Salary alone is not enough to recruit and retain your industry’s best professionals. A comprehensive benefits package is necessary as well. Most employers know this, and they spend billions of dollars a year on benefit offerings as a result. However, the recruitment and retention value of any benefits program is wholly dependent on employee participation. An outstanding package, complete with all the bells and whistles, is essentially worthless if few of your employees elect to enroll.

Tornados and earthquakes, fires and flooding, chemical spills and terrorist attacks—disasters, natural and otherwise, can happen anytime and anywhere. Even if an unforeseen event doesn’t directly damage your property, the power outages and travel disruptions that occur during many emergencies may prevent you from shipping and receiving products and supplies or otherwise affect your day-to-day business operations. Fortunately, an emergency plan can help prepare your small business for the unthinkable.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act—also known as the ACA—was signed into law more than five years ago, requiring dramatic changes to the plans employers can offer their workers, how information on those plans are communicated, how eligibility is determined, and much more. It is only natural to believe that changes of this magnitude play a significant role in shaping employer-sponsored health benefits trends.

Remote employees are increasingly common in today’s businesses. According to a New York Times article published last year, the number of remote workers—which includes full-time telecommuters, self-employed freelancers, and other professionals whose work is traditionally done outside an office—could presently be as high as 30 percent of the American workforce.

As the economy improves, more people are beginning to leave their jobs of their own volition. What’s worse, the people who are leaving aren’t the slackers to whom you would love to give a pink slip. In a recent WorkForces Report, Aflac notes that the individuals who describe themselves as likely to leave their current position are hard-working, highly educated, high-achievers.