National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month - Recovery Month highlights the societal benefits of substance abuse treatment and promotes the message that recovery from substance abuse in all its forms is possible. It's a month to celebrate people in recovery and those who serve them. It's also a great reminder that addiction is a treatable disease. Treatment benefits not just the affected individual, but also their family, friends, workplace, and society as a whole. Educating the public reduces the stigma associated with addiction and treatment.
Leukemia & Lymphoma Awareness Month - Blood cancers such as leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, myeloma and myelodysplastic syndromes are cancers that originate in the bone marrow or lymphatic tissues. They are considered to be related cancers because they involve the uncontrolled growth of cells with similar functions and origins. The diseases result from an acquired genetic injury to the DNA of a single cell, which becomes abnormal (malignant) and multiplies continuously. The accumulation of malignant cells interferes with the body's production of healthy blood cells.Every 4 minutes one person is diagnosed with a blood cancer. An estimated 137,260 people in the United States will be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma in 2010. New cases of leukemia, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma will account for 9.0 percent of the more than 1.5 million new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States this year.
Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month - More than 20,000 women in the United States are diagnosed with ovarian cancer each year, and approximately 15,000 women die annually from the disease. Unfortunately, most cases are diagnosed in their later stages when the prognosis is poor, but if diagnosed and treated early, when the cancer is confined to the ovary, the five-year survival rate is over 90 percent. That is why it is imperative that the early signs and symptoms of the disease are recognized, not only by women, but also by their families and the medical community. Why not educate your employees about the symptoms of ovarian cancer.
Prostate Cancer Awareness Month - Prostate cancer is a disease of the prostate gland, part of the male reproductive system. It is a common, but typically slow growing cancer when compared to other types of cancer, and curable if caught in early stages. ZERO — The Project to End Prostate Cancer works to create public awareness to fight and end prostate cancer. Here's some information for employees about prostate cancer risk factors.
National Cholesterol Education Month - High blood cholesterol affects over 65 million Americans. It is a serious condition that increases the risk for heart disease. The higher the cholesterol level, the greater the risk. A person can have high cholesterol and not know it. Lowering cholesterol levels that are too high lessens the risk for developing heart disease and reduces the chance of having a heart attack or dying of heart disease. September is a good month to encourage your employees to have their blood cholesterol levels checked and to focus on food and lifestyle choices that minimize cholesterol. Here are more resources on cholesterol from Federal Occupational Health.
National Atrial Fibrillation Awareness Month - Atrial fibrillation (AF or afib) is the most common irregular heartbeat and is characterized by heart palpitations, dizziness, and shortness of breath. This progressive and debilitating disease can lead to stroke, heart failure, and Alzheimer's disease, and can double your risk of death. Afib takes a physical toll, an emotional toll, and a financial toll on those who are living with it—not just the patient, but the family, too. Here's a good Atrial Fibrillation Guide to learn more.
National Preparedness Month - It's fitting that a month in which two national disasters unfolded - The World Trade Center attacks and Hurricane Katrina - should be dedicated as month to encourage individuals and employers to take steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, and communities. Whether natural or man-made, unexpected emergencies occur, and being prepared can help to mitigate problems.
September 5-11 - Suicided Prevention Month and September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day - In one of the most recent studies, suicide was the eleventh ranking cause of death in the US, and the third cause of death in the young. About every 15 minutes, someone commits suicide in the U.S., leaving survivors with a heavy burden of grief, guilt and unanswered questions. It's estimated that for every successful suicide, there are 25 nonfatal attempts. Some populations are at greater risk than others. Here's a list of links to professional organizations that offer more resources.
September 26 World Heart Day - This year's theme is "Workplace Wellness," offering an employer's resource guide, which includes ideas that can be implemented in the workplace (PDF), as well as case histories of wellness campaigns in some large corporations.
If you enjoyed this clip - the animation is quite excellent - you can see other animated talks from the RSA, the UK-based Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, an organization dedicated to developing and promoting new ways of thinking about human fulfillment and social progress.
