3.7% after matching half-century historic lows at 3.4% the month before.

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Meanwhile, just under 340 thousand new jobs were added to US payrolls, led by gains in the professional and business services industry for the second month in a row with gains of more than 60 thousand new jobs. 

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Job Openings

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The number of job openings reversed course from the trend of decreasing job openings, and rose by about half a million openings from the end of March through the end of April (the most recent data available), climbing from about 9.6 million to 10.1 million openings.

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The total number of hires held steady from month to month at about 6.1 million, as did the hiring rate which only dropped by about a tenth of a point from 4% to 3.9%.

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The South and Midwest both registered a hiring rate increase of a tenth of a point, whereas the Northeast and West regions both saw their hiring rates drop by a tenth of a point. The South and Midwest also retain the higher hiring rates overall at 4.4% and 3.9%, respectively, relative to the 3.6% and 3.4 percent hiring rates reported by the West and Northeast.

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Separations

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The separation rate dropped a tenth of a point from 3.8% to 3.7% and total separations were down a little less than 300 thousand. 

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The number of job quitters and the quit rate also continued to drop, down to 3.8 million from 3.9 million the month before, with the quit rate falling from 2.5% to 2.4%. 

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Layoffs and discharges dropped as well after having registered a month-over-month increase the month prior - with the layoff/discharge rate dropping from 1.2% to 1% and the raw number of layoffs and discharges falling by about a quarter million down to 1.6 million last month.

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Inflation

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Inflation rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in May, which is only one quarter of the inflation registered the month before. 

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The previous 12 month period saw a total 4% inflation increase, which continues this downward trend as the Federal Reserve convenes this week regarding an additional interest rate increase.

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Job Satisfaction

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According to the Conference Board’s 2023 report on Job Satisfaction, US workers’ job satisfaction is on the rise - climbing from 56.8% in 2020 to 60.2% in 2021 and  62.3% in 2022 - with improved work/life balance a significant contributing factor. 

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In fact, the latest figure of 62.3% job satisfaction is the highest ever recorded in the 36 years that this report has been produced and continues a steady upward trend in job satisfaction since hitting an all-time low of 42.6% in 2010 in the wake of the financial crisis. 

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Interestingly, hybrid-remote workers are more satisfied on average than either on-site workers or fully-remote workers are. 

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Employee Benefits

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Benefits Expenditures

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Recent research from the Rewards & Employee Benefits Association in conjunction with Howden Employee Benefits and Well Being indicates that company expenditures on employee benefits and perks are going up, with 64% of responding employers planning to increase benefits spending.

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Caregiving

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According to a recent article in Yahoo Finance, about 20% of the workforce is currently managing some kind of caregiving responsibility in their personal life, whether that be child care, senior care, special needs care, or otherwise. Further, nearly half of those managing these kinds of caregiving responsibilities (44%) claim that additional flexibility at work with regard to hours and scheduling would be helpful.

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Mental Health & Wellness

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The Forbes Human Resources Council put together a collection of different ways that employers can better enable employees to manage mental health, including

• Making resources like learning and virtual meditation courses available;
• Enabling free, open discussion on mental health topics;
• Providing a safe space where employees feel secure;
• Curating a variety of mental health and wellness platforms and programs;
• Mandating days off or mutual rest days across the entire company;
• Establishing a system of weekly check-ins;
• Incentivizing mindfulness and physical fitness activities;
• Promoting a more balanced work/life blend;
• Strengthening benefits packages and components;
• Approaching care and concern about these issues holistically.

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Another recent piece notes that oft-touted Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) often fall short of providing the kind of care and attention required by someone experiencing mental health issues, and offers up several alternative mental wellness benefits offerings, including:

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• Providing mental health days at least once a month that don’t count against PTO;
• Adopting a 4 day work week, which is becoming increasingly commonplace; 
• Establishing Employee Resource Groups to provide a network of support for those in need; and
• Implementing an open door HR policy for employees to speak freely and address their concerns.

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Further, this study indicates that 9 out of 10 companies that invest in employee wellness see a positive return on investment, with 85% of HR professionals noting a reduction in sick days and 78% seeing decreased health expenditures when comprehensive well-being-promoting benefits are utilized.

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Voluntary Benefits 

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According to Optavise’s 2023 Benefits Broker Report, nearly two-thirds (64%) of surveyed benefits brokers saw an increasing proportion of their client base offering voluntary benefits last year, which is up from 58% in 2021.

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The top three newly added benefits for the last 2 years have been accident insurance, critical illness insurance, and hospital indemnity insurance.

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Promoting Benefits in Job Postings

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Data from Ziprecruiter reveals an explosion in the amount and type of employee benefits offerings that are being included in job postings, with about 25% of jobs advertising they are now offering retirement benefits, and an increasing number of postings are including specific reference to student loan repayment/tuition assistance, PTO, parental leave, and even healthcare. 

