New motivation trend: Plant a garden

Really, plant a garden. It turns out that along with nutrition, peas and carrots also have the power to motivate.

Corporate gardening is one of the latest trends in employee motivation, and for many companies it’s proven to pay off in the hearts (and stomachs) of employees.

“Some small companies seeking an extra benefit for their employees are turning to their backyard for inspiration: a vegetable garden.

After laying off an employee, cutting hours and discontinuing raises, Sheryl Woodhouse-Keese, owner of Twisted Limb Paperworks LLC in Bloomington, Ind., invested $600 last fall to create a 1,500-square-foot garden outside the recycled paper-products company's office. Now, her four employees can take home their pick of 10 herbs and 22 vegetables.

"The garden really is a nice benefit, saving them on their food bills," said Ms. Woodhouse-Keese, who estimates the garden has meted out $2,400 in produce this season, from tomatoes to potatoes.” (WSJ.com)

Gardening at work can be an affordable and simple way to boost employees’ morale and give a ground-up boost to the company’s wellness program.

It’s also a great way to build employee camaraderie without ever leaving company grounds – no retreats, seminars or off-site meetings needed. All this retreat needs is a pair of gloves and a garden hoe.

If you’re a small business looking to attract new employees, access to a flourishing vegetable garden can be an attractive asset. So whether you have a spacious rooftop or a grassy patch of land behind the building, plant a few seeds and see what grows...

Employers remain committed to health care amid recession

Employers are hanging on to health care benefits including employee wellness programs, despite financial challenges created by the economic recession, according to a new HR and benefits survey by Towers Perrin.

Even in the face of salary and 401(k) cuts and freezes, many companies are still investing in employee wellness as a part of their workplace “deal” with employees, said the close to 500 HR and benefits executives surveyed.

"Employers recognize that we can't keep doing the same things and expect different results," said Dave Guilmette, Managing Director of the Towers Perrin Health and Welfare practice.

"So we're beginning to see leading companies taking steps to change the system from the inside out, focusing on new benefit designs, incentives for employees and providers, new technologies and new ways to measure and deliver the value of workforce health."

The survey suggests that employers and employees are now looking at health care as more of a shared responsibility between the two.

According to the survey:

• 53% of respondents are trying or considering new benefit strategies they would not have considered before the economic crisis hit.
• 70% of employers are increasing communication to address employee concerns
• 57% of employers are not cutting back on investments in benefit communication and education
• 50% of companies have or will introduce or increase investments in wellness and health promotion in 2009 and 2010

Employers are changing their ways regarding participation incentives and penalties for nonparticipation. Almost one-third (32%) of companies in the survey have or will introduce or increase financial incentives for wellness or health promotion activities within the next two years. Nearly half (45%) are considering introducing or increasing penalties for nonparticipation in wellness or health promotion activities.

"In previous economic downturns, investments in benefit communication and employee wellness were among the first to get cut from a benefit program," said Guilmette.

"The firm commitment to and increasing investment in employee wellness we’re seeing today shows that more employers are beginning to recognize the long-term financial benefit and business advantage they can achieve by improving the health of their employees."

Has your company been able to avoid cutting back on wellness programs, despite the recession? Does your company punish employees who choose not to participate?

Are hard times improving employee health?

In the past few years we’ve been witness to layoffs, cutbacks, furloughs and a number of other tough decisions among the long, long list of recession repercussions. But even through all the difficulties, some people are actually using this time to make positive, healthier changes.

New research shows that the recession is causing many workers to adopt healthier lifestyles. A recent survey by the National Business Group on Health of 1,500 workers ages 22 to 69 found a majority said that a healthier lifestyle is more important now than it was to them just one year ago.

One third of survey respondents said they are exercising more and about half say they’re eating healthier. The survey also found that 44% of respondents were eating fast food less often.

Whether you’re just trying to live healthier or wanting to cut back on health care costs, making healthy decisions regarding food and exercise is one of the simplest ways to get started.

Unfortunately, many of us spend most of our day inside office buildings where unhealthy junk food lurks around every corner and the thought of getting a workout in during lunchtime sounds more like a joke than a great idea.

So, lets skip the jokes and instead focus on some real-world tips for staying healthy at work:

• Get outside. Even if it’s only for five minutes at a time, grab your walking shoes and take a quick stroll around the building. If possible, set aside 15 to 30 minutes for a walk in the sunshine everyday.


• Pack your lunch. Bringing a brown-bag lunch from home will help you eat healthier and cut costs. If you’re not into the assembly, buy a week’s worth of healthy frozen meals at the grocery store to keep in the office freezer.