]]>It would be nice if the drop could be attributed to safer workplaces, but BLS points to economic factors: total hours worked dropped by 6%, and the drop was significant in dangerous professions, such as the construction industry, which historically account for a large percentage of fatalities. Plus, 2009 numbers are preliminary; some data may be delayed by fiscal constraints.
This number encompasses all causes of death, but there are 4 types of events or exposures that account for nearly 90% of all fatalities:
BLS notes that "Workplace homicides declined 1 percent in 2009, in contrast to an overall decline of 17 percent for all fatal work injuries. The homicide total for 2009 includes the 13 victims of the November shooting at Fort Hood. Workplace suicides were down 10 percent in 2009 from the series high of 263 in 2008."
Behind the homicide numbers
Because work shootings by disgruntled employees command such media attention, it's likely that this is the association most people make in their minds when they hear the term "workplace homicide." In reality, these incidents are relatively rare and the the vast majority of work-related homicides are the result of robberies in retail or service organizations. According to a recent BLS report on workplace homicide characteristics from 1997 to 2009, about 75% of work homicides fall into this category.
When talking about violence at work, the FBI offers four types or categories. Such distinctions, below, are helpful in terms of developing prevention strategies and risk management controls.
Type I - Violent acts by criminals who enter the workplace to commit crimes without connection with the workplace. Typically, these events are robberies against retail establishments.
Type II - Violence directed at employees by individuals to whom their employer provides services (e.g., clients, customers, patients, etc). This would include police, correctional offcers, health care workers, teachers, and other public or private service provides who are assaulted while providing service.
Type III - Violence against organizational insiders by organizational insiders. The "disgruntled employee" type of situation that we saw in the recent Connecticut shooting would be included in this category. These type of events might include a fatal assault on one or more than one coworker.
Type IV - Violence committed by someone who is not an employee, but who has a personal relationship with a targeted employee. Typically, this is domestic or spousal violence that spills over into the workplace. It might be directed at one targeted person, or might also include others in the workplace.
In future posts on the topic of workplace violence, we'll talk about preventive and risk management strategies for the various types of workplace violence.
]]>According to the Department of Labor, there were 5,071 workplace fatalities in 2008, the last year of recorded statistics. Of those, just over 10%, or 517 were homicides. James Alan Fox, a Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy at Northeastern University, sheds light on these numbers in his post about the risk of workplace homicide at "The vast majority of the incidents involve robberies -- taxicab holdups, convenience store stickups and assaults upon police and security officers. Many others stem from domestic disputes that spill over into the office suite. The least common form of workplace homicide, claiming fewer than 100 victims per year, are the murderous acts of disgruntled employees and ex-employees seeking revenge over work-related issues. The term "epidemic," which has been used to describe the problem of workplace violence and murder, is more hyperbole than reality."
Fox notes - and we do too - that the purpose in dissecting these numbers is not to trivialize the horror of these events, but to offer some perspective about the level of risk. The effect that these shootings have - on the organizations and communities involved, on human resource professionals and managers, and on our national psyche - are another matter entirely.
As an EAP, we've dealt with various aspects of workplace violence. We've worked with employers to help diffuse potentially explosive or problematic situations, to craft zero-tolerance violence policies, and to train employers and managers in workplace violence prevention. And more times than we would like to recall or recount, we are called on scene to help organizations and their employees cope with the tragic aftermath of workplace violence.
Over our next few posts, we'll be focusing on workplace violence: what is it, advice from experts on what organizations can do to minimize risk; and ways that organizations and employees can work to recover in the aftermath of violence at the workplace.
In today's post, we offer a selection of resources and links on workplace violence:
Domestic violence and the workplace
But where an overwhelming preponderance of the nation sees Slater as a working class hero, we see a desperate scream for help. We have a few words for his employer: get that guy to an EAP!
We kind of hate to be the grown up in the room when everyone in the world seems to be having so much fun with this story...and with other infamous "I quit" stories -- but we think it's important to take a more sober look. When employees exhibit explosive rage and poor impulse control, there is usually something else going on - and it's frequently a problem that is rooted in an employee's personal life that spills over into the workplace.
