A sign of the troubled times is that most new HR related survey data tends to fall on the negative side. Here is the latest case in point and it is sobering news indeed for employees of small businesses who currently have the option of enrolling in an employer provided health benefit plan.
Nineteen percent of employers responding to a new Hewitt Associates survey are planning to stop offering health benefits over the next three to five years, nearly five times as many as the 4 percent that said they were planning an exit strategy last year.
For those employers planning to continue to provide health benefits, keeping employees healthy has become the primary workforce issue in 2009, up from the number 2 position in 2008, according to Lincolnshire, Illinois-based Hewitt’s survey, “The Road Ahead: Emerging Health Trends 2009.”
