EverythingPeople This Week!

As businesses manage the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers have increased their focus on creating benefit programs that address the evolving needs of their diverse workforces, especially mental/emotional health, work/life balance, and financial health. Moreover, 80% of employers report that diversity, equity, and inclusion influence their corporate well-being strategies. This is according to Fidelity Investments® and Business Group on Health’s Employer-Sponsored...

ASE recently published the results to its biennial Policies and Benefits Survey. Survey results are broken into nine major categories and are based on three employer sizes in both the National and Michigan (a subset of the national report) editions. Over 125 Michigan employers participated in the 2021/2022 edition, and 332 questions were answered regarding human resource policies and employee benefit offerings.

The impact of the pandemic, and its resulting recession, created many challenges for employers.  While compliance and safety may have taken center stage, employee rewards and wages were also affected by COVID-19.  Data from the most recent ASE compensation survey shows that overall wage growth in Michigan, based on a matched sample of companies (referred to as a constant sample), was just 2.1%.