• Snack smart. Offices are full of snacking dangers, from vending machines to the office manager’s candy dish. Curb the urge to seek out these dangerous snacks by keeping a stash of healthy snacks like fruit and nuts at your desk.


• Say no to Joe. Though certain studies have shown that drinking coffee is healthy, drinking too much can be harmful. If you usually drink more than three cups of coffee a day, try to cut back by alternating each cup with a glass of water.
  

Do you have any other advice for making healthy choices at work? Leave a comment and share your tips and tricks for workplace wellness.

Why it pays to stay healthy at Target

Target Corp., the largest discount retailer next to Wal-Mart, is testing a new employee program aimed at improving wellness and lowering health care costs, by paying employees to participate.

As part of the new pilot program, Target will pay employees to undergo a health screening and follow recommended steps. Executives hope to turn it into a larger program to help the company and employees save money on health care.

Right now, the program has only been offered to about 4,000 Target employees, including 10% of workers at their Minneapolis headquarters, a distribution center and 11 stores.

"We're going to measure biometrics progress through time," said John Mulligan, vice president of Target Pay & Benefits, in an interview. "How are the average cholesterol scores of our population? How are the average blood pressures of our population?

"We're willing to make the bet that if we see those numbers improve, we will see the financial benefit of that to our team members and to Target. Both of us will share in the cost savings." (Reuters)

Target employees enrolled in the new program were paid $25 to undergo a biometrics screening that included measuring cholesterol, glucose and triglyceride levels, as well as blood pressure, height and weight. Employees were also required to fill out a health risk assessment and register for the program online.

Once completing those steps, employees were given a tailored health plan and were paid $50 each quarter they followed the plan’s recommendation. Employees could also earn $25 for visiting a doctor for annual preventative care.

So far, the program seems to be a success, with 59% of eligible employees at Target’s headquarters completing the first three steps to enroll. Of those who are enrolled, 38% remain “engaged” in the program each quarter.

Target executives are still analyzing the program to see whether they should offer it to all 350,00 of their employees.

“We're trying to engage 350,000 people in caring about their health, their family's health and do it in a way that makes getting and staying healthier easier," said Jodee Kozlak, Target's executive vice president of human resources.

In 2005, Safeway CEO Steve Burd developed a health care plan for his company, similar to Target’s new plan, focused on changing employee behavior and improving the company’s overall wellness to keep health care costs under control.

Over the past three years, most companies have seen about a 16% increase in family premiums, while health care costs for Safeway increased by only half a percentage point. Health care coverage costs among employees enrolled in the wellness program fell 11% after only one year.

In today’s economy, companies are continually searching for ways to cut costs. Finding ways to cut health care costs generally falls in the top spots on that list, but is paying employees to stay healthy the best way to go?

Does your company offer monetary incentives to encourage employees to live healthier? Do you think employee wellness plans like these are the right way to reduce health care costs, or are they going too far?

Rising health care costs, are wellness programs the answer?

In response to rising health care costs, one of the nation’s largest grocery store chains is tackling obesity among its employees with a tough company health plan developed to help employees make positive behavior changes.

After taking a look at the numbers, Safeway CEO Steve Burd determined that obesity was at the root of a large chunk of the company’s health care costs. Obesity was a common factor among chronic conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and cancer, plaguing his company and causing increased health care costs.

To reduce obesity rates among his 200,000 employees, Burd developed a health care plan in 2005 that was focused on changing employee behavior to improve the company’s overall wellness.

"What is the revelation Safeway had two years ago that completely transformed our thinking? That 50 to 60 percent of all health care costs are driven by behavior," Burd, Safeway's CEO since 1993, said in an interview. "If you design a health care plan that rewards good behavior, you will drive costs down."

Over the past three years, Safeway has been successful in their wellness efforts, with overall health care costs only increasing by half a percentage point. Most businesses have seen about a 16% increase in family premiums during the same time period.

In 2006, one year after the plan was put in place, the company reported that health care coverage costs for employees enrolled in the new plan fell 11%.


How the plan works

Safeway employees are put through a series of tests each year to measure body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, cholesterol and if the employee smokes.

The difference in premiums between employees who are not overweight and are non-smokers and those who are is about $1,500, with employees paying the difference.

If employees manage to lose 10% of their body weight and quit smoking, Safeway will reimburse employees for the difference at the end of the year.

Employees aren’t expected to accomplish the challenge on their own and Safeway has set up help along the way. Insurance pays for preventative health care services including annual physicals and well child check ups. The company also pays for smoking cessation programs, nutrition counseling and gym memberships.

To test his plan, Burd invited 30 large, self-insured businesses to replicate the Safeway wellness model. He also brought his plan to Capitol hill with Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, promoting the Healthy Americans Act.


