Benefits Programs Focus on Keeping Employees Healthy

Companies Stress Wellness, Disease Management, and Promote Better Self-Management

BOSTON, MA–(EMWNews – August 13, 2008) – With the cost of maintaining employee benefit

programs going through the roof, organizations are taking a cue from Ben

Franklin that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Employers

are placing new emphasis on keeping employees healthier to prevent medical

problems. These and other key findings are revealed in the new benchmark

report, “Taming the Benefits Management Beast: Driving Costs Down and

Satisfaction Up,” from Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (NYSE: HHS).

“Medical insurance is far and away the most expensive benefit item being

offered by organizations, and it can be a budget buster,” according to

David Weldon, research analyst, human capital management at Aberdeen and

author of the report. “The answer is not found in reducing medical

insurance coverage, but in findings ways to make it less needed.” Cases in

point include wellness programs and disease management programs, both of

which attempt to reign in the need and cost of other health care by keeping

employees more healthy.

But as important as it is to gain control over benefit program costs,

Best-in-Class organizations understand the need to still provide a full

slate of benefit items that attract and retain workers, and are the ones

that make sense for their employee needs. “The gains for the organization

include increased retention and job satisfaction, and decreased budget and

administrative costs,” Weldon remarks.

Benefits management programs at Best-in-Class organizations are credited

with increasing employee job satisfaction by 11% and employee retention by

15%. At the same time, the Best-in-Class have reduced the administrative

burden on HR of managing benefits programs by 6%, and decreased the benefit

program cost per employee by 7%.

Key to realizing the above gains is the involvement of employees in their

own benefits program — from having a voice in which benefit items are

included in the plan, to having online access to view individual plan data,

to having a greater role in managing the plan, to being surveyed

periodically to ensure the plan continues to best serve their needs.

A complimentary copy of this report is made available due in part by the

following underwriters: Ceridian and iEmployee. To obtain a complimentary

copy of the report, visit:

http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4887.

To access all of Aberdeen’s complimentary research please visit

http://research.aberdeen.com.

About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company

Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market

intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more

than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely

positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating

demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment

analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets,

corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.

As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in

context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen’s

analytical and independent view of the “customer optimization” process of

Harte-Hanks (Information – Opportunity – Insight – Engagement –

Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role

Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit

Aberdeen http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more

about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.

© 2008 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company

451 D Street, Suite 710

Boston, Massachusetts  02210-1928

Telephone: (617) 854-5200

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www.aberdeen.com