If emerging passenger reports are true, Slater's bad day may have started before he even got to the plane. Some passengers said that Slater came on board with the injury and that it didn't happen during the altercation with a passenger. Other passengers said his demeanor was "stern" and "rude" from the outset of the flight and said that he seemed distracted. Upon his arrest, police reported that, "His eyes were bloodshot, he smelled of alcohol and he was unsteady on his feet."
We can't ascertain these reports or the time line in the Slater incident, but alcohol abuse is certainly a common culprit in many instances of problem work performance. And in the case of an airline flight attendant, who would qualify as a "safety sensitive employee" under Department of Transportation rules, any use of alcohol within 8 hours prior to reporting for service would be prohibited; in addition, a safety sensitive employee must not report for duty or remain in service while under the influence of alcohol - and could be subject to random drug testing.
Caretaker fatigue?
News reports also indicated that the stress Slater exhibited may have been compounded by a truly difficult personal situation. Slater has been the primary a caretaker of elderly parents. A post on the parenting blog Strollerderby suggests that Slater may have been suffering from caretaker fatigue:
It has since been revealed that Slater’s mom is suffering from lung cancer and that the flight attendant had been commuting between his New York residence and her home in Southern California to take care of her. He was also a caretaker for his father, a retired airline pilot who died two years ago after a long battle with Lou Gehrig’s Disease.One of the major symptoms of caretaker or compassion fatigue is emotional outbursts and a high stress level. It sure sounds like Slater qualifies. Longtime family neighbor Ron Franz certainly seems to think so, telling reporters “He cared for his father during a protracted illness and here he is doing it again and trying to juggle that with a stressful job,” adding “I don’t know what his motivation was. I am just saying those are the conditions that may have influenced him.”
On Tuesday, mom Diane Slater, herself a former flight attendant, came forward to issue a statement of support for her son as she was leaving her house for chemotherapy, saying she would have "snapped worse."
How an EAP could help
Certainly, this situation seems benign relative to a horrifying recent instance of employee frustration, but poor impulse control and rage in the workplace really aren't matters to be taken lightly. Reports indicate that Slater has been suspended but not fired. JetBlue noted the incident on their blog and public comments on the post show there is widespread sympathy for Slater ("Give the guy his job back.") Of course, employee privacy would dictate extreme caution on the part of the company in any public statements about Slater or any other employee's performance.
JetBlue needs to make a judgment about its next steps based not on what will be popular with a bemused public, but on weighing and balancing its policies and principles, its duty to protect and serve the public, and its obligations to its employees. It could be that events have transpired too far for this employee to be salvaged, but we can attest that proper and timely referrals to an EAP can often help to salvage a long-term employee's position, even under some very difficult circumstances. The die may well be cast in this case, but the employer take-away should be to stay alert for signs of stress, burn-out, personal problems, substance abuse or other issues that may be impeding employee performance - and utilize your EAP!
]]>Obligation to nursing moms - Workplace Prof Blog offers a reminder that the healthcare reform law includes a provision that employers must provide lactation breaks and space for nursing mothers and provides a link to a Department of Labor publication which explains the obligation: Fact Sheet #73: Break Time for Nursing Mothers under the FLSA.
Unleashing creativity - Looking for fresh ideas to unleash worker creativity? How about sitting int he CEO's office? Every summer, PR firm Conover Tuttle Pace holds a summer-long office swap - a fun idea that shakes things up and fosters more inder-departmental interaction. Leadership coach Mary Ellen Slayter might call this "getting out of your comfort zone," rule number one in her tips for unleashing your creativity.
A brave face - We've witnessed it time and again - the human spirit's incredible resilience in the face of overwhelming odds and the ability to survive and thrive after terrible catastrophe. In just such a vein, we were moved the story of Chrissy, gunshot wound survivor who recently got a new face, thanks to the miraculous and creative work of dedicated health professionals.
How to fight - In any organization, it's inevitable that there will be disagreements. Becoming a skilled fighter can take practice. At Harvard Business Review blogs, Robert Sutton offers tips for ensuring that dissension is handled productively in his post It's Up to You to Start a Good Fight.