What’s your opinion on Safeway’s employee wellness plan? Is it the right way to reduce health care costs or do you think it’s going too far?

How to hold a healthy office holiday party

After an entire year of watching your waistlines and sticking to the company wellness program, why throw it all away with a holiday party full of high-fat, sugar-filled treats. This year, plan an office holiday party that is both festive and healthy.

Here are some simple tips to use when throwing a healthy office holiday party:

• Focus on fruits and vegetables. Make it a goal to cover at least half of the table with fruit and vegetable dishes. Try great winter fruit options like apple slices, orange slices, melon cubes, sliced pineapple and grape tomatoes. For vegetable trays, try baby carrots, celery sticks, and broccoli and cauliflower florets.


• Provide a variety of beverage choices. Offer a wide variety of no- and low-calorie drink options for everyone at the office to enjoy. Try mint tea, diet soft drinks, water, coffee and holiday punch made with diet soda.


• Prepare lean meats. Find holiday meats that are low in fat and high in protein. Provide healthier meat options including sliced turkey breast, lean ham and sliced lean roast beef. Try healthy seafood options like cooked shrimp with cocktail sauce and broiled salmon.


• Lighten up on the sweets. Instead of the typical high-sugar holiday treats, serve light desserts or assorted bite-size sweets. Use mini cupcake pans to cook up bite-sized cupcakes, brownies and cheesecake. Remember to keep toppings on the lighter side by offering light ice cream, frozen yogurt or light whip cream.


• Get physical. Whenever possible, get everyone up and moving. Hire a DJ or have everyone bring in their favorite CDs, whatever it takes to get party-goers dancing and working off those calories. If nobody is in the mood to dance, organize an activity like touch football, volleyball, charades or musical chairs.


• Use small plates. Eating off of small plates is one of the most effective tricks in the book to keep from eating too much. It encourages people to eat smaller portions and feel like they’re filling up.

Try to hold a healthy office holiday party this year that leaves everyone feeling satisfied and guilt-free. Your coworkers, and their waistlines, will be sure to thank you.

Go on vacation without worrying about work, 6 tips

Vacations are meant to be a time to unwind, leave everything behind and recharge your worn-out batteries. But when it comes to the office, the thought of leaving it all behind has become something much easier said than done these days.

As wireless technology and mobile devices continue to advance, it’s getting easier and easier to remain connected with the office when you’re gone. Those connections can be wonderful when you’re away on business or working from home for a few days, but they have no place in your vacation.

One in four workers will be keeping in touch with the office while on vacation this year, according to CareerBuilder’s 2007 vacation survey. Close to one in ten (9%) said that their bosses expect them to be getting work done or at least checking messages while away on vacation.

So, if a vacation is meant to be a time to unwind and disconnect, can you truly call it a vacation if you’re still logging work hours on your laptop?

When it’s time to go, leave work at work and out of your suitcase. Follow these six tips to stop worrying about work while you’re on vacation:

1. Have a plan. Let everyone on your team know the dates you’ll be away from the office in advance. If there’s something that needs to be worked on while you’re away, plan to have it finished before you leave or have someone else take over. Give at least one person on your team a copy of important information (e.g. contact names, phone numbers) they may need in your absence.


2. Inform clients. Instead of returning to a voice mail box full of disgruntled messages from clients, let everyone know that you’ll be on vacation ahead of time. Provide your clients with the contact information of someone else at the office they can talk to in case there’s a problem.


3. Clean up. Before leaving the office for vacation, take a few minutes to clean up your work area. Clearing your desk will help you make sure you didn’t miss anything important and your coworkers will be less likely to dump anything on a tidy desk while you’re gone. Remember that a messy desk will only add to any stress you feel when returning to the office.


4. Keep an open calendar. You may feel like you have to jump back into it right away, but resist the urge to schedule anything for the day you come back to the office. If necessary, block out time on your calendar for a long meeting with yourself, so no one can sneak anything in while you’re gone.


5. Leave the laptop. No matter how much you tell yourself you won’t use it, leave your laptop behind when packing for vacation. The temptation to check your email will be too strong if you know your laptop is tucked inside your bag. Your family and friends will appreciate it, too.


6. Lead by example. If you’re the boss, do your best to limit contact while you’re gone. Employees will feel more comfortable taking time off and enjoying themselves when their vacation time rolls around.

As difficult as it may sound, use your vacation time to have a vacation and leave work where it’s meant to be - at work. The more you enjoy your vacation, the more relaxed and recharged you’ll be when it’s time to get back to work. Along with your family, friends and coworkers, you’ll thank yourself for it later.

