Event Details

Employees routinely make poor decisions about their health and how they save for retirement, impacting themselves and their employer.  How can HR leaders get employees to make better choices?  During the March 5^th program, we will outline basic principles of Behavioral Economics to “nudge” employees to adopt healthier habits and save better for retirement.  Through an interactive session, we will demonstrate how employees often make irrational choices based on mental shortcuts such as Loss Aversion, Status Quo Bias or Expert’s Certainty Bias.  We’ll discuss how employers can reframe these choices by leveraging concepts of “Choice Architecture”, such as Naming, Ordering, Default Options and Anchoring.  Participants will come away with examples of how they can provide the knowledge, motivation and resources to help employees:

• Improve nutrition
• Increase physical activity / ensure they get adequate sleep
• Reduce risky behaviors such as tobacco use and excessive alcohol use
• Enhance overall wellbeing through stress reduction and better work / life balance
• Become better healthcare consumers
• Understand what they actually need to save for retirement
• Make better choices about their retirement savings  

Come prepared to discuss the following:

-How does employee behavior and decision making impact your organization?

-What has your organization tried to nudge employees to healthier behavior?

-What are some of the assumption we as HR folks make about employee behavior?

The facilitator, J. David Johnson is a Vice President and Senior Consultant with Sibson Consulting, a division of The Segal Company, a national employee benefits and human resources consulting firm.  Based in the Washington, DC office, he works with clients to design and implement strategies to enhance the value of their Human Resources programs.  He has particular expertise in evidence-based health improvement programs, strategies to motivate behavior change and employer issues related to the Affordable Care Act ACA).  He is also an Adjunct Faculty at Towson University, where he teaches in the Masters in Human Resource Development program. 

David has twenty-five years of experience in healthcare and employee benefits.  He is a frequent national and regional speaker on topics such as motivating employee behavior change and ACA.  Recently, he has spoken at two Briefings at the US Capitol on the value of prevention to American employers.  He has also provided testimony on employer issues related to ACA to both the US Department of Labor and the Washington, DC City Council.  David has published multiple articles on employee benefits issues in Bloomberg / Bureau of National Affairs, and has been quoted in the Washington Business Journal, the Baltimore Business Journal, Employee Benefits News and the Capital Gazette.

Please join us for this lively discussion. You are welcome to extend an invitation to interested colleagues. No fee is charged for attending.  However, registration is required on-line, at least 24 hours in advance, via the Dulles SHRM web site (www.dullesshrm.org) -- Chapter Discussion Groups. If you have questions, contact Beth Gilley at 703.444.2254 or discussion@dullesshrm.org. Participation may be limited to the first 25 people who sign up.