Taking the pulse - What are your HR peers doing when it comes to issues like telecommuting, flextime and casual dress? BLR offers results from their survey of compensation and benefits professionals.
OSHA on safety programs - Does your company have a safety incentive program? If so, be aware that OSHA is scrutinizing safety incentive programs. They are looking for promotions that might discourage workers from reporting injuries. It might be a good time to review your policy. And speaking of OSHA, SafetyNewsAlert offers offers 10 dos and don'ts for OSHA inspections from 2 OSHA inspectors.
By the Numbers
101 social media marketing terms explained
7 of the biggest recent corporate image catastrophes
5 inexpensive ways to fly first class
10 expert tips for Microsoft Word 2010
5 grammatical errors that make you look dumb
7 summertime tips for people with diabetes to avoid heat-related illnesses
And not only does a large percentage of Americans leave vacation days on the table, many don't leave the job behind even while they are on vacation. About 1 in four report that they check work email or voice mail while vacationing, and about 30% say that they often have trouble coping with stress from work at some point during the vacation cycle.
Expedia has been conducting this survey for 8 years, and during all this time, the U.S. has had the dubious distinction of being the country with the largest vacation deficit, averaging only 13 vacation days per year, some of which go unused. This year however, workers in Japan win the distinction for being the most likely to leave vacation days on the table with 92% reporting they will not use all earned vacation days.
Country - Vacation days / avg unused vacation days
France 38 / 2
Italy 31 / 6
Spain 30 / 3
Germany 27 / 2
Austria 27 / 4
Great Britain 26 / 2
New Zealand 21 / 3
Canada 19 / 2
Australia 19 / 3
Japan 15 / 7
U.s. 13 / 3
Why are we so vacation deprived?
Vacation serve as a release valve for stress and help us to recharge our batteries. Taking time away from work leads to a healthier, more balanced life. Time away from the job can also foster creativity and productivity. Author Scott Berkun comments that "It’s interesting how us Americans are fond of taking pride in our freedoms, yet when it comes to time off we are the least free for much of the Western world." In an essay on the topic of whether Americans should get more vacation time, he notes that "hours are a lousy way to measure value" and suggests that "All sorts of goodness happens when managers learn to reward results, not effort. And this starts but getting past the stupid pretense of effort known as hours." He discusses shifting the way we think about time vs results, and offers suggestions for variable approaches that employers might consider for vacation and unpaid leave.
Langevin is one of many. More than one in five Americans are disabled and more than three million Americans over the age of 15 use wheelchairs. Gary Talbot is one of that number and he tells his story a spinal cord injury and the discrimination he faced. He finally had a chance to make a difference when he became assistant general manager for systemwide accessibility for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. His story clearly illustrates the difference that the ADA has made.
But despite the many gains since the landmark legislation was passed, debate about the ADA still rages. Many wonder: Could Bush's Americans With Disabilities Act pass today?
"The ADA was the first comprehensive declaration of equality for people with disabilities--ever, in the world--and many nations soon followed President Bush’s lead and enacted similar legislation. The curb cuts, automatic doors, braille signs, “kneeling” buses and handicapped parking spaces that we take for granted now were not a part of American life before then. In fact, there’s a whole generation of teenagers, born in the years since that summer day in 1990, who have no idea what it used to be like. Millions of people joined the mainstream of American life that morning, and not long after many were able to attend public schools for the first time, get jobs for the first time, even just go to movie theaters for the first time. Think of all the people you know whose lives would be very different today had that bill not become law 20 years ago."
ADA resources
ADA home page from the U.S. Department of Justice
ADA Resources for Employers from the U.S. Depatment of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy
Disability.gov
ADA Guide for Small Businesses
ADA Toolkit for Employers - This resource from the ADA National Network offers various Events & Educational Materials, including FAQs on the ADA, to help employers learn about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and disability-related topics.
Regional ADA National Network Center Websites
The ADA video gallery features several short films, including:
10 Employment Myths - Many employers misunderstand the Americans with Disabilities Act and are reluctant to hire people with disabilities because of unfounded myths. This seventeen-minute video responds to concerns expressed by employers, explaining the ADA in common sense terms and dispelling myths about this often overlooked pool of well-qualified employees.