New FMLA rules: What you need to know

On Monday, November 17, the U.S. Department of Labor released the first set of revisions to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The new regulations implement the new military leave law and make several changes to existing FMLA rules.

Regarding military leave, the new FMLA rule:

• Expands FMLA protections for family members caring for a covered service member with a serious injury or illness incurred in the line of duty. These family members may take up to 26 workweeks of leave in a 12-month period.


• Employees may also take up to 12 weeks of FMLA job-protected leave for a “qualifying exigency” related to a family member in the military to manage their affairs. “Qualifying exigencies” include for example, short-notice deployments, military events, counseling, childcare and post-deployment activities.

Other notable changes:

• Serious health condition. To qualify for FMLA leave for a “serious health condition,” an employee or family member bust be incapacitated for more than three consecutive days and make at least two visits to a health care provider. The two health care visits must occur within 30 days of the period of incapacity. The new rules also clarify that “periodic visits to a health care provider” for chronic serious health conditions is at least two visits to a health care provider each year.


• Medical certification process. Employers have up to five business days to request medical certification after receiving an employees FMLA leave notice. Employees must provide medical certification within 15 days after requesting FMLA leave, including foreseeable leave.


• Employer notice requirements. Employers must provide employees with four different notices: general, eligibility, rights and responsibilities, and designation.

The new FMLA regulations will take effect on January 16, 2009. As an employer, you will be required to post a new federal Family and Medical Leave poster and update your FMLA forms to include several new forms contained within the latest regulations.

Before the new FMLA rules go into effect, you should inform your staff about the recent changes and revise your current FMLA policies, procedures and forms to reflect the latest regulations. Remember to post an updated FMLA poster as soon as one becomes available.

For more information, read this FMLA changes Q & A. If you would like to flip through the 700+ pages of the FMLA changes as they appear in the Federal Register, you can read the official document.

Friday office humor: Dodgeball at work

Apart from paying new hires to quit, encouraging employees to Tweet and extending their product line to include much more than shoes, there's still another reason why Zappos is one of the most exciting companies to work for - dodgeball.

The popular online shoe company has organized daily dodgeball games to relieve workplace stress and get employees moving during the afternoon. Following strict rules to keep the game "fair, friendly, and safe," employees still have fun interacting with each other through the popular childhood game.

From the Inside Zappos blog:

"As a stress reliever from planning warehouse budgets, making purchases, hiring and handling all benefits paperwork, writing scripts to run site manager, and becoming friends with OSHA; the admin team wants to throw something!!!

They decided to start a friendly game of dodge ball, the all time favorite recess sport! Dodge ball is played daily at 3pm in the upstairs office. What a great work out and stress reliever! Kudos, my friends, and remember... safety first!"

Some first-hand video footage of recess time at Zappos:




Happy Friday!

Preventing the flu in the office, six simple tips

As outdoor temperatures drop and winter starts rolling in, we’re reminded that flu season is just around the corner. An outbreak of the flu in any workplace drains attendance and productivity, not to mention putting employees at serious risk of developing dangerous flu complications.

Flu season in the U.S. generally lasts from November through March, and sometimes runs into early spring. Influenza or the flu is very contagious and is caused by viruses that infect the nose, throat and lungs. The best way to prevent the flu is by getting a flu vaccination each year, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

On average 5% to 20% of the U.S. population falls ill with influenza each year, landing more than 200,000 people in the hospital with flu complications. Sadly, about 36,000 people die from flu complications. Those at high risk for serious complications include the elderly, young children and people with certain health conditions.

Offices and personal workspaces can be breeding grounds for the viruses that cause the flu. Don’t let the flu bring your company’s productivity to a stand still one cough at a time.

Keep employees safe and healthy by working to prevent the flu from spreading in your office with the following six tips:

1. Vaccinate. Talk to every employee about getting the flu shot. Find a local flu clinic or look into hosting a flu clinic at the office. Vaccination is the best way to prevent the flu.


2. Educate. Inform employees about flu symptoms and benefits of the flu shot. Distribute information and hang posters on the dangers of the flu and the importance of getting the vaccination.


3. Review. Review your sick leave and absence policies to ensure you don’t punish employees for being sick. Employees who think they will get in trouble for missing work are more likely to come in to the office no matter how ill they may be.


4. Encourage. Encourage employees to take preventative measures like washing their hands often, keeping a clean work area and using tissues when sneezing or coughing.


5. Avoid. If the flu has found its way into the office, employees can minimize exposure by limiting face-to-face time, telecommuting and holding off on business greetings like shaking hands.


6. Stay. Employees who have the flu should stay home. If an employee has flu symptoms, but feels well enough to work, consider telecommuting until their symptoms are gone.

