October 15, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Companies desperately trying to cut costs while also seeking ways to keep employees happy with a full slate of perks and benefits are discovering a new mantra: Participation is priceless!

Encouraging enrollment in pretax employee benefits can result in significant savings for both companies and their workforces. But maximum savings only comes from maximum participation.

Ceridian Benefits Services, one of the world's leading providers of benefits administration, has introduced a new client program designed to improve employee participation in Flexible Spending Accounts, one of the nation's most popular employee benefit offerings.

The program is called FSA ParticipationPlus.

"As an employer, you can have the best designed benefit package in the world," said Tony Meredith, product manager with Ceridian Benefits Services. "But if you don't communicate it properly to employees they'll be too skeptical to participate, and you'll never get the bang for the buck you're looking for. When it comes to a successful FSA program, participation is priceless."

FSAs save employees about 30 percent on health care and/or dependent care expenses by using before-tax contributions from their paycheck.

And because employers do not pay payroll taxes on employee contributions to these accounts, the greater the workforce participation the greater the tax savings for the company.

In many cases, the savings can cover the cost of administering an FSA program.

Ceridian's FSA ParticipationPlus improves FSA participation through compelling, eye-catching communications and effective education stressing the savings and easy management of the account.

Through FSA ParticipationPlus, organizations have access to:

• Letters introducing program goals to employees and executives
• Posters to display in break rooms or other highly visible areas
• Serial communications depicting specific savings scenarios
• An educational DVD
• A rollout guide with user-friendly instructions on how to use all materials

The printed materials are available free to download. Or, they can be professionally printed at a discounted price that Ceridian has negotiated with a vendor partner especially for this program.

Currently Ceridian is offering an introductory starter kit containing a DVD, posters and other communications.

"In this new era of opportunity in employee health and well-being, we believe FSA ParticipationPlus can become a top cost-management strategy for today's businesses also focusing on productivity, workforce morale and the retention of talent," Meredith said.

For more information on FSA ParticipationPlus, click here.

About Ceridian
Ceridian is a business services company that helps its customers maximize the power of their people, lower their costs and focus on what they do best. The company's suite of innovative managed human resource solutions includes payroll and compensation, employee benefits administration, staffing, compliance, HR administration and employee assistance programs (EAP), work-life and health and productivity solutions. Through its Comdata and Stored Value Solutions (SVS) subsidiaries, Ceridian is a major payment process and issuer of credit cards, debit cards and stored value cards, primarily for the trucking and retail industries in the United States. Ceridian serves businesses and employees in the United States, Canada and Europe. For more information about the human resource outsourcing company's comprehensive array of solutions, visit www.ceridian.com or call (800) 729-7655.