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Benefit Information & Communication

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Given that the average employee only spends about 20 minutes a year evaluating and choosing from among benefits package offerings, a recent piece from Benefits Pro includes some ideas that can help employers, benefits advisors, brokers and employees themselves improve employee benefit comprehension and adoption rates, including:

• Increasing vendor engagement in regular intervals throughout the year as well as timely communications through multiple media formats that link benefits to happenings in the workplace and in the world outside;
• Expanding benefits education in the onboarding process for new hires, and 
• Utilizing employee status changes as an opportunity to check-in and make updates if necessary

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A new study from LegalShield reinforces the idea that employees are seeking more guidance when it comes to understanding employee benefit offerings and how to utilize them. 

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Nearly half of the more than 800 employees who were surveyed claimed that they did not feel that they were sufficiently prepared for the decisions they were making during open enrollment periods, and more than 8 out of 10 of the survey respondents responded positively to the possibility of keeping active lines of communication about benefits open throughout the year as opposed to only or primarily during open enrollment periods.

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Home-Ownership Benefits

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A new article from Time speculates that benefits package components that help make homeownership a more attainable goal for employees will become increasingly sought after, given that 87% of Americans are concerned about housing costs and only 1 out of 5 houses in the US priced at a level that the median-income family could afford, which is down from 2 out f 5 houses priced affordably for the median-income family in 2021.

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Financial Benefits 

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According to Morgan Stanlye’s annual State of the Workplace report, employers are failing to keep pace with their employees’ growing appetite for financial benefits, with 88% of employees requesting some kind of benefit package component that their employer didn’t offer, up 10% from the 78% in 2021 who requested an employee benefit that their company didn’t make available.

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That said, one in four employers have already begun the process of pruning back their employee financial benefits offerings as a cost-saving measure in anticipation of economic downturn. Some of the areas that are seeing these cuts implemented include equity arrangements, financial wellness programs, and retirement savings related expenditures.

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Menopause Benefits

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A new report from The National Menopause Foundation, despite nearly 2 out of 3 women wanting menopause-related benefit offerings as a part of their employee benefits package, only 14% of women believe that their employer adequately recognizes the importance of menopause benefits and accommodations. 

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Professional Development 

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According to The University of Phoenix’s 2022 Career Optimism Study, 89% of employers believe that additional learning and development opportunities provided to their employees are provided frequently, while only 61% of employees agree.

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Legal/Compliance

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2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Submissions Due

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Mid-July 2023 is the current tentatively set date for 2022s EEO1 Component 1 data collection.

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This filing must be submitted by every company that has 100 or more employees across all locations and/or is affiliated with a company that has 100 or more employees through common ownership or centralized management. 

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Further, this filing must also be submitted by any company with 50 employees or more that has a contract with the federal government worth at least $50,000 or has an establishment that holds a federal contract worth at least $50,000. 

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Companies or establishments thereof that are federal contractors and serve as depositories of federal funds no matter how much or how little, as well as financial entities that are issuing and paying agents for US Savings Bonds and Savings notes must also submit this form. 

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New FLSA Posters

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The Department of Labor released the latest iteration of their Employee Rights Under Fair Labor And Standards Act Poster, which employers are required to display and includes information regarding the current minimum wage rate of $7.25 an hour, as well as other pertinent notes/rules regarding child labor, tip credit, overtime, and the PUMP Act, etc.

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I-9 Employment Eligibility

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The grace period during which the pandemic-inspired flexibility with I-9 employment verification is coming to an end on July 31, 2023 (as previously reported), after which time the virtual inspections of employment documents will no longer be permissible. 

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Further, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has set the date of August 30, 2023 - just one month after the termination of the flexibility/grace period - as the deadline before which employers who utilized virtual inspection processes to verify employee documentation during the grace/flexibility period must complete in-person follow-up verification for employees whose employment eligibility status was initially verified virtually. 

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Job Applicant Credit Rejection

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued the final rule in March of 2023, which is an update to 2018’s Summary of Your Rights Under The Fair Credit Reporting Act, which requires employers that reject job applicants due to information obtained through a credit report to provide the rejected applicant with information about the credit reporting agency from which the report was obtained, including name, address, and telephone number.

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Although the new rule has already taken effect as of April 19, 2023 - compliance does not become mandatory until next year on March 20, 2024.

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Tech

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VR Employee Training

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This piece from Forbes put together a collection of advantages that can be gained via utilizing virtual and augmented reality in an employee training context, including:

• Increasing engagement with the material;
• Promoting inclusion;
• Providing opportunities for employees to access executives en masse, and vice versa; 
• Improving onboarding efficiency, and 
• Allowing for more patience during the learning process by letting trainees move at their own pace and return to lessons multiple times if need be.