It takes a collective effort to keep the flu from affecting your workplace. With teamwork and education, employees will have the tools to help prevent themselves and their coworkers from falling ill.

Workplace wellness: 5 healthy tips for work

Americans spend an average of 45 hours a week at work, amounting to about 40% of our waking hours each week. Because it's where we spend such a large chunk of our lives, it's important that we carry the healthy choices we make at home into the workplace.

Keeping your work environment a healthy place to be can be difficult, but with a few tips and tricks it can be easy to make a change for the better. Here are some easy to follow tips for employee wellness at work:

1. Get out of the office. Even if you have only a minute or two to spare, venture outside of those depressing gray walls and into some sunshine. Set aside 15 to 30 minutes of your lunch break to take a walk around the block or office building.


2. Brown bag it. Taking your own lunch to work can help you cut calories and save money. It doesn't have to be fancy, just try to fit in all the food groups for a well-rounded meal. It can be as simple as: a piece of fruit, a sandwich on wholegrain bread and some raw vegetables (think carrots and celery sticks).


3. Keep healthy snacks at your desk. The office can be full of dangerous, calorie-filled snack traps. Avoid snacking on birthday cupcakes or raiding the office candy jar by keeping healthy snacks like fruit, nuts or rice cakes at your desk.


4. Less coffee, more water. While drinking one to three cups of coffee a day can be healthy, over-consumption can be harmful. If you tend to drink more than three cups of coffee a day, try alternating each cup with a glass of water.


5. Clean your work area. Your computer mouse, keyboard and phone are the top places where bacteria collect on your desk. Wipe down the surface of your desk, phone and computer regularly with an anti-bacterial spray or wipe to cut down on illness-causing germs.

When it comes to health, sometimes the smallest steps can make a big impact. If you're working to improve your diet and fitness at home, remember to bring those healthy habits with you into the office everyday to ensure success.

Employee wellness training: New guidelines

Even during a financial crisis, investing in human capital through employee wellness is good business, say industry experts.

Soaring employee health care costs are a clear risk to growth, profitability and competitiveness. For those reasons, organizations looking to cut costs should not start by eliminating employee wellness, according to Jay Seifert, LoneStart Wellness co-founder in a recent MarketWatch article.

"Tumultuous times call for stabilizing influences, and wellness is such an influence," says Seifert. "Now is not the time to put workplace wellness and employee health on the back burner. In fact, now is exactly the time to begin to realize the financial and other benefits of a sustainable workplace wellness program."

Depending on the size of your organization, employee wellness programs are relatively simple and cost-effective to set up. Studies show that for every dollar spent implementing an employee wellness program, employers see an average reduction of $2.45 in medical claims.

Along with group wellness activities, offer employee wellness training to educate workers on the importance of living healthy lives. Use the latest set of wellness guidelines from the government to help get your wellness training off the ground and running.

With two and a half hours each week of moderate aerobic physical activity adults can gain substantial health benefits, according to the new Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This first-ever set of guidelines is designed so people can work physical fitness in their day-to-day routines with activities they enjoy.

"It's important for all Americans to be active, and the guidelines are a roadmap to include physical activity in their daily routine," HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. "The evidence is clear--regular physical activity over months and years produces long-term health benefits and reduces the risk of many diseases. The more physically active you are, the more health benefits you gain."

The guidelines advise adults to perform two and a half hours a week of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity, or one hour and 15 minutes of vigorous physical activity. For more extensive health benefits, double the amount of activity performed each week.

Examples of moderate intensity aerobic activities include walking briskly, water aerobics, ballroom dancing and general gardening. Examples of vigorous intensity aerobic activities include racewalking, jogging or running, swimming laps, jumping rope and hiking uphill.

Incorporate these guidelines into your employee wellness training and educate employees on the importance of physical activity to offset rising health care costs with healthier, happier employees.

For the complete guidelines visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website.


Related posts:

New study: Positive work environments = healthy employees

De-stress at work and encourage innovation

Employee wellness programs gone wild

How to deal with negative coworkers

Every workplace has one, that “Negative Nancy” or “Ned” who never seems to have anything positive to talk about. Whenever you’re in a conversation with that person, it always seems to turn down a negative road no matter how hard you try to drive it back in a positive direction.

Unfortunately, there’s no magic button that will completely eliminate negativity in the office, but there are ways to deal with it. Dealing with negative people in the office takes a good mix of sensitivity, objectivity and defense tactics.

Use these tips to help you deal with negative people at work:

• Smile. Don’t feed into someone else’s negativity with more negativity from your side. Smile and say something that will make the other person smile too, like a simple compliment. With the way our brains are wired, it’s difficult to smile and be negative at the same time.


