In response to high fuel costs, a number of states are offering their employees optional four-day work weeks consisting of four 10-hour workdays. While most initiatives are voluntary programs, at least one state - Utah - has made the four-day week mandatory for state workers so that government offices can be closed on Fridays. Workers who provide essential services will not be affected, but the measure will impact about 17,000 employees. Because about 1,000 buildings will be shut down on Fridays, the state expects the measure will save about $3 million.

Other states and municipalities have taken measures designed to offer employees some relief:

"Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) announced two weeks ago that her office was considering work-schedule alternatives to help commuters save fuel. And New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) has ordered each state agency to adopt a policy for telecommuting and alternate work schedules by Sept. 1.

High gasoline prices led Kentucky and South Carolina to offer compressed workweeks to a handful of its state employees this summer. A smattering of other states — Arkansas, Michigan, New Mexico, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Vermont among them — are considering expanding existing programs to more state agencies."

Not all private businesses could afford to shut down for one day; for many, it would put them at a competitive disadvantage. But some companies are enacting staggered four-day work plans, allowing some workers to have Friday off and others to have Monday off. With such arrangements, the extended work days may actually increase the service time available for customers.

Still other companies are looking to expand telecommuting or work from home arrangements. Bank of America just announced the launch of a voluntary telecommuting program for eligible employees. And one of our readers recently brought to our attention the concept of Third Place Thursdays - identifying one day of the work week (in this example, Thursdays) when employees can work from a "third place" - which is not necessarily the office or a home. The idea being that technology affords connectivity and access from almost any location.

Study finds four day week enhances morale, increases productivity
At least one recent study suggests that a compressed schedule may lead to an increase in job satisfaction, morale, and productivity. Professors at Brigham Young University studied the experience of the city of Spanish Fork, which adopted a four-day work week for city services in 2003 to reduce costs and to make public services more accessible to citizens by extending weekday work hours. The researchers surveyed city employees and residents to assess satisfaction, and found that 60 percent of employees reported higher productivity and 60 percent of residents reported improved citizen access.

Pros and cons
There are many advantages to a compressed week. In addition to the most obvious one of reducing gas expenditures by 20%, employees also see a 20% reduction in commuting time. And by commuting earlier and later on the other four days, employees may find that traffic is less congested during those off-peak hours. With a consolidated schedule, workers gain an entire day off, allowing more quality time for family and non-work pursuits. Some workers say that they use Fridays for errands and housework, and preserve their weekends for family time and leisure.

However, not everyone is in favor of a four-day week. Extended hours may be disruptive to child care arrangements. A compressed schedule may also be disruptive to employees who are engaged in a variety of other activities, such as taking night classes, juggling a part-time job, coaching a Little League team, or acting in community theater. It can be much more difficult to juggle daily life tasks on days with a longer work schedule. Safety proponents also point to the potential for increased risk, particularly for those with dangerous, stressful, or tedious jobs.

Pro or con, there is no doubt but that more public and private organizations are rapidly moving to alternate work arrangements, at least as a short-term measure to address soaring fuel prices. This will provide a good opportunity for researchers to study the positive and negative effects of alternative work schedules.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on July 18, 2008 at 8:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

According to two recent surveys, more and more employers are implementing wellness programs. Human Resource Executive reports that surveys by both Aon Consulting and Watson Wyatt Worldwide / NBGH demonstrate that employers are ratcheting up initiatives designed to improve worker health.

The Aon survey, which polled more than 1100 employers of various sizes, found a dramatic threefold jump in employer initiatives. The Watson Wyatt survey, which focused on large employers, showed a 28% jump in the use of health appraisals since 2006. The increases were attributed to escalating medical costs and a global labor shortage that is forcing more reliance on an older population. Employers are seeking to reduce costs and to find ways to keep their workers healthy and active.

Despite these promising reports, other recent research indicates that small and mid-sized employers are significantly lagging behind larger companies in offering wellness initiatives. Joanne Wojcik reports on a survey conducted by Principal Financial Group in Workforce which showed that, when offered, wellness programs are very popular and have a high participation rate. But while 26% of employers with 501 to 1,000 employees offered wellness educational tools and discounts, only 12% of employers with fewer than 500 employees offered wellness programs.

If you are in a small organization that is not yet offering wellness benefits for your employees, what are you waiting for? Wellness programs can help to reduce the high cost of health care for you and your employees and can enhance your worker health, well-being and productivity. There are many inexpensive initiatives you can undertake to enhance worker health. Start with investigating the free or low cost alternatives available to you. Some top-shelf EAP programs offer wellness benefits as part of their package. Your health insurer may also have free or low cost options such as health screenings that could be incorporated in an annual health fair. Large national health organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society offer free literature, programs, and resources. Other alternatives include implementing programs that will help employees change behaviors, such as launching walking or biking clubs, replacing junk food with healthier alternatives in the cafeteria vending machines, and offering employee incentives or discounts for participating in exercise or weight loss programs.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on June 3, 2008 at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The rear view mirror - a look at 2007
Anne Freedman of Human Resource Executive offers an annotated HR's Year in Review, with most items linked to the original news stories. It's a comprehensive snapshot of some of the year's most important stories - a good recap!