Ten Small Business Mistakes - This video identifies common mistakes that small businesses make when trying to comply with the ADA and addresses the importance and value of doing business with 50 million people with disabilities. The video features statements by store owners expressing their doubts or misunderstandings about the ADA followed by responses from the Assistant Attorney for Civil Rights and other Department of Justice employees explaining the law in common sense terms.
]]>While weight is an issue we've discussed before, the flip side of this equation is the cubicle itself. Even the cubicle inventor came to question his invention, calling it "monolithic insanity." You can lean more about its checkered past and view a slideshow of historical images in Cubicles: The great mistake, an entertaining historical overview that Fortune featured a few years ago.
Will the cubicle culture ever die out? Probably not, but the nature of where we work is indeed changing. Sue Shellenbarger of Wall Street Journal has a blog called The Juggle, in which she writes about tradeoffs and choice people make juggling work and family. In a recent post entitled Beyond the Cubicle she talks about alternative places - and oddball places - that people work.
Related:
He cites an excellent NPR feature on the Jobs of Yesteryear - obsolete occupations. It includes a review of a dozen jobs that no longer exist, including a photo essay and some audio snippets from people who held those jobs. One of our favorites was the job of lector: "Cigar makers in Florida and New York City would sometimes pool their wages to pay a 'lector' to read newspapers or political tracts aloud to them while they worked."
It's a nostalgic look back, and makes the point. The nature of the work that people do is changing at breakneck speed. Wolfe's post also includes a chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) that looks at some jobs that are currently on their way to extinction.
For those job seekers who find this topic depressing, we would point to Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11, also from BLS, which offers trend information and projections about the shifting landscape in job sectors that are growing and declining. It includes tables listing the occupations with the fastest growth, occupations with the largest numerical growth, and occupations with the largest decline.
]]>Survey: keep your benefits stuff out of my social media - At Daily Diversion, Kelley Butler is mystified at the results of a recent survey by the National Business Group on Health, in which about 4 out of 5 of the social media users surveyed said "... they’re not interested in receiving information about their employer-provided health benefits, or tips on how to exercise, eat healthy or save money on health care via Twitter or text messaging. In addition, three in four said they had no interest in getting this information via Facebook." She speculates if this reluctance is due to privacy issues - wanting to keep a firm line between work and personal life - or if wellness is not something they care about.
Scam alert - Consumer Insurance Blog alerts us to recent FBI warnings about phone and social networking scams. It includes good links and resources to share with your employees. And member employers should make use of ESI's tools for online safety - see our newsletter describing ESI's Cyber Safety Resource Center
Telecommuting - Business Green reports that a recent study by the Telework Research network finds that telecommuting saves companies $10K per employee yearly, or a cool million for every 100 workers. The report also points to a $6,800 per year employee savings. Where do the employer savings come from?
"About half of the $1.1m that a company would save ($576,000) with 100 workers telecommuting halftime would come from increased productivity from fewer interruptions, better time management and employees putting in more hours by working when they would have been commuting.More on obesity - following up to our recent post about the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, we have another report on the nation's obesity problem from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America's Health: F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future (PDF). Here's a bit of a preview:Companies would also save $304,000 a year in electricity, real estate and related costs from parking lot leases, furniture, supplies, maintenance and space consolidation. About $113,000 would come from fewer unscheduled absences, less sick time and from employees working while sick or waiting for personal appointments (cable installation, delivery, etc.) that would normally result in a full day off of work. Lastly, $76,000 would be saved due to lower employee turnover."
"Adult obesity rates rose in 28 states over the past year. Only D.C. experienced a decline in adult obesity rates. More than two-thirds of states (38) now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent. Eight states have rates above 30 percent – Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia. In 1991, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent. In 1980, the national average of obese adults was 15 percent."Financial aid - Monster Thinking recently featured a series of posts on financial planning, financial aid and scholarship advise that would likely be of interest to any of your employees who are parents. It answers many common questions parents and students have about planning and paying for college: Part one: Making Financial Aid Pay Off; Part 2, and Part 3
ADA - How to Stop Accessibility Lawsuits Before They Stop You - employment law firm Jackson Lewis on what small businesses should know about the ADA.
