This week, we focus on this years theme for National Employee Benefits Day, which is addressing loneliness in the workplace and what employers can do to help.

Visit www.ifebp.org/benefitsday for more information about the best day of the year!

We dive into the many options and why employers may want to consider offering benefits for family-forming services like IFV, egg harvesting, egg and sperm freezing, surrogacy, etc.

Artificial Intelligence seems to be taking the world by storm, but can it be applied to employee benefits? We dive into how this new technology can help benefits professionals and when they should be cautious.

This episode is an audio read of a Word on Benefits blog post. Read the post here: https://blog.ifebp.org/three-ways-to-use-ai-in-employee-benefits/

In what has become a Talking Benefits tradition, we're recapping all the big benefits news from 2023 in this last episode of the year.

Here are links to all of the International Foundation content we mention in this episode:

2022 Employee Benefits Survey results

https://ifebp.org/store/employee-benefits-survey/Pages/default.aspx

Workplace Mental Health Toolkit

http://www.ifebp.org/mentalhealth

Webcast on menopause benefits

https://www.ifebp.org/education/webcasts/Pages/webcast-ind.aspx?wcode=23T34&wname=the-next-stage-level-up-by-adding-menopause-benefits-as-a-creative-solution-to-positively-impact-your-organization

Blog post on Surrogacy Reimbursement programs

http://blog.ifebp.org/inclusive-family-forming-benefits-surrogacy-reimbursement-programs/

Blog post on addressing mental health in the workplace

https://blog.ifebp.org/six-steps-to-addressing-mental-health-in-the-workplace/

Talking Benefits producer, Stacy Van Alstyne, shares her recent Word on Benefits blog post on the best practices in addressing mental health in the workplace.

You can read Stacy's blog post here: https://blog.ifebp.org/six-steps-to-addressing-mental-health-in-the-workplace/

The International Foundation's Word on Benefits blog has many other great posts on a bevy of benefits topics: https://blog.ifebp.org/

Check out the Mental Health Survey Stacy mentioned in this episode. https://www.ifebp.org/store/Pages/Mental-Health-Survey-2021.aspx

International Foundation members get free access to this and dozens more of the Foundation's research reports. Explore membership here: https://www.ifebp.org/Membership/Benefits/Pages/default.aspx

Caregiving, whether it be for children or older relatives, can impact employees' retirement security long into their golden years. In this episode, we talk with Craig Copeland, Ph.D. from the Employee Benefit Research Institute on how caregiving affects employees, who it affects, how it affects the broader economy and how employers can help.

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence tool, is making headlines. But, does it have any place in the employee benefits industry? We talked to some human experts to find out.

Read Kathy's post and many other great blog posts on the International Foundation's Word on Benefits Blog: https://blog.ifebp.org/

More and more states are stepping up to fill the savings gap for individuals who don't have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans. In this episode we talk to Christine Cheng, Director of the Illinois SECURE CHOICE program on how Illinois employers fit into the program, and Kim Olson, Senior Officer on the Retirement Savings Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts on what the data tells us about these types of programs.

Employee Benefits are an important part of life in any galaxy. In what has become a sort of Talking Benefits tradition, we're celebrating Star Wars Day with an imagining of the inner workings of benefits administration in a galaxy far, far away. As it turns out, it can be a bit tricky when your participants are separated by several light years or frozen in carbonite.

This bonus episode is a reading of a Word on Benefits blog post. You can read it and many other great benefits blog posts here: https://blog.ifebp.org/

In this episode we're talking financial well-being with two staffers from the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on how your employees' finances can impact your organization and how employers can help their employees become more financially secure.

Check out the CFPB resources mentioned in this episode:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/educator-tools/financial-well-being-resources/

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/financial-well-being/

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/educator-tools/financial-well-being-resources/measure-and-score/