• Don’t take it personally. It seems like some people in our world were born angry, and some of those people have managed to find a way into your office. Whatever that negative person is angry about, you had nothing to do with it. Let their comments roll off your back and don’t let their attitude have an impact on your day.


• Avoid negativity. If possible, do your best to avoid negative coworkers by taking a different route to the printer or leave for lunch a few minutes earlier than usual. Avoiding negative people all together will eliminate the risk of falling prey to their negative ways.


• Let them vent. If you can’t avoid the person and smiling had no effect, try to just let the person vent their frustrations to you. Sometimes people keep repeating negative sentiments because they feel no one has truly heard them. Actively listen to their rant with an objective ear and ask questions to make sure they know you’re listening.


• Lend a hand. Sometimes people have a legitimate reason for being angry. If you agree with the reason for their anger and think you could help (and want to help) in their situation, lend a helping hand or at least some advice on how they could resolve the issue.


• Set limits. Whether you agree to listen to someone’s complaints or agree to help them out, set personal limits to the extent of your involvement. If you sit and listen to someone vent for hours and hours one day, expect that person to come searching for you the next time they need to let out their frustrations.

There will always be negative people at work. It’s your decision whether to let those people affect your own outlook. Learning how to deal with negativity is an ongoing process, but just remember to keep smiling.

What is the best way you’ve found to deal with negative coworkers?

Telecommuting = Productivity, healthy employees, more money

If you’re noticing more of your coworkers coming to work angry everyday or heightened tensions around the office then the latest survey results from the American Psychological Association may not surprise you:

More than 8 out of 10 Americans are significantly more stressed about their personal finances and the economy than ever before.

“Half of the respondents in the survey said they are increasingly stressed about their ability to provide for their family's basic needs. More than half, 56 percent, expressed concerns about job stability. This has translated into less productivity at work, because of anxieties about salary, heavy workload and job security,” as reported on CNN.

With money woes in most employees’ lives and businesses trying to save money, you would think more would be using telecommuting programs to save money on both sides.

Companies who offer employees telecommuting options find greater employee productivity, lower operating costs, improved employee health and higher retention rates, according to recently released telecommuting statistics from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

The latest telecommuting statistics from CompTIA’s research show:

• 67% of companies polled said employees were more productive, mainly because they spent less time commuting.
• 59% reported having saved money from reduced use of office-related supplies and resources.
• 39% reported easier access to a more qualified staff located in other regions.
• 37% said telecommuting improved employee retention.
• 25% reported better employee health, citing lower stress levels by eliminating commuting.
• Companies cited other benefits including promotion of safety through reduced highway use (18%) and environmental benefits (17%).

Whether your company offers telecommuting as a part-time or full-time option, you now have evidence that it protects the bottom line while lightening employees’ financial burdens. It’s a win-win situation.

Here are some resources to help get your telecommuting program off the ground:

Top 5 reasons to let employees telecommute - The Chief Happiness Officer

5 most common telecommuting mistakes - HR Tech News

Telecommuting: Getting bosses on board - BusinessWeek

Managing Telecommuters - Chapter 573.2 - The Future of Work Weblog

New study: Positive work environments = healthy employees

Though it may sound obvious, we now have scientific research proving that happy employees are healthier and miss less work. Positive, trusting work environments where employees utilize their strengths are instrumental to a sense of well-being, according to results from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

“In the first six months of 2008, 56 percent of workers in high-quality jobs (those who express satisfaction with their work, use their strengths daily, work in a culture of trust and have an employee-boss partnership) were classified as thriving, while only 39 percent of workers in low-quality jobs (those with two or less of the above attributes) were thriving,” according to poll results.

People in “high-quality jobs” said the way they feel on weekends is similar to how they feel on weekdays when it comes to respect, happiness, and feelings of anger or stress. People in “low-quality jobs” feel significantly worse on weekdays than on weekends and are less likely to feel happiness, experience learning or feel respected.

On average, people in negative work environments stay home 1.25 days each month, 15 days a year more than those in more “pleasant” work environments.

Factors contributing to a negative work environment include job dissatisfaction, an authoritative boss, lack of trust and lack of focus on individual strengths.

A strong worker well-being is determined by engaging work with opportunity for career development, social time with family and friends, regular exercise (30 minutes/day), frequent laughter and job satisfaction.

We have the proof that positive work environments promote employee health and well-being, now what are we going to do with it?

For starters, you could:

• Explore some of our past ideas to reduce stress at work.
• Help improve employee health, loyalty and engagement by starting a wellness program.
• Play video games at work.
• Or, just break stuff.

De-stress at work and encourage innovation

The economy is in bad shape. So bad even Warren Buffett is worried.

