Employers Not Doing Enough to Meet Workforce Retirement and Recruitment Needs, Says Aon Consulting Survey
14 Maggio 2007 - 5:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
Employee engagement in health care a primary focus for employers
CHICAGO, May 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- As nearly 80 million baby
boomers begin to retire, three in five organizations nationwide
believe the majority of their employees are not financially
prepared to leave the workforce, according to a new survey
conducted by Aon Consulting, the human capital consulting
organization of Aon Corporation (NYSE:AOC). (Logo:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO) The Aon
Consulting 2007 Benefits and Talent Survey of more than 2,000
organizations studied trends in retirement -- as well as talent
management, health care and communication (see sections below for
additional survey findings) -- and found that 62 percent of
organizations expect that less than half of their workforce will
have enough income to retire between the ages of 62 and 65. As the
majority of employers shift away from offering defined benefit
plans to defined contribution plans, more responsibility for
managing retirement savings rests with individual employees. To
educate employees about retirement needs, about 80 percent of
employers offer personalized online retirement planning tools.
Nonetheless, about 80 percent of employers believe their employees
still do not fully understand how to invest their defined
contribution plan assets. There also is a gap between the
importance employers place on employee education regarding saving
for retirement and the number of employers that provide this
information. According to the Aon Consulting survey, 98 percent of
employers say it is important for employees to know how much they
will need at retirement so they can save accordingly, but 34
percent of organizations expect their employees to find this
information on their own. "Personalized retirement planning tools
and education are essential to help employees understand how much
income they will need at retirement. Personalized communication
incorporates both employer-sponsored retirement benefits and
outside savings and investments," said Susan Alford, executive vice
president and Defined Contribution national practice leader with
Aon Consulting. "Communication materials provided by 401(k)
providers are addressing this issue with replacement income
projections and total reward statements. This type of communication
helps the employee convert the percentage saved to a replacement
income and addresses the adequacy and any shortfall in their
personal situation," Alford added. Personalized information should
include the employer-sponsored retirement benefits plus Social
Security; a tangible savings target; the approximate value of a
participant's savings account using sources such as current
deferral rates and any matching contributions; and showing the
participant if he or she is on track for retirement by calculating
the difference between savings needs at retirement and the
approximate value of the participant's savings account at
retirement. The vast majority of organizations offer some type of
defined contribution plan, and 82 percent of those organizations
make contributions to the plan. However, the survey shows that
contributions by employers and employees may be inadequate to
prepare employees for retirement. The survey found that 26 percent
of employers with 401(k) plans contribute less than 2 percent of
payroll to the plan. Moreover, 40 percent of organizations that
offer a defined contribution plan report that 75 to 100 percent of
their employees contribute to the plan, with nearly 30 percent of
organizations reporting that 50 percent or fewer of their employees
contribute to the plan. Providing an automatic enrollment feature
for employees has proven successful at ensuring more employees have
at least a base level of retirement savings, but the Aon Consulting
survey reported only 44 percent of employers currently offer or
plan to offer this feature in the next 12 months. The remaining 56
percent have no plans to add automatic enrollment. "Automatic
enrollment, automatic contribution, and automatic asset allocation
are all plan options designed to enroll the employee in the plan
contributing at a minimum level, increase the contributions as
their pay increases and provide an asset allocation that is
suitable for the employees age and target retirement date," Alford
added. "We expect more employers to embrace these programs to
increase participation and employee contributions as 401(k) vendors
offer communication tools and technology to address this trend,"
she explained. Trends in Talent Management The Aon Consulting
survey found that four out of five organizations consider
recruiting and selecting talent a top or critical issue in 2007,
and 63 percent believe their organization's need to recruit and
select the best talent will increase or substantially increase in
the next three to five years. This is not a surprise as the Bureau
of Labor Statistics predicts a worker shortage of 10 million by
2010 in the United States, a shortage that is expected to increase
steadily in the years thereafter, partly influenced by the aging
workforce and baby boomer retirements. The impending worker
shortage also will result in the loss of employees in leadership
positions. The study found more than 40 percent of companies are
currently experiencing or expect to experience a leadership
shortage in the next one to four years. "Employers must recognize
the need to bolster their leadership pipelines to replace retiring
leaders, support the pace of growth within an organization, and to
stay competitive," said Mark Lifter, executive vice president and
Talent Solutions Consulting national practice leader with Aon
Consulting. "Leadership development is an ongoing process, and top
talent -- whether they are current employees or recruited
externally -- will expect strong organizational support for
development. This means differential investments in high potential,
high performance people. To maximize returns on these investments
in leadership talent, leadership development initiatives must be
carefully aligned with workforce plans for pivotal performance
positions, near and longer term talent gaps, and business
strategy," Lifter added. In addition, the survey reported that when
considering the most critical jobs, more than 98 percent of
respondents expect that recruiting high-performing employees will
continue to be difficult or increase in difficulty. One way to
recruit high-performing employees is by effectively communicating
the total compensation package (dollar value of benefits plus
salary) to job candidates, but the study found this is not commonly
practiced among employers. In fact, 77 percent of organizations
provide a general overview of benefits with no dollar figure. Not
communicating the dollar value of benefits in addition to pay has
negatively impacted organizations seeking to hire top recruits.
