Letter from the CEO
Dear Friends:

A recent e-newsletter from Employee Benefits News contained an article about the various benefits that companies put in place to achieve a ranking on Fortune magazine's “100 Best” list. (Benefits: building block for '100 Best' list, 9/20/07).

The article showed that employers are doing a number of unusual things to attain a spot on the list—such as offering unlimited paid vacations—but that a solid foundation of supportive benefits are equally essential. At LifeCare, we've helped employers successfully build supportive and balanced work environments for more than 20 years. We work closely with clients to build customized programs that help employees balance their busy work and personal lives—programs that feature resource and referral services, backup care for children and elders, health and wellness initiatives, legal and financial services, etc.

One of the keys to building programs that your employees will appreciate and use frequently is to make sure the programs meet real-life needs. And the best way to do that is to survey your employees. As one HR professional put it in the Employee Benefits News article: “… the most important thing we do is ask employees what they value, and we use that information to decide our offerings for the coming year.” It sounds so obvious but few organizations actually take the time to survey their workers. I'm sure that the main deterrent for most is the considerable amount of effort that surveying requires but the pay-off in superior utilization and return on investment make it worthwhile.

So, before you make your benefits choices for 2009, consider surveying your employees about their needs, especially if you haven't done so in the recent past. People's needs are always evolving and your benefits programs must keep pace. Not only will your programs be more successful when you've surveyed but your employee satisfaction and loyalty levels will rise as well. And that's definitely the right path for achieving your place on lists like the “100 Best.”

As always, we're interested in knowing how we can better serve you, so e-mail us at connection@lifecare.com, fax us at 203-291-3571, or call us at 800-873-4636 4636 to share ideas and offer feedback.

Sincerely,

Peter G. Burki, CEO