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Benefits Consultant Webinars

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A piece in Corporate Wellness Magazine showcases some of the best reasons for incorporating employee benefits consultant webinars into your company's informational resource repertoire, including keeping up with emerging trends and evolving best practices, exploring new strategies, tracking regulatory and compliance-related developments, and experimenting with the latest relevant technological innovations and platforms.

5 key trends emerged from some recent data collected and analyzed by Mercer about benefit offerings and their delivery/utilization that are currently shaping the employee benefits space.

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At the top of the list of employee desires is simply the security that benefits provide in general. In fact, there was a 14 point gap between the 25% of employees with benefits who view their experience during the pandemic as more good than bad, versus the 11% of employees without benefits that view their pandemic experience net positively. Additionally, 15% of respondents in total believe that there is a greater imbalance in their work-life ratio than there was prior to the pandemic’s onset, which provides an additional opportunity for employers to address an imminent employee need through benefit-related support.

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Being able to seek out healthcare solutions and support through digital platforms is another of the most highly prized benefits among employees, with about 80% of respondents valuing access to telemedicine appointments and apps designed to address well-being, etc.

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Mental health offerings are another type of increasingly sought after employee benefits package component, with 50% of employees viewing mental health support as highly important. Offering this kind of support via mental health and well-being resources is all the more critical given that nearly 1 out of 4 employees believes they are in a worse position than they were prior to the pandemic, and 1 out of 5 employees is experiencing greater feelings of isolation. 

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Further, about 1 in 10 employees lost a close friend or relative during the pandemic, which is a shockingly large number of people to be managing grief and experiencing bereavement from the same cause at the same time. The scope of these issues across such a significant portion of the population underscores both the need for and value of supplemental mental health support at the present time, as well as the opportunity to build loyalty and provide meaningful assistance to employees at a time when that support is most necessary and appreciated.

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The trends that Mercer identified in their dataset collection go beyond simply what types of offerings are most on-the-rise or in-demand in the current moment, and involve not just the ‘what’ of employee benefits, but also the ‘how’ by looking into how the delivery of those benefits affects their adoption, utilization, and appreciation.

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For example, variation in employee benefit package offerings is a major factor in terms of how effective those benefits packages can be in achieving their strategic aims. If a primary strategic goal is employee retention, offering a variety of well-being resources would be a tactically wise step to take, given that employees who have access to the greatest variety of well-being and mental health support services and platforms are 35% less likely to seek employment elsewhere.

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The healthcare front provides another opportunity where offering a variety of options provides a chance for employers to distinguish themselves from the competition, given that about 3 out of 4 employers currently offer more than 1 health plan choice, but only about 1 in 4 have 5 options or more. While there is certainly a point of diminishing returns that would make the addition of any more health plan options a greater burden than the value it provides, that point is very unlikely to be less than 5 options given a relatively diverse employee pool with different interests and concerns that must be addressed in their benefits planning. 

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Ensuring that benefits are being distributed equitably is another trend on the rise when it comes to employee benefits delivery and utilization. After all, it doesn’t particularly matter what benefits and perks are theoretically available or how many different options there may be if the employees who would most benefit from accessing them are unable to do so. Employees at lower levels of compensation are often the ones who most need the comprehensive support that well-curated benefits packages can provide, for example, and yet these same employees are often least able to access that support. In the case of healthcare, for one, fewer than 1 in 4 employees are confident that they will be covered for the necessary appointments and treatments they will need in the event of a medical emergency or new/worsening condition. 

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Collectively, these top trends in employee benefits offerings and delivery highlight the increasingly important role that benefits packages and the employers that make them available are playing in the lives of their employees outside of work, especially when unfortunate circumstances strike, as they inevitably do. No matter how thoughtfully compiled a collection of employee benefits offerings may be nor how enticing the latest developments in the market may appear to the ideal pool of talent, unless those benefits offerings are provided in a way that makes them accessible to those who need them and unless there are sufficient options to enable employees to customize their benefits in light of their own needs, then the strategic goals backing up those benefits packages will likely always remain just a little out of reach. 

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You can read more about this research and analysis here.

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This recently released, think tank-produced white paper takes a look at how Long Covid is affecting people and companies, as well as what management can do to address and accommodate the resulting issues

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According to this research, more than 4 out of 10 adults in the US claim to have been infected by COVID and nearly 1 in 5 of them have ongoing symptoms. In total, 1 out of every 13 US adults appear to be experiencing what has been labeled Long Covid, which is defined by continuing Covid symptoms for more than 3 months following initial infection.

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Further, the study notes that 80% of people experiencing Long Covid have at least some difficulty in completing day-to-day tasks, so not only will their health and well-being take a serious hit, but so will your company’s productivity. 