According to the Aon Consulting survey, when asked what the main
reason was that organizations were unsuccessful in hiring top
recruits in the past two years, 42 percent of organizations said
the candidate went elsewhere for compensation that was perceived to
be higher (based on pay and/or benefits). "As these results
indicate, recruitment strategies should include a breakdown of the
dollar value of benefits plus salary to ensure top job candidates
are fully informed when choosing between organizations. With the
impending leadership shortage, employers cannot afford to lose top
job candidates to the competition," Lifter added. Trends in Health
Care Employers are responding to the double-digit healthcare cost
increases by offering initiatives that emphasize health and
productivity and directly engage employees in managing their
health. Implementing online healthcare tools is the most common
healthcare cost and quality initiative, with 21 percent of
organizations newly offering this resource to employees in 2007.
Another 17 percent plan to offer this feature next year. Nineteen
percent of employers are promoting exercise/physical activity in
2007 and another 15 percent plan to add this initiative in 2008.
Other top initiatives in 2007 include the following: -- 18 percent
of organizations are promoting the importance of health and
productivity to employees. -- 18 percent are offering disease
management programs. -- 15 percent are implementing wellness
programs such as preventive care. "It is clear employers are
focused on helping employees become more knowledgeable and engaged
healthcare consumers, with a special emphasis on preventive care,
promoting fitness, and disease management," said Tom Lerche, Health
Care practice leader with Aon Consulting's Health and Benefits
practice. "While these programs address the root cause of
healthcare costs, employers are also investing in the use of
predictive modeling, biometric testing and health risk appraisals
to understand disease and cost drivers." Aligned with the trend of
encouraging employees to actively manage their health, the survey
also found the percentage of employers offering a consumer-driven
health (CDH) plan has nearly doubled, from 13 percent as reported
in the 2006 survey to 23 percent in 2007. Moreover, 13 percent of
respondents are considering offering a CDH plan as an option in
2008, and 6 percent are considering offering a CDH plan as a full
replacement for their current medical plan. "We continue to see a
steady increase in the number of employers offering CDH options
along with increased enrollment. CDH, with a fully integrated
wellness program, remains one of the best strategic approaches for
employers to reduce the medical trend rate," Lerche added. For
further information: Sara Carlson 312.381.5045
http://www.aon.com/hcc About Aon Aon Corporation
(http://www.aon.com/) is a leading provider of risk management
services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and
management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. There
are 43,000 employees working in Aon's 500 offices in more than 120
countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and
technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients
develop effective risk management and workforce productivity
solutions. Aon Consulting Worldwide (http://www.aon.com/hcc) is
among the top global human capital consulting firms, with 2006
revenues of $1.282 billion and 6,500 professionals in 117 offices
worldwide. Aon Consulting is reshaping the workplace of the future
through benefits, talent management and rewards strategies and
solutions. In August 2006, Aon Consulting was named the best
employee benefit consulting firm by the readers of Business
Insurance magazine. This press release contains certain statements
related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and
expectations or predictions for the future which are
forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking
statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that
could cause actual results to differ materially from either
historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of
factors. Potential factors that could impact results include:
general economic conditions in different countries in which we do
business around the world, changes in global equity and fixed
income markets that could affect the return on invested assets,
fluctuations in exchange and interest rates that could influence
revenue and expense, rating agency actions that could affect our
ability to borrow funds, funding of our various pension plans,
changes in the competitive environment, our ability to implement
restructuring initiatives and other initiatives intended to yield
cost savings, our ability to execute the stock repurchase program,
potential regulatory or legislative changes that would affect our
ability to sell, and be reimbursed at current levels for, our
Sterling subsidiary's Medicare health product, changes in
commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium
rates that could impact revenues, changes in revenues and earnings
due to the elimination of contingent commissions, other
uncertainties surrounding a new compensation model, the impact of
investigations brought by state attorneys general, state insurance
regulators, federal prosecutors, and federal regulators, the impact
of class actions and individual lawsuits including client class
actions, securities class actions, derivative actions, ERISA class
actions, the impact of the analysis of practices relating to stock
options, the cost of resolution of other contingent liabilities and
loss contingencies, and the difference in ultimate paid claims in
our underwriting companies from actuarial estimates. Further
information concerning the Company and its business, including
factors that potentially could materially affect the Company's
financial results, is contained in the Company's filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO
http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Aon Corporation CONTACT:
Sara Carlson of Aon Corporation, +1-312-381-5045, Web site:
http://www.aon.com/ http://www.aon.com/hcc
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