Hello Reader, and happy belated Independence Day! For the week of the Fourth, we’ve got our fourth issue: a few new HR tech solutions, plus a healthy dose of retirement and four-day workweek discourse (which has become a hot topic recently). Let’s dive in!

📚 Weekly Digest

​Frank Launches to Give Workers a Discreet Place to Take Collective Action​
This Chicago-based startup has built a private platform where workers can discuss common issues and organize to improve workplace conditions. (3 minute read)

​Kill the 5-Day Workweek​
Reducing hours without reducing pay would reignite an essential but long-forgotten moral project: making American life less about work. (21 minute read)

​Employers' return-to-work strategies may be missing this mobile app by Talon​
Talon’s application helps reduce the risk of COVID exposure by providing employers with real-time symptom-tracking. (2 minute read)

​Why Employers Should Include Cybersecurity Needs for Remote Workers​
The rise of remote work has led to an increase in cybersecurity risks for employees working from home, necessitating company-wide cybersecurity assistance. (5 minute read)

​Unum HR Trends Episode 26: The state of public sector employee benefits​
Benefits experts discuss how the pandemic has impacted the public sector and its approach to employee benefits, and why benefits remain a top employee retention strategy. (16 minute listen)

💡 Benefits Spotlight

We spent this past weekend looking to our past; now, let’s look forward! This week, the spotlight is on ForUsAll, an all-in-one retirement resource and plan administrator for small businesses. As of 2018, only 45% of workers at small businesses (with 1 - 49 employees) had access to a retirement plan. ForUsAll is working to bridge that gap.

While their business engagement strategy has evolved over time, it’s always been focused on real people. In 2015, ForUsAll began garnering attention on social media with their #401cake: a delicious reward for newly signed employers. Not only did this create a fun, tweetable moment for employers, but it forged a personal connection between employees and their new plan administrator.

Everseat @Everseat Thank you to @ForUsAll401k for the yummy #401cake! Retirement planning has never been so delicious. pic.twitter.com/9mLCuoWH3w September 3rd 2015 2 Retweets 5 Likes

In the years since, ForUsAll has helped to elevate employees’ 401(k) contribution rates. In 2017, companies partnering with ForUSAll reported a 90% contribution rate, nearly 6 percentage points higher than the national average. Now, they’re looking to elevate the 401(k) itself. The company has recently introduced the Alt 401(k), a retirement investing platform that facilitates alternative investment options — namely, cryptocurrency. The company is partnering with Coinbase, who will secure and manage crypto investments.

“It’s not that the jury is out, but the verdict is in: holding between 0-5% of cryptocurrency as part of a well-diversified portfolio has the opportunity to increase expected growth without materially increasing volatility,” CEO Jeff Schulte said at a CNBC “Power Lunch” last month. ForUsAll argues that cryptocurrency can provide investors with increased tax efficiency, portfolio diversification, convenience, and security.

We’ll be keeping an eye on ForUsAll’s new retirement offerings, and we’re interested to see how other companies diversify their investment offerings in the coming months.