Recognizing workers for their accomplishments–as well as who they are–is essential to boosting motivation and building a strong corporate culture. How do some employers miss the opportunities to recognize workers in a timely way? What can technology do to help scale recognition across an enterprise by empowering managers at every level? From the worker’s point of view, what kinds of recognition are most meaningful? Do younger workers respond differently that older ones?

As the cost of health care keeps rising stubbornly, benefits leaders need to be ever-more innovative in finding ways to keep spending under control while serving an increasingly diverse set of employee needs. How are benefits leaders using new tools and approaches toward evaluating their prospective and current providers? What kinds of surveys and feedback methods are they using to evaluate both employee needs and employee experience? What kinds of benefits are increasingly meaningful to workers, including financial wellness, and which ones have proven to be less impactful?

While local initiatives to improve childcare gained traction in November elections, the crisis over the cost and quality of childcare calls for a multifaceted approach. What can companies do with limited resources to help ease the crisis, which is swallowing worker paychecks and disproportionately affecting women employees, who take responsibility for caregiving of many kinds? How are some employers trying innovative approaches to on-site care, emergency back-up care, care subsidies, and help in searching their communities for suitable and affordable care?