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Mindfulness has become the new buzzword of late, touted by Fortune 500 companies, parents, the US military, and schools (just to name a few) as the answer to burnout, behavior problems, and anxiety. But the thing is – it’s more than a buzzword or the latest trend. On top of thousands of years of history, we now have thousands of pages of research proving that mindfulness actually is a solution to many of the woes of modern day society.

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A recent CFO survey by Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI) highlights the importance of CFO involvement in employee healthcare decisions. While cost control tops the list of CFO goals around healthcare at 44%, other top-of-mind goals include recruitment and retention (36% rank this as the most important goal), helping employees make smarter healthcare choices, and increasing worker productivity. Of those surveyed, 43% say they are equal partners with their HR department in making healthcare decisions.

In 2015, ADP conducted a survey of executives from mid-market organizations (50-999 employees) and the challenges they are facing in today’s business climate. Not surprisingly, concerns around the ACA were high on the list, more than likely for those organizations with 50-99 employees that will be required to comply with the ACA’s “pay or play” employee mandate for the first time in 2016.

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For some people working out is an energy booster, but for others it’s more of a chore.  And still for others it becomes a matter of fitting a workout into busy work/travel or family schedules. But whether you love it or hate it, getting in a daily shot of fitness is a requirement for staying healthy. Luckily these days there are a million ways to get your workout into a daily routine without ever getting bored. And even better most can be found online, and are either completely free or offer free trials so you can test the waters before committing. 

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Health Policy Brief: High-Deductible Health Plans, a new policy brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation highlights the growing popularity of high deductible health plans (HDHPs) and how they are impacting the healthcare market. The debate centers on whether HDHPs actually help reduce spending, especially the 30 percent that the Institute of Medicine calls “a waste,” but at the same time don’t prevent consumers from using insurance for necessary treatments.

January is over, which means for most of us those well-intentioned resolutions are out the window and we are back to our ever-prevailing habits. But at the same time, healthy exercise habits and weight loss are still top-of-mind and highly desired goals. And not just for us – universities and employers are also starting to demand to know the weight and fitness routines of their students and employees. While this may not be the best way to entice people to lose weight, the reality is that more than one-third of the adult US population is considered obese, which costs our healthcare system billions and billions of dollars each year.

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Human resources is becoming an exciting field of late, rapidly moving along with digital technology trends that are transforming the world of HR. As a result, so much about the way we traditionally have done business has been upended. Organizations need to think more broadly and creatively about how they manage people and meet the needs of a tech-savvy workforce that is evolving every day.

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An analysis of data taken from a 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) has found that 25 million adults in the US have some sort of chronic pain (at varying levels of severity), and 40 million are living with severe pain that impacts their overall health.  That means almost 30% of the adult US population is walking around each feeling some level of pain. Chances are good, you are one of them.

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There’s a lot of discussion in the business world right now about the millennial generation. Who they are, what they care about, how to recruit them, how to get them to stay. And all with good reason. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, millennials will make up 75% of workforce by 2030. That’s only 14 years away, so thinking now about the growth of your organization and how millennials can help shape that future is crucial to long-term sustainability.

December and January mark the time when round-up lists of every sort hit the stands – predictions for the year to come, best of 2015, and what to watch for in 2016. As such, business publications have put out their projections for 2016’s business trends, which have implications for both for-profits and nonprofits alike. Below is a brief round-up of some of the big topics anticipated in the corporate world this year, and how nonprofits can integrate these ideas into the workplace: