Survey: Employers cutting benefit costs - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

tenamup.wordpress.com
“The responses indicate that as employerx develop benefit plans for 2010 they are lookingt for ways to reducebenefit costs, without further reducinyg benefits,” said Marianne Fazen, executive director of the “Surprisingly, many responded that they plan to increasr their wellness programs.” • Thirty-five percent of employers respondecd that they plan to increase their wellnesds programs. • Companies identified as its two biggesty concerns limitedbenefits budgets, and limitecd merit budget and bonusz pools. About 68% of companies are concerned or very concerned about limited merit budget and bonus andabout 53% are concerned about limite d benefits budgets.
• To weather the economidc downturn, almost half of respondents are auditing or planningg to audittheir employees’ dependentr eligibility in order to reduce the numbefr of individuals covered. And 41% plan to increase employee costs ofbenefit plans, while more than one-thire have reduced or are planning to reducr staff. • About 89% of employers believed that workers will respond to the economixc downturn bydelaying retirement. Also, 83% of employerzs say their workers are concerne aboutjob security, and 42% think theifr employees have been impacted by low morale. The survety was submitted to the association'ds employer members and facilitated byin Houston.
The association'xs 900-plus members represent a broad cross-section of benefits professionalsin Oklahoma, Louisiana. Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas, but are not limited to those states.