]]>At Lead Change Group's blog, Mike Henry calls the article as a biased justification for poor leadership. While he acknowledges a few truisms in the article (eg, that employees must be held accountable), he takes issue with the overall philosophy that fear is the best motivator and that managers must choose between the options of failing or dictating. He draws a distinction between effective leadership and good leadership, offering five reasons why he (and many others) would avoid the "my way or the highway" type of managers.
Unfortunately, there is no commenting feature on Cloutier's original article so we cannot see any pro or con remarks that it may have elicited among readers, but the comments on Mike Henry's post are worth reading. Here are a few excerpts:
The leadership style must adapt to this new reality. The new leadership style should focus on People and Results. And in this order because without People, I absolutely guarantee you that, you can NOT achieve any successful Results."
On that prior post, author and management consultant Bennet Simonton took the time to share his thoughts on leadership at some length in the comments. Because this excellent comment is buried in our archives, we take the liberty of reposting it here, given its pertinence to the topic at hand:
"One liners never helped me much in my 30+ years of managing people, as few as 22 and as many as 1300.]]>In my first 12 years, I used the traditional top-down command and control approach to managing people. I then changed to listening to them. After years of listening, I learned what they were following and thus what leadership is.
Leadership consists of sending value standard messages to people which most of them then follow/use. Thus we say that they have been "led" in the direction of those standards. Leadership is merely one side of the coin called values, the other side being followership.
Leadership in the workplace consists of the value standards reflected in everything that an employee experiences because these standards are what employees follow by using them to perform their work. Most of what the employee experiences is the support or lack thereof provided by management - such as training, tools, parts, discipline, direction, material, procedures, rules, technical advice, documentation, information, planning, etc.
Leadership is not a process any manager can change. It happens inexorably every minute of every day because of the way people are. The only choice available to a manager is the standard (good, bad, mediocre or in between) which he/she transmits to to employees.
For instance, the top-down command and control technique is a widely used method by which to manage people. Top-down concentrates on producing goals, targets, visions, orders and other directives in order to control the workforce and thereby achieve organizational success. Concentrating on giving direction prevents these managers from doing much of anything else. Thus top-down treats employees like robots in the "shut up and listen, I know better than you" mode, and rarely if ever listens to them. By so doing this approach ignores every employee's basic need to be heard and to be respected. This approach also makes top management ignorant of what is really going on in the workplace thus making their directives misguided at best and irrelevant at worst.
In this way and others, top-down demeans and disrespects employees sending them very negative value standard messages. The standards reflected in this treatment "lead" employees to treat their work, their customers, each other and their bosses with the same level of disrespect they received. No one can become committed to company goals while being treated so poorly.
This is the road to very poor corporate performance as compared to the results that would be achieved using a better approach. Top-down managers are their own worst enemies because they “lead” employees to the very worst performance.
To produce very high performance, swing to the other end of the spectrum thus leading toward the highest possible performance. To do this, first get rid of all traces of a top-down approach. Everyone wants to do a good job, but don't want to be ordered around like a robot.
Next, start treating employees with great respect and not like robots by listening to whatever they want to say when they want to say it and responding in a very respectful manner. Responding respectfully means resolving their complaints and suggestions and answering their questions to their satisfaction as well as yours, but most importantly theirs. It also means providing them more than enough opportunity to voice their complaints, suggestions and questions. Spend your time making your support reflect the very highest standards of all values by resolving their complaints and suggestions thus "leading" toward the very highest standards.
And realize that the highest quality and most respectful "direction" is the very least since no one likes to take orders or really needs them except in emergency situations. Anyone routinely needing extensive orders should not be on your team.
This treatment leads employees to treat their work, their customers, each other and their bosses with great respect. Listening and responding respectfully also inspires them to unleash their full potential of creativity, innovation and productivity on their work giving them great pride in it and causes them to love to come to work."