Whether its the falling dollar, gas prices or debt, our country’s financial problems have all of us pretty stressed out these days. Aside from some of the more violent effects of a bad economy on the workplace, stress has a direct impact on employee productivity and your bottom line.

According to the 2007 “Stress in America Report” by the American Psychological Association, more than half of Americans said they are less productive at work as a result of stress.

From Entrepreneur.com:

“All that stress adds up to an estimated $300 billion a year in costs for U.S. businesses due to absenteeism, decreased productivity, employee turnover, and medical, legal and insurance fees.”

On top of the economy, the bleak medical benefits situation in the US is stifling innovation. As medical premiums and medical deductibles rise, more money is taken out of paychecks and people have less money to spend. Innovation is difficult to find when employees are overwhelmed with medical bills.

While we can’t change our country’s health care system or improve the economy overnight, we can do something to help lessen employee stress at work. Get their minds off their finances and focused on innovation, and you’ll start seeing happier, more productive employees with better ideas coming out of your company.

A few ideas to de-stress employees and spark innovation:

Start a Fantasy Football league. It’s helped some big companies like NuVox motivate their staff and build teamwork. Some friendly office competition that doesn’t take employees away from their work for too long can help alleviate stress.

Start a skunkworks program or innovation league. It’s hard to get businesses to take risks in a bad economy. Sideline any fear of risk and start a company within your company (called Skunkworks) where innovation is encouraged. Once all of the “real” work is done, get together with the skunkworks team to innovate and empower employees. It can be as little as four hours a week, or more depending on how much time is available.

Start an employee wellness program. Regular exercise improves health and reduces stress. Start a weekly walking program or make a deal with a local gym for discounted employees memberships, and get employees moving. Healthier employees make less trips to the doctor, reducing medical costs and insurance rates.

Start telecommuting. Allow employees to telecommute for part of the week. Just reducing an employee’s weekly commute by one day can make a big dent in how much they spend each month in gas. By spending less money commuting to the office, employees will have one less thing to worry about financially.


Unless you have $800 million in your back pocket, no one is going to solve the nation’s financial crisis anytime soon. Until the economy begins to turn around, all we can do is work to mold company cultures to help de-stress employees and encourage innovation.

Dealing with domestic violence in the workplace

With bad news about our faltering economy flooding our computer and TV screens everyday, it’s almost impossible to avoid thinking about our nation’s financial worries. What’s even harder is checking our personal financial stress at the door when we show up to work.

Whether you see it or not, it’s likely people in your workplace are experiencing some financial stress. Studies show that 71% of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, according to the American Payroll Association.

One of the most unfortunate effects of our lagging economy is an increase in domestic violence incidents across the country. Various states have reported spikes in the number of reported cases of domestic violence, and “they are merely the tip of the iceberg,” according to Julie Ferguson at HR Web Cafe.

Employers should be concerned because domestic violence directly impacts employee health, productivity, absenteeism and frequently enters the workplace, Ferguson says. Abusers may harass an employee on the job over the phone, at the worksite or cause injuries that affect an employee’s work.

From Human Resource Executive Online:

Many people think that domestic violence is what its name implies -- domestic -- and that it only happens at home. But, we can't expect someone who is experiencing domestic violence to leave the worry, uncertainty and fear of what may happen to them or to their children at home when they come to work.

And, we can't expect those employees to perform at their best when dealing silently with domestic violence, or for their co-workers to understand how to behave.

And that’s where training comes in.

As a corporate leader in raising awareness of domestic violence, Verizon Wireless recently shared their commitment to the issue and how they’ve created a judgement-free culture to support abused employees with Human Resource Executive Online.

After deciding to develop and offer specific training on the impact of domestic violence in the workplace, Verizon partnered with a top victim assistance organization to educate managers and increase awareness within the company.


How Verizon successfully implemented a domestic violence training program:

• Outlined the company’s needs for a training program: accessible to all levels of employees, easily replicated in different locations and cost-effective.
• Identified and trained human resource leaders to become certified trainers.
• Incorporated informative, “powerful” videos in the program to illustrate how domestic violence carries over into the workplace.
• Certified trainers led discussion sparked by issues brought up in the videos

Since implementing the new training program called SafeWork, more than 3,000 Verizon employees have participated.

“We emphasize that our team does not have to be the "expert" when it comes to domestic violence. Our job, and the goal of the training, is to give our employees the tools they need to recognize when someone may be experiencing domestic violence, to understand both the impact on the employee and the business, and to respond appropriately to the situation,” said Martha Delehanty, vice president of human resources for Verizon Wireless.

Backed by company policy and a code of conduct, domestic abuse employee training programs can be successful in recognizing and addressing such a serious issue in the workplace.