Michael Fox of Jottings by an Employer's Lawyer suggests that the wage and hour law was the biggest story for 2007 and predicts that story will likely be important again in 2008, and beyond.

Business Insurance offers their list of the Top 10 employee benefits stories of 2007.

Lifehacker recaps 20 of their popular Top 10 Lists of 2007 and also offers a roundup of their readers' suggestions for best tech tools, gadgets and life hacks in 2007.

Planning for the future - 2008
We start off the new year with employee confidence in the economy and their own employment situation at a low level. Hopefully, things will go up from here. A few HR experts and business observers offer their thoughts on the year ahead.

Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership Blog tells us that 2008 is the International Year of the Potato so adjust your business plans accordingly. He has compiled a roundup of business press articles with thoughts and predictions about 2008.

Workplace Prof Blog points us to some predictions for Workplace Trends for 2008.

Susan Heatherfield of About.com's Human Resources offers The Top 10 Resolutions for Your Possible New Year.

Diane Danielson of HR Blog suggests a tool for customizing your year end goals.

SHRM features a 2008 HR Trendbook, a special supplement to HR Magazine. You can view a list of the topics covered and a brief introduction, but full access requires membership.

Inc. Technology compiles their suggestions for the 10 Must Have Tech Tools for 2008.

And if your best laid plans for 2008 are already are slipping out of control. Lifehacker suggests Free Tools to Manage New Year's Resolutions

Posted by Julie Ferguson on January 3, 2008 at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Our hearts go out to all the folks suffering in the terrible fires and related chaos in southern California. In the aftermath, there will no doubt be crisis-management lessons for employers in how to communicate with and support employees, just as there were HR lessons from Katrina.

Your technology and web staff should be front line soldiers in crisis planning and crisis management. The Web offers numerous tools that employers should learn to harness for both their public and Intranet sites in the event of natural or man-made emergencies. To learn more about these technologies and to view them in action, see Using Social Media Services to Track the California Fires. This article offers links and discussion about how Google, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Wikipedia and del.icio.us are being harnessed to offer real time updates, news, and resources about the San Diego area fires.

Note: some of the following links may change or expire as the situation evolves.

Nate Ritter offers an excellent example of how one individual is providing an important public service via the text messaging tool, Twitter. News station KPBS also has a good Twitter news feed.

Some very interesting (and terrible) updates are being provided via Google Map mashups, which bloggers and programmers are cobbling together quickly. This KPBS News map displays fire burn areas, evacuation areas, evacuation centers, road closures, and more. This blogger is mapping the homes that have been claimed by fire in his neighborhood of Rancho Bernardo. His blog, And Still I Persist is an example of the valuable role that bloggers can play in a disaster.

As they were during Katrina, newspaper message boards become an important gathering point for local residents to share information, resources, and help to neighbors. The Union-Tribune's SignOnSanDiego wildfire forums have logged tens of thousands of messages since yesterday, grouped by geographic areas. Many distant folks have been reading these boards to keep track of areas where friends and family live.

And don't forget—one other vital employer resource during and after an emergency is an employee assistance program. Sadly, there will be many, many hurting people when this terrible fire has run its course.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on October 23, 2007 at 12:19 PM | Permalink

Is fun and essential component in a healthy workplace? Inc. magazine devoted its entire August issue to the theme of Fun: The New Core Value. In the introductory article, they state their rationale:

"With labor markets tight, business leaders understand that fun can tip the scales when all else is equal. Fun not only lures employees, it also helps them acculturate, which becomes more important as businesses become more virtual. And, of course, fun is associated with creativity."

The introduction also cautions that fun at work can turn into a grotesque joke unless an organization first has its act together. For fun to thrive, prerequisites include, "... meaningful work, competent management, fair compensation, and mutually respectful employees are table stakes."

Inc's "fun" issue encompasses nine articles on the theme, ranging from case histories of organizations that have successfully infused fun into their corporate culture to twenty-five ideas for keeping things loose at work.

We've previously posted about creative workplaces and creative employers, such as Google and we have a humor section here in our blog, so we have been proponents of fun. Particularly with the millennial generation, fun can be an important step in bonding and teaming, and can also have many salutary effects, such as stress reduction.