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Long Covid can be particularly costly in terms of health care contributions, as well, given that it is both a chronic and novel condition about which much is still being learned. For example, the average health care spend per employee was about $2,655 for employees with Long Covid, which was about 26% higher than the health care expenses per employee with diabetes.

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It’s predicted that employers will ultimately spend an additional $9,000 per employee with Long Covid when compared to employees who were infected with Covid but did not have their symptoms extend beyond the normal period.

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With those kinds of stats and figures, it’s more likely than not that some percentage of the employees at your company will experience this long-term affliction and that it’s going to negatively affect your bottom line. With this understanding in mind, the question becomes less about if it will happen than when, and how will you prepare in advance in order to best address the needs of both the employee and the company when the time comes.

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One way to prepare is to be aware of how the condition is likely to affect employees, which includes both performance-centric symptoms like slower task completion, the propensity to make simple errors, and difficulty with routine. Physical and psychological effects like sensitivity to light and noise and/or outward displays of anxiety, frustration, and anger as a result are also common symptoms.

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Companies and HR professionals would also be wise to proactively look into updating their own internal policies to make sure they are in sync with the performance and tangential issues they can reasonably expect from the likely wave of employees experiencing this form of chronic illness that they will be managing. 

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That said, because Long Covid is a relatively newly defined condition with a wide range of symptoms that can vary in expression and severity, it can be difficult for those suffering from it to obtain a formal diagnosis in many cases still, so the authors of the paper stress the need for flexibility in how employees with Long Covid are best managed, for both the sake of the employee and the company. 

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For example, while employers will certainly need medical substantiation for employees with Long Covid cases that are more severe and may ultimately lead to disability claims, employers might be well-served to forgo a formal diagnosis requirement for milder cases that may be difficult to substantiate before enabling employees to access the care they seek, which will likely lead to increased wellness and productivity to everyone’s mutual benefit.

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For those employees that plan and are able to continue working despite their condition, there are many considerations and accommodations through which employers and employees can optimize work expectations, environment, and efficiency.

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First, acknowledgement on the part of employers that employees will feel differently and that it won’t simply be “business as usual” is a good first step, along with providing the mental health support necessary for the employee to adapt and acknowledge the changes they are facing, too.

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Some other, concrete accommodations for employees whose Long Covid symptoms include fatigue include scooters and/or wheelchairs, especially if the office floor plan is large; ergonomic and pneumatic furniture, tools, and equipment when applicable; flexible schedule and telework options when possible; and periodic breaks.

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If you manage employees who experience memory loss and/or brain fog as a result of Long Covid, some potential accommodations include training refreshers, additional time to complete tasks, electronic organization tools, a system of reminders, written/recorded messages and task directives, and job coaching. 

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For employees whose Long Covid manifests at least in part as light sensitivity, on the other hand, the use of alternative, non-fluorescent and/or LED filters; anti-glare filters; added light shades/shields; and simulated skylights/windows are potential accommodations that may be worth considering.

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Beyond accommodating employees who stay on the job throughout, there is also a separate set of challenges that comes with bringing employees who had been out on medical leave back into the fold upon their return to work. 

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To best process and support the reentry of employees whose Long Covid had led to an extended absence from the job, one recommended route is first implementing tests in order to evaluate and ensure the employee’s cognitive and physical fitness for duty, followed by work-hardening/conditioning programs to make sure the employee has built back the requisite endurance to complete the tasks required of them. Once the employee is satisfactorily capable, bring them back into company workflow with a graduated schedule in tune with the pace of each employee’s abilities. 

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Of course no matter the extent of planning there are always going to be situations that occur that are unanticipated by any given employer, which is one of the main advantages that come with seeking the guidance of a third-party vendor like a disability insurance broker or TPA who has direct experience with how other, similarly-situated employers have responded when they’ve faced the same or an analogous problem.

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Brokers and others with the ability to gain perspective on how Long Covid is playing out across a number of different companies/industries at the same time will likely remain the preeminent source of expertise on these issues with regard to workforce management for some time given that no additional guidance is expected from the government on these issues in the short term and that the current disability system is not well-suited to deal with Long Covid occurrences throughout a substantial portion of the workforce.

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As a final note, the authors did raise one additional point that could easily fly under the radar when company leadership and HR professionals are making preparations for how to confront these challenges, which in fact involves the employees who don’t have Long Covid. 

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Anytime special accommodations are being made for one subset of employees - especially if those accommodations apply to a significant proportion of employees - there is always the possibility that the other employees who don’t see a direct benefit from said accommodations react negatively.

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While there may be little to do other than emphasizing the company’s commitment to workplace inclusivity and accommodation, which may very well benefit aggrieved employees in the future, it may be a good idea to keep an eye out for these kinds of problems so that they may be identified and resolved before they worsen. 

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You can read more about Long Covid as well as how businesses can best manage a labor force that is likely to become increasingly impacted by it in the years to come here. 

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