Training employees how to identify and handle domestic abuse in the workplace along with the comfort to approach managers with problems will help any business achieve a safe and healthy workplace.

Visit the Workplace section at the Family Violence Prevention Fund for more facts on domestic violence and examples of how other employers have created strategic responses to domestic violence in the workplace.

Employee wellness programs gone wild

If obesity were like the Olympics, Alabama would hold the bronze.

Following Mississippi and West Virginia, Alabama ranks third highest among the fattest states in the nation, according to an analysis by CalorieLab.

In a state weighed down by Southern fried delicacies, it’s no wonder that the state recently made headlines with a plan to start charging unfit, overweight state workers.

From Time.com:

“The state has given its 37,527 employees a year to start getting fit — or they'll pay $25 a month for insurance that otherwise is free.”

Alabama has seen positive results with a similar program encouraging workers to quit smoking, so they’ve remodeled the plan to target unhealthy employees.

“The State Employees' Insurance Board this week approved a plan to charge state workers starting in January 2010 if they don't have free health screenings.

If the screenings turn up serious problems with blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose or obesity, employees will have a year to see a doctor at no cost, enroll in a wellness program, or take steps on their own to improve their health. If they show progress in a follow-up screening, they won't be charged. But if they don't, they must pay starting in January 2011.”

Alabama will be charging obese state workers, Japan is measuring employee waistlines, there are biggest loser competitions in the office and something called a ‘calorie tax’ ... what’s next on the employee wellness front?

Do you think wellness programs are helping employees or are they an ineffective and wasteful attempt to reduce health care costs?

How you can offset rising health care costs in 2009

The bad news: There will be a double digit rise in health care costs in 2009.

The good news: It’s the smallest increase over the past six years and you can do something to minimize the pain.

Heath care costs are predicted to rise more than 10 percent next year, according to an Aon Consulting Worldwide survey of insurers. It’s the smallest increase over the past six years, leading experts to believe that employers’ actions to improve employee health are paying off.

In order to save more money on heath care in the future, companies must spend more money on health care now, according to health care industry experts.

“CFOs have always viewed health care as an expense, but rarely as an investment” said Jerry Ripperger, director of consumer health at the Principal Financial Group. “But improving the health of your employee base, rather than simply providing reimbursements, is an exercise in risk management with a true ROI.”

Unless your company has the resources and staff size to warrant an on-site clinic, your best bet is to develop an employee wellness program. Relatively simple and cost-effective to set up, wellness programs have proven to be a healthy investment.

Overall, employers have seen a $2.45 reduction in medical claims for every dollar spent implementing an employee wellness program, according to Ripperger in Workforce Management.

Not only do wellness programs reduce the amount of employee doctor visits by improving overall health, they create more loyal and engaged employees.

According to the Maritz study, employees who participate in their company wellness program:

• have significantly higher job satisfaction levels,
• are more likely to remain at with the company long term,
• and are more likely to recommend the company as an employer to friends and family.
  

Even employees who occasionally participate in a wellness program feel more engaged with their employer than those who never participate. Active and sporadic participants also have lower absenteeism, taking significantly less sick-time than employees who chose not to participate at all.

What you can do: Start an employee wellness program with a high number of participating employees and you’ll have higher productivity and engagement, better employee health, lower absenteeism, and lower health-care premiums.

Schedule some time to think

Do you ever take a minute to just sit down and think? No Internet, no phone, no iPod, just you and your brain.

It’s a question Chris Morgan from Learn2Develop asked earlier this week, that got me thinking. When does anyone have time to just sit down and think?

In today’s world, our schedules are crammed back-to-back with meetings and deadlines, with hardly enough time to grab “lunch” from the vending machine.

It turns out some very smart (and busy) people have figured out how to fit thinking in daily. Barack Obama, Leonardo DaVinci and MindMap inventor Tony Buzan all take thinking pretty seriously.

"The most important thing you need to do is to have big chunks of time during the day when all you're doing is thinking," said Obama in a recent BBC article.

Innovative companies including Google and 3M allow employees to set aside 20% of their time to think and work on projects not immediately connected to core business goals.

If you think giving away free time will have employees playing video games and shopping online for shoes, think again - 50% of Google’s latest features were thought up during employee “free-time.”

“Aspiring innovators don't need pep talks. They need TIME. Time to think. And time to dream. Time to collaborate. And time to plan. Time to pilot. And time to test. Time to tinker. And time to tinker again,” says Mitch Ditkoff at The Heart of Innovation.

So, block out a little time on your schedule today for a meeting with yourself, a meeting just to think. Ready? All together now ... ohmmm ...