Can fun go too far?
But there is a curmudgeon in every crowd, and Matt Labash of The Weekly Standard shows the dark side of all the jocularity, making the case that the recent emphasis on fun in the workplace is infantalizing corporate America. In his recent article in The Weekly Standard, Are We Having Fun Yet?, he notes that, "Like a diseased appendix bursting and spreading infectious bacteria throughout the abdomen, fun is insinuating itself everywhere, into even the un-hippest workplaces."

Matt takes a biting look at the emerging industry of fun consultants and sees a a nightmarish picture of mandatory fun run amuck. (Matt, I hate to tell you this - but your article was fun to read!) He certainly makes some valid points and trenchant observations:

"So who's to say the funsultants are worse than anything else that's happened to the American corporate drone over the decades? After all the paradigm-shifting and diversity-training and outsourcing and TQM'ing and synergizing and empowering and value-adding and globalizing and downsizing and full-frontal lobotomizing, maybe finger puppets are just the logical terminus."

All things in moderation
The whole issue brings to mind that parental wet-blanket cautionary note, "It's all fun and games until somebody loses an eye." While we remain proponents of humor and fun, we agree that things can go too far, particularly when things become mandatory rather than optional. There are any number of employment attorneys who would largely agree with Matt's take on things, reminding their clients that in the workplace, there is just a gossamer thin confetti streamer that separates fun from a discrimination lawsuit or a workers compensation claim.

Thanks to Workplace Prof Blog for the pointer to the Matt Labash article!

Posted by Julie Ferguson on September 14, 2007 at 9:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) has been much in the news lately and with an aging and increasingly obese population, it's hardly surprising to learn that risks go well beyond air travel. Sedentary workers can also be at great risk - particularly those workers who spend much of the day at the computer. While DVT can strike at any age, some people have higher risk factors than others.

Many office workers are fighting back against the sedentary lifestyle and some workplaces are starting to look more like gyms than cubicle farms. According to a recent article in Career Journal, many workers are trading in their office chairs for exercise balls and many employers - including Google and BMW - are accommodating them. Sitting on an exercise ball takes a bit of getting used to requiring better balance, but proponents find them energizing and tout the benefits of "active sitting." Ergonomists and physicians suggest they are better for shorter periods of time rather than prolonged use, and are quick to point out that they are not an ergonomic solution to mitigate musculoskeletal disorders. There are several variations, some that offer partial back support.

Many workers find the prospect of a sedentary life less than satisfying, looking for alternatives to traditional seating arrangements. Thomas Jefferson, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill, and Donald Rumsfeld are a few of the notable proponents of standing desks. Recently, some people have been taking this concept a step further with the treadmill desk or the so-called "treadputer". Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic is a champion of the "Walking While Working" concept, seeing this as as a potential antidote for the obesity epidemic.

And then there's also the Geek-a-Cycle - part workstation, part recumbent bicycle.

Maybe your workplace isn't ready for a complete transformation yet, but there may be some small adaptations that could energize your work force and keep them moving. Exercise balls might be a great alternative in meeting rooms to keep meetings short and dynamic. A few standing stations interspersed here and there might offer people an opportunity to get up and move while staying focused on a project. Whatever the seating or standing arrangement, the computer work station should be optimized for safety. OSHA offers an illustrated Computer workstation e-tool that offers guidelines and a checklist to ensure best ergonomic practices.

Posted by Julie Ferguson on March 8, 2007 at 11:00 AM | Permalink

Video resumes - Are you ready for the video resume? In a series of posts covering the topic, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen of Time magazine's Work in Progress blog gives us the rundown. In her first post, she discusses the rise of the video resume and offers a good sample clip. In her second post, she tells us why many recruiters hate the video resume. Today's post offers a sampling of winning video resumes from a contest sponsored by the Vault, along with how-to list of the dos and don'ts for creating a good video resume.

Elder care - Mark Willaman of HR Marketer talks about a recent CBS segment on caregiving and the increase in the numbers of companies that are adding eldercare benefits similar to those that have been offered for child dependents. He wonders why many EAPs are slow off the mark in offering such benefits. (note: ESI offers both child and elder care benefits.)

Benefits - Diane Pfadenhauer of Strategic HR Lawyer offers Benefit Trends to Watch from Watson Wyatt.

Teleworking - Benefitnews looks at the recent results of a survey of federal managers on teleworking that demonstrates that most view teleworking favorably. Excerpt: "The majority of federal managers who oversee teleworkers found the concept favorable (63%) and rated teleworkers just as productive as their in-office counterparts."

How does the U.S. stack up in family-friendliness? - Brent Hunsberger of At Work posts some highlights from a report from Harvard and McGill Universities finding that the U.S. is failing working families. An excerpt: "The United States is one of only five nations surveyed that doesn't provide moms paid maternity leave. Nearly 170 countries do, and nearly 100 offer more than 14 weeks of paid time off to care for a new baby. Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea, and Swaziland, along with America, don't. 66 countries extend paid leave to new dads."

