An inside look at April’s Health & Benefits Leadership Conference

The Health & Benefits Leadership Conference has a whole new look.

The annual conference, held April 15-17 in Las Vegas, will feature eight new and reimagined tracks—all aimed at addressing some of the biggest challenges facing HR and benefits leaders.

Related: 5 reasons to attend HRE’s Health & Benefits Leadership Conference

Vendors, benefits leaders and HR executives from cutting-edge companies and other industry experts will present the sessions.

The tracks are:

• Hot benefits to attract and retain talent: From family-friendly perks to caregiving and education assistance, a look at the latest innovative benefits that are driving recruitment and retention efforts.
• Rethinking healthcare in changing times: Amid ever-increasing healthcare costs and a rise in chronic conditions, hear how employers are taking matters into their own hands and finding solutions that are transformational for their employees and their companies.
• Keeping employees engaged: Benefits don’t start and end with open enrollment. The key to getting the most out of your benefits slate is keeping your workers informed and engaged year-round.
• Helping employees boost financial health: Making sure employees are physically healthy is important, but so is making sure they are financially healthy. A look at how companies are implementing financial-wellness programs, rethinking retirement strategies and taking aim at employees’ financial stress.
• Improving employees’ overall wellbeing: Wellness is a hot benefits trend, but how do you know if you’re getting the most out of your program? Here’s how top employers are structuring their wellbeing efforts to focus not only on physical health, but on mental and emotional health as well.
• Being a better benefits leader: HR is all about creating a happy and healthy workforce, but professionals may not always have the time and resources they need to do the job effectively. Get inspired by ideas on improving work-life balance, taking aim at burnout and other ways to do the best job for your employees—and yourself.
• Staying compliant: Benefits and HR leaders must stay up to date not only on the latest trends, but the regulations and compliance issues that affect their benefits decisions and how they deliver solutions. Make sure you have the most up-to-date information you need to do your job effectively.
• Tech solutions that work: Technology is touching and bettering every aspect of our lives—and benefits is no exception. From AI to gamification and smartphone apps, explore the ways tech can help engage employees and improve health.

In addition to the robust track sessions, attendees will hear from other experts on a number of main-stage events spotlighting some of the industry’s most pressing issues. Among those are a panel on how part-time and gig workers are influencing employers’ benefits packages and a keynote address from James Klein, president of the American Benefits Council, who will discuss what benefits and HR professionals need to know about benefits policy in a presidential election year.

Joan Lunden, award-winning journalist and health and wellness advocate, will headline the conference. She will deliver the opening keynote address April 15, speaking about the importance of health and wellness and caregiving support in the workplace.

Related: Joan Lunden sounds off on HBLC keynote address

Kathryn Mayer is HRE’s benefits editor and chair of the Health & Benefits Leadership Conference. She has covered benefits for the better part of a decade, and her stories have won multiple awards, including a Jesse H. Neal Award and honors from the American Society of Business Publication Editors and the National Federation of Press Women. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Denver. She can be reached at kmayer@lrp.com.