This year's report calls the American public "overweight and undernourished" and points to the alarming increase in obesity, calling it "the greatest threat to public health in this century." But the prescription to remedy the rise in obesity holds few surprises and remains remarkably consistent with prior reports: cut calories and exercise more.
The report notes that as a nation, we don't eat enough vegetables, fruits, high-fiber whole grains, low-fat milk and milk products, and seafood and our diets rely too heavily on what the report calls SoFAS - food with added sugars and solid fats - as well as refined grains and sugar. They encourage adopting patterns of eating that have been shown to be healthful, such as Mediterranean-style dietary patterns and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) eating patterns.
The report acknowledges that there are many barriers that make it difficult for Americans to adopt more healthful patterns and that it will take a "multi-sectoral strategy" to foster change. Here are key public policy recommendations from the report, some of which can be incorporated in company wellness programs:
The full report can be found here in a series of PDF files, or
Cornell student Daniel Green created a single web-based document.
Wellness resources: more on DASH and Mediterranean style diets
"...Thanks to advanced medical technologies, elderly people now survive repeated health crises that once killed them, and so the “oldest old” have become the nation’s most rapidly growing age group. Nearly a third of Americans over 85 have dementia (a condition whose prevalence rises in direct relationship to longevity). Half need help with at least one practical, life-sustaining activity, like getting dressed or making breakfast. Even though a capable woman was hired to give my dad showers, my 77-year-old mother found herself on duty more than 80 hours a week."The article raises many questions about medical choices, along with end-of-life issues that few of us want to spend a lot of time thinking about. It offers a window into the weighty emotional environment that many of your employees face in dealing with aging parents or the terminal illness of a loved one. In reading the article, we recognized many of familiar life/death issues that we deal with on our EAP help line.
As an employer, you can provide support resources by way of referrals to EAPs, grief counselors, complex health care consultants, hospices, and local resources for the elderly. Via your wellness program. you can make information available on caregiving, advance directives, living wills, and healthcare proxies. Here's a start:
Trust building - As the economy improves, it's pretty normal for there to be some disruption in a work force. Many employees stick with their current employer during a downturn out of fear rather than loyalty - most people don't want to be the newest one in the door in a bad economy, so are reluctant to switch jobs. But as the job situation improves, more and more employees may be looking to change jobs. This may be particularly true if you've had to take any harsh measures to sustain your company during the downturn. Michael Stewart of Workforce discusses this and offers a prescription for Four Crucial Steps to Regain Employees' Trust.
Related: The art of apologizing.
Oil spill resources - Organizations with employees in any of the gulf states affected by the BP Oil disaster may want to brush up on oil spill resources available from NIOSH. Resources include information and training for protecting workers and emergency responders. Also see state government specific resources for gulf coast residents: Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
Related HR Lessons Flow from BP's Crisis
Health care reform - A User's Guide to Health Care Reform - AARP does a good job with this guide, which breaks down information that various groups need to know: If you’re now on Medicare;if you are uninsured or buying your own insurance; if you run a small business or work for one; if you have moderate or low income.
NY's Domestic Worker Bill of Rights - New York's Bill #S2311D may prove to be the nation's first domestic worker bill of rights: "It’s estimated that there are about 200,00 domestic workers in New York, 93% of which are women and 95% of which are people of color. Because the Bill covers all domestic workers – both legal and illegal – it’s been fairly controversial. Opponents decry the increase in regulation, which some say will result in fewer jobs. Many opponents also bridle against any protection for illegal workers, feeling that offers a legitimacy. Proponents say that it will go a long way to regulating an industry that has no standards or oversight and afford basic worker rights to a largely ignored worker population. Many of those in favor of the bill also think that shedding light on some of unregulated business segments which have historically been magnets for undocumented workers will be an important step in coming to grips with the hiring of illegal workers."
Word up - How does your vocabulary fare in comparison to the average
Making the grade - thanks to Evan Carmichael for including HR Web Cafe in his listing of the Top 50 HR Blogs to Watch: 2010 - check out the list for more good blogs.
]]>