Posted by Julie Ferguson on February 27, 2007 at 8:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Some of the nation's leading employers are throwing out the old rule book and experimenting with flexible work arrangements in an effort to attract, retain, and motivate the best employees. Here are a few related stories we noted this week:

Smashing the Clock by Michelle Conlin, Business Week Online:

"At most companies, going AWOL during daylight hours would be grounds for a pink slip. Not at Best Buy. The nation's leading electronics retailer has embarked on a radical--if risky--experiment to transform a culture once known for killer hours and herd-riding bosses. The endeavor, called ROWE, for "results-only work environment," seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours.

Hence workers pulling into the company's amenity-packed headquarters at 2 p.m. aren't considered late. Nor are those pulling out at 2 p.m. seen as leaving early. There are no schedules. No mandatory meetings. No impression-management hustles. Work is no longer a place where you go, but something you do. It's O.K. to take conference calls while you hunt, collaborate from your lakeside cabin, or log on after dinner so you can spend the afternoon with your kid."

Work less, gain more, an article in Management-Issues:

"Offering key employees the opportunity to work fewer hours at reduced pay and benefits might seem like heresy—particularly in U.S. corporations. But a new study has revealed that some household name employers have woken up to the very real benefits that such flexibility can bring.

According to Dr. Ellen Ernst Kossek of Michigan State University's School of Labor and Industrial Relations, flexible work schedules that offer reduced workloads could be a key way of attracting, retaining and motivating top-performing employees. She and colleague Mary Dean Lee of McGill University in Montreal looked at a number of American and Canadian firms that had been experimenting with reducing workloads for at least six years.

Their study included such big names as IBM, Starbucks, Deloitte & Touche and General Mills, where they talked to employees, managers and executives to get their thoughts on how the arrangements were working. Kossek says the study showed that reduced-load work arrangements can reap several key benefits for employers, including greater productivity, less turnover and cost savings."

Most Women Aren't 'Opting Out' of the Work Force, Simmons Study Finds - Women are Leading the Way to a New Career Model - a press release discusses this recent study:

"Noting that more than 60 percent of the women surveyed said they would be more loyal and "go the extra mile" for an organization that offered flexible work arrangements, Shapiro said that organizations can benefit significantly by encouraging flexible work arrangements for women and men.

"There's a workforce shortage on the horizon," she said, "and flexible work arrangements may be the main strategic advance in the coming decades in attracting and retaining male and female essential talent."

Posted by ESI on January 23, 2007 at 11:33 AM | Permalink

Elder caregivers and productivity - According to a recent study by MetLife, the average elder caregiver costs an employer $2,110 per year in lost productivity. The total annual cost to employers for lost productivity for working caregivers falls between $17.1 billion to $33.6 billion in lost productivity.

"Working caregivers who juggle work and caregiving responsibilities make many workplace adjustments, such as coming in late or leaving early, reducing their work schedules or dropping out of the workforce entirely," said Sandra Timmermann, Ed.D., director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute. "Employer costs related to caregiving are often hidden ones and can be significant."

Timmermann suggests that employers can mitigate losses by implementing eldercare programs for employees, establishing flexible work arrangements, and ensuring that managers demonstrate sensitivity to caregiver needs.

Take the Eldercare Calculator to estimate your company's costs.

Serious business: worker complaints - Forbes features an article on the importance of handling workplace complaints properly to minimize the potential for lawsuits. The article offers basic rules to follow if you receive a complaint of discrimination or harassment. (Via George's Employment Blawg). In a related matter, HR Lori discusses a recent same sex harassment suit in California. If you think harassment involves a member of the opposite sex, this may change your mind.

Telecommuting - In his post Telecommuting: More Talk Than Action?, Jim Ware of The Future of Work links to a recent study on telecommuting patterns, preferences, and trends, discusses the results, and offers some recommendations. One eye-opening statistic: "If everyone who could took full advantage of telecommuting, the reduction in miles driven would save $3.9 billion a year in fuel and the time savings would be equal to 470,000 jobs."

More on Veterans - as a follow-up to our post on helping the military return to work, we noted that the Department of Justice has just launched a site to protect vets' civilian employment rights by enforcing the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). Thanks to Jottings by an Employer's Lawyer for letting us know about this.

Bad bosses - here's a contest you hope your company doesn't win: Working America invited its readers to submit entries in its My Bad Boss. While he anecdotes are anonymous both in terms of submitters and the nominated bosses, it makes for some interesting reading. Hopefully, you won't recognize anyone from your leadership team on the list!

UR FIRD... THX 4 TIME - speaking of questionable managerial practices, Gizmodo features a post about a British employee who was terminated by text message.

Posted by ESI on August 17, 2006 at 2:36 PM | Permalink